Saturday, July 20, 2024

July 20th: This Day in History

 



Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin by Neil Armstrong, Sea of Tranquility, Moon, 1969



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.



















Jul 20, 1881: Sitting Bull surrenders

Five years after General George A. Custer's infamous defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army, which promises amnesty for him and his followers. Sitting Bull had been a major leader in the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn. Pursued by the U.S. Army after the Indian victory, he escaped to Canada with his followers.  

Born in the Grand River Valley in what is now South Dakota, Sitting Bull gained early recognition in his Sioux tribe as a capable warrior and a man of vision. In 1864, he fought against the U.S. Army under General Alfred Sully at Killdeer Mountain and thereafter dedicated himself to leading Sioux resistance against white encroachment. He soon gained a following in not only his own tribe but in the Cheyenne and Arapaho Native American groups as well. In 1867, he was made principal chief of the entire Sioux nation.  

In 1873, in what would serve as a preview of the Battle of Little Bighorn three years later, an Indian military coalition featuring the leadership of Sitting Bull skirmished briefly with Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. In 1876, Sitting Bull was not a strategic leader in the U.S. defeat at Little Bighorn, but his spiritual influence inspired Crazy Horse and the other victorious Indian military leaders. He subsequently fled to Canada, but in 1881, with his people starving, he returned to the United States and surrendered.  

He was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Randall in South Dakota territory for two years and then was permitted to live on Standing Rock Reservation straddling North and South Dakota territory. In 1885, he traveled for a season with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show and then returned to Standing Rock. In 1889, the spiritual proclamations of Sitting Bull influenced the rise of the "Ghost Dance," an Indian religious movement that proclaimed that the whites would disappear and the dead Indians and buffalo would return.  

His support of the Ghost Dance movement had brought him into disfavor with government officials, and on December 15, 1890, Indian police burst into Sitting Bull's house in the Grand River area of South Dakota and attempted to arrest him. There is confusion as to what happened next. By some accounts, Sitting Bull's warriors shot the leader of the police, who immediately turned and gunned down Sitting Bull. In another account, the police were instructed by Major James McLaughlin, director of the Standing Rock Sioux Agency, to kill the chief at any sign of resistance. Whatever the case, Sitting Bull was fatally shot and died within hours. The Indian police hastily buried his body at Fort Yates within the Standing Rock Reservation. In 1953, his remains were moved into Mobridge, South Dakota, where a granite shaft marks his resting place.





















Jul 20, 1973: Bruce Lee dies at age 32

On this day in 1973, the actor and martial-arts expert Bruce Lee dies in Los Angeles at age 32 from a brain edema possibly caused by a reaction to a prescription painkiller. During Lee’s all-too-brief career, he became a movie star in Asia and, posthumously, in America.  

Jun Fan (Bruce) Lee was born on November 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California. At the time, his father, a Chinese opera star, was on tour in the United States. The family moved back to Hong Kong in 1941. Growing up, Lee was a child actor who appeared in some 20 Chinese films; he also studied dancing and trained in the Wing Chun style of gung fu (also known as “kung fu”). In 1959, Lee returned to America, where he eventually attended the University of Washington and opened a martial-arts school in Seattle. In 1964, Lee married Linda Emery, who in 1965 gave birth to Brandon Lee, the first of the couple’s two children. In 1966, the Lees moved to Los Angeles and Bruce appeared on the television program The Green Hornet (1966-1967), playing the Hornet’s acrobatic sidekick Kato. Lee also appeared in karate tournaments around the United States and continued to teach martial arts to private clients including the actor Steve McQueen.  

In search of better acting roles than Hollywood was offering, Lee returned to Hong Kong in the early 1970s and successfully established himself as a star in Asia with the action movies The Big Boss (1971) and The Way of the Dragon (1972), which he wrote, directed and starred in. Lee’s next film, Enter the Dragon, was released in the United States by Hollywood studio Warner Bros. in August 1973. Tragically, Lee had died one month earlier, on July 20, in Hong Kong, after suffering a brain edema believed to be caused by an adverse reaction to a pain medication. Enter the Dragon was a box-office hit, eventually grossing more than $200 million, and Lee posthumously became a movie icon in America.  

