Classic Jimmy Stewart:

July 3:

324: Battle of Adrianople: Constantine I defeated Licinius.

987: Hugh Capet was crowned King of France to begin the Capetian dynasty that would last until the French Revolution.

1035: William the Conqueror became the Duke of Normandy.

1608: Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City.

1738: Birthday of John Singleton Copley, American painter

1754: George Washington surrendered Fort Necessity to French forces shortly after the French and Indian War began.

1775: George Washington took command of the Continental Army.

1776: After declaring independence, Massachusetts delegate John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail stating, "It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

1848: Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipated all remaining slaves in the Danish West Indies.

1863: Battle of Gettysburg: On the third day of the battle Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered Gen. George Pickett to lead his men in a frontal assault on the Union's fortified positions. Pickett's Charge was a disaster, decimating Confederate forces. It was a price they could not afford.

1866: Prussian defeated Austria at the Battle of Kniggrtz ending the Austro-Prussian War and shutting out Austria from German affairs. Prussia was now the dominant German power.

1883: Birthday of Franz Kafka, Czech-American author

1884: Dow Jones & Company published its first stock average.

1886: Karl Benz officially unveiled the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile.

1890: Idaho became the 43rdstate.

1898: U.S. forces defeated Spanish forces in the Battle of Santiago.

1904: Death of Theodor Herzl, Austrian journalist and playwright, founder of the Zionist Organization

1940: The Royal Navy attacked the French navy at Mars El Kebir in Algeria to make sure it did not fall into German hands.

1962: Birthday of Tom Cruise, American actor

1969: The greatest explosion in the history of rocketry took place when the Soviet N-1 rocket exploded, destroying the launchpad as well.

1971: Birthday of Julian Assange, Australian journalist, publisher, and activist; founder of WikiLeaks

1988: The U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennesshot down an Iranian passenger jet, mistaking it for a fighter jet. All 290 people on board were killed.

1990: The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca proved deadly as a stampede of pedestrians in a tunnel left over 1,400 dead.

2012: Death of Andy Griffith, American actor, singer, an producer

2013: President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt was overthrown in a coup d'tat by the military.

historian said:

---

July 3:

324: Battle of Adrianople: Constantine I defeated Licinius.

987: Hugh Capet was crowned King of France to begin the Capetian dynasty that would last until the French Revolution.

1035: William the Conqueror became the Duke of Normandy.

1608: Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City.

1738: Birthday of John Singleton Copley, American painter

1754: George Washington surrendered Fort Necessity to French forces shortly after the French and Indian War began.

1775: George Washington took command of the Continental Army.

1776: After declaring independence, Massachusetts delegate John Adams wrote a letter to his wife Abigail stating, "It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

1848: Governor-General Peter von Scholten emancipated all remaining slaves in the Danish West Indies.

1863: Battle of Gettysburg: On the third day of the battle Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered Gen. George Pickett to lead his men in a frontal assault on the Union's fortified positions. Pickett's Charge was a disaster, decimating Confederate forces. It was a price they could not afford.

1866: Prussian defeated Austria at the Battle of Kniggrtz ending the Austro-Prussian War and shutting out Austria from German affairs. Prussia was now the dominant German power.

1883: Birthday of Franz Kafka, Czech-American author

1884: Dow Jones & Company published its first stock average.

1886: Karl Benz officially unveiled the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the first purpose-built automobile.

1890: Idaho became the 43rdstate.

1898: U.S. forces defeated Spanish forces in the Battle of Santiago.

1904: Death of Theodor Herzl, Austrian journalist and playwright, founder of the Zionist Organization

1940: The Royal Navy attacked the French navy at Mars El Kebir in Algeria to make sure it did not fall into German hands.

1962: Birthday of Tom Cruise, American actor

1969: The greatest explosion in the history of rocketry took place when the Soviet N-1 rocket exploded, destroying the launchpad as well.

1971: Birthday of Julian Assange, Australian journalist, publisher, and activist; founder of WikiLeaks

1988: The U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennesshot down an Iranian passenger jet, mistaking it for a fighter jet. All 290 people on board were killed.

1990: The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca proved deadly as a stampede of pedestrians in a tunnel left over 1,400 dead.

2012: Death of Andy Griffith, American actor, singer, an producer

2013: President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt was overthrown in a coup d'tat by the military.

---

I guess the 4th fell on a Sunday that year as well.

