01011103 This Day In History, November 3

361: Roman Emperor Constantius II died of a fever in Cilicia. He was succeeded by his cousin Julian. Constantius II is shown in the Vatican portrait below; note the typical Babylonian / Roman "halo" around his head (see What Is A Halo?; also Why Observe The True Sabbath?).

644: Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim caliph, was assassinated by a Persian slave in Medina (see also A History Of Jerusalem: Constantine and Muhammad).

1394: King Charles VI ordered the expulsion of all Jews from France.

1492: The Treaty of Etaples was signed between Charles VIII of France and Henry VII of England. Under the pact, England renounced its claims to French territory in return for indemnity.

1493: Christopher Columbus discovered Dominica while on his second voyage to the New World (see also Thanksgiving In History and Prophecy). The country became independent on this date in 1978.

1534: The Act of Supremacy was passed by the British Parliament. It established King Henry VIII (and his successors) head of the Church of England - an office until then occupied by the Roman Catholic pope.

1679: A bright comet caused widespread panic across Europe.

1760: Frederick the Great of Prussia (not to be confused with Russia; Prussia is in Germany) with 44,000 men defeated 65,000 Austrian troops at Torgau in Seven Years War; more than 13,000 Prussians died in the attack (see also The Holy Roman Empire Of The German Nation).

1762: Spain acquired Louisiana.

1804: The defeated Sauk and Fox Indians signed a treaty ceding Illinois to the U.S.

1817: The Bank of Montreal, Canada's first bank, opened. With head offices in Montreal, it was the banker in Canada for the Canadian government until the creation of the Bank of Canada 118 years later, in 1935. It participated in many early Canadian developments, including first canals, the telegraph, and the Canadian Pacific Railway.

1838: The Times of India, the world's largest-circulation English language daily newspaper, was founded.

1839: The Opium War between the British and the Chinese began when British warships blew up several Chinese boats at Canton.

1883: The U.S. Supreme Court declared native Americans (the "Indians") to be "dependent aliens."

1903: Following a revolt engineered by the U.S. and encouraged by the presence of a U.S. warship in Panamanian territorial waters, Panama declared itself independent of Columbia - after which Panama became a colony of the U.S.

1918: The fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of the First World War (listen to our Sermon The European World Wars).

1918: Poland proclaimed independence from Russia.

1956: Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary in response to the Hungarian Revolution.

1957: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik II into orbit. It carried the first animal in space, a dog named Laika.

1957: One of the most advanced atomic energy reactors in the world opened at Chalk River, Ontario. Despite an abundance of materials and technology that would permit the rapid production of nuclear weapons, Canada continues to use nuclear technology only to generate electricity.

1970: Salvadore Allende was inaugurated as Chile's first Marxist president. He was overthrown on September 11 1973.

1982: During the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, up to 1,000 Soviet soldiers and Afghan civilians died in the Salang tunnel when a tanker exploded near a Soviet military convoy.