This Day in History

[lordroel]

July 14th

756 – An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong flees the capital Chang'an as An Lushan's forces advance toward the city.[citation needed]

1223 – Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II.

1420 – Battle of Vítkov Hill, decisive victory of Czech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor.

1769 – An expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá leaves its base in California and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California).

1771 – Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra.

1789 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille.

1789 – Alexander Mackenzie finally completes his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turns out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America.

1790 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération.

1791 – The Priestley Riots drive Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England.

1798 – The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.

1853 – Opening of the first major US world's fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City.

1865 – First ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent.

1874 – The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago's city council.

1877 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 begins in Martinsburg, West Virginia when Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers have their wages cut for the second time in a year.

1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.

1900 – Armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion.

1902 – The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta.

1911 – Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright brothers, lands his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House. He is later awarded a Gold medal from U.S. President William Howard Taft for this feat.

1915 – World War I: The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire begins.

1916 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916.

1928 – New Vietnam Revolutionary Party is founded in Huế, providing some of the communist party's most important leaders in its early years.

1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party.

1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffers from alleged genetic disorders.

1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world.

1943 – In Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.

1948 – Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament.

1950 – Korean War: North Korean troops initiate the Battle of Taejon.

1957 – Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.

1958 – Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by popular forces led by Abd al-Karim Qasim, who becomes the nation's new leader.

1960 – Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild.

1965 – The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet.

1969 – Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers.

1969 – The Federal Reserve Banks begins removing large denominations of United States currency from circulation.

1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada.

1992 – 386BSD is released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source operating system revolution. Linus Torvalds releases his Linux soon afterwards.

2002 – French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations.

2003 – Hurricane Claudette gathers strength over the Gulf of Mexico and heads for the Texas coast, killing two people.

2013 – The dedication of the Rachel Carson in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

2015 – NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System.

2016 – A terrorist vehicular attack in Nice, France kills 86 civilians and injures over 400 others.

[stevep]

Jul 14, 2019 7:24:03 GMT lordroel said:

July 14th


2013 – The dedication of the Rachel Carson in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

  Think you have a word missing there.  Having checked I couldn't find anything from Wiki's entry for Woods Hole about her but her own entry Rachel_Carson_Posthumous_honors says

The Rachel Carson sculpture in Woods Hole, Massachusetts was unveiled on July 14, 2013

  so I presume that's the case.  Given the number of both important institutions at Woods Hole - for a small place it has quite a scientific pedigree - and of honours for Rachel Carson it does seem a bit of a surprising reference but I assume it meant something to someone who complied the entry.

[lordroel]

Jul 14, 2019 9:51:29 GMT stevep said:

Jul 14, 2019 7:24:03 GMT lordroel said:

July 14th


2013 – The dedication of the Rachel Carson in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

  Think you have a word missing there.  Having checked I couldn't find anything from Wiki's entry for Woods Hole about her but her own entry Rachel_Carson_Posthumous_honors says

The Rachel Carson sculpture in Woods Hole, Massachusetts was unveiled on July 14, 2013

  so I presume that's the case.  Given the number of both important institutions at Woods Hole - for a small place it has quite a scientific pedigree - and of honours for Rachel Carson it does seem a bit of a surprising reference but I assume it meant something to someone who complied the entry.

Good find stevep, did not notice this as i mostly take the this Day in History from Wikipedia and thus i do not know much what happen on that day until i read it myself when posting.

[lordroel]

July 15th

484 BC – Dedication of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in ancient Rome

AD 70 – Titus and his armies breach the walls of Jerusalem. (17th of Tammuz in the Hebrew calendar).

756 – An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong of Tang is ordered by his Imperial Guards to execute chancellor Yang Guozhong by forcing him to commit suicide or face a mutiny. General An Lushan has other members of the emperor's family killed.

1099 – First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.

1149 – The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.

1207 – King John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop Stephen Langton.

1240 – Swedish–Novgorodian Wars: A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.

1381 – John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.

1410 – Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War: Battle of Grunwald: The allied forces of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeat the army of the Teutonic Order.

1482 – Muhammad XII is crowned the twenty-second and last Nasrid king of Granada.

1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth is executed at Tower Hill, England after his defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685.

1741 – Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.

1789 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation Colonel General of the new National Guard of Paris.

1799 – The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.

1806 – Pike expedition: United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.

1815 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.

