Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
July 20, 1969: Armstrong walks on moon
At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.
The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal.
In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.
Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.
At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: "The Eagle has landed."
At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module's ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.
"Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon--July 1969 A.D--We came in peace for all mankind."
At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.
There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.
Well, it seems the most obvious major event that took place on this day in history was that the first man walked on the moon. But it was obviously not the only thing. Henry I succeeded his father, Robert II, as King of France. During the wars for Scottish Independence, Stirling Castle, the last stronghold of the rebels, fell. Settlers arrived at Pictou, in present day Nova Scotia, in eastern Canada. Napoleon decreed that all French Jews should adopt family names. The people of Bogotá, New Granada (present day Columbia) declared independence from Spain. The first fee to watch a baseball game was imposed, and on the same day, Napoleon III met Cavour in Plombieres. British Columbia became a Canadian province. Years after Custer's Last Stand, Sioux Chief Sitting Bull was taken into captivity. The Sullivan Ordinance was imposed, banning women from smoking in public. There was an armed rebellion against British rule in Ulster. During World War I, the first American lottery number for the draft was drawn - #258. The Germans crossed the Marne. Perhaps foreshadowing events more than half a century later, Tehran, Persia (present day Iran) came under Martial Law after a religious mob Took and killed the American vice consul, Robert Imbrie, after rumors that he had killed people by poisoning a public fountain. The government of Hungary issued a decree trying to force Gypsies to settle down and take identities and names, like all other citizens. In Hitler's first year in office, the State Secretary of the Vatican, Pacelli (Pius XII) signed an accord with him, while 200 Jews were seized and paraded around in Nuremburg (obviously against their will). On the same day, and on a brighter note, half a million in London protested against anti-Semitism. Finland was awarded the 1940 Olympic Games after Japan, the nation that was supposed to host them, withdrew. There was a death march of Jews in Lipcani, Moldavia. Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for President by the Democratic Party for a record fourth time. It was on this day, a decade before Americans would get involved in Vietnam, that the armistice of Indo-China split the country into two, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. France recognized the independence of a former colony, Tunisia. In 1960, a monumental space achievement took place, as the Soviets recovered two dogs that were sent into space - the first living organisms to return from space. Of course, then, came the biggie: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. The US Senate passed the War Powers Act. The last American troops in Thailand left. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA revealed that it had experimented with mind control. Mike Tyson was accused of rape. Václav Havel resigned as President of Czechoslovakia. The Taliban ordered numerous care agencies out of Afghanistan. For the first time in a decade, opposition party members had seats in the parliament of Zimbabwe. And the tragic shooting in a theater in Aurora, Colorado, not very far from Littleton (the site of the Columbine school shootings) took place a year ago on this day.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
514 - St Hormisdas elected as Pope succeeding Pope Sympowerus
1031 - Henry I succeeded father Robert II as King of France
1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold of the war.
1495 - French viceroy of Naples Montpensier surrenders
1498 - Emperor Maximilian names Albrecht governor of Netherlands
1553 - PM John Dudley captured in Cambridge
1609 - Emperor Rudolf II grants Silezische protestants freedom of religion
1619 - Gerardus Vossius resigns as Dutch regent States college leader
1627 - English fleet under George Villiers reaches La Rochelle [OS=June 10]
1654 - Anglo-Portuguese treaty, Portugal comes under English control
1712 - The Riot Act takes effect in Great Britain.
1738 - North America: French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
1749 - Earl of Chesterfield says "Idleness is only refuge of weak minds"
1773 - Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)
1801 - A 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown, Jr. The ball of cheese was later loaded on a horse-driven wagon and presented to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson at the White House.
1808 - Napoleon decrees all French Jews adopt family names
1810 - Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia), declare independence from Spain.
1836 - Charles Darwin climbed Green Hill on Ascension
1847 - German astronomer Theodor discovers Comet Brorsen-Metcalf
1849 - Start of first Lancashire-Yorkshire clash at Hyde Park, Sheffield
1855 - First train from Rotterdam to Utrecht in Netherlands
1858 - Fee first charged to see a baseball game (50 cents) (NY beats Bkln 22-18)
1858 - Gathering of Plombieres - Napoleon III meets Cavour
1859 - Brooklyn and New York played baseball at Fashion Park Race Course on Long Island, NY. The game marked the first time that admission had been charged for to see a ball game. It cost $.50 to get in and the players on the field did not receive a salary (until 1863).
