July History

July is...
Anti-Boredom Maonth
Baked Bean Month
Blueberries Month
Cell Phone Courtesy Month
Culinary Arts Month
Hot Dog Month
Ice Cream Month
Picnic Month
Pickle Month

July 1
1770 - Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history.

1819 - Johann Georg Tralles discoverd the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.

1874 - The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, went on sale.

1881 - The world's first international telephone call was made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.

1898 - The Battle of San Juan Hill was fought in Santiago de Cuba. (Spanish-American War)

1903 - The first Tour de France bicycle race began.

1908 - SOS was adopted as the international distress signal. Three dits, three dahs, and three dits - SOS is the only nine-element signal in Morse code.

1943 - Tokyo City merged with Tokyo Prefecture area and was dissolved. Since this date, no city in Japan actually has the name "Tokyo" - that is, present-day Tokyo is not officially a city.

1963 - ZIP codes were introduced for US mail.

1965 - Maurice Masse, a farmer, in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France said he was 'frozen' by aliens while investigating the strange noises they were making.

1971 - The Post Office Department (1792-1971) became the United States Postal Service

1972 - The first Gay Pride march in England took place.

1979 - Sony introduced the Walkman (in Japan).

1980 - O Canada officially became the national anthem of Canada.

1985 - A&E separated from sister channel Nickelodeon.

1984 - The PG-13 rating was introduced by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

1985 - Nike-at-Nite began on Nickelodeon

1991 - Court TV, which later became truTV, began airing in the US.

2007 - Smoking in England was banned in all public indoor spaces.

2007 - The Concert for Diana was held at the new Wembley Stadium in London and broadcast in 140 countries, on which would have been her 46th birthday.

July 2
1698 - Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine.

1776 - The Continental Congress adopted a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain, although the final wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was not approved until July 4.

1839 - 53 African slaves took over the slave ship Amistad.

1890 - The US Congress passes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

1897 - Guglielmo Marconi obtained his patent for radio in London.

1900 - The first Zeppelin flight took place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.

1962 - The first Wal-Mart store opened in Rogers, Arkansas.

1964 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the (Republican written) Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.

2002 - Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world (Australia to Australia ) nonstop in a balloon in just under two weeks.

2005 - The Live 8 benefit concerts - more than 1,000 musicians performed and were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.

July 3
1035 - William the Conqueror became the Duke of Normandy.

1819 - The Bank of Savings in New York City, an early savings bank in the United States, opened. Many think it was the oldest, but the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society (PSFS), was founded in December 4, 1816 and headquartered in Philadelphia, PA.

1852 - Congress established the United States' 2nd mint in San Francisco.

1884 - Dow Jones and Company published its first stock average. The company was founded by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser.

1886 - The New-York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand.

1890 - Idaho joined the United States.

1952 - The Constitution of Puerto Rico was approved by the Congress of the United States.

1969 - Rolling Stone member Brian Jones dies in an accidental drowning (aged 27)

1969 - Lulu the elephant went off script on live BBC television's Blue Peter, making the first on-air animal "blooper" we could find.

1971 - Doors frontman Jim Morrison died of an accidental drug overdose (aged 27)

1979 - President Jimmy Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, Afghanistan.

1985 - Back to the Future was released, featuring the now famous 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 time machine/automobile.

1988 - The USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

2013 - President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by the Egyptian military.

July 4
4th of July, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve and New Year's Day are the least common birth dates in US.

1054 - A supernova was seen for several months by Chinese, Arab near the star Zeta Tauri - its remnants form the Crab Nebula.

1776 - The United States' Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

1782 - US President Calvin Coolidge, born July 4, 1872 in Plymouth, Vermont January 5, 1933 in Northampton, Massachusetts.

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase was announced..

1826 - John Adams, second president of the United States, died the same day as Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States' Declaration of Independence. The two founding fathers did not get along during their careers.

1827 - Slavery was abolished in New York State.

