1945 – The world’s first nuclear explosion occurred on July 16, 1945, when a plutonium implosion device was tested at a site located 210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico, on the plains of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, known as the Jornada del Muerto. The code name for the test was “Trinity.”
0622 – Mohammed (570-632) while meditating near Mecca in 610 AD, had visions from Allah to write the Koran. He escaped from his enemies in Mecca on July 16, 622 and went to Medina. Mohammed’s journey (hejira) on this date would mark the birth of Islam. He raised an army while spreading his beliefs, and returned to conquer Mecca in 630 AD.
0622 – The beginning of the Islamic calendar.
1054 – Beginning of the Great Schism between Western and Eastern churches when Roman Cardinal Humbert issues bull of excommunication against Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, on the altar of the Hagia Sophia, Constantinople
1212 – Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa; end of Moslem power in Spain
1251 – The Virgin Mary gives Simon Stock a Brown Scapular (legend)
1439 – Kissing is banned in England (to stop the Black Death from spreading)
1519 – Public debate between Martin Luther and theologian Johann Eck at Pleissenburg Castle in Liepzig, during which Luther denies the divine right of the Pope
1683 – Manchu/Chinese Qing Dynasty naval forces under commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.
1765 – Prime Minister of England Lord Greenville resigned and was replaced by Lord Rockingham.
1769 – Father Junipero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcal, the first mission in California. The mission later evolves into the city of San Diego
1774 – Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their six-year war.
1779 – American troops under General Anthony Wayne captured Stony Point, NY.
1790 – The District of Columbia, or Washington, DC, was established as the permanent seat of the United States Government.
1791 – Louis XVI was suspended from office until he agreed to ratify the constitution.
1862 – David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
1875 – The new French constitution was finalized.
1880 – Dr. Emily Howard Stowe becomes the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
1894 – Many negro miners in Alabama killed by striking white miners
1904 – Islands of the Manu’a group (Samoa) ceded to US by their chiefs
1912 – Bradley A. Fiske patented the airplane torpedo.
1920 – Gen Amos Fries appointed first US army chemical warfare chief
1926 – The first underwater color photographs appeared in “National Geographic” magazine. The pictures had been taken near the Florida Keys.
1940 – Adolf Hitler ordered the preparations to begin on the invasion of England, known as Operation Sea Lion.
1941 – Hitler convened top Nazi leaders at his headquarters in East Prussia to dictate how they would rule the newly occupied eastern territories. Ukraine, the “”jewel”” in the Nazi empire, would become a German colony.
1942 – French police officers rounded up 13,000 Jews and held them in the Winter Velodrome. The round-up was part of an agreement between Pierre Laval and the Nazis. Germany had agreed to not deport French Jews if France arrested foreign Jews.
1944 – Soviet troops occupied Vilna, Lithuania, in their drive toward Germany.
1945 – The world’s first nuclear explosion occurred on July 16, 1945, when a plutonium implosion device was tested at a site located 210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico, on the plains of the Alamogordo Bombing Range, known as the Jornada del Muerto. The code name for the test was “Trinity.” https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-atomic-bomb-test-is-successfully-exploded
1950 – The largest crowd in sporting history was 199,854. They watched the Uruguay defeat Brazil in the World Cup soccer finals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1951 – J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was first published.
1964 – Little League Baseball Incorporated was granted a Federal Charter unanimously by the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
1965 – The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France with Italy opens
1969 – Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL, and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.
1970 – The Pittsburgh Pirates played their first game at Three Rivers Stadium.
1973 – Alexander P. Butterfield informed the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair of the existence of recorded tapes.
1979 – Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq after forcing Hasan al-Bakr to resign.
1981 – After 23 years with the name Datsun, executives of Nissan changed the name of their cars to Nissan.
1990 – Civil trial by parents of Suicide victims against Judas Priest begins
1994 – Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collides with Jupiter, The Jupiter orbiting comet collided with Jupiter. It was the first time in recorded history that astronomers had observed a collision between two celestial objects.
1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are killed in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The Piper Saratoga aircraft was piloted by Kennedy
2004 – Millennium Park, considered the first and most ambitious architectural project in the early 21st century for Chicago, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
2008 – Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim is arrested on sodomy charges in Malaysia
2011 – The NASA space probe Dawn entered Vesta orbit.
2013 – 27 children are killed and 25 are hospitalized after eating lunch contaminated with insecticide in India
2014 – Hamas and Islamic Jihad offer Israel a 10-year truce with 10 conditions, which include lifting the blockade and the release of prisoners; it is rejected
2018 – 12 new moons discovered orbiting Jupiter bringing planet’s moon total to 79, by scientists at Carnegie Institution for Science
2018 – US President Donald Trump appears to accept the word of Russian President Vladimir Putin over US intelligence services about Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, in an interview after the two leader’s Helsinki Summit
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
