Sunday, July 04, 2010

POPnews - July 4th

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[Located midway between Montreal and Quebec City - where the Saint-Maurice River empties into the St. Lawrence River across from the city of Bécancour - Trois-Rivières is Canada's oldest industrial city; a foundry known as Forges du Saint-Maurice existed there as early as March 1730, although today the city is better known as the 'National Poetry Capital of Quebec'.]


836 CE - Pactum Sicardi - a peace treaty between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples - was signed.

993 CE - On the authority of Pope John XV Ulrich of Augsburg became the first Catholic saint to be officially canonized by the Vatican (rather than by public acclaim), twenty years to the day after his martyrdom.

1120 - Jordan II of Capua was anointed as prince after the death of his infant nephew, Richard III of Capua.

1187 - At the Battle of Hattin the Ayyubid commander Saladin defeated Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.

1253 - At the Battle of West-Capelle, John I of Avesnes defeated Guy of Dampierre.

1359 - Francesco II Ordelaffi surrendered the fortified town of Forlì to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.

1456 - As part of the Ottoman invasion of Europe, the Siege of Belgrade began; defense of the city was prepared by John Hunyadi, who was ultimately successful in repelling the forces of Mehmed II but not so fortunate in warding off the plague, which would claim his life in August.

1534 - Christian III was elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.

1634 - The city of Trois-Rivières - only the second permanent settlement in New France - was founded by the Sieur of Laviolette.

1837 - The Grand Junction Railway - the world's first long-distance railway - opened between Birmingham and Liverpool.

1840 - The Cunard Line's 700-ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departed from Liverpool bound for Halifax on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end.

1879 - During the final battle of the Anglo-Zulu War the Zululand capital of Ulundi was captured by British troops and burnt to the ground, forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.

1886 - The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrived in the British Columbia town of Port Moody, an event still celebrated there as Golden Spike Days.

1918 - Sultan Mehmed VI ascended to the throne of the Ottoman Empire, little knowing he would be the last to do so.

1941 - Nazi Germany's massacre of Polish scientists and writers occurred in the captured Ukrainian city of Lwów.

1950 - Radio Free Europe made its first broadcast - from Munich, into Czechoslovakia.

1976 - Israeli commandos raided Uganda's Entebbe Airport, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized there by Palestinian terrorists the previous week.

1982 - Four Iranian diplomats - Ahmad Motevaselian, Seyed Mohsen Mousavi, Taghi Rastegar Moghadam, and Kazem Akhavan - were kidnapped by militia at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon; they were never released, nor were their remains ever found, and no one ever claimed responsibility for their deaths.

1987 - In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (also known as the 'Butcher of Lyon') was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment; he died four years later of leukemia, still a kinder death than any of the 4,000 he personally committed.
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