On this day August 1st
1 – In 30 BC Octavian (later known as Augustus) entered Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic. Rome would rule Egypt until Alexander the Great conquered it in 640 A.D.
2 – In 1498 Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela. This was his third voyage, having already landed in the Bahamas on his first voyage and Cuba and Hispaniola on his second voyage.
3 – George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain, marking the beginning of the Georgian era of British history in 1714.
4 – William Clark, American explorer, was born in 1770. He led the Corps of Discovery along with Meriwether Lewis. In 1804–1806 they led an expedition across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean.
5 – In 1774, British scientist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
6 – Francis Scott Key, author of the “Star Spangled Banner.” was born in 1779.
7 – In 1800 The Acts of Union are passed, which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
8 – The first long-distance gas pipeline in the U.S. was completed in 1872. Designed for natural gas, the two-inch pipe ran five miles from Newton Wells to Titusville, Pennsylvania.
9 – In 1893 a machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal was patented by Henry Perky & William H. Ford. They presented it at the Columbian Exposition of that year. Perky was the first to mass-produce and nationally distribute ready-to-eat cereal.
10 – In 1894 The Empire of Japan and Qing (Cheeng) China declare war on each other after a week of fighting over Korea, formally inaugurating the First Sino (Sin-oh)-Japanese War.
11 – In 1914 The German Empire declares war on the Russian Empire, beginning World War I. The Swiss Army mobilized because of World War I.
12 – The 1936 Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
13 – In 1937 The Buchenwald (bu-ken-wald) concentration camp in Germany becomes operational. The camp would be liberated by US Forces in 1945, after the 21,000 prisoners took control of the camp in expectation of their arrival. The Nuremberg Trials, lasting nearly a year, would later bring high-ranking Nazis to justice for the atrocities committed.
14 – Yuri Romanenko (ramen-nyen-kuh), Soviet cosmonaut was born in 1944. He set the record for the longest stay in space with 326 days aboard the Mir Space Station in 1987.
15 – In 1950 Guam was organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States as the President Harry S. Truman signs the Guam Organic Act.