On this day in history

1306: King Wenceslas of Poland is murdered.
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.
1945: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
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.
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.
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.

Source: HistoryNet.com