1823 – A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.

1834 – The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.

1838 – Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.

1862 – The CSS Arkansas, the most effective ironclad on the Mississippi River, battles with Union ships commanded by Admiral David Farragut, severely damaging three ships and sustaining heavy damage herself. The encounter changed the complexion of warfare on the Mississippi and helped to reverse Rebel fortunes on the river in the summer of 1862.

1870 – Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1870 – Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are established from these vast territories.

1888 – The stratovolcano Mount Bandai erupts killing approximately 500 people, in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

1910 – In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.

1916 – In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

1918 – World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.

1920 – The Polish Parliament establishes Silesian Voivodeship before the Polish-German plebiscite.

1922 – Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.

1927 – Massacre of July 15, 1927: Eighty-nine protesters are killed by the Austrian police in Vienna.

1946 – State of North Borneo, today in Sabah, Malaysia, annexed by the United Kingdom.

1954 – First flight of the Boeing 367-80, prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series.

1955 – Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.

1959 – The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.

1966 – Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

1971 – The United Red Army is founded in Japan.

1974 – In Nicosia, Cyprus, Greek junta-sponsored nationalists launch a coup d'état, deposing President Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as Cypriot president.

1975 – Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was both the last launch of an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.

1979 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his "malaise speech".

1983 – An attack at Orly Airport in Paris is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA, leaving eight people dead and 55 injured.

1996 – A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport.

1997 – Fashion designer Gianni Versace is murdered by spree killer Andrew Cunanan outside the front gate of his Casa Casuarina mansion.

1998 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP S. Shanmuganathan is killed by a claymore mine.

2002 – "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.

2002 – Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

2003 – AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.

2006 – Twitter is launched, becoming one of the largest social media platforms in the world.

2014 – A train derails on the Moscow Metro, killing at least 24 and injuring more than 160 others.

2016 – Factions of the Turkish Armed Forces attempt a coup.

[lordroel]

July 16th

622 – The beginning of the Islamic calendar.

997 – Battle of Spercheios: Bulgarian forces of Tsar Samuel are defeated by a Byzantine army under general Nikephoros Ouranos at the Spercheios River in Greece.

1054 – Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East–West Schism.

1212 – Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: After Pope Innocent III calls European knights to acrusade, forces of Kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Peter II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal defeat those of the Berber Muslim leader Almohad, thus marking a significant turning point in the Reconquista and in the medieval history of Spain.

1232 – The Spanish town of Arjona declares independence and names its native Muhammad ibn Yusuf as ruler. This marks the Muhammad's first rise to prominence; he would later establish the Nasrid Emirate of Granada, the last independent Muslim state in Spain.

1377 – Richard II of England is crowned.

1661 – The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.

1683 – Manchu Qing dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.

1769 – Father Junípero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, California.

1779 – American Revolutionary War: Light infantry of the Continental Army seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point.

1790 – The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.

1809 – The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.

1849 – Antonio María Claret y Clará founds the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, popularly known as the Claretians in Vic, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

1861 – American Civil War: At the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25-mile march into Virginia for what will become the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.

1862 – American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.

1909 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar is forced out as Shah of Persia and is replaced by his son Ahmad Shah Qajar.

1910 – John Robertson Duigan makes the first flight of the Duigan pusher biplane, the first aircraft built in Australia.

1915 – Henry James becomes a British citizen to highlight his commitment to Britain during the first World War.

1915 – First Order of the Arrow ceremony takes place and the Order of the Arrow is founded to honor American Boy Scouts who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law.

1927 – Augusto César Sandino leads a raid on U.S. Marines and Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional that had been sent to apprehend him in the village of Ocotal, but is repulsed by one of the first dive-bombing attacks in history.

1931 – Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.

1935 – The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1941 – Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as an MLB record.

1942 – Holocaust: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv): The government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

1945 – World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island.

1945 – Manhattan Project: The Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1948 – Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

1948 – The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.

1950 – Chaplain–Medic massacre: American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.

1951 – King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium.

1956 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closes its last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; due to changing economics all subsequent circus shows will be held in arenas.

1965 – The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.

1965 – South Vietnamese Colonel Phạm Ngọc Thảo, a formerly undetected communist spy and double agent, is hunted down and killed by unknown individuals after being sentenced to death in absentia for a February 1965 coup attempt against Nguyễn Khánh.

1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11, the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida.

1979 – Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.

1983 – Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.