Lee’s body was returned to Seattle, where he was buried. His sudden death at the young age of 32 led to rumors and speculation about the cause of his demise. One theory held that Lee had been murdered by Chinese gangsters while another rumor circulated that the actor had been the victim of a curse. The family-curse theory resurfaced when Lee’s 28-year-old son Brandon, who had followed in his father’s footsteps to become an actor, died in an accidental shooting on the set of the movie The Crow on March 31, 1991. The younger Lee was buried next to his father at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery.




















Jul 20, 1944: Assassination plot against Hitler fails

On this day in 1944, Hitler cheats death as a bomb planted in a briefcase goes off, but fails to kill him.  

High German officials had made up their minds that Hitler must die. He was leading Germany in a suicidal war on two fronts, and assassination was the only way to stop him. A coup d'etat would follow, and a new government in Berlin would save Germany from complete destruction at the hands of the Allies. That was the plan. This was the reality: Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, chief of the army reserve, had been given the task of planting a bomb during a conference that was to be held at Berchtesgaden, but was later moved to Hitler's  "Wolf's Lair, a command post at Rastenburg, Prussia. Stauffenberg planted the explosive in a briefcase, which he placed under a table, then left quickly. Hitler was studying a map of the Eastern front as Colonel Heinz Brandt, trying to get a better look at the map, moved the briefcase out of place, farther away from where the Fuhrer was standing. At 12:42 p.m. the bomb went off. When the smoke cleared, Hitler was wounded, charred, and even suffered the temporary paralysis of one arm—but he was very much alive. (He was even well enough to keep an appointment with Benito Mussolini that very afternoon. He gave Il Duce a tour of the bomb site.) Four others present died from their wounds.  

As the bomb went off, Stauffenberg was making his way to Berlin to carry out Operation Valkyrie, the overthrow of the central government. In Berlin, he and co-conspirator General Olbricht arrested the commander of the reserve army, General Fromm, and began issuing orders for the commandeering of various government buildings. And then the news came through from Herman Goering—Hitler was alive. Fromm, released from custody under the assumption he would nevertheless join the effort to throw Hitler out of office, turned on the conspirators. Stauffenberg and Olbricht were shot that same day. Once Hitler figured out the extent of the conspiracy (it reached all the way to occupied French), he began the systematic liquidation of his enemies. More than 7,000 Germans would be arrested (including evangelical pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer), and up to 5,000 would wind up dead—either executed or as suicides. Hitler, Himmler, and Goering took an even firmer grip on Germany and its war machine. Hitler became convinced that fate had spared him—"I regard this as a confirmation of the task imposed upon me by Providence"—and that "nothing is going to happen to me... [T]he great cause which I serve will be brought through its present perils and...everything can be brought to a good end."





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 on this day in 2013.



Likely the most famous event to have taken place on this date in history was the moon landing.

Yes, it has been now more than half a century since the mission to fulfill President John F Kennedy’s promise to the country to bring a man to the moon, and return him safely back to Earth, began.              

The actual moon landing occurred on July 20th, 1969, and was broadcast live back here on Earth, particularly in the United States.

It was obviously a huge event, and largely seen as a triumph of human capability and ingenuity, even though there are certainly some people who claim that the moon landing was fake. But for most people, it was a symbol of what human beings can achieve when they put their minds and energy into cooperating together to achieve something great.

And it happened 55 years ago on this day!

Technically,  the Apollo 11 landed on the moon  at 10:56pm EST. It is amazing to imagine how people back then were congregated in front of their television sets and watched the lunar landing.  They saw the images and heard Neil Armstrong famously say, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. "

Buzz Aldrin describes the lunar surface as "magnificent desolation. "

What an achievement,  exactly 55 years 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
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)