July 17– 1918: Russian Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov royal family are executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in Yekaterinburg, Russia. 1936: A right-wing uprising, led by General Francisco Franco, marks the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. 1945: Harry Truman, Josef Stalin, and Winston Churchill meet in Potsdam, Germany for the first time after Germany’s surrender in World War II. President Truman wrote in his diary “I can deal with Stalin…he is honest, but smart as hell.” 1975: NASA’s final Apollo mission docks in space with Russia’s Soyuz 18.
July 18- 1925: “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”) by Adolf Hitler is first published in Germany. His original title was “Four-and-a-half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice.” Maybe it was “catchier” in German? 1938: Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan lands his plane in Ireland after leaving New York bound for California. (His nickname is well-deserved!) 1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt is nominated for an unprecedented third term as president. 1976: Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci, age 14, scores a perfect 10.0 (on the uneven bars) at the Montreal Olympic Games for the first time in Olympic history. The electronic scoreboard was not able to properly show her score, displaying it as 1.00 instead of 10.00. She would receive six more perfect scores and win three individual gold medals. 2013: Detroit, MI is the largest municipality in history to file for bankruptcy, facing $18.5 billion in debts.
July 19- 1843: The SS Great Britain is launched in Bristol, England, amidst great fanfare. It is the first steamship with an iron hull and the first to be powered by a screw propeller. It was the world’s largest vessel at the time. 1848: The first Women’s Rights Convention, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, opens in Seneca Falls, NY. 1887: The first Wimbledon champion is crowned, as Spencer Gore defeats William Marshall, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. 1941: Tom and Jerry are introduced to the world in “The Midnight Snack” by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
July 20- 1881: Sioux Chief Sitting Bull surrenders to federal troops. 1894: Federal troops, sent to quell striking workers of the Pullman Palace Car Co., leave Chicago with 34 strikers dead. 1969: NASA’s Lunar Module “Eagle” lands on the moon at 4:18 pm EDT. Nearly seven hours later, a worldwide audience estimated at over 500 million people watches astronaut Neal Armstrong emerge from the capsule and take “(O)ne small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” 1976: Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron hits the last of his then-record 755 career home runs.
Hank Aaron, BaseballHallofFame.org
July 21- 1861: The first major battle of the US Civil War takes place at Bull Run, near Manassas, VA, with Confederate troops winning decisively over the Union Army. 1865: James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in the market square of Springfield, MO, winning the first true “western showdown.” 1925: “The Trial of the Century” ends with the conviction of teacher John T. Scopes, found guilty by a jury of teaching the theory of evolution in his classroom. He received a $100 fine as punishment. 1983: The lowest-ever air temperature of -128.6°F (-89.2°C) is recorded at the USSR’s Vostok Station in Antarctica.
July 22- 1793: Alexander Mackenzie becomes the first European-American to complete a transcontinental journey across Canada. 1894: The first automobile race, from Paris to Rouen, France is run. 17 of the 21 qualifiers finished the 126 km (78 miles) race, won by Albert Lemaitre, with an average speed of 17 km/hr (10.5 mph) in his 3 hp Peugeot. He split the 5,000 francs ($815) first prize with the car’s builder. 1934: Notorious bank robber John Dillinger, dubbed “Public Enemy #1” by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, is gunned down by agents upon exiting the Biograph Theater in Chicago. 1959: “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” written, directed, and produced by Ed Wood, premieres in US theaters. It became a cult classic and is regularly cited as among the worst movies ever made!
July 23- 1903: The first Ford Model A is delivered to Chicago dentist Dr. Ernst Pfennig. Ford’s first model had a base price of $750. 1995: Comet Hale-Bopp is first discovered. It would become visible in the night sky to the naked eye within a year! 2000: Golfer Tiger Woods wins the (British) Open Championship and becomes, at age 24, the youngest player to win all four major championships in golf. 2015: NASA announces the discovery of the most Earth-like planet to date, found by its Kepler space telescope. The planet, named Kepler-452b, is unfortunately located some 1,400 light years from Earth, making it much too far away for a quick vacation!
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