Today in 1856, 167 years ago: The Last Island hurricane strikes Louisiana, resulting in over 200 deaths.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1961, 62 years ago: Vietnam War: The U.S. Army begins Operation Ranch Hand, spraying an estimated 20 million US gallons (76,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1986, 37 years ago: General Arun Shridhar Vaidya, the most decorated soldier in India, who between June 3 and 6, 1984 had directed the massacre of 492 Sikh civilians in the Golden Temple, the shrine of the Sikh religion in Amritsar, is killed. (On October 31, 1984, the politician responsible for the massacre, Indira Gandhi, was killed by her Sikh bodyguards.)

#OnThisDay

Today in 2003, 20 years ago: American swimmer Michael Phelps breaks the world record of 200 m styles (1 min 55.94 s), for the fourth time in the season, and says goodbye to the Championships with five gold medals.

#OnThisDay

Today in 2002, 21 years ago: Spanish athletics adds three new medals at the European Championships in Munich: gold by Marta Domínguez in the 5000 m and gold and bronze by Antonio Jiménez and Luis Martín Berlanas in the 3000 m hurdles.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1990, 33 years ago: looting takes place in Lima (Peru) after the entry into force of the economic plan of the new president Alberto Fujimori.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1946, 77 years ago: the American aviation general, James Doolittle, arrives in Madrid.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1902, 121 years ago: troops landed in the Haitian Cape and went into combat, causing 50 deaths, during the Haitian Civil War.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1680, 343 years ago: The Pueblo Revolt begins in New Mexico.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1678, 345 years ago: at the Peace of Nijmegen, France put an end to a war it was waging against Spain, the Netherlands, German states and Denmark.

#OnThisDay

Today in 2003, 20 years ago: in Basra (Iraq), thousands of Iraqis demonstrate against the scarcity of gasoline and electricity, after the war.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1920, 103 years ago: the Treaty of Sèvres is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Triple Entente that initiated the partition of the Ottoman Empire.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1944, 79 years ago: World War II: The Battle of Narva ends with a defensive German victory.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1913, 110 years ago: the territory of Macedonia that belonged to Bulgaria is ceded in part to Serbia and Greece after the Treaty of Bucharest that ends the Second Balkan War.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1983, 40 years ago: the Spanish Constitutional Court considers that the LOAPA (Organic Law for Harmonizing the Autonomous Process) is neither organic nor harmonizing, so it confers a lower rank than the statutes of autonomy, deletes seven articles and modifies as many. The sentence, issued at the request of the appeal filed by the Catalan and Basque governments, is a setback for the socialist government.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1759, 264 years ago: Charles III is proclaimed King of Spain.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1932, 91 years ago: in the Louvre Museum (Paris) the work The Angelus by Millet appears cracked.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1979, 44 years ago: in his inauguration as president of Ecuador, Jaime Roldós declares a broad amnesty and announces the formation of a government of national concentration.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1993, 30 years ago: the album is released in Spanish entitled Todo historias, by the Italian Latin pop singer Eros Ramazzotti.

#OnThisDay

Today in 1927, 96 years ago: On Mount Rushmore (South Dakota), sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln begin to carve the monument to Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln into living rock.

#OnThisDay