Today In History. What Happened This Day In History

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Today in History
July 18



1789 Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decides to back the French Revolution.
1812 Great Britain signs the Treaty of Orebro, making peace with Russia and Sweden.
1830 Uruguay adopts a liberal constitution.
1861 Union and Confederate troops skirmish at Blackburn's Ford, Virginia, in a prelude to the Battle of Bull Run.
1877 Inventor Thomas Edison records the human voice for the first time.
1872 The Ballot Act is passed in Great Britain, providing for secret election ballots.
1935 Ethiopian King Haile Selassie urges his countrymen to fight to the last man against the invading Italian army.
1936 General Francisco Franco of Spain revolts against the Republican government, starting the Spanish Civil War.
1942 The German Me-262, the first jet-propelled aircraft to fly in combat, makes its first flight.
1971 New Zealand and Austrailia announce they will pull their troops out of Vietnam.
1994 In Buenos Aires, a massive car bomb kills 96 people.

Born on July 18

1811 William Makepeace Thackeray, English novelist and satirist.
1887 Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and Nazi collaborator during World War II.
1902 Jessamyn West, American author (The Friendly Persuasion).
1906 Clifford Odets, playwright (Waiting for Lefty).
1913 "Red" Skelton, American comedian and actor.
1918 Nelson Mandela, civil rights activist, first black president of South Africa.
1921 John Glenn, Jr., American pilot, astronaut and politician.
1929 Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American blues singer.
1933 Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet.
1939 Hunter S. Thompson, journalist.

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Today in History
July 19



1525 The Catholic princes of Germany form the Dessau League to fight against the Reformation.
1545 King Henry VIII of England watches his flagship, Mary Rose, capsize as it leaves to battle the French.
1788 Prices plunge on the Paris stock market.
1799 The Rosetta Stone, a tablet with hieroglyphic translations into Greek, is found in Egypt.
1848 The first Women's Rights Convention convenes in Seneca Falls, N.Y, organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
1870 France declares war on Prussia.
1942 German U-boats are withdrawn from positions off the U.S. Atlantic coast due to American anti-submarine countermeasures.
1943 More than 150 B-17 and 112 B-24 bombers attack Rome for the first time.
1975 Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts dock in orbit.

Born on July 19

1814 Samuel Colt, gunmaker, inventor of the first practical revolver.
1834 Edgar Degas, French impressionist painter.
1860 Lizzie Borden, teacher, famous murder suspect.
1865 Charles Mayo, American surgeon, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.
1893 Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian poet.
1896 A.J. Cronin, Scottish novelist (The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom).
1905 Edgar Snow, journalist.
1922 George McGovern, U.S. senator and presidential candidate.

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Today in History
July 22



1298 King Edward I defeats Scots under William Wallace at Falkirk.
1515 Emperor Maximillian and Vladislav of Bohemia forge an alliance between the Hapsburg and Jagiello dynasties in Vienna.
1652 Prince Conde's rebels narrowly defeat Chief Minister Mazarin's loyalist forces at St. Martin, near Paris.
1789 Thomas Jefferson becomes the first head of the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs.
1812 A British army under the Duke of Wellington defeats the French at Salamanca, Spain.
1814 Five Indian tribes in Ohio make peace with the United States and declare war on Britain.
1881 The first volume of The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, is published.
1894 The first automobile race takes place between Paris and Rouen, France.
1934 American gangster John Dillinger is shot dead by FBI officers outside a Chicago cinema.
1938 The Third Reich issues special identity cards for Jewish Germans.
1943 Palermo, Sicily surrenders to General George S. Patton's Seventh Army.
1966 B-52 bombers hit the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam for the first time.

Born on July 22

1822 Gregor Johann Mendel, Austrian botanist, genetics pioneer.
1849 Emma Lazarus, American poet.
1881 Margery Williams Bianco, author (The Velveteen Rabbit).
1882 Edward Hopper, painter (Nighthawks).
1887 Gustav Hertz, German physicist.
1888 Selman Abraham Waksman, biochemist.
1893 Karl Menninger, American physiscian, founder of the Menninger Foundation.
1898 Stephen Vincent Benet, poet and short-story writer (John Brown's Body).
1898 Alexander Calder, sculptor.
1908 Amy Vanderbilt, American journalist, etiquette authority.
1923 Robert Dole, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate.
1932 Megan Terry, playwright (Calm Down Mother, Goona Goona).
1936 Tom Robbins, novelist (Another Roadside Attraction, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues).
1946 Paul Schrader, screenwriter and film director (Taxi Driver).