1990 – The Luzon earthquake strikes the Philippines with an intensity of 7.7, affecting Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Aurora, Bataan, Zambales and Tarlac.

1990 – The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. His wife and sister-in-law are also killed.

2004 – Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st-century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

2007 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing eight people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.

2013 – As many as 27 children die and 25 others are hospitalized after eating lunch served at their school in eastern India.

2015 – Four U.S. Marines and one gunman die in a shooting spree targeting military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[lordroel]

July 17th

180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.

1048 – Damasus II is elected pope.

1203 – The Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos flees from his capital into exile.

1402 – Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China.

1429 – Hundred Years' War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.

1453 – Battle of Castillon: The last battle of Hundred Years' War, the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.

1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel's Water Music is premiered.

1762 – Catherine II becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.

1771 – Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.

1791 – Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing scores of people.

1794 – The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.

1867 – Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.

1899 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.

1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York.

1917 – King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.

1918 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

1918 – The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.

1932 – Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues.

1936 – Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.

1938 – Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

1944 – Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.

1944 – World War II: At Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery. in Normandy Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was strafed by allied aircraft while returning to his headquarters.

1945 – World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

1953 – The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44.

1955 – Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.

1962 – Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.

1968 – Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba'ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.

1973 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.

1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.

1976 – East Timor is annexed, and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.

1976 – The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the games because of New Zealand's participation. Contrary to rulings by other international sports organizations, the IOC had declined to exclude New Zealand because of their participation in South African sporting events during apartheid.

1979 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida, United States.

1981 – A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200.

1984 – The national drinking age in the United States was changed from 18 to 21.

1985 – Founding of the EUREKA Network by former head of states François Mitterrand (France) and Helmut Kohl (Germany).

1989 – First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.

1989 – Holy See–Poland relations are restored.

1996 – TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.

1998 – The 7.0 Mw  Papua New Guinea earthquake triggers a tsunami that destroys ten villages in Papua New Guinea, killing up to 2,700 people, and leaving several thousand injured.

1998 – A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

2000 – During approach to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Alliance Air Flight 7412 suddenly crashes into a residential neighborhood in Patna, killing 60 people.

2001 – Concorde is brought back into service nearly a year after the July 2000 crash.

2006 – The 7.7 Mw  Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and leaving more than 9,000 injured.

2007 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, crashes into a warehouse after landing too fast and missing the end of the São Paulo–Congonhas Airport runway, killing 199 people.

2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All 298 people on board are killed.

2014 – A French regional train on the Pau-Bayonne line crashes into a high-speed train near the town of Denguin, resulting in at least 25 injuries.

2015 – At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.

[lordroel]

July 18th

477 BC – Battle of the Cremera as part of the Roman–Etruscan Wars. Veii ambushes and defeats the Roman army.

390 BC – Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.

362 – Roman–Persian Wars: Emperor Julian arrives at Antioch with a Roman expeditionary force (60,000 men) and stays there for nine months to launch a campaign against the Persian Empire.

452 – Sack of Aquileia: After an earlier defeat on the Catalaunian Plains, Attila lays siege to the metropolis of Aquileia and eventually destroys it.

645 – Chinese forces under general Li Shiji besiege the strategic fortress city of Anshi (Liaoning) during the Goguryeo–Tang War.

1195 – Battle of Alarcos: Almohad forces defeat the Castilian army of Alfonso VIII and force its retreat to Toledo.

1290 – King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities.

1334 – The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.

1389 – France and England agree to the Truce of Leulinghem, inaugurating a 13-year peace, the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years' War.

1391 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Kondurcha River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde in present-day southeast Russia.

1555 – The College of Arms is reincorporated by Royal charter signed by Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain.

1806 – A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, kills around 200 people.

1812 – The Treaties of Orebro end both the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Swedish Wars.

1841 – Coronation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.

1857 – Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war against the French.

1862 – First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.

1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Wagner: One of the first formal African American military units, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, supported by several white regiments, attempts an unsuccessful assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.

1870 – The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility.

1872 – The Ballot Act 1872 in the United Kingdom introduced the requirement that parliamentary and local government elections be held by secret ballot.

1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.

1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.

1942 – World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia.

1942 – The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time.

1944 – World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.

1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.

1966 – A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order.

1968 – Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.

1969 – U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal basin at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger, Boiler Room Girl Mary Jo Kopechne.

1976 – Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

1982 – Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre.

