July 23
1952:
Egyptian monarchy toppled by coup.
On this day in 1952, the Free Officers, a nationalistic military group led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, engineered a coup that overthrew King Farouk I of Egypt, ending the monarchy and bringing Nasser to power.
1997:
Slobodan Milošević became president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (comprising Serbia and Montenegro) after serving as president of Serbia from 1989.
1970: Sultan Saʿīd ibn Taymūr of Oman was overthrown by his son, Qābūs ibn Saʿīd, in a palace coup.
1945:
Marshal Philippe Pétain of France went on trial for treason during World War II.
1844:
Attilio and Emilio Bandiera were executed along with nine others following a failed revolt against Austrian rule in Italy.
685:
John V was consecrated pope, succeeding St. Benedict II.
July 24
1917:
Beginning of Mata Hari's trial.
Dutch-born dancer and courtesan Mata Hari, whose name became a synonym for the seductive female spy, went on trial this day in 1917, accused of spying for Germany, and was subsequently found guilty and shot by a firing squad.
1974:
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Richard M. Nixon had to provide transcripts of Watergate tapes to special prosecutor Leon Jaworski.
1959:
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon engaged in the “kitchen debate” at an American exhibition in Moscow.
1944:
Soviet forces liberated the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp on the outskirts of the city of Lublin, Poland.
1923:
The Treaty of Lausanne, the final treaty concluding World War I, was signed at Lausanne, Switzerland.
1911:
Hiram Bingham discovered Machu Picchu in a remote part of the Peruvian Andes.
1897:
Amelia Earhart, one of the world's most celebrated aviators and the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, was born in Atchison, Kansas.
1847:
Brigham Young and his fellow Mormons arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1783:
Catherine II (the Great) of Russia and Erekle II of Kartalinia-Kakhetia (eastern Georgia) concluded the Treaty of Georgievsk.
1567:
Mary, Queen of Scots, was formally deposed after rebellious Scottish nobles deserted her army at Carberry Hill and forced her to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son, James.
July 25
1814:
American advance into Canada halted by British troops.
Near Niagara Falls on this day in 1814, British troops commanded by General Phineas Riall thwarted an invasion of Canada by a U.S. force under General Jacob Brown in the Battle of Lundy's Lane during the War of 1812.
1952:
Puerto Rico attained its own government as a commonwealth of the United States.
1919:
A member of the foreign ministry of the newly formed Soviet government, Lev Karakhan, issued the Karakhan Manifesto, in which he offered to relinquish all Soviet claims to the special rights and privileges in China won by the Russian tsarist government.
1906:
Johnny Hodges—a jazz alto saxophonist who was a featured soloist in Duke Ellington's orchestra, known for his brilliant improvisational sense of composition—was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1898:
U.S. forces under General Nelson A. Miles invaded Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.
1868:
The U.S. Congress formed the Wyoming Territory.
1834:
English Romantic poet and literary critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge died.
July 26
1956:
Suez Canal seized.
On this day in 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser seized control of the Suez Canal and nationalized it, sparking a crisis that later resulted in French, British, and Israeli forces briefly occupying parts of Egypt.
2004:
In response to an explosion of violence in the Darfur region, the European Union advocated that the United Nations institute economic sanctions against The Sudan.
1965:
The Republic of Maldives gained its independence from Britain.
1953:
Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada military fortress in Santiago de Cuba, and, although unsuccessful, the event later inspired the 26th of July Movement, which culminated in the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's regime in Cuba.
1894:
English writer Aldous Huxley, whose deep distrust of 20th-century trends in both politics and technology found expression in his novel Brave New World (1932), was born in Godalming, Surrey.
1775:
The U.S. Postal Service was established by the Second Continental Congress, and Benjamin Franklin was named the first postmaster general.
July 27
1996:
Terrorist attack at Atlanta Olympics.
On this day in 1996 a pipe bomb exploded in Olympic Centennial Park in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 1 person and injuring 111 in the first terrorist attack at the Olympics since the 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany.