1855 - The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems Leaves of Grass was published.

1862 - Lewis Carroll told 10-year-old Alice Liddell a story that was the basis for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1865.

1910 - African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocked out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match.

1911 - A heat wave occurred the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days

1939 - Lou Gehrig, gave his famous "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" speech, and announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1946 - The Philippines gained full independence from the United States.

1950 - Radio Free Europe was first broadcast.

1951 - William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor.

1961 - Soviet Submarine k-19 Nuclear Underwater Disaster

1966 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into United States law, effective in 1967.

1976 - The Clash performed publicly for the first time at The Black Swan, in Sheffield, England.

1987 - Former Gestapo chief Klaus "Butcher of Lyon" Barbie was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1997 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe landed on the surface of Mars.

2004 - The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower was laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City.

2005 - The Deep Impact collider struck the comet Tempel 1.

2009 - The Statue of Liberty's crown reopened to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.

2012 - The discovery of particles consistent with the "God Particle" - Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider were announced at CERN.

2016 - The Juno probe arrived at Jupiter.

July 5
1687 - Isaac Newton published Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. (Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica)

1841 - Thomas Cook organized the first package excursion (planned vacation tour), from Leicester to Loughborough.

1865 - William Booth and his wife Catherine establish the Christian Mission, later known as the Salvation Army (1878).

1921 - Chicago White Sox players were accused of "throwing" (lose intentionally) the World Series.

1935 - The National Labor Relations Act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1937 - Spam (the luncheon meat, not the internet junk) was introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

1946 - French designer Louis Reard introduced the Bikini in Paris.

1950 - The Knesset passed the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.

1954 - The BBC broadcasted its first television news bulletin.

1971 - The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the American voting age from 21 to 18 years, was formally certified by President Richard Nixon.

1996 - Dolly the sheep was born - the first mammal cloned from an adult cell (she actually had three monthers)

2012 - The Shard in London was inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 1,020 ft.

July 6
1189 - Richard I "the Lionheart" acceded to the English throne.

1348 - Pope Clement VI issued a papal bull (rule) protecting the Jews accused of having caused the Black Death.

1415 - Jan Hus, an early church reformer, was condemned as a heretic and then burned at the stake.

1483 - Richard III was crowned King of England. Although he died in 1485, his body was lost until 2013. Because of that, many people consider him the greatest 'hide and seek' champion of all time.

1535 - Sir (& Catholic Saint) Thomas More was executed for treason against King Henry VIII.

1854 - The first convention of the United States Republican Party was held in Jackson, Michigan.

1865 - The first issue of The Nation magazine was published.

1885 - Louis Pasteur successfully tested his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog.

1919 - The British dirigible R34 landed in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.

1933 - The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played in Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4-2.

1942 - Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

1944 - The Hartford Circus Fire killed approximately 168 people and injured over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.

1946 - US President George W. Bush, born July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut.

1947 - The AK-47 assault rifle went into production in the Soviet Union.

1957 - John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles.

July 7
1456 - A retrial verdict acquitted Joan of Arc of heresy, authorized by Pope Callixtus III, 25 years after her death.

1520 - Spanish conquistadores defeated a larger Aztec army at the Battle of Otumba.

1898 - US President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.

1907 - Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. staged his first 'Ziegfeld Follies' on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.

1928 - Sliced bread was sold for the first time, by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.

1930 - The construction of the Hoover Dam began. It was completed/dedicated on September 30, 1935

1946 - Mother Francesca S. Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized by the Catholic Church.

1946 - Howard Hughes crashed his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.

1947 - The Roswell Incident, a reported crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell in New Mexico.

1954 - Elvis Presley made his radio debut when WHBQ Memphis played his recording for Sun Records, "That's All Right."

1981 - US President Ronald Reagan (R) appointed Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States.

2005 - A series of four explosions occurred on London's transportation system killing 56 people including four suicide bombers and injuring over 700 others.