Actually, Adams was referring to the vote the day before. He wrote the letter the next day (July 3) but the important, final vote was on July 4. Also, he was talking about the solemnity of the occasion, not necessarily about going to church.

historian said:

---

Actually, Adams was referring to the vote the day before. He wrote the letter the next day (July 3) but the important, final vote was on July 4. Also, he was talking about the solemnity of the occasion, not necessarily about going to church.

---

oh, I know. It was just a weak attempt at a joke.

July 4: America's birthday!

1054: A supernova was seen by Chinese, Arab, and maybe American observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For months, it was bright enough to be seen during the day. Today it's remnants form the Crab Nebula.

1776: The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

1802: The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York opened.

1803: The Louisiana Purchase was announced to the American people.

1804: Birthday of Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist

1807: Birthday of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician, key figure in the unification of Italy

1826: Former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the nation's 50th birthday. They had been close friends during the War for Independence, even collaborating on the Declaration of Independence, then became political enemies after George Washington's 2 terms as president, and finally renewed their friendship near the end of their lives. Adams last words were, "Thomas Jefferson still survives" but he was off by 5 hours.

1826: Birthday of Stephen Foster, American songwriter and composer

1827: The state of New York abolished slavery.

1831: Samuel Francis Smith wrote "My Country 'Tis of Thee" for the July 4thcelebration in Boton.

1831: Death of James Madison, American soldier, lawyer, politician, 5thPresident of the United States

1838: Organization of the Iowa Territory.

1845: Henry David Thoreau moved into a small cabin on Walden Pond on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson near Concord, Massachusetts. He spent two years there in an experiment in transcendentalism and his book about it, Walden, helped to spark the environmental movement.

1847: Birthday of James Anthony Bailey, American circus ringmaster, co-founder of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

1855: The first edition of a book of poems by Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, was published in Brooklyn.

1862: Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell a story that would become Alice's Adventures in Wonderlandand its sequels.

1863: Confederate forces surrendered to Union general Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, their last stronghold on the Mississippi River. The Union now controlled the entire river, splitting the Confederacy in two and greatly disrupting their supply lines.

1872: Birthday of future president Calvin Coolidge. He is the only U.S. president to share a birthday with the nation.

1881: The Tuskegee Institute opened in Alabama.

1884: France gave the U.S. the Statue of Liberty as a birthday present.

1892: Western Samoa changed the International Date Line, causing Monday, July 4 to occur twice and a year with 367 days.

1894: The Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed.

1901: William Howard Taft became American governor of the Philippines.

1914: Funeral in Vienna for the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, assassinated in Sarajevo six days earlier.

1918: The Bolsheviks murdered former Tsar Nicholas II of Russia along with his entire family.

1924: Birthday of Eve Marie Saint, American actress

1927: Birthday of Neil Simon, American playwright

1930: Birthday of George Steinbrenner, American businessman

1934: Death of Marie Curie, French-Polish physicist and chemist

1939: Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with ALS, informed a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he consider himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1943: Battle of Kursk: The largest full-scale battle in history and the largest tank battle began in the village of Prokhorovka.

1946: After almost 381 years of near continual colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attained full independence from the United States.

1947: The Indian Independence Bill was presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the colony be granted independence as two nations: India and Pakistan.

1950: First broadcasts of Radio Free Europe

1954: A sensationalized murder trial inspired "The Fugitive" TV show and later motion picture.

1966: Pres. Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law.

1976: Israeli commandos raided Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but 4 passengers and crew of an Air France that had been hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. The only death among the raiders was Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, older brother of recent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

1987: In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1994: The capital of Rwanda, Kigali, was captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city.

1997: NASA's probe Pathfinderlanded on Mars.

2004: The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower was laid on the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City.

July 5:

1586: Birthday of Thomas Hooker, founder of Connecticut

1687: Isaac Newton published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

1775: The Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, a last ditch effort at peace between the American colonists and the British government.

1801: Birthday of David Farragut, American admiral

1810: Birthday of P.T. Barnum, American businessman, co-founder of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

1853: Birthday of Cecil Rhodes, English-South African businessman and politician

1865: William Booth established the Salvation Army as a Christian mission.

1865: Court-martial of the conspirators who had attempted to assassinate Pres. Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

1914: German "blank check": Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany pledged unconditional support to the government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the measures they would take against Serbia for the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, days earlier in Serajevo. From this point, events snowballed resulting in WWI.

