Today in History

On This Day In History, July 18th

2013 Government of Detroit declares bankruptcy

The city, which was up to $20 billion in debt, became the largest municipal entity in the United States to declare bankruptcy.

1993 Agathe Uwilingiyimana elected as Prime Minister of Rwanda

Rwanda's only female prime minister's tenure was cut short when she was assassinated at the outset of the Rwandan genocide.

1968 Intel is founded
Founded in Santa Clara, California, the intel corporation is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer.

1925 Mein Kampf is published
Adolf Hitler's autobiographical book was written while he served his sentence for treason in prison.

1870 The first Vatican Council, also known as Vatican I, decrees the doctrine of Papal infallibility
The doctrine claims that the Pope cannot err when speaking on issues of morality and/ or faith.
 

Births On This Day, July 18th 🎂

1980 Kristen Bell
American actress

1950 Jack Layton
Canadian politician

1950 Richard Branson
English businessman, founded Virgin Group

1921 John Glenn
American astronaut, politician

1918 Nelson Mandela
South African politician, President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths On This Day, July 18th 🪦

1988 Nico
German singer-songwriter, model, actress

1918 Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by the Rhine

1872 Benito Juárez
Mexican lawyer, politician, 25th President of Mexico

1817 Jane Austen
English author

1792 John Paul Jones
American navy commander
 
1768
The Boston Gazzette publishes' Liberty Song' 1st U.S. patriotic song
1931
The 1st air condtioned luxury liner was launched,had air condtioning in 1st class dining room. In 1941, the U.S. govt used it as a troop ship
1968
Intel Corp was founded by Andrew Grove in Santa Clara, Calif
1976
14 yr old gymnast, Nadia Comanice from Romania becomes the 1st gymnast to score a perfect 10, did it 7 times at the Montreal Summer Olympics
2013
Detroit,Michigan files for bankruptcy,largest U.S. municipal city at $18.5 billion
 

July 18th Birthdays:
1909
Harriet Nelson- actress she &husband, Ozzie starred in TV show 'Adventures of Ozzie&Harriet' with their sons Ricky, David
1929
Dick Button- retired men's figure skater won gold medal at '48,'52 Olympic games
1940
James Brolin- actor best known TV roles 'Dr Steve Kiley' on ABC medical show' Dr Welby,MD co starred with Robert Young, 'Peter' on ABC show' Hotel'
1950
Richard Branson- British businessman{Virgin Group}
1961
Elizabeth McGovern- actress best known TV role' Cora Grantham' in British period drama' Downton Abbey'
Deaths:
1817
Jane Austen- writer 'Pride&Prejuidce, Sense&Sensibility 41
1966
Bobby Fuller- rock gutiarist/singer"I Fought The Law' 23{found dead in his car}
1989
Rebecca Schaeffer-actress,best known TV role' Patti' on CBS sitcom'My Sister Sam' 21{murdered by deranged fan}
 
On This Day In History, July 19th

1903 The first Tour de France comes to an end

Maurice Garin became the first person to win the debut of the now annual bike race.

1900 Paris Metro opens
One of the densest metros in the world and the second largest metro in Europe, the first line of the Paris Metro opened during the World's Fair.

1870 Franco-Prussian War starts
The war involving France, under Napoleon and the Kingdom of Prussia began with the French declaration of war. The war lasted for 9 months and ended with a German victory.

1848 Seneca Falls Convention begins
One of the first women's rights conventions to be held in American history, the two-day convention attracted 300 women and men who protested the social, economic, and political discrimination American women faced.

1553 Mary I replaces Lady Jane Grey as Queen of England
Also known as Bloody Mary due to her brutal persecution of Protestants, Mary I was the only child of Catherine of Aragon and Henry III.
 
Births On This Day, July 19th 🎂

1922 George McGovern
American politician, historian, author

1921 Harold Camping
American broadcaster, author

1834 Edgar Degas
French painter

1827 Mangal Pandey
Indian freedom fighter

1814 Samuel Colt
American inventor, and industrialist, founded the Colt's Manufacturing Company

Deaths On This Day, July 19th 🪦

2012 Omar Suleiman
Egyptian politician, Vice President of Egypt

2002 Alan Lomax
American historian, author, scholar

1980 Hans Morgenthau
German philosopher

1543 Mary Boleyn
English sister of Anne Boleyn

1374 Petrarch
Italian scholar, poet
 
1848
The 1st U.S. Women's Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, NY organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton,Lucreta Mott
1877
The 1st Men's Title at Wimbeldon was held,27 yr old Spencer Gore defeated William Marshall 6-1,6-2,6-4
1910
future Hall of Fame pitcher, CY Young wins his 500th game of his career.He's the only pitcher in MLB history to reach this milestone
1941
BBC world service begins playing 'Victory' in Morse Code which is the opening to Betthoven's 5th Symphony
1985
teacher, Christa McAullife is chosen by NASA to become the 1st teacher in space as a payload specialist. She was aboard spacecraft,Challenger when sadly it exploded 73 seconds after takeoff in 1986,killing all on board
 
