August 10

1030 – The army of the Byzantine emperor, Romanos III Argyros is defeated by the forces of  the moslem Mirdasid rulers of Aleppo. near Azaz, Syria.

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan’s five ships set sail from Seville down the mouth of the Guadalquivir River to complete preparations for a westward voyage to the Molucca “Spice Islands”.

1755 – Under the orders of Charles Lawrence, the British Army begins to forcibly deport Acadians from Nova Scotia to the Thirteen Colonies.

1776 – Word that the 2nd Continental Congress of the colonies in America had issued a Declaration of Independence reaches London.

1809 – The city of Quito declares independence from Spain.

1821 – Missouri is admitted as the 24th U.S. state.

1846 – The Smithsonian Institution is chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donates $500,000.

1861 – Southwest of Springfield, Missouri around the area where Wilson’s Creek flows through the Oak Hills, a mixed force of Confederate, Missouri State Guard, and Arkansas State troops defeat an attacking Union force, but are unable to consolidate the victory and the Union forces retreat to Springfield.

1897 – German chemist Felix Hoffmann discovers an improved way of synthesizing aspirin.

1920 – Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI’s representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres that divides up the Ottoman Empire between the victorious Allies.

1944 – U.S. forces secure the island of Guam 20 days after invading to recapture it.

1945 – Emperor Hirohito intervenes in an impasse in his Supreme Council  and orders it to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. The council transmits acceptance with the proviso that it “does not comprise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of the Emperor as sovereign ruler” to the Japanese ambassadors at Switzerland and Sweden for relay to the Allied powers. President Truman orders a halt to further use of nuclear weapons without his express authority, and negotiations begin on how the surrender will proceed.

1948 – Candid Camera makes its television debut

1954 – The groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway is held at Massena, New York.

1961 – The U.S. Army begins Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20 million gallons of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and concealment

1969 – A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson’s cult kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

1977 – In Yonkers, New York, 24 year old postal employee David Berkowitz is arrested for the “Son of Sam” series of murders in the New York City area

1988 – President Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.

1995 – Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City

1999 – An neo-Nazi attacking the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Los Angeles, wounds 5 people and murders a mail carrier as he flees.

2001 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on mission STS-105 to the International Space Station, carrying the 3rd relief crew of astronauts.

2018 – Horizon Air employee Richard Russell hijacks and takes off one of the company’s planes from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, flying it for more than an hour before crashing and killing himself on Ketron Island in Puget Sound.

2020 – A derecho – a straight line wind storm – sweeps through eastern Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana becoming the most costly thunderstorm disaster in U.S. history, killing 3 people in Iowa and 1 in Indiana with damage totaling over $11 billion.