1921: The Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series.

1935: Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the National Labor Relations Act (aka the Wagner Act) which legitimized unions for the first time.

1937: Spam was introduced by Hormel Foods Corporation.

1946: French designer Louis Beard introduced the bikini, the name inspired by news of an atomic weapon's test at the Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific.

1950: Pvt. Kenneth Shadrick became America's first fatality in the Korean War.

1950: The Israeli Knesset passed the Law of Return granting all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.

1969: Death of Walter Gropius, German architect

1971: Pres. Richard Nixon formally certified the 26thAmendment to the Constitution lowering the voting age from 21 years to 18 years.

1975: Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the singles title at Wimbledon.

1977: The first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was overthrown in a military coup.

1989: A U.S. District Judge sentence Oliver North for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair. His convictions were later overturned.

1996: Scientists in the Rosin Institute in Scotland cloned a sheep, "Dolly", the first successful cloning of a mammal.

2002: Death of Ted Williams, American baseball player

2003: The World Health Organization declared the SARS pandemic to be contained globally.

2012: The Shard in London was inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe.

July 6:

371 BC: Battle Leuctra: Sparta lost to Thebes, shattering their reputation of military invincibility.

640: Battle of Heliopolis: A Muslim Arab army defeated Byzantine forces near Heliopolis, Egypt.

1348: Pope Clement VI issued a papal bull to protect Jews accused of having caused the Black Death.

1415: Religious reformer Jan Hus was condemned as a heretic by the assembly of the council in Konstanz Cathedral and burned at the stake. He had been invited to the Council of Constance with promise of safe passage so that he could make his case.

1483: Richard III was crowned King of England.

1535: Sir Thomas More was executed for treason because he refused to condone the divorce and remarriage of King Henry VIII.

1553: Death of Edward VI, King of England & Ireland

1747: Birthday of John Paul Jones, Scottish-American naval captain, hero of the American Revolution

1796: Birthday of Nicholas I of Russia

1854: The first convention of the new Republican Party was held in Jackson, Michigan.

1885: Louis Pasteur successfully tested his vaccine against rabies on a boy bitten by a rabid dog.

1893: Death of Guy de Maupassant, French short story writer, novelist, and poet

1921: Birthday of Nancy Reagan, American actress and activist, First Lady of the U.S.

1937: Birthday of Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian-Icelandic pianist and conductor

1942: Anne Frank's family went into hiding in a secret room in Amsterdam.

1944: Jackie Robinson refused to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court-martial.

1946: Birthday of George W. Bush, governor of Texas and 43rdPresident of the United States

1957: Althea Gibson was the first black woman to win at Wimbledon.

1962: Death of William Faulkner, American novelist and short story writer

1971: Death of Louis Armstrong, American singer and trumpet player, jazz pioneer

1976: For the first time women were inducted into the U.S. Naval Academy.

1998: Death of Roy Rogers, American cowboy, actor, and singer

1999: Death of Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish pianist and composer

2009: Death of Robert McNamara, American businessman and politician, Secretary of Defense under presidents Kennedy & Johnson

2020: Death of Charlie Daniels, American singer-songwriter, fiddle-player, and guitarist

Roderigo's Concerto de Aranjuez, Adagio:



Here's the entire piece:

A great song by Charlie Daniels:

July 7:

1124: The city of Tyre fell to the Venetians Crusade after a siege of 19 weeks.

1307: Death of Edward I, King of England

1456: A retrial of Joan of Arc 25 years after her death acquitted her.

1647: Death of Thomas Hooker, English minister, founder of Connecticut colony

1798: Because of the XYZ Affair, the U.S. Congress rescinded the Treaty of Alliance with France leading to the "Quasi-War", an undeclared naval war that lasted 2 years.

1807: The Treaty of Tilsit between France and Prussia ended the War of the Fourth Coalition, one of the Napoleonic Wars.

1834: Four nights of rioting in New York City against abolitionists began.

1846: U.S. forces occupied Monterey and Yerba Buena during the Mexican-American War and beginning the conquest of California.

1863: The U.S. began its first military draft.

1912: Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics.

1930: Construction of Hoover Dam began.

1946: Future president Jimmy Carter married Eleanor Rosalynn Smith.

1860: Birthday of Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer and conductor

1865: Mary Surratt became the first woman to be executed by the federal government, along with three co-conspirators convicted of the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln.

1898: Pres. William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the U.S.