2007 - The first Live Earth benefit concert was held in 11 locations around the world.

2006 - Psych premiered on USA

2009 - Warehouse 13 premiered on Syfy

July 8
1776 - The Liberty Bell rang at Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, inviting citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

1800 - Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse gave the smallpox vaccination to his son, Daniel. It was performed in the US, using cowpox serum to prevent smallpox.

1876 - White supremacists killed five Black Republicans in Hamburg, South Carolina.

1889 - The first issue of The Wall Street Journal was published.

1932 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.

1947 - Newspapers begin reporting on a UFO crash in Roswell, NM that had happened one day earlier.

1948 - The United States Air Force accepted its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

1991 - Shop Til' You Drop premiered on Lifetime

1992 - Melrose Place made its' debut on FOX as a follow-up to 90210

1994 - Kim Jong-il assumed supreme leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.

July 9
1540 - King Henry VIII of England annulled the marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

1595 - Johannes Kepler published Mysterium cosmographicum (Mystery of the Cosmos)

1776 - George Washington ordered the Declaration of Independence to be read out loud to members of the Continental Army in New York, New York, for the first time.

1815 - The first developed natural gas well in the US was discovered,at Burning Springs well near Charleston, West Virginia.

1868 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, insuring African Americans (ex-slaves born in the United States) full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.

1877 - The inaugural Wimbledon Tennis Championships began at the All England Club.

1922 - Future film 'Tarzan' star Johnny Weissmuller swam the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds, breaking the world swimming record and the 'minute barrier'.

1933 - Construction began on the Oakland Bay Bridge, California. It was opened on May 29, 1937.

1937 - The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation were destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.

1962 - Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans exhibition opened at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.

1979 - Launched in 1977, Voyager 2, passed by Jupiter.

1981 - Donkey Kong, a video game created by Nintendo, was released, featuring the debut of Mario.

July 10
1553 - Lady Jane Grey began her 9 day reign on the throne of England.

1890 - Wyoming joined the United States.

1892 - The first concrete-paved street was built, on Court Avenue, around the Logan County Court House, in Bellefountaine, Ohio.

1913 - Death Valley, California, hits 134 °F (57 °C), the highest temperature recorded in the United States.

1921 - (Sunday) Bloody Sunday: Sixteen people were killed and 161 houses destroyed during rioting and gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1925 - In Dayton, Tennessee, the Monkey Trial began with John T. Scopes, a high school science teacher accused of teaching the theory of evolution in violation of the Butler Act. The law was repealed on May 17, 1967.

1938 - Howard Hughes set a record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world.

1950 - Your Hit Parade debuted on NBC.

1962 - The patent (#3,043,625) was issued to Nils Bohlen, for the three-point car seat-belt.

1962 - Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, was launched into orbit. An instrumental pop tune by The Tornadoes titled after the event reached #1 on the Billboard Pop Music Chart.

1966 - Ultraman debuted in Japan

1978 - World News Tonight premiered on ABC.

1991 - Boris Yeltsin took office as the first elected President of Russia.

July 11
1767 - US President John Quincy Adams, born July 11, 1767 in Quincy, Massachusetts, died on February 23, 1848 in Washington, DC.

1796 - The United States took possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.

1798 - The United States Marine Corps was re-established (they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War).

1889 - Tijuana, Mexico, was founded.

1893 - The first cultured pearl was created under the direction of Kokichi Mikimoto, in Japan.

1914 - Babe Ruth made his debut in Major League Baseball with the Boston Red Sox.

1921 - Former President of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court - the only person ever to hold both offices.

1922 - The Daisy Dell reopened as The Hollywood Bowl.

1960 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was published in the United States.

1972 - The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky began.

1973 - Varig Flight 820 crashed near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA (The Federal Aviation Authority) banned smoking on flights.

1975 - Chinese archeologists announced the uncovering of a 3-acre burial mound concealing 6000 clay statues of warriors. The "Terracotta Army" and their regalia dating from 221 to 206 BC, near the ancient capital of Xian.