2003:
American cyclist Lance Armstrong won his fifth consecutive Tour de France bicycle race.
1953:
The armistice agreement ending the Korean War was signed at P'anmunjŏm in central Korea.
1946:
Avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein, whose Paris home was a salon for leading artists and writers, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
1919:
The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was ignited after a young black man was stoned and drowned in Lake Michigan for swimming in an area reserved for whites.
1909:
The world's first military airplane completed one of the final qualifying flights for its sale to the U.S. Army Signal Corps by Wilbur and Orville Wright.
1830:
The July Revolution began in France, leading to the abdication of Charles X and bringing Louis-Philippe to the throne.
1794:
Antoine-Christophe Merlin and other conspirators initiated the Thermidorian Reaction, a revolt that ultimately ended the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
1214:
At the Battle of Bouvines, French King Philip II defeated an international coalition led by the Holy Roman emperor Otto IV.
July 28
1914:
Beginning of World War I.
Using the assassination of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand as a pretext to present Serbia with an unacceptable ultimatum, Austria-Hungary declared war on the Slavic country on this day in 1914, sparking World War I.
1976:
An earthquake in the industrial city of Tangshan, China, killed more than 240,000 people.
1844:
Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was one of the most individual of Victorian writers and who influenced many leading 20th-century poets, was born in Stratford, Essex, England.
1821:
Peru declared its independence from Spain.
1794:
Maximilien Robespierre, a radical Jacobin leader and one of the principal figures in the French Revolution, was guillotined before a cheering mob on the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
1750:
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig, Germany.
1540:
King Henry VIII of England privately married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
July 29
1958:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration established.
Criticized for allowing the Soviet Union to launch the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth (Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957), U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation this day in 1958 that created NASA.
1981:
Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married in St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
1957:
The International Atomic Energy Agency was created.
1913:
Albania was formally recognized by the major European powers as an independent principality following the issuance of the Vlor
July 30
1898:
Death of Otto von Bismarck.
Otto von Bismarck—who, as prime minister of Prussia (1862–73, 1873–90), used ruthlessness and moderation to unify Germany, founding the German Empire (1871) and serving as its first chancellor (1871–90)—died this day in 1898.
1975:
Former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
1956:
The phrase “In God we trust” legally became the national motto of the United States.
1942:
Frank Sinatra sang with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in his last recording before venturing on a solo career.
1540:
Lutheran clergyman Robert Barnes was burned as a heretic after being used by Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII to gain European support for their antipapal movement in England.
July 31
1971:
Lunar Roving Vehicle first used on the Moon.
On this day in 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts James B. Irwin and David Scott first used the four-wheeled, battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicle to extensively explore the Moon's surface, in particular the Hadley-Apennine site.
1994:
A UN Security Council resolution authorized the use of “all necessary means” to restore democracy to Haiti.
1948:
U.S. President Harry S. Truman dedicated Idlewild Airport as New York International Airport (rededicated as John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963).
1921:
Whitney M. Young, Jr., who spearheaded the drive for equal opportunity for blacks in industry and U.S. government service while he was head of the National Urban League (1961–71), was born in Lincoln Ridge, Kentucky.
1667:
The Treaty of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and transferred New Netherland (now New York and New Jersey) to England.
1556:
St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church, died in Rome.
August 1
1589:
Henry III of France stabbed by an assassin.
King Henry III of France was stabbed this day in 1589 by Jacques Clément, a Jacobin friar, and died the next day after acknowledging his Bourbon ally, Henry of Navarre (Henry IV), a Huguenot, as his successor.
1944:
The final entry was recorded in the diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who spent two years in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands.
1940:
John F. Kennedy's Why England Slept, a critical account of the British military that became a best seller, was published.
1876:
Colorado was admitted to the Union, becoming the 38th U.S. state.
1744:
Jean-Baptiste de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck—a French biologist best known for his notion that acquired traits are inheritable, an idea known as Lamarckism—was born in Bazentin-le-Petit.