1930: Construction began on Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam today) by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser.

1937: The Marco Polo Bridge Incident provided the Imperial Japanese Army with a pretext for renewing war with China.

1940: Birthday of Ringo Starr, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor, former member of The Beatles

1946: Howard Hughes almost died when his XF-11 reconnaissance airplane crashed in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.

1958: Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law.

1976: For the first time, women cadets enrolled at West Point.

1980: Sharia law was instituted in Iran.

1981: Pres. Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, the first woman to become a justice on the Court.

1985: Boris Becker became the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17.

2005: Islamofascist terrorists bombed London's Underground during rush hour killing 56 people.

2016: An ex-US Army soldier shot 14 Dallas police officers, killing 5.

2019: The U.S. women's soccer team won a record 4thWorld Cup title.

July 8:

250 BC: Legendary founding of the city of Paris.

1497: Vasco da Gama set sail on the first direct European voyage to India.

1776: The Liberty Bell tolled after the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

1831: Birthday of John Pemberton, American chemist and pharmacist, inventor of Coca-Cola

1839: Birthday of John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist, world's first billionaire, founder of Standard Oil Company, financed the establishment of the University of Chicago

1853: Com. Matthew C. Perry sailed into Edo Bay (Tokyo Bay) with a letter from the president of the U.S. seeking diplomatic and trade relations. Because the friendly message was delivered by a fleet of modern warships, it led to the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate.

1889: The first issue of The Wall Street Journal was published.

1908: Birthday of Nelson Rockefeller, American businessman and politician, vice president of the U.S. under Pres. Ford

1914: Birthday of Billy Eckstein, American singer and trumpet player

1918: Ambulance driver Ernest Hemingway was wounded while on the Italian front during WWI.

1947: The media reported that a UFO had crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.

1948: The U.S. Air Force accepted its first female recruits.

1950: Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander of UN forces in Korea.

1960: Francis Gary Powers was charged with espionage after his U-2 plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.

1994: Kim il-Sung, the "Great Leader" of North Korea, died. He was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-il.

2011: Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched in the final mission of the Space Shuttle program.

2011: Death of Betty Ford, First Lady of the U.S.

2012: Death of Ernest Borgnine, American actor

2013: Death of Edmund Morgan, American historian

July 9:

1357: Emperor Charles IV assists in laying the foundation stone for Charles Bridge in Prague.

1441: Death of Jan van Eyck, Dutch painter

1540: Henry VIII annulled his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

1609: The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II granted Bohemia religious freedom through the Letter of Majesty.

1762: Catherine II, "the Great", became Empress of Russia after the coup against her husband, Peter III.

1776: Commanding General George Washington ordered the Declaration of Independence to be read out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan.

1777: New York elected Brig. Gen. George Clinton as its first governor.

1789: The National Assembly reconstituted itself as the National Constituent Assembly and prepared to create a French constitution.

1797: Death of Edmund Burke, Irish-English philosopher, academic, and politician

1815: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord became the first Prime Minister of France.

1846: During the Mexican-American War, the U.S. seized San Francisco from Mexico.

1850: Unexpected death of Pres. Zachary Taylor.

1868: The 14thamendment was ratified guaranteeing blacks full citizenship and all Americans "equal protection of the law" and "due process of law" in the states (the 5thamendment applied to Congress).

1877: First Wimbledon Tournament

1893: Daniel Hale Williams, American heart surgeon, performed the first successful open-heart surgery in the U.S. without anesthesia.

1896: William Jennings Bryan delivered his Cross of Gold speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1915: The Germans surrendered Southwest Africa to the Union of South Africa. It was a badly needed victory for the Allies.

1918: William Faulkner joined the Royal Air Force but never saw combat because the war ended before he completed his training.

1922: Johnny Weissmuller swam the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking the world swimming record.

1932: Birthday of Donald Rumsfeld, American captain and politician, Secretary of Defense under Pres. George W. Bush

1941: British cryptologists broke the Enigma code, the top secret code used by the German army to direct ground to air operations during WWII.

1944: American forces captured Saipan bringing Japan's home islands within range of American B-29s and causing the downfall of the Tojo government.

1947: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army. She was the first woman to hold permanent military rank.

1947: Birthday of O. J. Simpson, American football player and actor

1956: Birthday of Tom Hanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

1961: Death of Whittaker Chambers, American spy and witness in the Alger Hiss case

1974: Death of Earl Warren, American jurist and politician, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

1993: Scientists used DNA tests to positively identify the remains of the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, his wife, and three of his daughters, including Anastasia.

