01010805 This Day In History, August 5

642: The Battle of Maserfield was fought between the forces of Penda of Mercia and Oswald of Northumbria.

910: The Battle of Tettenhall. Forces of Mercia and Wessex, under King Edward the Elder and Earl Aethelred of Mercia, ended further Danish attacks on England.

1100: Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.

1278: The Siege of Algeciras ended with a Granadan victory.

1305: William Wallace, Scottish hero and champion of Scottish independence who beat Edward I at the battle of Stirling Bridge, was captured by the English and later executed.

1388: The Battle of Otterburn, a border skirmish between the Scottish and the English in Northern England, was fought near Otterburn.

1456: With Halley's Comet overhead, 40,000 Church of Rome "Crusaders" (see Constantine's Crusades In History And Prophecy and listen to our Sermon Constantine's Papacy) battled at Belgrade, a city besieged by the Turks (listen to our Sermon The Ottoman Empire and see A History Of Jerusalem: The British Mandate).

1529: The Treaty of Cambrai was signed by Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (see The Holy Roman Empire). Francis renounced his claim to Italy and Charles renounced his claims to Burgundy.

1583: Sir Humphrey Gilbert founded the first English colony in North America, at what is today St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada (see also Thanksgiving In History and Prophecy).

1600: The Gowrie Conspiracy against King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James I of England; the King James Version of the Holy Bible is named after him) takes place.

1620: Nearly 40 years after the first English settlement in North America was established, in Newfoundland (see entry for 1583 above), the Mayflower sailed from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.

1689: Iroquois warriors attacked the settlement of Lachine, just west of Montreal, killed about 200 settlers and took 100 others as prisoners. The attack was seen as retaliation for an event 2 years before when 50 Iroquois were sent to France as galley slaves.

1716: In a devastating defeat, Prince Eugene of Savoy with a force of 40,000 Austrians defeated 150,000 Turks under Darnad Ali Pasha at the battle of Peterwardein. Over 30,000 Turks were killed.

1762: Russia, Prussia and Austria signed a treaty agreeing on the partition of Poland.

1824: During the Greek War of Independence, Constantine Kanaris led a Greek fleet to victory against Ottoman and Egyptian ships in the Battle of Samos.

1850: The Australian Government Act granted representative governments to South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria.

1858: The first trans-Atlantic cable was completed, enabling telegraphic communication between Britain and the U.S. The service was ended on September 1 because the current was too weak.

1884: The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor. While most are aware that it was a gift from the Roman-Catholic people and government of France, very few are aware (and are often shocked to learn) that the Statue of Liberty was a deliberate, as stated by its builders, reproduction of the ancient Roman goddess Libertas, idol-worshipping Rome's "goddess of freedom." A 2,000 year-old Roman coin from 42 BC, from the era of the birth of the Roman Empire, seen below, shows Libertas (including the idol's name, the Latin Libertas, in English meaning "Lady Liberty" right on the coin); the face and the crown are identical to the Statue of Liberty.

1963: The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed. It disallowed testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater; however, since the U.S. and Soviets wanted to develop their weapons of mass destruction further, underground testing was allowed under the treaty. France and China did not sign the treaty, and continued testing in the atmosphere.

1974: With no longer deniable criminal evidence mounting against him, U.S. President Richard Nixon admitted that he had lied and withheld information (including in nationally-televised Presidential addresses) about the Watergate burglary and subsequent obstruction of justice cover-up. He announced his resignation three days later. His successor, Gerald Ford (the only man to hold the office of Vice President, and then President, without ever having been elected to either office i.e. Ford was appointed Vice President when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned when he was convicted of tax evasion), pardoned Nixon before he could be prosecuted and sent to prison (a number of top level members of the Nixon regime did go to prison, including White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman and U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell).

1989: The Sandinista Front on a majority in general elections in Nicaragua.

2010: 33 Chilean miners were trapped 2,300 feet below ground at the Copiapo mine. They were rescued 69 days later.