Today in History in 1502 Christopher Columbus lands in present-day Honduras; this is the first time he sets foot on the mainland of the Americas.

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 14 is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 139 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

29 BC – Octavian celebrates the second of his three consecutive triumphs in Rome after his victory over the Dalmatians.

1040 – Macbeth kills King Duncan I of Scotland, and crowns himself King of Scotland.

1352 – War of the Breton Succession: The Anglo-Britons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.

1385 – The Battle of Aljubarrota is fought, in which forces of King John I of Portugal defeat those of King John I of Castile.

1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Battle of Ceuta.

1502 – Christopher Columbus lands in present-day Honduras; this is the first time he sets foot on the mainland of the Americas.

1592 – Imjin War: Battle of Hansan Island - Admiral Yi Sun-sin decisively defeats the Japanese Navy at Hansan Island.

1762 – English forces take Havana, Cuba during the Seven Years' War.

1816 – The United Kingdom annexes the Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the South Atlantic.

1842 – Seminole Native Americans are forced from Florida to Oklahoma.

1848 – The Oregon territory is created by an act of the United States Congress.

1880 – After taking more than 600 years, the construction of Cologne Cathedral is completed.

1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of rust-proof paint.

1888 – Danish passenger steamer Geiser sinks off Sable Island after a collision with a ship of the same shipping line, killing 118 people.

1893 – France introduces motor vehicle registration.

1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupy Beijing, China, in an attempt to end of the Boxer Rebellion.

1901 – 2000

1912 – US marines land in Nicaragua to support the US-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.

1914 – The Big Hole Diamond mine in South Africa is closed.

1916 – World War I: Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1917 – World War I: China declares war on Germany.

1921 – Tannu Uriankhai, later the Tuvan People's Republic, is established as a completely independent country, supported by Soviet Russia.

1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later becoming known as the forest fire of Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5.

1935 – The Social Security Act creates a government pension for retired people in the United States.

1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, in the last public execution in the United States.

1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of War, stating postwar aims.

1945 – World War II: Japan accepts Allied terms of surrender and the Emperor, Hirohito, records the Imperial Rescription surrender.

1945 – Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France, is sentenced to death.

1947 – Partition of India: Pakistan, a new Islamic state, becomes independent from the United Kingdom, and consists of West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).

1958 – A propeller plane operated by the Dutch airline KLM crashes into the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland.

1959 – The American Football League is founded.

1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed to Northern Ireland.

1971 – Bahrain declares its independence.

1972 – A plane crash, of an Ilyushin II-62, in East Berlin kills 156 people.

1973 – The Pakistan Constitution of 1973 goes into effect.

1974 – The Second Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins. 140,000 to 200,000 Greek Cypriots become refugees. 6,000 are killed and 1,619 are missing.

1980 – The Gdansk shipyard strike in Poland occurs, as an uprising against Communist rule, and leads to the foundation of the Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa.

1992 – Georgian troops enter Abkhazia, which had declared independence.

1994 – Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal is arrested.

From 2001

2003 – A wide scale power blackout affects parts of Canada and the northeastern United States.

2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522, travelling from Larnaca in Cyprus, crashes near Grammatiko in Greece, killing all 121 people on board, after the air conditioner fails.

2006 – Chencholai bombing: 61 Tamil girls are killed in a bombing by the Sri Lankan Air Force.

2007 – Bomb attacks across Northern Iraq kill a total of 796 people. 1,500 are injured.

2010 – The first ever Summer Youth Olympic Games begin in Singapore. 3,531 athletes aged 14 to 18, from 204 National Olympic Committees take part.

2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators who support the ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

2013 – The England national football team and Scotland national football team play each other for the first time since 1999 in the oldest international football fixture. England wins a closely fought match 3-2.

2015 – The United States re-opens its Embassy in Havana, Cuba, 54 years after the countries initially broke diplomatic ties.

2017 – Heavy rain and mudslides kill hundreds of people in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

2018 – Part of the Morandi motorway Bridge in Genoa, Liguria, Italy, collapses, killing 43 people.

2019 – With support on board, Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg starts sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth, Devon, England to New York City to take part in a climate change summit.

2021 – 2021 Haiti earthquake of M 7.2 occurs in Haiti.