Events
of the day
762 – Baghdad
is founded by caliph Al-Mansur.
1419 – First Defenestration of
Prague: a crowd of radical Hussites
kill seven members of the Prague
city council.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands
at Guanaja in the Bay Islands
off the coast of Honduras during
his fourth voyage.
1608 – At Ticonderoga (now Crown
Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain
shoots and kills two Iroquois
chiefs. This was to set the tone
for French-Iroquois relations
for the next one hundred years.
1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia,
the first representative assembly
in the Americas, the House of
Burgesses, convenes for the first
time.
1629 – An earthquake in Naples,
Italy, kills about 10,000 people.
1656 – Swedish forces under the
command of King Charles X Gustav
defeat the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth at the Battle of
Warsaw.
1729 – Foundation of Baltimore,
Maryland.
1733 – The first Masonic Grand
Lodge in the future United States
is constituted in Massachusetts.
1756 – In Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo
Rastrelli presents the newly-built
Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth
and her courtiers.
1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y
Costilla, leader of the Mexican
insurgency, is executed by the
Spanish in Chihuahua, Mexico.
1825 – Malden Island is discovered
by captain George Anson Byron.
1859 – First ascent of Grand Combin,
one of the highest summits in
the Alps.
1863 – Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello
of the Shoshone tribe signs the
Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing
to stop the harassment of emigrant
trails in southern Idaho and northern
Utah.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle
of the Crater – Union forces attempt
to break Confederate lines at
Petersburg, Virginia by exploding
a large bomb under their trenches.
1865 – The steamboat Brother Jonathan
sinks off the coast of Crescent
City, California, killing 225
passengers, the deadliest shipwreck
on the Pacific Coast of the U.S.
at the time.
1866 – New Orleans's Democratic
government orders police to raid
an integrated Republican Party
meeting, killing 40 people and
injuring 150.
1871 – The Staten Island Ferry
Westfield's boiler explodes, killing
over 85 people.
1916 – Black Tom Island explosion
in Jersey City, New Jersey.
1930 – In Montevideo, Uruguay
wins the first Football World
Cup.
1932 – Premiere of Walt Disney's
Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon
short to use Technicolor and the
first Academy Award winning cartoon
short.
1945 – World War II: Japanese
submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis,
killing 883 seamen.
1956 – A joint resolution of the
U.S. Congress is signed by President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing
In God We Trust as the U.S. national
motto.
1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway,
the largest national highway in
the world, is officially opened.
1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B.
Johnson signs the Social Security
Act of 1965 into law, establishing
Medicare and Medicaid.
1967 – Israel passes the Jerusalem
Law and annexes East Jerusalem.
1969 – Vietnam War: US President
Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled
visit to South Vietnam and meets
with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
and U.S. military commanders.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo
15 Mission – David Scott and James
Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module
module Falcon land on the Moon
with the first Lunar Rover.
1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing
727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86
collide over Morioka, Japan killing
162.
1974 – Watergate Scandal: U.S.
President Richard M. Nixon releases
subpoenaed White House recordings
after being ordered to do so by
the United States Supreme Court.
1974 – Six Royal Canadian Army
Cadets are killed and fifty-four
are injured in an accidental grenade
blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet
Camp.
1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappears
from the parking lot of the Machus
Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield
Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit,
at about 2:30 p.m. He is never
seen or heard from again, and
will be declared legally dead
on this date in 1982.
1975 – The Troubles: three members
of a popular cabaret band and
two gunmen are killed during a
botched paramilitary attack in
Northern Ireland (see Miami Showband
killings).
1978 – The 730 (transport), Okinawa
changes its traffic on the right-hand
side of the road to the left-hand
side.
1980 – Vanuatu gains independence.
1980 – Israel's Knesset passes
the Jerusalem Law
1990 – George Steinbrenner is
forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent
to resign as principal partner
of New York Yankees for hiring
Howie Spira to "get dirt"
on Dave Winfield.
2003 – In Mexico, the last 'old
style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls
off the assembly line.
2006 – The world's longest running
music show Top of the Pops is
broadcast for the last time on
BBC Two. The show had aired for
42 years.
2006 – Lebanon War: At least 28
civilians, including 16 children
are killed by the Israeli Air
Force in what Lebanese call the
Second Qana massacre and what
Israel considers to be an attempt
to stop rockets' being fired,
from Lebanon, at Israeli civilian
targets.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Abdon and Sennen
Peter Chrysologus
Ursus of Auxerre
July 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Feast of the Throne (Morocco)
Independence Day, celebrates the
independence of Vanuatu from the
United Kingdom and France in 1980.
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