1861 - The Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, VA.
1862 - Guerrilla campaign in GA (Porter's & Poindexter's) [->SEP 20] US580 CS2866
1864 - Battle at Stephenson's Depot Virginia: 200 killed or injured
1864 - Battle of Peachtree Creek-Atlanta Campaign
1866 - Sea battle of Lissa-Austria vs Italy
1868 - Legislation that ordered U.S. tax stamps to be placed on all cigarette packs was passed.
1871 - British Columbia joined Confederation as a Canadian province.
1876 - First US intercollegiate track meet held, Saratoga, NY; Princeton wins
1877 - Military shoots on stopped railroad workers in Baltimore, killing 9
1878 - First telephone introduced in Hawaii
1881 - Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops. (Montana)
1890 - "Gibbons Stamp Monthly" begins publishing
1890 - Snow and hail in Calais, ME
1894 - 2000 fed troops recalled from Chicago, having ended Pullman strike
1903 - Giuseppe Sarto elected Pope Pius X
1906 - Bkln Dodger Mal Eason no-hits St Louis Cards, 2-0
1907 - A train wreck on the Pere Marquette Railroad near Salem, Michigan kills thirty and injures seventy more.
1908 - In the United States, the Sullivan Ordinance bars women from smoking in public facilities. .
1910 - Former Dutch premier Abraham Kuyper acquitted of corruption
1911 - Boston Red Sox Smokey Joe Wood no-hits St Louis Browns, 5-0
1911 - Generals Henry Wilson/Auguste Dubail sign plan for British Expeditionary army in case of war with Germany
1912 - Phillies Sherry Magee steals home twice in 1 game
1913 - Turkish troop take Adrianopel and Erdine from Bulgaria
1914 - Armed resistance against British rule begins in Ulster
1916 - Giants trade Christy Mathewson to Cin Reds
1917 - Pact of Corfu signed: Serbs, Croats and Slovenes form Yugoslavia
1917 - The draft lottery in World War I went into operation - #258 was he first number drawn
1918 - World War I: German troops cross the Marne.
1920 - Heerenveen soccer team forms
1921 - Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives.
1922 - Togo made a mandate of League of Nations
1923 - Yanks hit into a triple-play but beat A's 9-2
1924 - Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) forms in Paris
1924 - Teheran, Persia comes under martial law after the American vice consul, Robert Imbrie, is killed by a religious mob enraged by rumors he had poisoned a fountain and killed several people.
1925 - Beirut sultan Pasja al-Atrasj calls Druzen for holy war against France
1925 - Italian-Serbian/Croatian/Slav treaty about Dalmatie
1926 - A convention of the Methodist Church votes to allow women to become priests. Aviator Charles LindberghAviator Charles Lindbergh
1927 - Charles Lindbergh begins NY flight (Spirit of St Louis)
1928 - The government of Hungary issues a decree ordering Gypsies to end their nomadic ways, settle permanently in one place, and subject themselves to the same laws and taxes as other Hungarians.
1930 - 106°F (41°C), Washington, DC (district record)
1932 - In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House.
1933 - Vatican state secretary Pacelli (Pius XII) signs accord with Hitler
1933 - In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism.
1933 - Germany: Two-hundred Jewish merchants are arrested in Nuremberg and paraded through the streets.
1934 - 118°F (48°C), Keokuk, Iowa (state record)
1935 - NBC radio debuted "G-men." The show was later renamed "Gangbusters."
1935 - Switzerland: A Royal Dutch Airlines plane en route from Milan to Frankfurt crashes into a Swiss mountain, killing thirteen.
