The Foreign Legion, whose unofficial motto is “Legio patria nostra” (“The legion is our fatherland”), was founded this day in 1831 by King Louis-Philippe as an aid in controlling French colonial possessions in Africa.
| 1975: | | Belgian novelist and poet Marie Gevers, who wrote works that evoked Kempenland, a rural area in which she spent most of her life, died. |
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| 1945: | | The U.S. Army Air Forces bombed Tokyo with napalm, causing fires that destroyed a quarter of the city and killed some 80,000 civilians. |
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| 1943: | | | American chess master Bobby Fischer was born in Chicago. |
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| 1930: | | American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Ornette Coleman was born in Fort Worth, Texas. |
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| 1916: | | Pancho Villa's men killed more than a dozen in a raid on Columbus, New Mexico. |
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| 1862: | | The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, a duel between ironclads during the American Civil War, marked the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. |
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| 1454: | | | Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence. |
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| 432: | | | The Parthenon was consecrated in Athens. |
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