1984 – McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.

1992 – A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web.

1994 – The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.

1994 – Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.

1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital, forcing most of the population to flee.

1996 – Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever.

1996 – Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1200 soldiers.

2012 – At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria.

2013 – The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

[lordroel]

July 19th

AD 64 – The Great Fire of Rome causes widespread devastation and rages on for six days, destroying half of the city.

484 – Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is recognized in Antioch and makes it his capital.

711 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete: Umayyad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King Roderic.

939 – Battle of Simancas: King Ramiro II of León defeats the Moorish army under Caliph Abd-al-Rahman III near the city of Simancas.

998 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Battle of Apamea: Fatimids defeat a Byzantine army near Apamea.

1333 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill: The English win a decisive victory over the Scots.

1544 – Italian War of 1542–46: The first Siege of Boulogne begins.

1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth.

1553 – Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days on the throne.

1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel.

1701 – Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.

1702 – Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish-Saxon army of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous defensive position, is defeated by a Swedish army half its size under the command of King Charles XII in the Battle of Klissow.

1817 – Unsuccessful in his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Hawaii for the Russian-American Company, Georg Anton Schäffer is forced to admit defeat and leave Kauai.

1821 – Coronation of George IV of the United Kingdom.

1832 – The British Medical Association is founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary.

1843 – Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull and screw propeller, becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.

1845 – Great New York City Fire of 1845: The last great fire to affect Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire killed four firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings.

1848 – Women's rights: A two-day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.

1863 – American Civil War: Morgan's Raid: At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.

1864 – Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking: The Qing dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.

1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.

1903 – Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.

1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles: British and Australian troops attack German trenches as part of the Battle of the Somme.

1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada: The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.

1940 – Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II, that Hitler appointed field marshals due to military achievements.

1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.

1942 – World War II: The Second Happy Time of Hitler's submarines comes to an end, as the increasingly effective American convoy system compels them to return to the central Atlantic.

1943 – World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties.

1947 – Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated.

1947 – Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated.

1952 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.

1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.

1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.

1964 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.

1972 – Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat.

1976 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.

1977 – The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).

1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.

1979 – The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill.

1980 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Moscow.

1981 – In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development.

1982 – In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped..

1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.

1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.

1989 – United Airlines Flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 111.

1992 – A car bomb kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort

1997 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year paramilitary campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

2014 – Gunmen in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan.

[lordroel]

July 20th

AD 70 – Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.

792 – Kardam of Bulgaria defeats Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI at the Battle of Marcellae.

911 – Rollo lays siege to Chartres.

1189 – Richard I of England officially invested as Duke of Normandy.

1225 – Treaty of San Germano is signed at San Germano between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX. A Dominican named Guala is responsible for the negotiations.

1398 – The Battle of Kellistown was fought on this day between the forces of the English led by Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March against the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles under the command of Art Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach, the most powerful Chieftain in Leinster.

1402 – Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara: Timur, ruler of Timurid Empire, defeats forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I.

1592 – During the first Japanese invasion of Korea, Japanese forces led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Pyongyang, although they were ultimately unable to hold it.

1738 – Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.

1799 – Tekle Giyorgis I begins his first of six reigns as Emperor of Ethiopia.

1807 – Nicéphore Niépce is awarded a patent by Napoleon for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.

1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain.

1831 – Seneca and Shawnee people agree to relinquish their land in western Ohio for 60,000 acres west of the Mississippi River.

1848 – The first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, a two-day event, concludes.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek: Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.

1866 – Austro-Prussian War: Battle of Lissa: The Austrian Navy, led by Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, defeats the Italian Navy near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.

1871 – British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.

1885 – The Football Association legalizes professionalism in association football under pressure from the British Football Association.

1903 – The Ford Motor Company ships its first automobile.

1917 – World War I: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.

1920 – The Greek Army takes control of Silivri after Greece is awarded the city by the Paris Peace Conference; by 1923 Greece effectively lost control to the Turks.

1922 – The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom.

1932 – In the Preußenschlag ("Prussian coup"), German President Paul von Hindenburg dissolves the government of Prussia

1934 – Labor unrest in the U.S.: Police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, during the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, killing two and wounding sixty-seven.

1934 – West Coast waterfront strike: In Seattle, police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen. The governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.

1935 – Switzerland: A Royal Dutch Airlines plane en route from Milan to Frankfurt crashes into a Swiss mountain, killing thirteen.