2002: Death of Rod Steiger, American actor

2011: South Sudan gained independence and seceded from Sudan.

2019: Death of H. Ross Perot, American businessman and politician

Charles Bridge... Prague

Lennon Wall (near Charles Bridge) and Baylor BBE study abroad coeds

Fat Daddy said:

---

Charles Bridge... Prague

---

Beautiful!!

July 10:

138: Emperor Hadrian died of heart failure

1086: King Canute IV of Denmark was killed by rebellious peasants

1212: The most severe of several early fires burned most of London to the ground.

1509: Birthday of John Calvin, French pastor and theologian

1553: Lady Jane Grey took the throne of England

1584: William I of Orange was assassinated in his home in Delft, Holland.

1723: Birthday of William Blackstone, English lawyer, judge, and politician

1778: Louis XVI of France declared war on the Kingdom of Great Britain. The French alliance was one of the main reasons the U.S. won the War for Independence.

1830: Birthday of Camille Pissarro, Danish-French painter

1832: Pres. Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States. Prior to Jackson vetoes were rare (John Adams & Thomas Jefferson never used it). But it was popular and helped him kill the bank.

1839: Birthday of Adolph Busch, German brewer, founder of Anheuser-Busch

1850: Millard Fillmore was sworn in as president of the U.S. after the death of Zachary Taylor.

1856: Birthday of Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist and engineer

1890: Wyoming was admitted as the 44thstate.

1895: Birthday of Carl Orff, German composer and educator

1913 A world record for highest recorded temperature was reached 134.1 in Death Valley in California.


1925: Opening of Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee

1938: Howard Hughes began a 91-hour airplane flight around the world which would set a new record.

1940: Beginning of the Battle of Britain

1940: The Vichy government was established in France. It was a puppet regime controlled by the Germans.

1943: The Allies landed on Sicily.

1943: Birthday of Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and journalist

1951: Beginning of armistice negotiations in Korea

1962: Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, was launched into orbit.

1979: Death of Arthur Fiedler, American conductor

1989: Death of Mel Blanc, American voice actor, voice Bugs Bunny & most other Looney Tunes characters

1991: Boris Yeltsin took office as Russia's first elected president.

1992: Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was sentenced to 40 years in a Miami court for drug and racketeering charges.

2015: Death of Omar Sharif, Egyptian actor

Remembering Mel Blanc:

1938: Howard Hughes began a 91-hour airplane flight around the world which would set a new record.

Amphetamine was discovered in 1887 and exists as two enantiomers: levoamphetamine and dextroamphetamine.


not sure that the days line up ....

John Calvin's Chair (in Geneva)

St Pierre Cathedral, Geneva - Calvin's Church

Nice! I've never been to Geneva but I was fortunate enough to visit Zurich for an hour or so in 1999. I also got to Martin Luther's church in 2002 & J S Bach's.

July 11:

1274: Birthday of Robert the Bruce, Scottish king

1656: The first Quaker colonists landed at Boston.

1657: Birthday of Frederick I of Prussia

1767: Birthday of John Quincy Adams, 6th president of the U.S.

1789: Jacques Necker was dismissed as Finance Minister in France, leading to the Storming of the Bastille.

1782: The British evacuated Savannah, Georgia.

1796: The U.S. took possession of Detroit from the British under the terms of the Jay Treaty.

1789: After having been disbanded after the War for Independence, the U.S. Marine Corps was re-established.

1801: French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons discovered the first of 37 years in his lifetime, more than any other person in history.

1804: Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in the most famous duel in American history.

1834: Birthday of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American-English painter

1848: Waterloo railway station in central London opened.

1850: Birthday of Annie Armstrong, American missionary

1889: Founding of Tijuana, Mexico

1897: Birthday of Eugene "Bull" Connor, Commissioner of Public Safety in charge of police and fire departments in Birmingham, Alabama during the 1963 civil rights march

1914: MLB debut of Babe Ruth

1920: Birthday of Yul Brynner, Russian actor and dancer

1921: Former president of the U.S. William Howard Taft was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the only person to hold both offices.

1922: The Hollywood Bowl opened

1923: Birthday of Richard Pipes, Polish-American historian and academic

1924: Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics after refusing to run in the 100m race on a Sunday.