1938 - Finland awarded 1940 Olympic games after Japan withdraws
1940 - Germany occupiers forbid Dutch Communist Party (CPN) in Netherlands
1940 - Nazi collaborator Rost of Tonningen appointed director of Marxist
1940 - Billboard publishes its 1st singles record chart (#1 is "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey)
1941 - Yanks beat Tigers 12-6 in 17
1942 - Barbados dismiss Trinidad for 16 in 69 minutes, Derek Sealy 8-8
1942 - Legion of Merit Medal authorized by congress
1942 - The first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, (WACS) began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
1942 - Time puts Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovitch on its cover US Admiral Chester Nimitz
1943 - Joint Chiefs of Staff question adm Nimitz (landing Gilbert Island)
1944 - Brit/Canadian troops occupy Hill 67/Ifs/Bras/Frenouville, Normandy
1944 - Browns Nelson Potter is 1st pitcher suspended for throwing spitballs
1944 - Canadian Cameroon Highlanders conquer St-Andre
1944 - Death March of 1,200 Jews from Lipcani Moldavia begins
1944 - Fieldmarshal von Kluge consults with German commandant at Caen
1944 - Flying Fortresses of US 8th Air Force attack Leipzig/Dessau
1944 - Gen Eisenhower visits Montgomery's headquarter in Normandy
1944 - Heavy storm hampers British offensive at Caen
1944 - Japanese aircraft carrier Hijo sinks by US air attack
1944 - July 20th Plot-An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded.
1944 - U.S. President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
1944 - Liberators of US 8th Air Force attack Gotha Russelsheim/Eisenach
1944 - US 15th Air Force attacks Friedrichshaven Memmingen
1944 - US 9th AF bombs railroad at Chaulnes Sable-sur-Sarthe/Dreux
1944 - US invades Japanese-occupied Guam in WW II
1944 - Violent battles in Verrieres-hill (Normandy)
1944 - Fifty are hurt in rioting in front of the presidential palace in Mexico City.
1947 - First political action of Neth Army on Java a Sumatra
1947 - The National Football League (NFL) ruled that no professional team could sign a player who had college eligibility remaining.
1948 - Lou Thesz beats Bill Longson, to become NWA wrestling champ
1948 - Syngman Rhee elected President of South Korea
1948 - US Communist Party chairman William Forster arrested
1949 - Israel's 19 month war of independence ends
1949 - Vasil Kolarov elected premier of Bulgaria
1950 - "Arthur Murray Party" premieres on ABC TV (later DuMont, CBS, NBC)
1951 - King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
1952 - Emile Zatopek runs Olympic Record 10K (29:17.0)
1952 - Fausto Coppi wins Tour de France
1953 - USSR/Israel recover diplomatic relations
1953 - The United Nations Economic and Social Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency.
1954 - Armistice for Indo-China signed, Vietnam separates into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
1954 - Tennis champ Maureen Connolly's right leg is crushed in an accident
1954 - West German secret service head Otto John defects to German DR
1956 - France recognizes Tunisia's independence
1956 - Great Britain refuses to lend Egypt money to build Aswan Dam
1956 - US performs atmospheric nuclear Test at Bikini Island
1956 - Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford ties AL record of 6 straight strike-outs
1958 - King Hussein of Jordan breaks off diplomatic relations with UAR
1960 - First submerged submarine to fire Polaris missile (George Washington)
1960 - Sirima Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) became the world's first woman prime minister.
1960 - USSR recovered 2 dogs; 1st living organisms to return from space
1960 - The head of the Physics Department at the Israel Institute of Technology, Kurt Sitte, is arrested for espionage.
1961 - French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
1961 - "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" opened in London.
1962 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 13th Symphony
1962 - France and Tunisia recover diplomatic relations
1963 - 17 African states & Madagascar sign peace treaty with EC
1963 - Verne Gagne beats Crusher Lisowski in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
1964 - 1st surfin' record to go #1-Jan & Dean's "Surf City"
1964 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 10th String quartet
1965 - 18.18" (46.18 cm) of rainfall, Edgarton, Missouri (state 24-hr record)
1965 - NY Yankee pitcher Mel Stottlemyre hits an inside-the-park grand slam
1967 - Pablo Neruda receives 1st Viareggio-Versile prizes
1967 - Race riots in Memphis Tenn
1968 - Jane Asher breaks her engagement with Paul McCartney on live TV
1968 - Iron Butterfly's "In-a-gadda-da-vida" becomes frst heavy metal song to hit charts, it comes in at #117
1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon. Armstrong proclaimed that ths was "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
1969 - Eddy Merckx wins Tour de France
1970 - Dodgers Bill Singer no-hits the Phillies 5-0, giving up no walks
1972 - US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
1973 - Jack Brisco beats Harley Race in Houston, to become NWA champ
1973 - Chic's Wilbur Wood starts & loses both games of a doubleheader with NY Yankees, 12-2, & 7-0
1973 - The US Senate passes the War Powers Act.
