TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – JULY 20
1715 The Riot Act goes into effect in England.
1773 Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)
1861 Confederate state’s congress began holding sessions in Richmond, Va
1867 Imperial troops in Guizhou, China, kill 20,000 Miao rebels.
1881 Sioux chief Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army.
1894 2000 fed troops recalled from Chicago, having ended Pullman strike
1917 Alexander Kerensky becomes the premier of Russia.
1921 Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson becomes the first woman to preside over the floor of US House of Representatives
1923 Francisco Villa (Pancho Villa) is assassinated in Parral, Chihuahua, in his car and the assassins were never arrested.
1942 The U.S. Army Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) begins its first training class at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
1942 Legion of Merit Medal authorized by congress
1944 Adolf Hitler is wounded in an assassination attempt by German Army officers at Rastenburg.
1949 Israel’s 19 month war of independence ends
1951 King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated.
1960 The world’s first female prime minister Sirima Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) became the world’s first woman prime minister.
1969 Apollo 11 lunar module carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins lands on the surface of the Moon; Aldrin and Armstrong walk on the moon seven hours later
1976 The Viking spacecraft lands on Mars and begins taking soil samples.
1977 Flash flood hits Johnstown, Pa, kills 80 & causing $350 mil damage
1982 Bombs planted by Irish Republican Army explode in 2 London parks
1985 Treasure hunters found the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank off the coast of Key West, Fla., in 1622 during a hurricane. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots.
1990 Justice William Brennan resigns from the Supreme Court after 36 years
1990 The IRA bombs the London Stock Exchange. The IRA did give a coded warning prior to the bomb detonation and no body was killed or injured.
2007 United States President George W. Bush signed an executive order that banned the torture of terror suspects.
2012 A gunman opened fire on a theater full of people attending the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado killing twelve and injuring fifty-eight others
2017 China announces a plan against “foreign garbage” banning 24 categories of plastic and recyclable waste from 2018
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
