911 CE - The Viking Rollo laid siege to Chartres, giving the Franks under Richard, Duke of Burgundy, and France's Robert I a decisive victory; peace would be confirmed later in the fall with the Treaty of Saint Clair-sur-Epte, which Rollo signed with Charles the Simple.
1304 - Following the Fall of Stirling Castle (after the second of eight sieges in that castle's history) during the Wars of Scottish Independence England's King Edward I took the last rebel stronghold of the war.
1402 - During the Ottoman-Timurid Wars - at the Battle of Ankara - Timur, ruler of the Timurid Empire, defeated forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I.
1656 - Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeated the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led by Polish King John II Casimir at the Battle of Warsaw.
1917 - The Corfu Declaration - which led to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia - was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
1932 - Police fired tear gas at members of the Bonus Expeditionary Force - more commonly known as the Bonus Army, a group of First World War veterans who had been marching toward the White House - proving that the recent scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was no isolated event.
1944 - Adolf Hitler survived an assassination attempt (known as the July 20 plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1947 - Police in Burma arrested former Prime Minister U Saw and 19 others on charges of assassinating Prime Minister U Aung San and seven members of his cabinet the previous day.
1951 - King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated by Palestinian Mustapha Shukri Usho while attending prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
1969 - Apollo 11 made a successful moon landing; seven years later to the day, Viking 1 would make its own successful landing, on Mars.
1976 - Hank Aaron hit his 755th home run, breaking Babe Ruth's 41-year-old record.
1982 - The Provisional IRA detonated two bombs - in London's Hyde Park and Regents Park - killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
1984 - The then-current Miss America, Vanessa Williams, was asked to resign her post when nude photographs of her appeared in Penthouse magazine. Unlike the vast majority of previous and subsequent scandal-free Misses America, Ms. Williams went on to have a successful career as an actor and recording artist in addition to marrying NBA superstar Rick Fox; she also famously appeared as Wilhelmina Slater in the smash hit sitcom Ugly Betty.1987 - Larry Kramer, co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis, was appointed to a federal panel on AIDS by President Ronald Reagan; Kramer had previously been critical of the President's utterly predictable silence on the issue.
1989 - A show of photographs by the recently deceased yet still controversial artist Robert Mapplethorpe was held at Project for the Arts in Washington DC; the show had previously been slated for the Corcoran Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, but was canceled by them due to the nature of the works.
1992 - Václav Havel resigned as president of Czechoslovakia.
1999 - Calling it an 'evil cult', the government of the People's Republic of China outlawed Falun Gong, and began a systemic persecution of its practice and membership.
2005 - Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage when Bill C-38 received Royal Assent.
2006 - The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia brought about a war which is still raging.
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I suddenly have a hankering for cheese!
ReplyDelete"1960 - Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, making her the first elected head of government in the world."
ReplyDeleteWhat? You must be using the term "head of government" in some very specific way, since we had been electing the heads of our governments for quite while in 1960.
"...first elected female head of government..."
ReplyDeleteOops!
And I proof-read that twelve times, too.