Today in History: August 8

1306

King Wenceslas of Poland is murdered.

1570

Charles IX of France signs the Treaty of St. Germain, ending the third war of religion and giving religious freedom to the Huguenots.

1636

The invading armies of Spain, Austria and Bavaria are stopped at the village of St.-Jean-de-Losne, only 50 miles from France.

1648

Ibrahim, the sultan of Istanbul, is thrown into prison, then assassinated.

1786

Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard become the first men to climb Mont Blanc in France.

1844

Brigham Young is chosen to head the Mormon Church, succeeding Joseph Smith.

1863

Confederate President Jefferson Davis refuses General Robert E. Lee's resignation.

1876

Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph.

1899

The first household refrigerating machine is patented.

1925

The first national congress of the Ku Klux Klan opens.

1937

The Japanese Army occupies Beijing.

1940

The German Luftwaffe attacks Great Britain for the first time, beginning the Battle of Britain.

1942

U.S. Marines capture the Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal.

1944

U.S. forces complete the capture of the Marianas Islands.

1945

The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

1950

U.S. troops repel the first North Korean attempt to overrun them at the Battle of Naktong Bulge, which continued for 10 days.

1963

England's "Great Train Robbery;" 2.6 million pounds ($7.3 million) is stolen

1974

President Richard Nixon resigns from the presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal.

1978

Pioneer-Venus 2 is launched to probe the atmosphere of Venus.

1979

Iraq's president Saddam Hussein executes 22 political opponents.

1983

Brigadier General Efrain Rios Montt is deposed as president of Guatemala in the country's second military coup in 17 months.

1988

Angola, Cuba and South Africa sign a cease-fire treaty in the border war that began in 1966.

1989

NASA Space Shuttle Columbia begins its eighth flight, NASA's 30th shuttle mission.

1990

Iraq annexes the state of Kuwait as its 19th province, six days after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait.

2000

The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to surface, 136 years after it sank following its successful attack on USS Housatonic in the outer harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

2007

An EF2 tornado hits Brooklyn, New York, the first in that borough since 1889.

2008

Georgia invades South Ossetia, touching off a five-day war between Georgia and Russia.