1936 – The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.

1938 – The United States Department of Justice files suit in New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system. The case would eventually result in a break-up of the industry in 1948.

1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.

1940 – California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

1941 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrentiy Beria its chief.

1944 – World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

1949 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen-month war.

1950 – Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.

1951 – King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.

1954 – Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany's secret service, defects to East Germany.

1960 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.

1960 – The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.

1961 – French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.

1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Định Tường Province, Cái Bè, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of whom are children).

1968 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.

1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11's crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.

1969 – A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, six days after the beginning of the "Football War".

1974 – Turkish invasion of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after a coup d'état, organised by the dictator of Greece, against president Makarios.

1976 – The American Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.

1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.

1977 – The Johnstown flood of 1977 kills 84 people and causes millions of dollars in damages.

1982 – Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.

1985 – The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.

1989 – Burma's ruling junta puts opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

1992 – Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia.

1997 – The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.

1999 – The Chinese Communist Party begins a persecution campaign against Falun Gong, arresting thousands nationwide.

2005 – The Civil Marriage Act legalizes same-sex marriage in Canada.

2012 – James Holmes opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.

2013 – Seventeen government soldiers are killed in an attack by FARC revolutionaries in the Colombian department of Arauca.

2015 – A huge explosion in the mostly Kurdish border town of Suruç, Turkey, targeting the Socialist Youth Associations Federation, kills at least 31 people and injures over 100.

2015 – The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades.

2017 – O. J. Simpson is granted parole to be released from prison after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery in Las Vegas.

[stevep]

Jul 20, 2019 8:08:26 GMT lordroel said:

July 20th


1398 – The Battle of Kellistown was fought on this day between the forces of the English led by Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March against the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles under the command of Art Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach, the most powerful Chieftain in Leinster.


1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.

  Lordroel

 a)  Did this battle actually take place?  I was wondering who actually won but there seems to be no other mention of it on Wiki.  Mortimer did die this day but according to the entry for him it sounded more like he was murdered randomly, possibly without the killers even knowing who he was.  See Roger Mortimer Death, which says:

On 20 July 1398, at the age of 24, Mortimer was slain in a skirmish at either Kells, County Meath or Kellistown, County Carlow. The Wigmore chronicler says that he was riding in front of his army, unattended and wearing Irish garb, possibly illegally,[10] and that those who slew him did not know who he was. He was interred at Wigmore Abbey.[14] The King went to Ireland in the following year to avenge Mortimer's death.[6]

  It could have been a small skirmish or simply a random killing.

b)  This was after the occupation of Denmark by the Germans so do you know if this was some Danish puppet government or a government in exile?  Suspect the former as the latter would probably be more inclined to stay with the organisation, discredited as it was by that point.

  Thanks

  Steve

[lordroel]

Jul 20, 2019 10:59:21 GMT stevep said:

Jul 20, 2019 8:08:26 GMT lordroel said:

July 20th


1398 – The Battle of Kellistown was fought on this day between the forces of the English led by Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March against the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles under the command of Art Óg mac Murchadha Caomhánach, the most powerful Chieftain in Leinster.


1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.

  Lordroel

 a)  Did this battle actually take place?  I was wondering who actually won but there seems to be no other mention of it on Wiki.  Mortimer did die this day but according to the entry for him it sounded more like he was murdered randomly, possibly without the killers even knowing who he was.  See Roger Mortimer Death, which says:

On 20 July 1398, at the age of 24, Mortimer was slain in a skirmish at either Kells, County Meath or Kellistown, County Carlow. The Wigmore chronicler says that he was riding in front of his army, unattended and wearing Irish garb, possibly illegally,[10] and that those who slew him did not know who he was. He was interred at Wigmore Abbey.[14] The King went to Ireland in the following year to avenge Mortimer's death.[6]

  It could have been a small skirmish or simply a random killing.

b)  This was after the occupation of Denmark by the Germans so do you know if this was some Danish puppet government or a government in exile?  Suspect the former as the latter would probably be more inclined to stay with the organisation, discredited as it was by that point.

