On this day: 6 August

Second Fitna: Pro-Alid forces defeated the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of Khazir, allowing them to take control of Mosul in present-day Iraq.

The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.

Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi is officially appointed kampaku (Imperial Regent).

The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.

Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, declares the moribund empire to be dissolved, although he retains power in the Austrian Empire.

Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.

Peruvian War of Independence: Patriot forces led by Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish Royalist army in the Battle of Junín.

The Bolivian Declaration of Independence is proclaimed.

Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a German victory.

Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Wörth results in a decisive German victory.

The Anglo-Belgian India Rubber Company was founded in Antwerp to exploit natural rubber in the Congo Free State.

Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.

World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.

World War I: Battle of Sari Bair: The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.

World War I: Battle of Mărășești between the Romanian and German armies begins.

Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

First public screening using the Vitaphone process

Estonia is annexed by the Soviet Union.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.

World War II: Allied forces attacked German fortifications at Saint-Malo, France, beginning the Battle of Saint-Malo (pictured).

After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.

Law of Permanent Defense of Democracy, outlawing the Communist Party of Chile and banning 26,650 persons from the electoral lists, is repealed in Chile.

Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.

Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, outlawing literacy tests and other discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disfranchisement of African Americans.

A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.

Researchers announced that the meteorite ALH84001 (pictured), discovered in the Allan Hills of Antarctica, may contain evidence of life on Mars, but further tests were inconclusive.

Mauritanian president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was ousted from power by a group of high-ranking generals that he had dismissed from office several hours earlier.

NASA's Curiosity rover lands on the surface of Mars.