UN
Day
International
Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims
of Terrorism
Events
of the day
1192 β Minamoto Yoritomo becomes
Seii Tai ShΕgun and the de facto ruler of Japan.
(Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1331 β King Stephen UroΕ‘ III, after months of
anarchy, surrenders to his son and rival Stephen
DuΕ‘an, who succeeds as King of Serbia.
1680 β Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish
during the Pueblo Revolt.
1689 β The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland.
1770 β James Cook formally claims eastern Australia
for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
1772 β King Gustav III completes his coup d'Γ©tat
by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a
century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing
himself as an enlightened despot.
1778 β American Revolutionary War: British forces
begin besieging the French outpost at Pondicherry.
1808 β Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese
forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat
French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche
Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the
first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular
War.
1810 β Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France,
is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish
Riksdag of the Estates.
1821 β Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew
of the ship, Eliza Frances.
1831 β Nat Turner leads black slaves and free
blacks in a rebellion.
1852 β Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon
Territory.
1863 β Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate
guerrillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence
Massacre.
1879 β The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph
and St. John the Evangelist, reportedly appears
at Knock Shrine in Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
1888 β The first successful adding machine in
the United States is patented by William Seward
Burroughs.
1911 β The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.
1918 β World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme
begins.
1942 β World War II: a Nazi flag is installed
atop the Mount Elbrus.
1942 β World War II: the Guadalcanal campaign:
American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese
Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
1944 β Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the
United Nations, begins.
1944 β World War II: Canadian and Polish units
capture the strategically important town of Falaise,
France.
1945 β Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally
irradiated in a criticality incident during an
experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National
Laboratory.
1959 β President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an
executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state
of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently
commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day
1961 β Motown releases what would be its first
#1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The
Marvelettes.
1963 β Xa Loi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu,
brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalises
Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting
thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
1968 β Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops
invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring;
on the same day, Nicolae CeauΕescu, leader of
Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet
maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population
to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
1968 β James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives
the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African
American U.S. Marine.
1969 β An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets
the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire, a major catalyst of
the formation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
1971 β A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign
rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with
several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.
1976 β Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea.
1979 β Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects
to the United States.
1982 β Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of
a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee
the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal
from Lebanon.
1983 β Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino,
Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International
Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International
Airport).
1986 β Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic
Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people
within a 20-kilometer range.
1991 β Latvia declares renewal of its full independence
after the occupation of Soviet Union.
1991 β Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev
collapses.
1992 β Ruby Ridge Standoff in Idaho
1993 β NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer
spacecraft.
2001 β NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force
to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
2001 β The Red Cross announces that a famine is
striking Tajikistan, and calls for international
financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
2007 β Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall
in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph (266
km/h). Dean is the first storm since Hurricane
Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Abraham of Smolensk (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Euprepius of Verona
Maximilian of Antioch
Pope St. Pius X
Sidonius Apollinaris
August 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Consualia, in honor of Consus. (Roman Empire)
Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)
Youth Day/King Mohammed VI's Birthday (Morocco)
World Fashion Day
For details, contact Datacentre