  Thanks

  Steve

Seems like it was fought: The Battle of Kellistown

[stevep]

Jul 20, 2019 11:02:19 GMT lordroel said:

Jul 20, 2019 10:59:21 GMT stevep said:

  Lordroel

 a)  Did this battle actually take place?  I was wondering who actually won but there seems to be no other mention of it on Wiki.  Mortimer did die this day but according to the entry for him it sounded more like he was murdered randomly, possibly without the killers even knowing who he was.  See Roger Mortimer Death, which says:

  It could have been a small skirmish or simply a random killing.

b)  This was after the occupation of Denmark by the Germans so do you know if this was some Danish puppet government or a government in exile?  Suspect the former as the latter would probably be more inclined to stay with the organisation, discredited as it was by that point.

  Thanks

  Steve

Seems like it was fought: The Battle of Kellistow

  Lordroel

  OK thanks.

  Steve

[lordroel]

Jul 20, 2019 11:06:11 GMT stevep said:

Jul 20, 2019 11:02:19 GMT lordroel said:

Seems like it was fought: The Battle of Kellistow

  Lordroel

  OK thanks.

  Steve

Regarding you Denmark comment:

I do not know if we can consider the Thorvald Stauning being pro-Nazi, looking at this Wikipedia article: Denmark in World War II, i have the feeling he was strongly opposed to the Nazi party. Stauning himself was deeply depressed by the prospects for Europe under Nazism. Nonetheless, his party pursued a strategy of cooperation, hoping to maintain democracy and Danish control in Denmark for as long as possible.

[lordroel]

July 21st

356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.

230 – Pope Pontian succeeds Urban I as the eighteenth pope.

285 – Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler.

365 – The 365 Crete earthquake affects the Greek island of Crete with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), causing a destructive tsunami that affects the coasts of Libya and Egypt, especially Alexandria. Many thousands were killed.

905 – King Berengar I of Italy and a hired Hungarian army defeats the Frankish forces at Verona. King Louis III is captured and blinded for breaking his oath (see 902).

1242 – Battle of Taillebourg: Louis IX of France puts an end to the revolt of his vassals Henry III of England and Hugh X of Lusignan.

1403 – Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.

1545 – The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight.

1568 – Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau.

1645 – Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus.

1656 – The Raid on Málaga takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War.

1718 – The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.

1774 – Russo-Turkish War (1768–74): Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ending the war.

1798 – French campaign in Egypt and Syria: Napoleon's forces defeat an Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids.

1831 – Inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.

1861 – American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run: At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army.

1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown.

1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.

1877 – After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.

1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brillié in Ostend, Belgium.

1907 – The passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 people.

1919 – The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.

1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

1925 – Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph (241 km/h) on land. At Pendine Sands in Wales, he drives Sunbeam 350HP built by Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).

1944 – World War II: Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam, starting a battle that will end on August 10.

1944 – World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators are tortured and executed in Berlin, Germany, for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.

1952 – The 7.3-Mw  Kern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.

1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

1959 – NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative.

1959 – Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2–1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

1960 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike is elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, becoming the world's first female head of government.

1961 – Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission: Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).

1969 – At 02:56 UTC, astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon.

1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.

1972 – The Troubles: Bloody Friday: The Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing nine and injuring 130.

1973 – In Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.

1976 – Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, is assassinated by the Provisional IRA.

1977 – The start of the four-day-long Libyan–Egyptian War.

1979 – Jay Silverheels, a Mohawk actor, becomes the first Native American to have a star commemorated in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1983 – The world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).

1990 – Taiwan's military police forces mainland Chinese illegal immigrants into sealed holds of a fishing boat Min Ping Yu No. 5540 for repatriation to Fujian, causing 25 people to die from suffocation.

1995 – Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.

2001 – At the conclusion of a fireworks display on Okura Beach in Akashi, Hyōgo, Japan, 11 people are killed and more than 120 are injured when a pedestrian footbridge connecting the beach to JR Asagiri Station becomes overcrowded and people leaving the event fall down in a domino effect.

2005 – July 2005 London bombings occur.

2008 – Ram Baran Yadav is declared the first president of Nepal.

2011 – NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

2012 – Erden Eruç completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.

[stevep]

Jul 21, 2019 7:04:28 GMT lordroel said:

July 21st

356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.

  One small quibble.  According to the Wiki entry Temple_of_Artemis this was the 2nd temple to Artemis on the site.  It was the 3rd one, built after that which was classified as one of the wonders of the ancient world.  This was badly damaged by Gothic raiders in 268AD but at least partially rebuilt and was still active until closed in the early Christian period with the persecution of non-Christians that occurred then.