3 August 1128

A Friday in history

Weekday

Friday

Season

Summer (N. Hemisphere)

Century

12th century

Records

404

  1. 2019

    A mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and injuring 22 others.

    Source
  2. 2009

    The last vessels involved in Taurus 09, a Royal Navy training deployment covering 20,400 miles (32,800 km), returned to HMNB Devonport, England.

    Source
  3. 2005

    Mauritanian president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya was overthrown in a military coup while he attended the funeral of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.

    Source
  4. 1997

    The Sky Tower, then the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 m (1,076 ft), opened in Auckland, New Zealand.

    Source
  5. 1977

    Tandy Corporation announced the TRS-80, one of the world's first mass-produced personal computers.

    Source
  6. 1975

    A privately chartered Boeing 707 (aircraft involved pictured) struck a mountain peak and crashed near Agadir, Morocco, killing 188.

    Source
  7. 1971

    Fighting Dinosaurs, a fossil specimen featuring a Velociraptor and a Protoceratops in combat, was unearthed in the Djadochta Formation of Mongolia.

    Source
  8. 1940

    World War II: Italian forces began a conquest of British Somaliland, capturing the region in 16 days.

    Source
  9. 1936

    African-American athlete Jesse Owens won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, dashing Nazi leaders' hopes of Aryan domination at the games.

    Source
  10. 1929

    Jiddu Krishnamurti (pictured), believed by some Theosophists to be a likely candidate for the messianic "World Teacher", dissolved the Order of the Star, the organisation established to support him.

    Source
  11. 1913

    An agricultural workers' strike in Wheatland degenerated into a riot, becoming one of the first major farm-labor confrontations in California.

    Source
  12. 1903

    Macedonian rebels in Kruševo proclaimed a republic, which existed for ten days before Ottoman forces destroyed the town.

    Source
  13. 1857

    Indian Rebellion: An eight-day siege of a fortified outbuilding in Arrah occupied by 68 defenders against more than 10,000 men ended when a relief party dispersed the besiegers.

    Source
  14. 1347

    Hundred Years' War: The French town of Calais capitulated to English forces after an eleven-month siege, ending the Crécy campaign.

    Source
  15. 1057

    Pope Stephen IX was crowned as pope.

    Source

Photo archive

24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.

What was life like?

Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.

Sources & fact check

Every claim is traced to primary sources, archives, universities and the press — with an explicit confidence rating. Dossiers are generated once and cached permanently.