1977 - Martin Luther King, Jr. was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1979 - America's first space station, Skylab, was destroyed as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

1991 - The 'eclipse of the century ' solar eclipse cast a shadow stretching 9,000 miles from Hawaii to South America, lasting nearly seven minutes in some

2012 - Astronomers announced the discovery of Styx, the fifth moon of Pluto.

July 12
927 - Æthelstan, King of England, secured a pledge from Constantine II of Scotland that the latter would not ally with Viking kings, beginning the process of unifying Great Britain. This is considered by most historians to the closest thing that England has to a foundation date.

1543 - King Henry VIII of England married his sixth (and last) wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.

1862 - The Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress. In 1990, Congress designated March 25 annually as "National Medal of Honor Day."

1970 - The US patent (#105,338) for an improved process to produce celluloid, the first sythetic plastic, was awarded to John Wesley Hyatt, Jr.

1894 - Eight units for the measurement of electrical magnitudes were adopted in US law when President Grover Cleveland signed an Act of Congress "to define and establish the units of electrical measure" for the ohm, ampere, volt, coulomb, farad, joule, watt and the henry. #standards

1920 - The Panama Canal was formally dedicated, although it had the first ship pass through several years earlier.

1962 - The Rolling Stones performed their first concert, at the Marquee Club in London, England, United Kingdom.

1997 - Oz premiered on HBO

2002 - Monk premiered on the USA Network

July 13
1787 - The Continental Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also established procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion of slavery.

1923 - The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It originally read "Hollywoodland " but the four last letters are dropped after a renovation in 1949.

1951 - Arnold Schoenberg, famous 20th century composer, had triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13), he died on July 13th 1951.

1977 - New York City Blackout of 1977

1985 - Live Aid was broadcast from both London and Philadelphia, on MTV and in syndication

2002 - Fox News Channel became the #1 cable TV news service of the US, beating long-time champ CNN

2013 - George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

July 14
1798 - The Sedition Act became law in the United States, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.

1853 - Opening of the first major US World's Fair - the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City.

1874 - The 'Little Chicago Fire' of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20. The October 10, 1871 'Great Chicago Fire' was bigger.

1881 - Billy the Kid was shot and killed by frenemy Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.

1911 - Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright Brothers, landed his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House.

1913 - US President Gerald Ford, born July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska, died on December 26, 2006 in Rancho Mirage, California.

1933 - Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties were outlawed except the Nazi Party.

1933 - The Nazi eugenics plan began with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, which called for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffered from alleged genetic disorders.

1960 - Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild.

1969 - The United States' $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills were officially withdrawn from circulation.

1992 - 386BSD was released by Lynne and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source Operating System Revolution. Linus Torvalds released his Linux soon afterwards.

2000 - A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, caused a geomagnetic storm on Earth.

2008 - The Wendy Williams Show premiered, in syndication.

2015 - NASA's New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, completing the initial survey of the Solar System.

July 15
850 (Earthquake) Iran

1149 - The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre was consecrated in Jerusalem.

1799 - The Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.

1823 - A fire destroyed the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.

1834 - The Spanish Inquisition was officially disbanded after nearly 356 years. Several thousand people were actually executed over this time, averaging about a dozen per year.

1838 - Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Christian Community was not pleased.

1954 - First flight of the Boeing 367-80, prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series.

1955 - Eighteen Nobel laureates signed the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.

1979 - US President Jimmy Carter gives his Malaise Speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation."

2003 - The Mozilla Foundation was established.

2006 - Twitter was launched. 140 characters could say a lot.

2007 - Rock of Love with Bret Michaels premiered on VH1

July 16
622 - The 354 day Islamic Calendar was established.

1661 - The first banknotes in Europe were issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.

1769 - Father Junípero Serra founded California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá, alter known as San Diego, California.