July 19th Birthdays:
1814
Samuel Colt- industralist/inventor of Colt 6 shot revolver
1834
Edgar Degas- French impressionist painter
1940
Vikki Carr- singer best known single' It Must Be Him'
1953
Howard Schultz- CEO of Starbucks
1976
Benedict Cumberbatch- British actor '12 years a Slave, Sherlock Holmes, The Imitation Game,1917
Deaths:
Mary Jo Kopechene- political campaign specialist for Sen Ted Kennedy 28{ drown in his car}
1974
Joe Flynn- character actor, best known TV role 'Capt Binghamton' in sitcom' McHale's Navy' 59{heart attack while swimming}
2006
Jack Warden- actor 'Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait,TV movie' Brian's Song' 85
2009
Frank McCourt- Irish/American author/teacher -wrote Pultizer Prize winning book' Angela's Ashes' 78
2016
Garry Marshall- TV writer/producer/film director 81, brother of actress/director Penny Marshall
 
On This Day In History, July 20th

2012 Aurora shooting

A gunman, James Holmes, opened fire in a movie theater during the premiere of the Dark Night Rises in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.

1976 Viking I lands on Mars

As part of the Viking program, Viking I became the first American spacecraft to successfully land on Mars and complete its mission.

1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Also known as Cyprus Peace Operation or Operation Attila, the invasion was a response to a coup in Cyprus.

1969 Apollo 11 lands on the Moon

Carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who would become the first humans to walk on the Moon, the spacecraft safely landed on the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.

1969 Football War ends
A ceasefire came into effect between Honduras and El Salvador after the two countries fought a brief war over immigration from El Salvador to Honduras. The hostilities occurred during the North American trials of the FIFA World Cup.
 
Births On This Day, July 20th 🎂

1978 Elliott Yamin
American singer-songwriter

1966 Enrique Peña Nieto
Mexican politician

1947 Carlos Santana
Mexican/American singer-songwriter, guitarist

1919 Edmund Hillary
New Zealand mountaineer, explorer

1304 Petrarch
Italian scholar, poet

Deaths On This Day, July 20th 🪦

2013 Helen Thomas
American journalist

2011 Lucian Freud
English painter

1973 Bruce Lee
American actor, martial artist

1937 Guglielmo Marconi
Italian businessman, and inventor, developed Marconi's law, Nobel Prize laureate

1923 Pancho Villa
Mexican general
 
1810
citizens of Bogota, New Granda{now Columbia} declare independence from Spain
1951
United Nations &Social Council vote to make UNICEF{United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund} a permanent agency. Its now known as United Nations Children's Fund
1969
NASA astronaut, Neil Armstong steps from the lunar landing module'Eagle' onto the moon and utters his famous words'That's One Small Step For a Man,One Giant Leap For Mankind '
1984
Vanessa Williams who was the 1st black woman to become 'Miss America' resigns after Penthouse leaked unauthorized nude photos of her
2021
Leyna Bloom becomes Sports Illustrated's 1st transgender cover model
 
July 20th Birthdays:
1919
Edmund Hillary- New Zealand explorer/mountaineer who was 1st man to scale Mt Everest with Tenzag Norgay
1929
Mike IIlitch- U.S businessman/founder of Little Caesar's Pizza Chain/owner of NHL hockey team Detroit Red Wings
1938
Natalie Wood- actress 'Splendor in The Grass, Miracle on 34th Street, West Side Story
1963
Frank Whaley- actor, Pulp Fiction, Swing Kids,he played younger 'Moonlight Graham' in 'Field of Dreams'
1969
Josh Holloway- actor best known TV role' "Sawyer' on ABC show 'Lost'
1985
John Francis Daley- actor best known TV role,"Dr Lance Sweets', FBI profiler on crime drama'Bones"
Deaths:
1973
Bruce Lee- martial artist/actor 'Enter The Dragon' 32
1983
Frank Reynolds- U.S news anchor on ABC World News Tonight '77-'83 59
2005
James Doohan- actor best known TV role'Mr Scott' on original "Star Trek TV series 85
 
On This Day In History, July 21st

2011 STS-135 lands

This space shuttle was the 135th and the last space shuttle flight of the American Space Shuttle program.

