II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned. 1775 – American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion. 1782 – American Revolutionary War: British forces under Edward Despard complete the reconquest of the Black River settlements on the Mosquito Coast from the Spanish. 1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years. 1799 – Napoleon I of France leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power. 1813 – At the Battle of Großbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army. 1831 – Nat Turner's rebellion of enslaved Virginians is suppressed. 1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for the First Opium War with Qing China. 1864 – American Civil War: The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico except Galveston, Texas. 1866 – The Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague. 1873 – The Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opens. 1898 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London. 1901–present 1904 – The automobile tire chain is patented. 1914 – World War I: The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army begin their Great Retreat before the German Army. 1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany. 1921 – British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber Estuary; of her 49 British and American training crew, only four survive. 1923 – Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter perform the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours. 1927 – Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial. 1929 – Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine occur, continuing until the next day, resulting in the death of 65–68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city. 1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.