On July 14, 1789, civilians in Paris stormed the fortress prison known as the Bastille. This started the French Revolution.

1790 - The District of Columbia was established as the capital of the United States with the Residence Act.

1862 - David Farragut was promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold the rank.

1915 - The Boy Scout's First Order of the Arrow ceremony took place and the Order of the Arrow was founded.

1935 - The world's first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The first US patent for the device was filed by Roger W. Babson, on August 30, 1928.

1941 - Joe DiMaggio hit safely for the 56th consecutive game, a MLB record that still stands.

1945 - (Manhattan Project) The United States successfully detonated a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1951 - The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger was published for the first time, by Little, Brown and Company.

1965 - The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opened.

1969 - Apollo 11 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Kennedy, Florida.

1994 - Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter, through July 22.

2004 - Millennium Park was opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

July 17
1429 - Charles VII of France was crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.

1856 - The Great Train Wreck of 1856 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, injured over 100, and killed over 60 people.

1899 - NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital. Today, NEC has structured its organization around three principal segments: IT solutions, network solutions and electronic devices.

1918 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family were murdered by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

1838 - Douglas Corrigan took off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

1955 - Disneyland was dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.

1981 - A structural failure caused the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri killing 114 people and injuring more than 200.

1984 - The national drinking age in the United States was changed from 18 to 21.

1989 - First flight of the Northrop B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.

2014 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, was shot down near the border of Ukraine and Russia. All 298 people on board are killed.

July 18
1870 - The First Vatican Council decreed the dogma of papal infallibility.

1925 - Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf.

1968 - Intel was founded in Mountain View, California.

1969 - Off of Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drove an Oldsmobile off a bridge and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, died.

1976 - Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

2013 - The Government of Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history, with approximately $20B in debt.

July 19
64 - Great Fire of Rome occurred, destroying half of the city. Contrary to rumors, Nero did not play the fiddle while it burned, but he did blame "the Christians."

1553 - Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days on the throne.

1799 - Indentified today, The Rosetta Stone, which was found July 19,1799, is now the most visited object in the British museum.

1845 - The last great fire (Great New York City Fire of 1845) to hit Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire killed 4 firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings.

1848 - A two-day Women's Rights Convention opened in Seneca Falls, New York.

1952 - The Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were opened in Helsinki, Finland.

1995 - Road Rules made its debut on MTV

1996 - Tales From The Crypt TV series came to an end

July 20
1903 - The Ford Motor Company shipped its first car.

1938 - The United States Department of Justice filed suit in New York City against the motion picture industry charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system.

1940 - California opened its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

1960 - The Polaris missile was successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.

1969 - In a live transmission from the Moon was viewed by 720 million people around the world, with the landing of Apollo 11, at 10:56 p.m. EDT, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the surface of the Moon, live on international television.

1976 - The American Viking 1 spacecraft successfully landed on Mars.

1977 - The Central Intelligence Agency released documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.

1982 - The Provisional IRA detonated two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and killing seven horses.

1997 - The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrated its 200th birthday by setting sail again for the first time in 116 years.

2005 - Criss Angel Mindfreak debuted on A&E.

2012 - James Holmes opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.

2015 - The United States and Cuba resumed full diplomatic relations after five decades.

July 21
356 BC - The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was destroyed by arson.

1865 - In Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Davis Tutt, in what is considered as the first western showdown.

1873 - Near Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pulled off the first successful train robbery in the 'American Old West.'

1902 - Willis Carrier showed his air conditioner concept in Buffalo, New York.

1919 - The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.

1925 - In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class, and fined $100.

1949 - The United States Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO).

1952 (Earthquake) California/Arizona/Nevada

1961 - Gus Grissom piloting, Liberty Bell 7, became the second American to go into space.

1983 - The world's lowest temperature in an inhabited location was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica (-128.6 °F, -89.2 °C).

2011 - NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135.

2012 - Erden Eruç completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world, via several boats.