1937: Death of George Gershwin, American pianist, songwriter, and composer

1945: The Soviets agreed to surrender control of the western zones of Berlin to the western Allies, as per earlier agreements.

1947: The Exodus 1947sails from France to Palestine.

1953: Birthday of Leon Spinks, American boxer

1960: Publication of To Kill a Mockingbird

1962: The first transatlantic satellite television transmission

1979: Skylab, America's first space station, broke apart with parts falling down to earth.

1989: Death of Sir Laurence Olivier, English actor, director, and producer

1995: Beginning of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.

1995: The U.S. established diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

2006: 209 people were killed in a series of bomb attacks on trains in Mumbai, India.

2007: Death of Lady Bird Johnson, American beautification activist and former First Lady of the U.S.

The movie about Eric Liddell:

Gershwin's most famous piece at the Hollywood Bowl:

You beat me to it.

Life for Liddell didn't end after the Olympics. He went to China as a missionary and did extraordinary things in the mission field.

Thanks for the additional info. That's far more important!!

July 12:

100 BC: Birthday of Julius Caesar, Roman general and politician

70: After a 6-months siege, the armies of Titus attacked the walls of Jerusalem. They would breach the walls in 3 days then destroy the temple, slaughter 150,000 people, and disperse most of the rest of the Jewish population throughout the empire, the Diaspora. The Jewish people would be exiles and stateless for almost 1900 years.

1191: During the Third Crusade, Philip Augustus, King of France, captured Acre after a 2-year siege.

1389: Geoffrey Chaucer was named chief clerk by King Richard II.

1536: Death of Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch priest and philosopher

1543: Henry VIII of England married his sixth wife, Catherine Parr.

1776: Captain James Cook began his third and final voyage which would take him to New Zealand, Hawaii, and the Bering Strait.

1790: The French Revolutionary National Constituent Assembly passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, nationalizing the priesthood.

1804: Death of Alexander Hamilton, American general, economist, and politician; greatest Secretary of the Treasury in U.S. history

1806: Napoleon Bonaparte forced Bavaria, Baden, Wrttemberg, and several smaller German states to leave the Holy Roman Empire to form the Confederation of the Rhine.

1817: Birthday of Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet and philosopher

1861: Wild Bill Hickok was in his first gunfight, shooting three men in Nebraska.

1862: Pres. Abraham Lincoln signed into law a bill creating the Medal of Honor.

1862: Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.

1884: Birthday of Louis B. Mayer, Russian-born American film producer, co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

1895: Birthday of Oscar Hammerstein II, American director, producer, and songwriter

1908: Birthday of Milton Berle, American comedian and actor

1920: The Soviet Union recognized the independence of Lithuania in the Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty.

1934: Birthday of Van Cliburn, American pianist and composer

1935: Death of Alfred Dreyfus, French colonel, victim of the Dreyfus affair

1937: Birthday of Bill Cosby, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter

1944: Death of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., American general and politician

1962: First performance of the Rolling Stones in a London club.

1984: Walter Mondale, the leading Democrat candidate for president, announced his running mate: Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to become a candidate for either of the nation's top two offices by one of the main two parties.

1943: The Red Army defeated the Germans at the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history. Along with the victory at Stalingrad shortly before, these Soviet victories turned the tide of battle in Europe with the Germans mostly in retreat until their surrender.

1957: Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to ride in a helicopter.

1965: The first Marine to receive a Medal of Honor for action in Vietnam, Lt. Frank Reasoner, was killed.

1990: Boris Yeltsin resigned for the Soviet Communist Party.

July 13:

587 BC: The siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians ended, resulting in the destruction of Solomon's Temple.

1024: Death of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor

1787: Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance, organizing the Northwest Territory and providing for its settlement, subdivision into smaller territories, government, and eventual admission as states. Thomas Jefferson had some influence behind the scenes insuring that slavery would be forbidden in the new territories.

1793: Charlotte Corday assassinated French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat.

1821: Birthday of Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general, founder of the Ku Klux Klan

1863: New York draft riots: Riots broke out in New York City in opposition to the draft, primarily Irish-Americans including a number of recent immigrants.

1864: Birthday of John Jacob Astor IV, American colonel and businessmen, one of the more prominent passengers aboard the Titanic

1890: Death of John C. Fremont, American general and politician

1930: France defeated Mexico in the first World Cup.

