10 August History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 955    -    Otto organizes his nobles and defeats the invading Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in Germany.
  • 1539    -    King Francis of France declares that all official documents are to be written in French, not Latin.
  • 1557    -    French troops are defeated by Emmanuel Philibert's Spanish army at St. Quentin, France.
  • 1582    -    Russia ends its 25-year war with Poland.
  • 1628    -    The Swedish warship Vasa capsizes and sinks in Stockholm harbor on her maiden voyage.
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1779    -    Louis XVI of France frees the last remaining serfs on royal land.
  • 1831    -    William Driver of Salem, Massachusetts, is the first to use the term "Old Glory" in connection with the American flag, when he gives that name to a large flag aboard his ship, the Charles Daggett.
  • 1846    -    The Smithsonian Institution is established in Washington through the bequest of James Smithson.
  • 1864    -    Confederate Commander John Bell Hood sends his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union General William Sherman's supply lines.
  • 1911    -    The House of Lords in Great Britain gives up its veto power, making the House of Commons the more powerful House.
  • 1913    -    The Treaty of Bucharest ends the Second Balkan War.
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1941    -    Great Britain and the Soviet Union promise aid to Turkey if it is attacked by the AxisPowers.
  • 1950    -    President Harry S. Truman calls the National Guard to active duty to fight in the Korean War.

  • 10 August Birthdays

  • 1753    -    Edmund Jennings Randolph, governor of Virginia and first U.S. attorney general.
  • 1810    -    Camillo di Cavour, helped bring about the unification of Italy under the House of Saxony.
  • 1874    -    Herbert Hoover, 31st president of the United States (1929-1933).
  • 1909    -    George W. Crockett, first African-American lawyer with the U.S. Department of Labor.
ADVERTISEMENTS
  • 1909    -    Leo Fender, inventor of the first mass-produced electric guitar.
  • 1928    -    Eddie Fisher, American singer.