On this day in history
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48 BC: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt
1173: Construction of the Tower of Pisa begins, and takes two centuries to complete
1483: Opening of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
1655: Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell divides England into 11 districts
1778: Captain James Cook reaches Cape Prince of Wales, Bering straits
1810: Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire
1831: 1st US steam engine train run (Albany to Schenectady, NY)
1842: US-Canada border defined by Webster-Ashburton Treaty
1898: Rudolf Diesel of Germany patents the diesel internal combustion engine
1917: Canadian Parliament passes the Compulsory Military Act which is oppossed by many French-Canadians from Québec
1930: Betty Boop debuts in Max Fleischer's animated cartoon Dizzy Dishes
1936: Jesse Owens wins 4th gold medal at Berlin Olympics
1941: Winston Churchill reaches Newfoundland for talks with FDR
1942: Mahatma Gandhi & 50 others arrested in Bombay after passing of a "quit India" campaign by the All-India Congress
1944: Smokey Bear debuts as spokeman for fire prevention
1945: US drops second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Japan destroys part of Nagasaki
1966: The Beatles release their "Yellow Submarine" single and its album "Revolver" in the US
1969: Manson family commits Tate-LaBianca murders
1974: Richard Nixon resigns US presidency; VP Gerald Ford swears oath of office to become 38th US president
1988: Edmonton Oilers trade Wayne Gretzky to LA Kings for $15–$20 million
1999: Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet
2012: Usain Bolt becomes the first person to win the 100m and 200m sprint in back to back Olympics
