Interesting Facts

July 28th 1540 – Thomas Cromwell was executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day. 1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine in Paris, France. 1821 – José de San Martín declared the independence of Peru from Spain. 1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law. 1914 – World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia after Serbia rejected the conditions of an ultimatum sent by Austria on July 23 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. 1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah – The Royal Air Force bombed Hamburg, Germany causing a firestorm that killed 42,000 German civilians. 1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26. 194...

21st July 365 – A tsunami devestated the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by an earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter Scale. 5,000 people perished in the Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside of the city. 1403 – King Henry IV of England defeated rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England. 1545 – French troops landed on the coast of the Isle of Wight. 1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, became the first man to break the 100mph barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium. 1925 – In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100. 1925 – Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first man to break the 150mph land barrier at Pendine Sands in Wales. He drove a Sunbeam to a two-way average of 150.33mph. 1969 – Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission. 1972 – Th...

3rd July 1844 – The last nesting pair of Great Auks was killed. They were found incubating an egg off Iceland. Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson strangled the adults and Ketill Ketilsson smashed the egg with his boot. 1884 – The Dow Jones published its 1st stock average. 1928 - The first colour television transmission took place in London. 1969 - Former Rolling Stones guitarist, Brian Jones (born Lewis Brian Hopkin-Jones) drowned. 1971 - Jim Morrison, the lead singer of American rock group The Doors, was found dead in a bathtub in Paris of heart failure. He was only 27. 1976 - Israeli commandos rescued 103 hostages held by Arab militants at Entebbe airport, Uganda. 1987 - Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was sentenced to life imprisonment at a court in Lyon. 1988 - Missiles fired from an American naval warship, the USS Vincennes, brought down an Iranian passenger jet in the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. 1996 – The Stone of Scone was returned to S...

11th April 1945 – The Buchenwald concentration camp, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil, was liberated. 1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, was found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalists from its place in Westminster Abbey. 1957 - Britain agreed to self-rule in Singapore. 1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. One week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 1968 – German student leader Rudi Dutschke is shot in Berlin. 1976 – The Apple I was created. 1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was deposed. 1981 – A huge riot in Brixton, South London, resulted in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries. 1987 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author died. 2001 – Harry Secombe, Welsh actor and co...

1st April 1318 - Berwick-upon-Tweed was captured by the Scottish from the English. 1826 - Samuel Morey patented the internal combustion engine. 1867 - Singapore became a British crown colony. 1873 - The British steamer RMS Atlantic sank off Nova Scotia, 547 people died. 1891 - The Wrigley Company was founded in Chicago, Illinois. 1918 - The Royal Air Force was created by the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. 1924 - Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch". However, he spent only nine months in jail, during which time he wrote the book Mein Kampf. (Just shows you prison is no deterrent.) 1949 - The twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland. 1976 - Apple Computer was formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 1979 - Iran became an Islamic Republic by a 98% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah. 1981 - Daylight saving time was introduced ...

9th March 1009 – Lithuania was mentioned for the first time (in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg). 1566 – David Rizzio, private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland. 1831 – The French Foreign Legion was established by King Louis Philippe to support his war in Algeria. 1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them to captivity had been taken into slavery illegally. 1925 – The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy began. It was called Pink's War. 1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, killed 33 and left hundreds more injured. The disaster led to Moelwyn Hughes's official report, which recommended more rigorous control of crowd sizes. 1959 – The Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy F...

According to a study commissioned by chocolate biscuit brand Rocky, the summer of 1976 was the best time to be a child in Britain. (From the perspective of the grown-ups, it wasn’t the best of years. In 1976 there was a national water shortage, inflation reached 27 per cent, there were widespread strikes and the West Indies cricket team left us grovelling for mercy. From the perspective of children, it was great. It was the hottest summer for more than 350 years and children spent hours outside, riding their Raleigh Chopper bikes or bouncing on Space Hoppers. Ah - Space Hoppers, those were the days.) Source  

Human rights groups estimate that up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina between 1976 and 1983. (In a series of systematic abductions, men women and children were methodically tortured and murdered. The disappeared have not been heard of to this day. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which came into force on 1 July 2002, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed at any civilian population, a "forced disappearance" qualifies as a crime against humanity, and thus is not subject to a statute of limitation.) >