11 Mordad 1385 | Wednesday 2 August 2006

This day in four calendars

932 (1094 years ago) After a two-year siege, the city of Toledo, in Spain, surrenders to the forces of the Caliph of Córdoba Abd al-Rahman III, assuming an important victory in his campaign to subjugate the Central March.
1492 (534 years ago) The Jews are expelled from Spain: 40,000–200,000 leave. Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire, learning of this, dispatches the Ottoman Navy to bring the Jews safely to Ottoman lands, mainly to the cities of Thessaloniki (in modern-day Greece) and İzmir (in modern-day Turkey).
1784 (242 years ago) The first British mail coach service runs from Bristol to London.
1939 (87 years ago) Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.
1943 (83 years ago) World War II: After the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed and sunk by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri, Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. president, saves all but two of his crew.
1944 (82 years ago) ASNOM: Birth of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, celebrated as Day of the Republic in North Macedonia.
1989 (37 years ago) Pakistan is re-admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations after having restored democracy for the first time since 1972.
1989 (37 years ago) A massacre is carried out by an Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 64 ethnic Tamil civilians.

1696 (330 years ago) Mahmud I, Ottoman sultan (died 1754)
1923 (103 years ago) Shimon Peres, Polish-Israeli lawyer and politician, 9th President of Israel (died 2016)
1924 (102 years ago) James Baldwin, American novelist, poet, and critic (died 1987)
1925 (101 years ago) Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentinian general and politician, 43rd President of Argentina (died 2013)
1932 (94 years ago) Peter O'Toole, British-Irish actor and producer (died 2013)
1942 (84 years ago) Isabel Allende, Chilean-American novelist, essayist, essayist
1976 (50 years ago) Sam Worthington, English-Australian actor and producer
1984 (42 years ago) JD Vance, American politician, 50th vice president of the United States

257 (1769 years ago) Pope Stephen I,
855 (1171 years ago) Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Arab theologian and jurist (born 780)
1589 (437 years ago) Henry III of France,
1921 (105 years ago) Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor and actor (born 1873)
1922 (104 years ago) Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-Canadian engineer, invented the telephone (born 1847)
1923 (103 years ago) Warren G. Harding, American journalist and politician, 29th president of the United States (born 1865)
1934 (92 years ago) Paul von Hindenburg, German field marshal and politician, 2nd president of Germany (born 1847)
1997 (29 years ago) William S. Burroughs, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1914)