Events
622
– The beginning of the Islamic calendar.
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 a crusade, forces of Kings
Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of
Navarre, Pedro 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.
1377 – Coronation of Richard II of England.
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 Junipero Serra founds California's
first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
Over the following decades, it evolves
into the city of San Diego.
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.
1782 – First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem
Serail.
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.
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.
1880 – Emily Stowe becomes the first female
physician licensed to practice medicine
in Canada.
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 England
during the first World War.
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 I 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 a 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 leaders of the
three 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.
1945 – World War II: The Heavy Cruiser
USS Indianapolis (CA-35) leaves San Francisco
with parts for the atomic bomb "Little
Boy" bound for Tinian Island. This
would be the last time the Indianapolis
would be seen by the Mainland as she would
be torpedoed by the Japanese Submarine
I-58 on July 30 and sink with 880 out
of 1,196 crewmen.
1945 – Manhattan Project: the Atomic Age
begins when the United States successfully
detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear
weapon at the Trinity site 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 were massacred by North Korean Army.
1951 – King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates
in favor of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium.
1951 – The Catcher in the Rye by J. D.
Salinger is published for the first time
by Little, Brown and Company.
1956 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum &
Bailey Circus closes its very last "Big
Tent" show in Pittsburgh, due to
changing economics all subsequent circus
shows will be held in arenas.
1957 – United States Marine major John
Glenn flies a F8U Crusader supersonic
jet from California to New York in 3 hours,
23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new
transcontinental speed record.
1960 – USS George Washington a modified
Skipjack class submarine successfully
test fires the first ballistic missile
while submerged.
1965 – The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France
and Italy opens.
1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11, the
first manned space mission to land on
the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy
Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1973 – Watergate Scandal: former White
House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs
the United States Senate that President
Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially
incriminating conversations.
1979 – Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns
and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.
1981 – Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's
4th Prime Minister; his 22 years in office,
ending with retirement on 31 October 2003,
made him Asia's longest-serving political
leader.
1983 – Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter
crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing
20 fatalities.
1990 – The Luzon Earthquake strikes in
Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, La Union,
Aurora, Bataan, Zambales and Tarlac, Philippines,
with an intensity of 7.7.
1990 – The Parliament of the Ukrainian
SSR declares state sovereignty over the
territory of the Ukrainian SSR.
1993 – The Slackware operating system
is first released.
1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides
with Jupiter. Impacts continue until July
22.
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 Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law
Lauren Bessette 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 – 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake:
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.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Gondulphus of Tongeren
Helier
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Reineldis
July 16 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
For details, contact Datacentre
|