1935: Birthday of Jack Kemp, American football player and politician

1940: Birthday of Patrick Stewart, English actor, director, and producer

1942: Birthday of Harrison Ford, American actor and producer

1960: John F. Kennedy was nominated as the Democrat candidate for president.

1973: During the Watergate investigation, Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret tape recording system in the Oval Office.

1977: New York City experienced a blackout that last almost 24 hours and resulted in widespread fires and lootingand a lot of babies born 9 months later.

2011: Three bombs detonated in Mumbai, India during the evening rush hour killing 26 and injuring 130.

2014: Death of Lorin Maazel, French-American violinist, composer, and conductor

2016: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron resigned and was replaced by Theresa May.

July 14:

1099: During the First Crusade Jerusalem was captured.

1789: Storming of the Bastille: A French mob overran the Bastille, a royal prison in Paris, and the warden was murdered. This is often seen as the beginning of the French Revolution, 25 years of turmoil and chaos during which the government of France changed 7 times and Europe was thrown into almost constant warfare.

1798: Congress passed the Sedition Act while the U.S. was engaged in the "Quasi War" with France.

1862: Birthday of Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter

1874: The Chicago Fire burned down 47 acres of the city and destroyed 812 buildings while killing 20.

1881: Sheriff Pat Garett shot Billy the Kid to death.

1913: Birthday of Gerald R. Ford, 38thPresident of the U.S.

1918: Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of former president Theodore Roosevelt, was killed when the plane he was flying on the western front was shot down by a German pilot.

1933: Hitler abolished all German political parties except the Nazis in a decree called Gleichschaltung.

1933: The Nazis began their eugenics program with the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring requiring forced sterilization of any citizen with alleged genetic disorders.

1960: Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in modern day Tanzania to begin her study of chimpanzees.

1965: The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars took the first close-up photos of another planet.

1965: Death of Adlai Stevenson II, American soldier and politician

1968: Hank Aaron hit his 500thhome run.

2016: Islamofascist terrorists drove a truck through the Bastille Day celebration in Nice, killing 86.

Billy the Kid's Gravesite (so they say)

Or maybe it is in Hico, Tx

We visited both sites on our way back from Colorado

July 15:

70: The Roman armies of Titus breached the walls of Jerusalem to begin a brutal rampage of the city, Solomon's Temple, and the Jewish people.

1381: John Ball, leader of the Peasants' Revolt, was hanged, drawn, and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.

1606: Birthday of Rembrandt, Dutch painter

1799: The Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by Napoleon's army.

1806: Zebulon Pike, US Army officer, began his expedition to explore the southwest during which he viewed the eponymous mountain and was arrested by Spanish authorities in New Mexico.

1815: Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered the final time aboard the HMS Bellerophon.

1858: Birthday of Emmeline Pankhurst, English political activist and suffragette

1870: Georgia became the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

1903: The newly formed Ford Motor Co. took its first order, for a Model A.

1904: Death of Anton Chekhov, Czech playwright and short story writer

1916: William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products in Seattle, Washington. It would later be renamed Boeing.

1918: Beginning of the Second Battle of the Marne: the Germans launched their final offensive on the western front and would ultimately be stopped again, this time primarily due to the influx of large numbers of fresh American troops.

1929: Death of Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian author, poet, and playwright, librettist for composer Richard Strauss

1935: Birthday of Alex Karras, American football player, wrestler, and actor

1938: Birthday of Barry Goldwater, Jr., American lawyer and politicians

1948: Death of John J. Pershing, American general

1954: The first flight of the Boeing 367-80, prototype for the Boeing 707 passenger jet, C-135 cargo planes, and KC-135 air refueling jets used by the Air Force.

1964: The GOP nominated Sen. Barry Goldwater for president.

1965: Mariner 4 passed over the surface of Mars at an altitude of 6,000 feet.

1971: Pres. Richard M. Nixon announced his upcoming visit to communist China.

1975: The dual launch of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was also the final launch of an Apollo spacecraft and the final launch of a Saturn rocket.

1979: Pres. Jimmy Carter gave his famous speech describing Americans' "crisis of confidence." It has come to be known as the "malaise" speech although that word was not used.

1997: Fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered.

2006: Launch of Twitter

2016: Factions of the Turkish Armed Forces attempted a coup.

And today is the 75th birthday of Linda Ronstadt (7/15/46, Tucson, AZ).....

Did I ever have a crush on her...didn't most guys?