1983 Lowest temperature ever measured on Earth

Vostok Station, a Russian station in Antarctica experienced the lowest temperatures ever measured in recorded human history. The temperatures fell to −128.6 °F (−89.2 °C)

1980 Mary Eugenia Charles is elected as PM of Dominica
Her election to office made her the first female and the longest PM of the Commonwealth of Dominica. She is also the first elected female head of state in the Americas.

1977 Libyan–Egyptian War begins

This short war between Libya and Egypt started with Libya striking Egyptian cities. The war lasted for 2 days with a ceasefire on July 24.

1969 First person walks on the Moon
Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon. He stepped on the Moon's surface almost 7 hours after Apollo 11, the spacecraft that carried them, landed on the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. After stepping on the Moon, Armstrong uttered his famous words, "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
 
Births On This Day, July 21st 🎂

1948 Cat Stevens
English singer-songwriter, musician

1946 Ken Starr
American lawyer, judge

1911 Marshall McLuhan
Canadian author, theorist

1899 Ernest Hemingway
American writer, Nobel Prize laureate

1693 Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle
English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Deaths On This Day, July 21st 🪦

2004 Jerry Goldsmith
American composer, conductor

2001 Sivaji Ganesan
Indian actor

1982 Dave Garroway
American journalist

1944 Claus von Stauffenberg
German army officer, member of the 20 July plot

1796 Robert Burns
Scottish poet
 
21st July

1403 In the Battle of Shrewsbury, King Henry IV defeated rebels led by Henry 'Hotspur' Percy from Northumberland. It was the first battle in which English archers fought each other on English soil and demonstrated the deadliness of the longbow.

1545 The French invaded the Isle of Wight. However the French had little local knowledge and as the attacks were expected, local forces reached the high grounds of Bembridge Down to oppose them. The French had a long history of attacking the Island and this was their last attempt at capture.

1897 London's Tate Gallery, built on the site of the Millbank Prison, was opened, with 67 paintings.

1909 Six suffragettes, jailed for breaking windows in Whitehall, were released for insubordination, for kicking and biting female wardens and for going on strike.

1925 Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first man to break the 150 mph land barrier, at Pendine Sands in Wales when he drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by later holding both land speed and water speed records.
 
1853
NYState Legislature puts aside 750 acres of land in Manhattan Island for creation of Central Park which was designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Omlstead
1930
U.S. veteran's Adminstration forms
1952
movie' The Quiet Man' is released directed by John Ford. The story of a boxer{John Wayne} who returns to his native country,Ireland,falls in love with local girl{Maureen O'Hara} has to deal with her brother{Victor McLagen},other cast members, Barry Fitzgerald,Ward Bond, Mildred Natwick. The movie won 2 Oscars, director, cinematography
1983
world's lowest natural temperature recorded at Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctia -128.6 F {-89.2 C}
2007
"Harry Potter&The Deathly Hallows",7th& last book of the series by author JK Rowling is published worldwide.It sells 11 million copies in 24 hrs
 
July 21st Birthdays:
1899
Ernest Hemmingway, author 'Old Man&The Sea, For Whom The Bell Tolls,Farewell to Arms
1924
Don KNotts- comedic actor, best known TV role' Barney Fife' on 'Andy Griffith Show'
1926
Norman Jewison- Canadian film director Moonstruck, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Russians Are Coming,In The Heat of the Night
1938
Janet Reno- 1st woman U.S Attorney General '93-'01
1948
Garry Trudeau- political cartoonist'Doonesbury' married to TV journalist, Jane Pauley
1956
Michael Connelly- author 'Harry Bosch' novels
Deaths:
1796
Robert Burns- Scottish poet 'Auld Lang Syne' 37
1982
Dave Garroway, original host of NBC's Today Show {self inflicted gun shot wound} 69
1998
Robert Young-actor his 2 best known TV roles' Jim Anderson' on TV show'Father Knows Best', "Marcus Welby' in ABC medical drama'Marcus Welby,MD' 91
2004
Jerry Goldsmith- film composer The Twilight Zone, Planet of the Apes, The Omen 75
2015
E.L. Doctorow- author 'Ragtime, Billy Bathgate 84
 
On This Day In History, July 22nd

2011 Lone wolf extremist goes on a massacre in Norway

Anders Behring Breivik an anti-Islamist extremist placed a car bomb in front of the Norwegian Prime Minister's office in Oslo. A few hours after the bomb exploded, killing 8 people and injuring about 200 others, Breivik opened fire at a youth summer camp on the island of Utøya killing 69 participants. This was the deadliest incident of violence in the Scandinavian country since the Second World War.

2003 Raid in Mosul

A raid on a compound near Mosul, Iraq by the United States Army 101st Airborne Division ended with the deaths of killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay and Qusay's 14-year-old son.

1983 First solo helicopter flight around the world
Australian Dick Smith became the first person to fly a helicopter around the world solo. He started his trip in August 1982 and it took him around a year to finish his trip.

