01010708 This Day In History, July 8

1099: During the First Crusade (see Constantine's Crusades In History And Prophecy), 15,000 starving Church of Rome soldiers marched in a religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders looked on (see A History Of Jerusalem: Constantine and Muhammad).

1249: Alexander II, king of Scotland 1214-1249, died at age 51. He maintained peace with England and greatly strengthened the Scottish monarchy.

1497: Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama departed on the first direct European voyage to India.

1608: The first French settlement at Quebec was established by Samuel de Champlain.

1652: The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654) began.

1663: King Charles II of England granted a charter guaranteeing freedom of worship to Rhode Island.

1709: Peter the Great defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire.

1714: The government of Queen Anne offered a 20,000 pound reward for anyone who produced a chronometer that was capable of determining longitude at sea to within thirty miles after a 6 week voyage. A Yorkshireman, John Harrison, produced a highly accurate device in 1759, which was tested and proven 2 years later.

1730: An estimated 8.7 magnitude earthquake caused a tsunami that damaged more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of Chile's coastline.

1755: Britain broke off diplomatic relations with France over their dispute about territorial claims in the New World.

1815: King Louis XVIII returned to Paris after the defeat of Napoleon.

1835: The Liberty Bell cracked (again, as it repeatedly did, despite efforts at repair and recasting over decades). The first crack occurred in March 1753 when the brand-new bell was tested in Philadelphia upon delivery from its manufacturer in London. The bell was ordered for use in the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly (now known as Independence Hall) before the revolution of the English-established colonies of New England. The English named it the "Liberty" bell (despite the popular myth and propaganda that millions of people eagerly want to believe, the bell was not named after a revolution, or by revolutionaries) because of the partial quote of Leviticus 25:10 on the bell, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." The full Scripture, that is, what is actually written and intended in the Word of God, refers to the regular Jubilee Year (see The Seven Sabbaths Of Years To The Jubilee) in the united kingdom of Israel:

"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family."

1889: The Wall Street Journal began publishing.

1892: St. John's, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.

1896: Sir Wilfred Laurier became the first French-Canadian Prime Minister.

1937: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan signed the Treaty of Saadabad.

1947: News reports were broadcast that a UFO crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico.

1974: U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ordered President Richard Nixon to hand over the tapes to Watergate criminal investigators.

1975: An earthquake damaged over 2,000 temples in Pagan, Burma. A 20-foot-high seated Buddha was decapitated.

1994: Kim Jong-il became the "supreme leader" of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.

1997: In Madrid, NATO leaders agreed to allow Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic - 3 former "Warsaw Pact" nations - into membership.