Today in History: The Battle of Britain began in WWII

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on July 10:

1778 American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1940 – The Battle of Britain began in World War Two when at least 70 German bombers attacked docks in south Wales.

1943 – Allied invasion of Sicily in World War Two.

1985 – One Greenpeace crew member died when the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was blown up and sunk by French secret agents in Auckland harbour in New Zealand.

1991 – Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as the first elected president of Russia.

1995 – Actor Hugh Grant makes first public appearance after arrest for lewd conduct.

1995 – Burmese dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after nearly six years in detention.

2000 – At least 202 people were killed in the Philippines when a mountain of garbage collapsed on a Manila shantytown called Promised Land.

2001 – A drawing by Leonardo da Vinci sold at Christie’s auction house for a world record price for the artist’s work of 8.1 million pounds ($11.4 million).

2002 – A long-lost painting by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, “The Massacre of the Innocents”, set a world record as the most expensive painting ever sold at auction in pounds sterling. It went for 49.5 million pounds ($77 million).

2006 – Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, Russia’s most wanted man, was killed.

2017 – Iraq announces victory over Islamic State in Mosul.