1933 American aviator Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the Earth

Post landed on Floyd Bennett Field in New York 7 days after he departed alone from the same airfield in a Lockheed Vega aircraft known as Winnie Mae.

1894 World's first competitive motor race
The Paris–Rouen, Le Petit Journal Competition for Horseless Carriages was the world's first city-to-city motoring competition. Staring in Paris and ending in Rouen, the race was organized by the newspaper Le Petit Journal.
 
Births On This Day, July 22nd 🎂

1992 Selena Gomez
American actress, singer

1969 Despina Vandi
German/Greek singer, actress

1965 Shawn Michaels
American wrestler

1946 Danny Glover
American actor

1923 The Fabulous Moolah
American wrestler

Deaths On This Day, July 22nd 🪦

2007 Ulrich Mühe
German actor

1995 Harold Larwood
English cricketer

1950 William Lyon Mackenzie King
Canadian politician, 10th Prime Minister of Canada

1934 John Dillinger
American bank robber, murderer

1916 James Whitcomb Riley
American poet
 
22nd July

1706 The 'Acts of Union' were agreed by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by the countries' Parliaments, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1797 The start of the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Led by the newly-promoted Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson, the assault on the Spanish port by British naval forces was repulsed with the British suffering many casualties, including Nelson who was wounded in the arm. The arm later had to be partially amputated.

1946 – Bread is rationed for the first time in Britain. Though the war ended in 1945 rationing continued in Britain for a further nine years to sustain an economy ravaged by war. On 21 July 1946, the Labour government introduced the rationing of bread, flour and flour confectionery.

1986 MPs voted to abolish corporal punishment in state schools.

2013 The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby boy (George Alexander Louis). After his grandfather, Prince Charles and his father Prince William, he is third in line to succeed his great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
 
1893
Katherine Lee Bates writes' America The Beautiful' in Colorado
1942
gasoline rationing using coupons begins
1995
Susan Smith is found guilty of drowning her 2 young sons, Michael age 3, Alexander 14 months in South Carolina. At the time she claimed a black man had 'carjacked' with her sons strapped in their car seats
She was sentenced to life in prison,is eligible for parole n 2024
2019
French submarine, Minerve is rediscovered off the coast of Toulon,France. It disappeared in 1968 with 52 crew members
 
July 22nd Birthdays:
1882
Edward Hopper- U.S. painter
1924
Margaret Whiting- singer 'It Might As Well Be Spring,Time After Time
1932
Oscar de la Renta- fashion designer
1934
Louise Fletcher- actress won Best Actress Oscar for her role as 'Nurse Ratched' in'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'. In her acceptance speech,she used sign language to thank her parents for their support,they are both deaf
1946
Danny Glover- actor "Lethal Weapon' movies, The Color Purple, To Sleep In Anger
1967
Rhys Ifans- Welsh actor 'Notting Hill, The Replacements
Deaths:
1934
John Dillinger- U.S. gangster shot by federal agents in Chicago 31
1967
Carl Sandburg- poet 89
2001
Estelle Getty- actress, best known TV role' Sophia' in NBC sitcom'The Golden Girls' 84
 
On This Day In History, July 23rd

1995 Comet Hale–Bopp discovered

Also known as C/1995 O1 by the scientific community, this well-known comet was discovered independently by Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.

1992 Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia
The Republic of Abkhazia is a disputed territory of Georgia and is recognized as an independent state by only a handful of counties including Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru, and Tuvalu.

1982 International Whaling Commission bans commercial whale hunting
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) passed a resolution to restrict commercial whaling and ban it completely after 1986. 25 countries voted to put the restrictions and ban in place.

1972 Landsat 1 launched
The first satellite in the US's LANDSAT program, the Landsat discovered an uninhabited island off the eastern coast of Canada in 1976. The island is now called Landsat Island.

1962 First live transatlantic television signal
Telstar 1, a communications satellite relayed the world's first transatlantic television signal in the form of a show that featured Walter Cronkite.
 
Births On This Day, July 23rd 🎂

1989 Daniel Radcliffe
English actor

1980 Michelle Williams
American singer-songwriter, producer, actress

1976 Judit Polgár
Hungarian chess player

1957 Theo van Gogh
Dutch director

1892 Haile Selassie I
Ethiopian Emperor

Deaths On This Day, July 23rd 🪦

2013 Emile Griffith
Virgin Islander boxer

2011 Amy Winehouse
English singer-songwriter

1973 Eddie Rickenbacker
American pilot, Medal of Honor recipient

1951 Philippe Pétain
French general, politician, 119th Prime Minister of France

1885 Ulysses S. Grant
American general, politician, 18th President of the United States
 


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