1974 - Heng Yo and Heng Ju, completes 1,000 mile (SF-Seattle) pilgrimage
1974 - Turkish forces invaded Cyprus.
1975 - India expels three reporters from The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and Newsweek because they refused to sign a pledge to abide by government censorship.
1976 - Hank Aaron hits 755th & last home run off Angels Dick Drago
1976 - Last US troops leave Thailand
1976 - America sae craft Viking 1 marked the first ever landing on Mars at Chryse Planitia
1976 - Vietnam War: The US military completes its troop withdrawal from Thailand.
1977 - Flash flood hits Johnstown, Pa, kills 80 and causing $350 mil damage
1977 - The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
1979 - 44-kg Newfoundland dog pulls 2293-kg load, Bothell, Wash
1980 - Joop Zoetemelk wins Tour de France
1981 - England set for innings loss v Aust, Botham hits 100 in 87 balls
1982 - Bombs planted by Irish Republican Army explode in 2 London parks
1982 - IRA bomb attacks in London
1982 - T Macauly and D Vosburghs musical "Windy City," premieres in London
1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan pulled the U.S. out of comprehensive test ban negotiations indefinitely.
1983 - France performs nuclear Test at Muruora Island
1984 - Uwe Hohn of East Germany throws javelin a record 104.8 m
1984 - Vanessa Williams is asked to resign as Miss America
1985 - Treasure hunters began raising $400 million in coins and silver from the Spanish galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha." The ship sank in 1622 during a hurricane, 40 miles of the coast of Key West, FL. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots.
1985 - The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.
1987 - Don Mattingly ties 1st base fielding record with 22 put-outs
1988 - Michael Dukakis selected Democratic presidential nominee
1989 - 93°F, highest overnight low ever recorded in Phoenix Arizona
1989 - Burma government puts author Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest
1989 - Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's show opens at Washington, D.C.'s Project for the Arts after the Smithsonian Institution's Corcoran Gallery cancels it.
1990 - Justice William Brennan resigns from Supreme Court after 36 years
1991 - Mike Tyson is accused of raping a Miss Black America contestant
1992 - Round World Air Race begins in Paris
1992 - Václav Havel the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against communism, stepped down as president of Czechoslovakia.
1993 - Fire in the press box at Altanta Fulton County Stadium
1993 - Joe Petruzzi files for divorce from Annabella Sciorra (Jungle Fever)
1994 - Major parts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter (July 16th-22nd)
1994 - OJ Simpson offers $500,000 reward for evidence of ex-wife's klller
1995 - The Regents of the University of California vote to end all affirmative action in the UC system by 1997.
1996 - 26th Olympic games open at Atlanta, Georgia (sched)
1996 - In Spain, an ETA bomb at an airport kills 35
1998 - Two hundred aid workers from CARE International, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups leave Afghanistan on orders of the Taliban.
1998 - Russia won a $11.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency.
1999 - Falun Gong is banned in the People's Republic of China, and a large scale crackdown of the practice is launched.
2000 - The leaders of Salt Lake City's bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics are indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud, and racketeering
2000 - In Zimbabwe, Parliament opens its new session and seats opposition members for the first time in a decade.
2000 - Terrorist Carlos the Jackal sues France in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him.
2001 - The London Stock Exchange goes public.
2001 - Italy: The 27th Annual G8 summit opens in Genoa. An Italian protester in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani, is shot by police.
2002 - South America: A fire in a discotheque in Lima, Peru kills over twenty-five.
2003 - France: Sixteen people are injured after two bombs explode outside a tax office in Nice.
2003 - In India, elephants used for commercial work began wearing reflectors to avoid being hit by cars during night work.
2005 - Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 receives its Royal Assent.
2012 - 12 people are killed and 59 injured after a gunman opens fire at a Dark Knight movie premier in Aurora, Colorado, 2012 - 21 people are killed and 29 injured in a bus accident in Nayarit, Mexico
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jul20.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
No comments:
Post a Comment