TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: July 21
356 BC Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World
365 Crete Earthquake followed by tsunami around the Eastern Mediterranean allegedly destroys Alexandria
1667 The Peace of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War and cedes Dutch New Amsterdam to the English.
1711 Russia and Turkey sign the Treaty of Pruth, ending the year-long Russo-Turkish War.
1733 John Winthrop was granted the first honorary Doctor of Law Degree given by Harvard College in Cambridge, MA.
1773 Pope Clement XIV abolishes the Jesuit order.
1798 Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Arab Mameluke warriors at the Battle of the Pyramids.
1861 In the first major battle of the Civil War, Confederate forces defeat the Union Army along Bull Run near Manassas Junction, Virginia. The battle becomes known as Manassas by the Confederates, while the Union calls it Bull Run.
1865 Wild Bill Hickok kills gunman Dave Tutt in Springfield, Missouri, in what is regarded as the first formal quick-draw duel.
1873 The first train robbery west of the Mississippi was pulled off by Jesse James and his gang.
1896 Mary Church Terrell founds the National Association of Colored Women in Washington, D.C.
1898 Spain cedes Guam to US
1904 After 13 years, the 4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway is completed
1906 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus is vindicated of his earlier court-martial for spying for Germany.
1925 The “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, TN. John T. Scopes was convicted and fined $100 for violating the state prohibition on teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. The conviction was later overturned on a legal technicality because the judge had set the fine instead of the jury.
1930 The Veterans Administration of the United States was established.
1949 The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.
1954 The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
1959 A U.S. District Court judge in New York City ruled that “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” was not a dirty book.
1961 Captain Virgil “Gus” Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth. He was flying on the Liberty Bell 7.
1976 1st outbreak of “Legionnaire’s Disease” kills 29 in Phila
1977 Libyan–Egyptian War begins
1984 1st documented case of a robot killing a human in US
1997 The U.S.S. Constitution, which defended the United States during the War of 1812, set sail under its own power for the first time in 116 years.
2002 WorldCom filed for bankruptcy, then the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
2004 White House officials were briefed on the September 11 commission’s final report. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited “deep institutional failings within our government.” The report was released to the public the next d
2011 In Florida, Space Shuttle Atlantis landed successfully at Kennedy Space Center after completing STS-135. It was the final flight of NASA’s space shuttle program.
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
