This Day in History

Gordonator SG

Idea 22th July 1933

Wiley Post flies solo around the world

American aviator Wiley Post returns to Floyd Bennett Field in New York, having flown solo around the world in 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes. He was the first aviator to accomplish the feat.

Gordonator SG

Idea 23th july 1952

Military seizes power in Egypt

In Egypt, the Society of Free Officers seizes control of the government in a military coup d'etat staged by Colonel Gamal Abdal Nasser's Free Officers. King Farouk, whose rule had been criticized for its corruption and failures in the first Arab-Israeli war, was forced to abdicate and relinquish power to General Muhammad Naguib, the figurehead leader of the coup.

Gordonator SG

Idea 24th July 1969

Apollo 11 returns to Earth

Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely returns to Earth.

Gordonator SG

Idea 26th July 1884

Tan Tock Seng Hospital

The foundation stone of Tan Tock Seng Pauper Hospital is laid. It is named after a Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist who donated $5,000 to build the hospital.

Idea 26th July 1992

Launch of the Newpaper

For the first time in modern history, the Olympic Games opens in Barcelona with all 169 elligible countries present. it is the first Olympiad in mordern history that no country has boycotted, with serveral long-standing bans being lifted.

Gordonator SG

Idea 26th July 1978

first test tude baby born

The world first test tude baby, Lunige brown, was born by caesarean section in Manchester. She weighed 2.2kg.

Idea 26th July 1988

Launch of the Newpaper

The first edition of the Newpaper rolls off the presses with a circulation of about 40,000.

Gordonator SG

Idea 27th July 1940

Bugs Bunny's debut

On this day in 1940, Bugs Bunny first appears on the silver screen in "A Wild Hare." The wisecracking rabbit had evolved through several earlier short films. As in many future installments of Bugs Bunny cartoons, "A Wild Hare" featured Bugs as the would-be dinner for frustrated hunter Elmer Fudd.

Gordonator SG

Idea 28 July 1976

Worst modern earthquake

At 3:42 a.m., an earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude on the Richter scale flattens Tangshan, a Chinese industrial city with a population of about one million people. As almost everyone was asleep in their beds, instead of outside in the relative safety of the streets, the quake was especially costly in terms of human life.

An estimated 242,000 people in Tangshan and surrounding areas were killed, making the earthquake one of the deadliest in recorded history, surpassed only by the 300,000 who died in the Calcutta earthquake in 1737, and the 830,000 thought to have perished in China's Shaanxi province in 1556.

Gordonator SG

Idea 29th July 1981

Prince Charles marries Lady Diana

Nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries tune in to witness the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana Spencer, a young English schoolteacher. Married in a grand ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in the presence of 2,650 guests, the couple's romance was for the moment the envy of the world. Their first child, Prince William, was born in 1982, and their second, Prince Henry, in 1984.

Gordonator SG

Idea 30th July 1966

England wins World Cup

In the first televised World Cup soccer match, host-nation England beats Germany 4 to 2 to win the tournament final at Wembley Stadium. In overtime play, England's Geoff Hurst scored his second of three match goals to give Britain a 3 to 2 lead. In the dying seconds of overtime play, he scored his third goal, making the score 4 to 2 and handing England the Jules Rimet Trophy for the first time in the World Cup's 36-year history.

Gordonator SG

Idea 31th July 1930

First World Cup

The first World Cup soccer tournament is won by Uruguay, which beat Argentina 4 - 1. Only 13 countries participated, as most European terms opted to stay home instead of travel to Uruguay.

Idea 31th July 1964

Ranger 7 photographs moon

Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, takes the first close-up images of the moon--4,308 in total--before it impacts with the lunar surface northwest of the Sea of the Clouds. The images were 1,000 times as clear as anything ever seen through earth-bound telescopes.

Gordonator SG

Idea 1st August 1914

World World I erupts

Four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France orders a general mobilization, and the first German army units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. During the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain all lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium. The "Great War" that ensued was one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians.

Gordonator SG

Idea 2 August 1824

Singapore handed to the british

Singapore becomes a British possession as John Crawford concludes an agreement with Sultan Hussein of Johor, obtaining for the East India Comapny the complete secession of Singapore in return for cash payments and pensions.

Idea 2 August 1990

Iraq invades Kuwait

Saddam Hussein's Iraq army invades the oil rich state of Kuwait, taking the capital, Kuwait City. Iraq gained control of 20 percent of the world's oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf. The occupation is short-lived as American and British troops liberate Kuwait in March 1991.

Gordonator SG

Idea 3rd Auguest 1492

Columbus sets sail

From the Spanish port of Palos, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets sail in command of three ships--the Santa Marýa, the Pinta, and the Niýa--on a journey to find a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.

Gordonator SG

Idea 4th August 1914

U.S. proclaims neutrality in World War I

As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States; a position a vast majority of Americans favored. However, Wilson's hope that America could be "impartial in thought as well as in action" was soon compromised by Germany's attempted quarantine of the British Isles. Britain was one of America's closest trading partners, and tension arose between the United States and Germany when several U.S. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines.

Gordonator SG

Idea 5th Auguest 1962

Marilyn Monroe is found died

On August 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles. She was discovered lying nude on her bed, face down, with a telephone in one hand. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was "caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide." She was 36 years old.

Gordonator SG

Idea 6th August 1945

Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima

On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb nicknamed 'Little Boy', over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

Three days later in Nagasaki, "Fat Boy" became the second. The vast destruction wrought by these two bombs led the Japanese to surrender on 14 August 1945, thus ending the Second World War.

Gordonator SG

Idea 7th August 1959

First photograph of Earth

From the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the U.S. unmanned spacecraft Explorer 6 is launched into an orbit around the earth. The spacecraft, commonly known as the "Paddlewheel" satellite, featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles. The photo, received in Hawaii, took nearly 40 minutes to transmit.

Released by NASA in September, the first photograph ever taken of the earth by a U.S. satellite depicted a crescent shape of part of the planet in sunlight. It was Mexico, captured by Explorer 6 as it raced westward over the earth at speeds in excess of 20,000 miles an hour.

Gordonator SG

Idea 8th August 1974

Nixon resigns

Richard Nixon announces that he will resign the office of the President at noon the next day, August 9. He had been engulfed by a major political scandal that began with the bungled burglary and wiretapping of the Democratic Party's campaign headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C.

Gordonator SG

Idea 9th August 1965

Singapore gains independence

On 9th August 1965, Lee Kuan Yew announced to the people that Singapore was no longer part of Malaysia. The leaders of the Alliance and the PAP signed the separation agreement. This agreement provided Singapore to leave Malaysia and become an independent nation.

Idea 9th August 1945

Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

On this day in 1945, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender.

Gordonator SG

Idea 10th August 1945

Japan accepts Potsdam terms, agrees to unconditional surrender

On this day in 1945, just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing.

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