July 22
1587 - A second group of English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.

1796 - Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company named an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.

1933 - Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world, traveling 15,596 miles (25,099 km) in seven days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

1934 - In front of Chicago's Biograph Theater, "Public Enemy No. 1" John Dillinger was shot and killed by FBI agents.

1962 - Mariner 1 spacecraft flew off course several minutes after launch and had to be destroyed by remote control.

1991 - Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Milwaukee after police discovered human remains in his apartment.

1996- The Daily Show premiered on Comedy Central

2011 - Norway was the location of twin terror attacks, the first being a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo(killing 8 and injuring 209), the second being a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya, killing 69 and injuring 110.

July 23
1829 - In the United States, William Austin Burt patented (#5581X) the typographer, an early typewriter.

1926 - Fox Film bought the patents of the Movietone sound system, for recording sound onto film.

1961 - The Sandinista National Liberation Front was founded in Nicaragua.

1962 - Telstar relayed the first publicly transmitted, live, trans-Atlantic television program, featuring CBS's Walter Cronkite and NBC's Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC's Richard Dimbleby in Brussels.

1972 - The United States launched Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite. The spacecraft was turned off on January 6, 1978, due to overheating.

1984 - Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign when she surrendered her crown after (earlier) nude photos of her appeared in Penthouse magazine.

1995 - Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered, and was visible to the naked eye on Earth in 1996.

2012 - Earth had a near miss with a solar flare. Had it occurred a week earlier, it could've wiped out communication networks, GPS and electrical grids.

July 24
1567 - Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI, after the sudden death of one husband and the quick marriage to another.

1823 - Slavery was abolished in Chile.

1847 - Brigham Young brought 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, establishing Salt Lake City.

1901 - Writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was released from prison in Columbus, Ohio after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.

1915 - SS Eastland overturned on the Chicago River.

1935 - The Dust Bowl heat wave reached its peak, with temperatures of 109°F (43°C) in Chicago, Illinois and 104°F (40°C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1950 - Cape Canaveral Air Force Station opened with the launch of Bumper rocket 8. The first 7 Bumpers were launched from White Sands, New Mexico.

1974 - The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they ordered him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor, Archibald Cox.

2002 - Democrat James Traficant was expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1 (CA Representative Gary Condit didn't vote against him).

July 25
306 - Constantine I (Constantine The Great) was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.

1593 - Henry IV of France converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1668 (Earthquake) China

1788 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40 in G minor.

1861 - The United States Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

1925 - Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) was established.

1946 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team at Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1959 - The SR.N1 hovercraft crossed the English Channel from Calais, France to Dover, England in just over two hours.

1965 - Bob Dylan played an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, surprising fans of folk and rock music.

1976 - Viking 1 took the now-famous Face on Mars photo.

1978 - Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby" was born at Oldham General Hospital, Oldham, England.

1984 - Salyut 7 cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a space walk.

2010 - WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in US military history.

July 26
1745 - "The greatest cricket match that was played in this part of England was on Friday, the 26th of last month, on Gosden Common, near Guildford, between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white. The Bramley maids had blue ribbons and the Hambledon maids red ribbons on their heads. The Bramley girls got 119 notches and the Hambledon girls 127. There was of bothe sexes the greatest number that ever was seen on such an occasion. The girls bowled, batted, ran and catches as well as most men could do in that game." - news report on the first recorded women's Cricket Match.

1775 - Allowance for The United States Post Office Department was established by the Second Continental Congress. It was called the Post Office Department 1792-1971. United States Postal Service was effective on July 1, 1971.

1788 - New York joined the United States.

1847 - Liberia disbanded from the support of American Colonization Society, and formalized their settlement as the Republic of Liberia.

1887 - Dr. Esperanto's International Language, usually referred to as Unua Libro (English: First Book) was published.

1908 - United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issued an order to staff the Bureau of Investigation (BOI - later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI).

1941 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.

1946 - Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport. They closed on March 31, 2008.

