On This Day In History
July 27th
1586 Walter Raleigh brings the 1st tobacco to England from Virginia
1689 Battle of Killicrankie: Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeat royalist force under General MacKay
1789 US Congress establishes Department of Foreign Affairs now referred to as the State Department
1866 First transatlantic telegraph cable comes ashore at Heart’s Content, Newfoundland after being laid out 1,686 miles by Isambard Kingdom Brunel‘s Great Eastern steamship
1921 Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate insulin at the University of Toronto
Did You Know?
1st Christian missionary in Japan, Jesuit priest Francis Xavier reaches Japan but is not permitted to enter any port until 15 August
Today in History in 1549
Would You Believe?
Queen Elizabeth II opens the 30th Olympics in London, United Kingdom (with some help from 007)
Today in History in 2012
July 28th
1794 French Revolutionary figure Maximilien robespierre and 22 other leaders of “the Terror” guillotined to thunderous cheers in Paris
1914 Austria-Hungary decides against mediation and declares war on Serbia – first declaration of war of WWI
1917 Silent Parade organised by James Weldon Johnson of 10,000 African-Americans who march on 5th Ave in NYC to protest against lynching
1943 Operation Gomorrah: RAF bombing over Hamburg causes a firestorm that kills 42,600 German civilians
1976 Tangshan Earthquake, 8.2 in magnitude kills over 240,000 Northern China in the largest loss of life from an earthquake in the 20th century
2005 The Provisional Irish Republican Army call an end to their thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland
Did You Know?
Physicist Raemer Schreiber and Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva arrive on the Pacific island of Tinian with the plutonium core used to assemble the Fat Man bomb used in the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9
Today in History in 1945
Would You Believe?
“Elevator girl” Betty Lou Oliver survives falling 75 stories after fog causes a US bomber plane to crash into the Empire State Building, breaking the cables supporting the elevator she was operating. This remains a world record for the longest survived elevator fall
Today in History in 1945
July 29th
1588 The Battle of Gravelines – Spanish Armada damaged and scattered by the English fleet
1609 Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years
1848 Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police
1905 US Secretary of War William Howard Taft makes secret agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura agreeing to Japanese free rein in Korea in return for non-interference with the US in the Philippines
1921 Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
1949 Moscow ends the blockade of West Berlin
Did You Know?
10 Spanish treasure galleons sunk off Florida coast by a hurricane
Today in History in 1715
Would You Believe?
Zion Harvey became the first paediatric patient to receive a double hand transplant at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Today in History in 2015
July 30th
1178 Frederick I (Barbarossa), Holy Roman Emperor, crowned King of Burgundy
1419 First defenestration of Prague: anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm Prague town hall and throw the judge, mayor and several city council members out the windows. They die in the fall or killed by crowd outside.
1619 House of Burgesses Virginia forms, 1st elective American governing body
1863 Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah
1869 The Charles, considered the world’s first “oil tanker”, departs from the United States headed for Europe with a bulk capacity of 7,000 barrels of oil
1935 1st Penguin book is published, starting the paperback revolution
1937 Russian Politburo issues NKVD Order no. 00447, to repress former kulak and anti-soviets, 269,100 to be arrested, 76,000 to be shot. Part of the Great Purge.
Did You Know?
500 Marseillaisian men sing France’s national anthem for 1st time
Today in History in 1792
Would You Believe?
The last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line in Mexico
Today in History in 2003
July 31st
30 BC Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to Octavian’s invasion of Egypt
1620 Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands for England on their way to America
1917 World War I: Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) begins, goes on to cause approximately 500,000 casualties
1961 Israel welcomes its one millionth immigrant
2007 Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end
Did You Know?
Black Tot Day: the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy (started 1740)
Today in History in 1970
Would You Believe?
Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers
Today in History in 1703
August 1st
527 Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire
1086 Results of the Domesday inquiry presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation and the Great Domesday are historically contestable)
1774 English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state
1834 Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect, abolishes slavery throughout the British Empire
1958 US atomic submarine USS Nautilus begins 1st transit of North Pole “Operation Sunshine”
Did You Know?
First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, Dorset
Today in History in 1907
Would You Believe?
Anthrax outbreak in Yamalo-Nenets, Siberia kills one and infects 8 others, also kills 2,300 reindeer, global warming blamed
Today in History in 2016