This Day in History

Gordonator SG

Idea 2nd July 1900

Zeppelin demonstrates airship

In the sky over Germany's Lake Constance, Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, a retired Prussian army officer, successfully demonstrates the world's first rigid airship. The 420-foot, cigar-shaped craft was lifted by hydrogen gas and powered by a 16-horsepower engine.

Gordonator SG

Idea 3rd July 1775

Washington assumes command

On Cambridge common in Massachusetts, George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered there, draws his sword, and formally takes command of the Continental Army. Washington, a prominent Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, was appointed commander in chief by the Continental Congress two weeks before. In serving the American colonies in their war for independence, he declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses.

Gordonator SG

Idea 4th Juky 1776

U.S. declares independence

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its king.

Gordonator SG

Idea 5th July 1946

Bikini introduced

On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed "bikini," inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

Gordonator SG

Idea 6th July 1935

Dalai Lama is born

On this day, an infant named Tenzin Gyatso, future leader of Tibet and bestselling author, is born to a peasant family in Takster, Tibet. At age two, he will be declared the Dalai Lama.

Gordonator SG

Idea 7th July 1941

U.S. occupies Iceland

The neutral United States moves closer to war with Germany when U.S. forces land on Iceland to take over its garrisoning from the British. From thereon, the U.S. Navy had the responsibility of protecting convoys in the nearby sea routes from attack by German submarines. With Iceland and its nearby sea routes under U.S. protection, the British Royal Navy was more free to defend its embattled Mediterranean positions.

Gordonator SG

Idea 8th July 1950

MacArthur named Korean commander

The day after the U.N. Security Council recommended that all U.N. forces in Korea be placed under the command of the U.S. military, General Douglas MacArthur, the hero of the war against Japan, is appointed head of the United Nations Command by President Harry S. Truman.

Gordonator SG

Idea 9th July 1956

Tom Hanks is born

Actor Tom Hanks is born this day in Concord, California. After his parents divorced when he was a toddler, Hanks lived with his father, a cook. He began studying acting in high school, played with a Shakespeare festival for three years, and launched his television career in 1980 with Bosom Buddies, an offbeat sitcom about two men forced to disguise themselves as women.

He made a splash with Splash in 1984, followed by a huge success with Big in 1988, for which he received an Oscar nomination. After several quiet years, his career took off again with Sleepless in Seattle (1993); he is now considered one of the biggest box office draws alive. He won the Best Actor Oscar twice, for Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994. He was also nominated for his role in Saving Private Ryan in 1998.

He began directing in 1996 with That Thing You Do and co-produced Cast Away (2000), for which he received another Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Gordonator SG

Idea 10th july 1989

voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck dies

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, dies from complications of heart disease.

Gordonator SG

Idea 11th July 1979

Skylab crashes to Earth

Parts of Skylab, America's first space station, come crashing down on Australia and into the Indian Ocean five years after the last manned Skylab mission ended. No one was injured.

Gordonator SG

Idea 12th july 1862

Medal of Honor created

President Abraham Lincoln signs into law a measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army Medal of Honor, in the name of Congress, "to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection."

The first U.S. Army soldiers to receive what would become the nation's highest military honor were six members of a Union raiding party who in 1862 penetrated deep into Confederate territory to destroy bridges and railroad tracks between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Gordonator SG

Idea 13th July 1960

Kennedy nominated for presidency

In Los Angeles, California, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts is nominated for the presidency by the Democratic Party Convention, defeating Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas. The next day, Johnson was named Kennedy's running mate by a unanimous vote of the convention.

Gordonator SG

Idea 14th July 1963

Rupture between USSR and China grows worse

Relations between the Soviet Union and China reach the breaking point as the two governments engage in an angry ideological debate about the future of communism. The United States, for its part, was delighted to see a wedge being driven between the two communist superpowers.

Gordonator SG

Idea 15th July 1845

First issue of The Straits Times

The first issue of The Straits Times is published. It is priced at 10 cnets and has a cirulation of 200 copies.

Idea 15th july 1997

Versace murdered

World-renowned Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead on the steps outside his Miami mansion. Versace was shot twice in the head by Andrew Cunanan, who shot himself 8 days later when he was cornered by the police.

Gordonator SG

Idea 16th july 1945

United States conducts first test of the atomic bomb

The United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at its research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The terrifying new weapon would quickly become a focal point in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Gordonator SG

Idea 17th July 1955

Disneyland opens

Disneyland, Walt Disney's metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits.

Gordonator SG

Idea 18th Juky 64AD

Fire of Rome

A fire erupts in Rome, spreading rapidly throughout the market area in the center of the city. When the flames finally died out more than a week later, nearly two-thirds of Rome had been destroyed.

Emperor Nero used the fire as an opportunity to rebuild Rome in a more orderly Greek style and began construction on a massive palace called the Domus Aureus. Some speculated that the emperor had ordered the burning of Rome to indulge his architectural tastes, but he was away in Antium when the conflagration began. According to later Roman historians, Nero blamed members of the mysterious Christian cult for the fire and launched the first Roman persecution of Christians in response.

Gordonator SG

Idea 19th July 1943

America bombs Rome

On this day in 1943, the United States bombs railway yards in Rome in an attempt to break the will of the Italian people to resist-as Hitler lectures their leader, Benito Mussolini, on how to prosecute the war further.

Gordonator SG

Idea 20th July 1973

Bruce Lee dies

Martial Arts legend Bruce Lee dies from a result of an abnormal reaction to painkillers he took for severe back pain, possibly in combination with the analgesic for a headache. he was 32 years old.

Idea 20th July 1969

Armstrong walks on the moon

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." A moment later, he stepped off the lunar landing module Eagle and became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

Gordonator SG

Idea 21th July 1964

Racial riots in Singapore

Riots break out during a procession to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad's birthday. In 10 days of fighting, 23 people are killed and 454 injured.

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