1714:
Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler of England, died.
10: Roman Emperor Claudius I was born in Lugdunum, Gaul (now Lyon, France).
August 2
1990:
Kuwait invaded.
Iraq invaded Kuwait on this day in 1990, and Ṣaddām Ḥussein's subsequent refusal to withdraw his troops sparked the First Persian Gulf War, in which an international force led by the United States quickly defeated Iraq.
1943:
PT-109, a U.S. Navy torpedo boat under John F. Kennedy's command, was sunk by a Japanese destroyer.
1920:
Marcus Garvey, black leader and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, reached the height of his power as he presided at an international convention in New York City.
1876:
Wild Bill Hickok—a frontiersman, marksman, gambler, and legend of the American West—was murdered in the city of Deadwood, in what is now South Dakota.
1830:
Charles X of France abdicated the throne, unable to resist the July Revolution.
August 3
1492:
Columbus's first transatlantic voyage begun.
Hoping to find a westward route to India, Christopher Columbus on this day in 1492 set sail on his first transatlantic voyage, departing from Palos, Spain, with three small ships—the Ni馻, Pinta, and Santa María.
1960:
The Republic of Niger gained its independence from France.
1958:
The atomic submarine Nautilus passed beneath the thick ice cap of the North Pole, an unprecedented feat.
1949:
The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed by the merger of the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America.
1940:
Lithuania was “accepted” into the U.S.S.R. following the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states.
1924:
English novelist and short-story author Joseph Conrad died in Canterbury, Kent.
1914:
Germany declared war on France in World War I.
1583:
English navigator Sir Humphrey Gilbert arrived at St. John's, Newfoundland, and claimed it in the name of the queen.
August 4
1704:
Gibraltar captured by Britain.
During the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain took control of Gibraltar on this day in 1704 after Spain surrendered, and “the Rock” subsequently became a British colony and a symbol of British naval strength.
1921:
The eight Chicago White Sox baseball players involved in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal were banned from the game for life by the baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
1914:
In response to the German invasion of Belgium, Great Britain entered World War I, declaring war on Germany.
1901:
Louis Armstrong, a prolifically gifted natural musician and the leading trumpeter in jazz history, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1892:
Lizzie Borden's parents were murdered in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1879:
Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Aeterni Patris, making Thomism the dominant philosophical viewpoint in Roman Catholicism.
1790:
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton established the Revenue Marine Service, which became the U.S. Coast Guard.
1578:
The Portuguese armies of King Sebastian—who was allied with the deposed Moroccan sultan al-Mutawakkil—invaded Morocco but were defeated by the Saʿdī sultan ʿAbd al-Malik in the Battle of the Three Kings.
August 5
1960:
Independence declared by Upper Volta.
Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso, which means “Land of Incorruptible People”), a landlocked country in western Africa, proclaimed its independence on this day in 1960, ending more than 60 years of French rule.
1964:
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson put the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution before Congress.
1963:
The United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom signed the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in Moscow.
1930:
U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
1864:
During the Battle of Mobile Bay, Union Admiral David Farragut sealed off the port of Mobile, Alabama, from Confederate blockade runners.
1772:
Russia, Prussia, and Austria signed a treaty creating the First Partition of Poland, depriving that country of approximately half of its population and almost one-third of its land.
1100:
Henry I was crowned king of England.
August 6
1945:
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
On this day in 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan—the blast killed more than 70,000 people and destroyed most of the city—in an effort to hasten the end of World War II.
1990:
The UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, ruled by Ṣaddām Ḥussein, for its invasion of Kuwait four days earlier.
1962:
After 300 years of British rule, Jamaica became an independent country within the Commonwealth of Nations.
1940:
Estonia lost its independence when the Soviet Union annexed the country.
1926:
Gertrude Ederle, age 19, of New York became the first woman to swim the English Channel, breaking the men's record by nearly two hours.