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Today in History
July 23



1540 Thomas Cromwell is beheaded on Tower Hill in England.
1627 Sir George Calvert arrives in Newfoundland to develop his land grant.
1637 King Charles of England hands over the American colony of Massachusetts to Sir Fernando Gorges, one of the founders of the Council of New England.
1664 Wealthy, non-church members in Massachusetts are given the right to vote.
1793 The French garrison at Mainz, Germany, falls to the Prussians.
1803 Irish patriots throughout the country rebel against Union with Great Britain.
1829 William A. Burt patents his "typographer," an early typewriter.
1849 German rebels in Baden capitulate to the Prussians.
1863 Bill Andeson and his Confederate Bushwackers gut the railway station at Renick, Missouri.
1865 William Booth founds the Salvation Army.
1868 The 14th Amendment is ratified, granting citizenship to African Americans.
1885 Ulysses S. Grant dies of throat cancer at the age of 63.
1894 Japanese troops take over the Korean imperial palace.
1903 The Ford Motor Company sells its first automobile, the Model A.
1944 Soviet troops take Lublin, Poland as the German army retreats.
1962 The Geneva Conference on Laos forbids the United States to invade eastern Laos.
1995 Two astronomers, Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona, almost simultaneouly discover a comet.

Born on July 23

1834 James Gibbons, American religious leader and founder of Catholic University.
1886 Arthur Whitten Brown, British aviator.
1888 Raymond Chandler, detective writer, creator of Philip Marlow.
1891 Haile Selassi, Emperor of Ethiopia.
1906 Marston Bates, American zoologist, author (The Nature of Natural History).
1939 Nicholas Gage, journalist and author (Eleni).
1940 John Nichols, novelist and essayist (The Milagro Beanfield War).
1944 Lisa Alther, novelist (Kinflicks).

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Today in History
July 24



1505 On their way to India, a group of Portuguese explorers sack the city-state of Kilwa.
1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, is imprisoned and forced to abdicate her throne to her 1-year-old son James VI.
1701 Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac establishes Fort Ponchartrain for France at present-day Detroit, Michigan.
1704 Admiral George Rooke takes Gibraltar from the Spanish.
1766 At Fort Ontario, Canada, Ottawa chief Pontiac and William Johnson sign a peace agreement.
1791 Robespierre expels all Jacobins opposed to the principles of the French Revolution.
1847 The first members of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) arrive in Utah, settling in present-day Salt Lake City.
1862 The eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, dies at the age of 79.
1897 African-American soldiers of the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps arrive in St. Louis, Mo., after completing a 40-day bike ride from Missoula, Montana.
1941 The U.S. government denounces Japanese actions in Indochina.
1942 The Soviet city of Rostov is captured by German troops.
1950 The U.S. Fifth Air Force relocates from Japan to Korea.
1974 The Supreme Court rules that President Richard Nixon must surrender the Watergate tapes.

Born on July 24

1783 Simon Bolivar, South American soldier and statesman.
1786 Jean-Louis Nicollet, French explorer.
1802 Alexandre Dumas, French author (The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers).
1895 Robert Graves, poet and novelist (Goodbye to All That).
1897 Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer.
1900 Zelda Sayre, writer (Save me the Waltz).
1916 John D. MacDonald, author.
1920 Bella Abzug, the first Jewish woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives

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Today in History
July 25



326 Emperor Constantine refuses to carry out traditional pagan sacrifices.
1394 Charles VI of France issues a decree for the general expulsion of Jews from France.
1564 Maximillian II becomes emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1587 Hideyoshi bans Christianity in Japan and orders all Christians to leave.
1759 British forces defeat a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada.
1799 On his way back from Syria, Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.
1814 British and American forces fight each other to a standoff at Lundy's Lane, Canada.
1845 China grants Belgium equal trading rights with Britain, France and the United States.
1867 President Andrew Johnson signs an act creating the territory of Wyoming.
1850 Gold is discovered in the Rogue River in Oregon, extending the quest for gold up the Pacific coast.
1861 The Crittenden Resolution, calling for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, is passed by Congress.
1894 Japanese forces sink the British steamer Kowshing which was bringing Chinese reinforcements to Korea.
1909 French aviator Louis Bleriot becomes the first man to fly across the English Channel in an airplane.
1914 Russia declares that it will act to protect Serbian sovereignty.
1924 Greece announces the deportation of 50,000 Armenians.
1934 Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is shot and killed by Nazis.
1941 The U.S. government freezes Japanese and Chinese assets.
1943 Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini is overthrown in a coup.
1944 Allied forces begin the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy.
1978 The first test-tube baby, Louis Brown, is born in Oldham, England.

