Today in History in 1868 a large earthquake strikes near Arica (then in Peru, now in Chile), causing an estimated 25,000 casualties and a tsunami that causes damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

August 13 is the 225th day of the year (226th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 140 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

3113 B.C. – Maya Calendar, started on this date (some sources give August 11). It ends either on December 21 or 23, 2012. Although some people thought the world would end in 2012, life continued as normal.

29 BC – Octavian holds the first of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate victory over the Dalmatian tribes.

523 – John succeeds Hormisdas as Pope.

582 – Maurice becomes Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

1099 – Paschal II is elected Pope.

1315 – Louis X of France marries Clemence d'Anjou.

1326 – Aradia de Toscano, according to legend/folklore, is initiated into a Dianic witchcraft cult, subsequently founds the tradition of Stregheria later known as the Malandanti.

1415 – Henry V of England lands at Chef-en-Caux, France with 8000 men.

1516 – Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain signed. In it, Francis recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.

1521 – Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés

1532 – The Duchy of Brittany absorbed into the Kingdom of France.

1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).

1553 – Michael Servetus arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.

1624 – Louis XIII of France appoints Cardinal Richelieu as Prime Minister.

1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.

1762 – Seven Years' War: British forces take Havana in the then-Spanish colony of Cuba.

1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of US Naval Forces before the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.

1792 – Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal and declared an enemy of the people.

1806 – The United Kingdom takes control of the Cape Colony in present-day South Africa from the Netherlands.

1809 – Battle of Bergisel: Tyroleans under Andreas Hofer defeat the French.

1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London.

1826 – Scotsman Alexander Gordon Laing enters Timbuktu, at the first time that a European is known to have arrived there.

1831 – Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse which he believes is a sign of God. 8 days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.

1868 – A large earthquake strikes near Arica (then in Peru, now in Chile), causing an estimated 25,000 casualties and a tsunami that causes damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand.

1878 – The Luray Caverns in Northwest Virginia are discovered.

1898 – Spanish-American War: Spanish and US forces engage in a mock battle in Manila, after which the Spanish commander surrenders in order to keep the city out of Filipino hands.

1898 – Carl Gustav Witt discovers 433 Eros, the first near-Earth asteroid to be found.

1901 – 2000

1905 – Norway holds a referendum in favour of dissolving the union with Sweden.

1913 – Otto Witte, an acrobat, is crowned King of Albania.

1913 – Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.

1918 – Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.

1918 – BMW is founded as a public company in Germany.

1920 – Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw begins, lasts till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.

1923 – First major seagoing ship arrives at Gdynia, newly constructed Polish seaport.

1923 – Gustav Stresemann forms Germany's first "Grand Coalition" government.

1935 – The wall of the dam Alla Sella Zerbino breaks in the Ligurian Appenines in Italy. Flooding in Molare and Ovada kills over 100 or more.

1937 – The Japanese attack Shanghai, China.

1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain begins - The Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.

1942 – Walt Disney's fifth animated feature, Bambi, premiers.

1948 – Austria joins UNESCO.

1952 – West Germany and Japan join the International Monetary Fund.

1954 – The national anthem of Pakistan - Qaumi Taranah - is broadcast for the first time.

1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France.

1961 – The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to stop its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West. The Berlin Wall is built as a result.

1964 – Peter Allen and Gwynne Evans are hanged for the murder of John Alan West, becoming the last people to be executed in the United Kingdom.

1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate Greek military leader George Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.

1969 – The three Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, are released from a 3-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York City. That evening, at a dinner in Los Angeles, California, they are given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.

1977 – Members of the British National Front clash with anti-National Front demonstrators in Lewisham, London. 111 people are injured and 214 arrested.

1978 – 150 Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.

1984 – The new International Airport of Jakarta is opened.

1987 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan assumes responsibility for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.

1996 – Marc Dutroux, his wife Michelle Martin and Lelièvre were arrested.

1997 – South Park debuts on Comedy Central.

1999 – The rising sun flag, already in use since 1868, becomes the official Flag of Japan.

From 2001

2001 – The Arena auf Schalke is opened, as the home of the football team FC Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

2002 – Major flooding occurs in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, in what is referred to there as the "Flood of the Century".

2004 – Games of the XXVIII Olympiad opens in Athens, Greece.

2004 – Hurricane Charley, a category 4 storm, strikes the Fort Myers, Florida, area.

2004 – Black Friday crackdown by NSS on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maldives, Malé.

2004 – 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.

2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps breaks the Olympic Games' individual gold medal record.

2008 – South Ossetian War: Russian troops occupy the Georgian city of Gori.

2014 – English film producer, Norman Spencer, becomes a centenarian.