July
21
Independence
Day
Belgium : July 21 1831
21
July : Man takes first steps on the Moon
1969: Man takes first steps on the Moon
American Neil Armstrong has become the first man to walk on
the Moon.
The astronaut stepped onto the Moon's surface, in the Sea of
Tranquility, at 0256 GMT, nearly 20 minutes after first opening
the hatch on the Eagle landing craft.
Armstrong
had earlier reported the lunar module's safe landing at 2017
GMT with the words: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The
Eagle has landed."
As he put
his left foot down first Armstrong declared: "That's one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
He described
the surface as being like powdered charcoal and the landing
craft left a crater about a foot deep.
Events
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 – A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The
tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0
on the Richter Scale. 5,000 people perished in Alexandria, and
45,000 more died outside the city.
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.
1718 – The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire,
Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
1774 – Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russia and the Ottoman
Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the war.
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-Brille in Ostend, Belgium.
1914 – The Crown council of Romania decides the country shall
remain neutral in World War I
1918 – U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts.
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 – Sir Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to break the
150 mph (241 km/h) land barrier at Pendine Sands in Wales. He
drove a 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 the battle. It would end on August 10.
1944 – World War II: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and
fellow conspirators are executed in Berlin, Germany for the
July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic
Treaty.
1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions
Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
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.
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 – Space Race: Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz"
Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon, during the
Apollo 11 mission (July 20 in North America).
1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in
Egypt is completed.
1972 – Bloody Friday bombings by the Provisional IRA around
Belfast, Northern Ireland – 22 bombs are detonated, killing
9 and seriously injuring 130.
1973 – In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents
kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the
1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
1976 – Christopher Ewart-Biggs British ambassador to the Republic
of Ireland is assassinated by the Provisional IRA.
1977 – The start of the four day long Libyan-Egyptian War.
1983 – The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok
Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F).
1995 – Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army
begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
1997 – The fully restored USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides)
celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first
time in 116 years.
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 railway station becomes overcrowded and
people leaving the event fall down in a domino effect.
2005 – Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks
after the similar July 7 bombings, target London's public transportation
system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected
suicide bombers are captured and later convicted and imprisoned
for long terms.
2011 – NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of
Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Arbogast
Daniel (Roman Catholic Church)
Lawrence of Brindisi
Praxedes
Victor of Marseilles
July 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Liberation Day in 1944 (Guam)
National Day, celebrates the inauguration of Léopold I, the
first king of the Belgians, after its independence from the
Netherlands on October 4, 1830. (Belgium)
Racial Harmony Day (Singapore)
Summer Kazanskaya (Russia)
For details, contact Datacentre
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