Today is Monday, August 23, the 235th day of 2010. There are 130 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1305, Scottish rebel leader William Wallace is hung, drawn and quartered for treason in London.

In 1775, King George III proclaimed 13 British North American colonies in a state of "open and avowed rebellion".

In 1813, the French are defeated by German army under Friedrich von Bulow, preventing march on Berlin.

In 1839, Hong Kong is taken by British in war with China.

In 1914, Japan declared war against Germany.

In 1927, amid protests, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery.

In 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in Moscow.

In 1944, Nazi sympathising Romanian prime minister Ion Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael I, paving the way for Romania to abandon the Axis in favour of the Allies.

In 1978, pro and anti-Iraqi Palestinian guerrilla groups agree to end their violent clashes that broke out in Europe, the Middle East and Asia in late July and early August.

In 1982, Lebanon's parliament elects Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel President. He is assassinated three weeks later.

In 1990, the Soviet Republic of Armenia declares independence, and Estonia begins formal negotiations with Kremlin on separation from Soviet Union.

In 1993, UN peacekeepers reach trapped Muslims in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina for the first time in two months and find 55,000 people on the verge of starvation.

In 2002, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe unexpectedly dissolves his cabinet and ousts moderates. A move officials say is related to his controversial program to seize land from white farmers and redistribute it to landless blacks.

Thought for Today

"I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope in it." — Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960).