What happened on August 5 ?

642 - Battle of Maserfeld - Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Bernicia

1100 - Henry I crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey

1305 - William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.

1583 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.

1689 - 1,500 Iroquois attack village of Lachine, in New France.

1763 - Pontiac's War - Battle of Bushy Run - British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.

1772 - First Partition of Poland begins.

1812 - War of 1812: Tecumseh's Indian force ambushes Thomas Van Horne's 200 Americans at Brownstone Creek, causing them to flee and retreat.

1858 - Cyrus West Field and others complete the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It operated for less than a month.

1860 - Carl IV of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.

1861 - American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).

1861 - The United States Army abolished flogging.

1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Baton Rouge - Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.

1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Mobile Bay begins - At Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.

1874 - Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in England.

1882 - Standard Oil of New Jersey is established.

1882 - Martial law is enacted in Japan.

1884 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

1888 - Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim in the first long distance automobile trip.

1912 - Japan's first taxicab service begins in Ginza, Tokyo.

1914 - In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.

1944 - World War II: Possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, NSW, Australia. Most are killed but many escape and later commit suicide. Five Australian guards also die.

1944 - Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.

1949 - In Ecuador an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6000.

1960 - Burkina Faso, then known as "Upper Volta", becomes independent from France

1962 - Film actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills.

1962 - Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.

1963 - United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty.

1964 - Vietnam War: Operation Pierce Arrow - American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes attacked US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1969 - Mariner program: Mariner 7 makes its closest fly-by of Mars (3,524 kilometers).

1974 - Vietnam War: The U.S. Congress places a $1 billion dollar limit on military aid to South Vietnam.

1981 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.

1993 - Popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering is released. First trading card game to date.

1995 - The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is liberated by Croatian forces during Operation Storm. The date is celebrated as the day of victory ("Homeland Thanksgiving Day") in Croatia.

1999 - Mark McGwire becomes the 16th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.

2000 - Academy Award winning actor Sir Alec Guiness dies at Midhurst in West Sussex at the age of 86. He had recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

2001 - The Cleveland Indians defeat the Seattle Mariners 15-14 in a record-setting game known as the Impossible Return.

2003 - A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.