1911:
American radio and motion-picture actress and television comedian Lucille Ball was born in Celoron, New York.
1809:
English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian Age in poetry, was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire.
1806:
After a thousand years the Holy Roman Empire came to its official end, with the secession of its confederated states, when Emperor Francis II of Austria put down the imperial crown.
August 7
1942:
Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal seized by Allies.
In the Allies' first major offensive in the Pacific theatre during World War II, U.S. Marines on this day in 1942 landed on Guadalcanal and captured the airfield from Japan, sparking a battle that lasted some six months.
1960:
C魌e d'Ivoire gained independence from France.
1957:
Oliver Hardy—member of Laurel and Hardy, the first great Hollywood motion-picture comedy team—died in North Hollywood, California.
1932:
Abebe Bikila, an Ethiopian runner who was the first athlete to win two Olympic marathons, was born in Mont.
1888:
The first of the murders committed by Jack the Ripper took place in London's East End.
1819:
A group of South American insurgents under Simón Bolívar defeated Spanish forces at the Battle of Boyacá, which freed New Granada (Colombia and Venezuela) from Spanish control.
1807:
The first serviceable steamboat—the Clermont, designed by American engineer Robert Fulton—embarked on its maiden voyage.
1782:
George Washington ordered the creation of the first U.S. military decoration, the Badge of Military Merit (today called the Purple Heart), which was later awarded to three Revolutionary War soldiers for bravery in action.
August 8
1974:
Resignation of U.S. President Nixon.
Faced with the near-certain prospect of impeachment for his role in the Watergate Scandal, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced his resignation on this day in 1974 and was succeeded by Gerald Ford the following day.
1963:
Armed robbers stole
August 9
48 :
Pompey defeated by Julius Caesar at the Battle of Pharsalus.
During the Roman Civil War of 49–45 BC, Julius Caesar's troops on this day in 48 decisively defeated the army of Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus, causing Pompey to flee to Egypt, where he was subsequently murdered.
1945:
The second atomic bomb dropped on Japan by the United States in World War II struck the city of Nagasaki.
1896:
Russian dancer and innovative choreographer Léonide Massine, one of the most important figures in 20th-century dance, was born in Moscow.
1854:
Henry David Thoreau's masterwork Walden was published.
1814:
Defeated by U.S. General Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, requiring them to cede 23 million acres of land, comprising more than half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia.
August 10
1792:
Louis XVI of France imprisoned.
As the French Revolution (1787–99) continued, the country's monarchy was effectively overthrown on this day in 1792 when King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette, were imprisoned (they were eventually guillotined).
1914:
France declared war on Austria-Hungary in World War I.
1846:
The Smithsonian Institution was founded in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Congress with funds bequeathed by English scientist James Smithson.
1815:
Ganioda'yo, Seneca chief and founder of the Longhouse Religion, died in Onondaga, New York.
1729:
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, commander in chief of the British Army in North America (1776–78) who failed to destroy the Continental Army and stem the American Revolution, was born.
August 11
1956:
Jackson Pollock killed in automobile accident.
American painter Jackson Pollock, a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism who received great fame and serious recognition for his radical poured, or “drip,” technique, died this day in 1956 in an automobile accident.
1994:
The Major League Baseball Players Association began a labour strike following the games of August 11, and the dispute eventually led to the cancellation of the remainder of the season, including the World Series.
1984:
At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Carl Lewis became the third track-and-field athlete to win four gold medals in one Olympics, joining fellow Americans Alvin Kraenzlein (1900) and Jesse Owens (1936).
1965:
Race riots erupted in the Watts district of Los Angeles, resulting in the deaths of 34 people.
1924:
The first newsreel of U.S. presidential candidates, which included footage of Calvin Coolidge, John W. Davis, and Robert La Follette, was filmed.
1921:
Alex Haley, an African American writer best known for The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) and Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), was born in Ithaca, New York.
1919:
The Weimar constitution was formally declared, establishing Germany as a republic.