On This Day

[IceWizard]

Historical Events on July 15


1779  American troops under General A Wayne conquer Fort Stony Point, NY

1799  The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign

French Emperor
Napoléon Bonaparte

1815  Napoleon surrenders to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon at Rochefort after his earlier defeat at the Battle of Waterloo

1830  Indian tribes, Sioux, Sauk & Fox, sign fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien giving the US most of Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri

1840  Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia sign Quadruple Alliance

1862  CSS Arkansas vs USS Carondelet & Queen of the West engage at Yazoo River

1863  President Davis orders service duty for confederate army

1864  Troop train loaded with Confederate prisoners collided with a coal train killing 65 and injuring 109 of 955 aboard

1869  Margarine is patented by Hippolye Méga-Mouriès for use by French Navy

1870  Georgia becomes last confederate to be readmitted to US

1888  Bandai volcano (Japan) erupts for 1st time in 1,000 years

1898  Camillo Golgi discovers the Golgi Apparatus (a delicate network inside cells essential for the transmission and reception of information between cells)

Physician and Nobel Laureate
Camillo Golgi

1904  1st Buddhist temple in US forms, Los Angeles

1911  46" of rain (beginning 7/14) falls in Baguio, Philippines

1912  British National Health Insurance Act goes into effect

1914  Mexican president Huerta flees with 2 million pesos to Europe

1915  The head of German propaganda in the US, Dr Heinrich Albert, loses his briefcase on a subway in New York City; an examination of its content reveals an extensive network of German espionage and subversion across the US

1916  22.22" (56.4 cm) of rain falls in Altapass NC (state record

1916  Boeing Company (Pacific Aero) formed by William Boeing in Seattle, Washington

Aviation Pioneer
William Boeing

1918  World War I: Second Battle of Marne begins

1922  1st duck-billed platypus publicly exhibited in US, at NY Zoo


1927  Massacre in Vienna: 89 protesters are killed by the Austrian police

1929  1st airport hotel opens at Oakland, California

1932  US President Herbert Hoover cuts own salary 15%

31st US President
Herbert Hoover

1934  Continental Airlines commences operations.

1937  Buchenwald Concentration Camp opens

1937  Japanese attack Marco Polo Bridge, invade China

1940  1st betatron placed in operation, Urbana, Illnois

1940  Nazi occupiers seize library of IISG Amsterdam

1940  Physicist Donald Kerst becomes the first person to accelerate electrons using electromagnetic induction, reaching energies of 2.3 MeV, when his betatron device (for particle acceleration) becomes operational

1941  Howard Florey and Norman Heatley present freeze dried mold cultures (Penicillin)

Pathologist and Nobel Laureate
Howard Florey

1941  Britain's MAUDE Report edited by James Chadwick approved, concludes an atomic bomb is feasible

Physicist
James Chadwick

1942  1st deportation camp at Westerbork, Jews sent to Auschwitz

1942  Dutch Jews invoked for "Labor camps"

1944  Greenwich Observatory damaged by WW II flying bomb

1948  Israel bombs Cairo during Arab-Israeli War

1948  Alcoholic Anonymous founded in Britain

1948  US President Harry Truman nominated for another term (Philadelphia)

1954  110°F (43°C) at Balcony Falls, Virginia (state record)

1954  1st commercial jet transport plane built in US tested (Boeing 707)

1958  President Eisenhower sends US troops to Lebanon; they stay 3 months

34th US President & WWII General
Dwight D. Eisenhower

1960  Chubby Checker releases his version of "The Twist" in the US (date approximate)

Young people in Berlin taking part in the Twist dance craze, 1964

1961  Spain accepts equal rights for men and women

1963  Paul McCartney is fined £17 for speeding

Musician and Beatle
Paul McCartney

1964  Barry M Goldwater (Sen-R-Az) nominated for president by Republicans

1965  "Mariner IV" sends back 1st pictures of Mars

1968  "One Life to Live", American soap opera, premieres on TV

1968  Commercial air travel begins between US & USSR

1971  US President Richard Nixon announces he will visit the People's Republic of China

37th US President
Richard Nixon

1972  "Honky Chateau" becomes Elton John's first No. 1 album in the US, includes hit "Rocket Man"

Singer
Elton John

1973  Ray Davies announces his retirement from The Kinks then attempts suicide

1974  Television new reporter Christine Chubbuck shoots herself live on TV WXLT-TV, Florida, first person to commit suicide in a live broadcast

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1976  36-hr kidnap of 26 school children and their bus driver in California

1982  Body of Wendy Caulfield, 1st Green River victim, found near Seattle

1982  Senate confirms George P Shultz as US 60th Secretary of State by vote of 97-0

1983  Linda Ronstadt debuts as Mabel in "Pirates of Penzance"

1984  John Lennon's "I'm Stepping Out" released posthumously

Musician and Beatle
John Lennon

1987  Boy George barred from British TV show, he may be a bad influence

Singer-Songwriter
Boy George

1987  John Poindexter testifies at Iran-Contra hearings

1991  US troops leave northern Iraq

1992  Pope John Paul II hospitalized for 3 weeks to have tumor removed

264th Pope
John Paul II

1994  Israel and Jordan agree to talks in Washington, D.C. on July 25th

1994  Hundreds of thousands of Hutus flee to Zaire in the Congo near the end of the Rwandan Genocide

1995  Northern Virginia begins using new area code 540

1996  MSNBC begins Microsoft internet-NBC TV

1996  Southern Mexico hit with 6.5 earthquake

1997  Jerold Mackenzie awarded $26.6M (later reduced to $625,000) for being fired from Miller Brewing for sexual harassment for relaying a Seinfeld episode to a co worker

1998  Donatella Versace launches her first couture collection for her brother's Versace label, a year after his murder

1999  Scientists uncover possible reason for SS Waratah's disappearance 100 years later; The SS Waratah was a luxury steamer which did not reach its destination in 1909, and no trace of the wreckage was ever found

2002  "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony

2002  Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl

2003  AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.

2013  13 people are killed by a car bomb in Deir Atiyah, Syria

2014  Israel announces it has officially voted to accept the ceasefire proposed by Egypt; Hamas reject, saying they were not consulted

2016  Attempted military coup in Turkey fails, nearly 300 killed, 6,000 then arrested

2018  8-year-old girl finds pre-Viking-era sword in Vidostern lake, Sweden, internet proclaims her Queen of Sweden