Born on July 25

1844 Thomas Eakins, American painter.
1848 Arthur James Balfour, Prime Minister of England (1902-1905).
1853 David Belasco, actor, playwright and producer.
1880 Morris Raphel Cohen, American philosopher and mathematician.
1902 Eric Hoffer, American longshoreman and philosopher (The True Believer, Before the Sabbath),
1907 Johnny Hodges, jazz musician.
1927 Midge Decter, writer and editor.
1935 Barbara Harris, actress.

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Today in History
July 26

657 Mu'awiyan defeats Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia.
1526 Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon and colonists leave Santo Domingo for Florida.
1529 Francisco Pizarro receives a royal warrant to "discover and conquer" Peru.
1758 British forces capture France's Fortress of Louisbourg after a seven-week siege.
1759 The French relinquish Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst.
1775 The Continental Congress establishes a postal system for the colonies with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general.
1790 An attempt at a counter-revolution in France is put down by the National Guard at Lyons.
1794 The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus, France.
1830 King Charles X of France issues five ordinances limiting the political and civil rights of citizens.
1847 Liberia becomes the first African colony to become an independent state.
1848 The French army suppresses the Paris uprising.
1886 William Gladstone is replaced by Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister of England.
1918 Britain's top war ace, Edward Mannock, is shot down by ground fire on the Western Front.
1920 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified.
1948 In an Executive Order, President Harry Truman calls for the end of discrimination and segregation in the U.S. armed forces.
2005 The shuttle Discovery launches on mission STS-114, marking a return to space after the shuttle Columbia crash of 2003.

Born on July 26

1796 George Catlin, American artist and author.
1856 George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Major Barbara).
1875 Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist.
1893 George Grosz, German satiric artist.
1895 Gracie Allen, actress, wife and foil of George Burns.
1914 Erskine Hawkins, trumpeter.
1928 Stanley Kubrick, film director (Spartacus, 2001: A Space Odyssey).
1928 Bernice Rubens, Welsh novelist and filmmaker.
1943 Mick [Michael Phillip] Jagger, musician, member of the Rolling Stones.
1947 Alan Gordon [Big Al] Anderson, musician, songwriter, member of New Rhythm and Blues Quartet [NRBQ] and The Wildweeds.

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Today in History
July 30

1619 The House of Burgesses convenes for the first time at Jamestown, Va.
1787 The French parliament refuses to approve a more equitable land tax.
1799 The French garrison at Mantua, Italy, surrenders to the Austrians.
1864 In an effort to penetrate the Confederate lines around Petersburg, Va. Union troops explode a mine underneath the Confederate trenches but fail to break through. The ensuing action is known as the Battle of the Crater.
1919 Federal troops are called out to put down Chicago race riots.
1938 George Eastman demonstrates his color motion picture process.
1940 A bombing lull ends the first phase of the Battle of Britain.
1960 Over 60,000 Buddhists march in protest against the Diem government in South Vietnam.
1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare Bill into law.
1967 General William Westmoreland claims that he is winning the war in Vietnam, but needs more men.
1975 Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa disappears, last seen coming out of a restaurant in Bloomingfield Hills, Michigan.
1988 King Hussein dissolves Jordan's Parliament, surrenders Jordan's claims to the West Bank to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1990 Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent forces George Steinbrenner to resign as principal parter of the New York Yankees.
2003 The last of the uniquely shaped "old style" Volkswagen Beetles rolls off the assembly line in Mexico.
2012 Blackout in India as power grid failure leaves 300 million+ without power.

Born on July 30

1818 Emily Bronte, author (Wuthering Heights).
1857 Thorstein Veblen, economist and sociologist (The Theory of the Leisure Class).
1863 Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company.
1889 Casey Stengel, New York Yankees manager.
1898 Henry Moore, English sculptor.
1909 C. Northcote Parkinson, historian and author.
1924 William H. Gass, writer (Omensetter's Luck).
1940 Patricia Shroeder, U.S. Congresswoman.
1941 Paul Anka, singer ("Puppy Love," "You Are My Destiny").
1945 David Sanborn, Grammy-winning jazz saxophonist ("Inside," "Close-Up").
1947 Arnold Schwarzenegger, body builder (Mr. Universe, seven-time Mr. Olympia), actor (Terminator, Total Recall), 38th governor of California.
1958 Kate Bush, singer, songwriter; first woman to have a UK number-one single with a self-written song ("Wuthering Heights"); appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 2013.
1961 Laurence Fishburne, actor (The Matrix series, The Tuskegee Airmen TV movie, CSI – Crime Scene Investigation TV series).