1963 - Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral. It was used to telecast the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to the United States.

1971 - Launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", featuring the first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.

1990 - The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George Bush.

2016 - Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee for President of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. #VictoriaWoodhull

July 27
1694 - A Royal charter was granted to the Bank of England.

1789 - The first US federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, was established (later renamed the Department of State).

1866 - The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully completed, stretching from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Newfoundland.

1890 - Vincent van Gogh (probably) shot himself, and died from the chest wound on July 29.

1929 - The Geneva Convention was signed at Geneva, Switzerland. The full official name is the 'Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Geneva July 27, 1929.'

1940 - The animated short A Wild Hare is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny. "What's up, Doc?" was the first line the still-unnamed rabbit said to Elmer Fudd.

1981 - Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of John & Reve Walsh, was kidnapped in Hollywood, Florida and is found murdered two weeks later.

1987 - RMS Titanic Inc. began the first expedited salvage of wreckage of the RMS Titanic.

1996 - In Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Security guard Richard Jewell saved many people, although there were many injuries. Jewell was also falsely accused on setting the bomb. He was exonerated and Eric Robert Rudolph was later found to have been the bomber.

1999 - Tony Hawk landed the first '900' on a skateboard (two-and-a-half complete revolutions) at the fifth annual X Games in San Francisco, California.

2007 - News helicopters from Phoenix, Arizona television stations KNXV and KTVK collide over Steele Indian School Park in central Phoenix while covering a police chase. Four people were killed.

July 28
1854 - The USS Constellation, the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, was commissioned.

1868 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.

1896 - The city of Miami, Florida was incorporated.

1945 - A US Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 and injuring 26.

1973 - Nearly 600,000 people attended the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.

1976 (Earthquake) Tangshan, China

1996 - The remains of the prehistoric Kennewick Man were discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

2000 - Kathie Lee Gifford left Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.

2002 Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.

July 29
1148 - The Siege of Damascus ended with a crusader defeat and lead end of the Second Crusade.

1836 - Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile (Arch of Triumph of the Star) in Paris, France.

1914 - The 7 mile long Cape Cod Canal opened in Massachusetts.

1916 - Matheson Fire, Ontario

1921 - Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

1948 - After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London.

1958 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, which created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1976 - David Berkowitz (the "Son of Sam") killed one person and seriously wounded another in the first of a series of attacks in New York City.

1981 - A worldwide TV audience of over 700 million people watched the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

1982 - Professional wrestler Jerry Lawler slapped actor Andy Kaufman in the face on the program Late Night with David Letterman, a staged event that prompted a several month 'war' between the two of them.

1987 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel (Chunnel).

2005 - Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet, Eris.

July 30
762 - Baghdad was founded by caliph Al-Mansur.

1619 - In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.

1729 - Founding of Baltimore, Maryland.

1733 - The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States was constituted in Massachusetts.

1866 - New Orleans, Louisiana's Democratic government ordered police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.

1871 - The Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler exploded, killing over 85 people.

1930 - In Montevideo, Uruguay won the first FIFA 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.

1956 - A joint resolution of the US Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God we trust as the US national motto.

1962 - The Trans-Canada Highway, the largest national highway in the world, officially opened.

1965 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

1975 - Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He was declared dead in July 30, 1982.

1990 - George Steinbrenner was forced by MLB 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 Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line.

2006 - The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time. It had run since January 1, 1964.

July 31
781 - The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.

1492 - Jews were expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree took effect.

1790 - The first US patent (X000001) as issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

1930 - The radio mystery program The Shadow aired for the first time.

1931 - New York television station W2XAB (now known as WCBS) began broadcasting.

1948 - Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) was dedicated.

1961 - At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in Major League Baseball history happened, after the game was stopped in the ninth inning because of rain.

1995 - The Walt Disney Company announced their plans to purchase both ABC and ESPN

2006 - Cuba's Fidel Castro handed over power to brother, Raul Castro.