August 301146 - European leaders outlawed the crossbow. 1645 - American Indians and the Dutch made a peace treaty at New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam later became known as New York. 1682 - William Penn sailed from England and later established the colony of Pennsylvania in America. 1780 - General Benedict Arnold secretly promised to surrender the West Point fort to the British army. 1806 - New York City's second daily newspaper, the "Daily Advertiser," was published for the last time. 1809 - Charles Doolittle Walcott first discovered fossils near Burgess Pass. He named the site Burgess Shale after nearby Mt. Burgess. 1862 - The Confederates defeated Union forces at the second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, VA. 1905 - Ty Cobb made his major league batting debut with the Detroit Tigers. 1928 - The Independence of India League was established in India. 1941 - During World War II, the Nazis severed the last railroad link between Leningrad and the rest of the Soviet Union. 1945 - General Douglas MacArthur set up Allied occupation headquarters in Japan. 1951 - The Philippines and the United States signed a defense pact. 1956 - In Louisianna, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened. 1960 - A partial blockade was imposed on West Berlin by East Germany. 1963 - The "Hotline" between Moscow and Washington, DC, went into operation. 1965 - Thurgood Marshall was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Supreme Court justice. Marshall was the first black justice to sit on the Supreme Court. 1982 - P.L.O. leader Yasir Arafat left Beirut for Greece. 1983 - The space shuttle Challenger blasted off with Guion S. Bluford Jr. aboard. He was the first black American to travel in space. 1984 - The space shuttle Discovery lifted off for the first time. On the voyage three communications satellites were deployed. 1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and several others, were inducted into the Sportscasters Hall of Fame. 1991 - The Soviet republic of Azerbaijan declared its independence. 1993 - On CBS-TV "The Late Show with David Letterman" premiered. 1994 - Rosa Parks was robbed and beaten by Joseph Skipper. Parks was known for her refusal to give up her seat on a bus in 1955, which sparked the civil rights movement. 1994 - The largest U.S. defense contractor was created when the Lockheed and Martin Marietta corporations agreed to a merger. 1996 - An expedition to raise part of the Titanic failed when the nylon lines being used to raise part of the hull snapped. 1999 - The residents of East Timor overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia. The U.N. announced the result on September 4. 2002 - Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum merged to create ConocoPhillips. The new company was the third largest integrated energy company and the second largest refining company in the U.S. |