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Events

1298 - Battle of Falkirk (1298): King Edward I of England defeats Scottish rebels led by William Wallace.

1403 - Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England

1568 - Battle of Jemmingen: Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau

1579 - Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, was discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.

1718 - Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.

1774 - Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774.

1831 - Inauguration of Léopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.

1861 - American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run - At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins (Confederate victory).

1865 - In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.

1873 - At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West.

1877 - After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of 9 rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.

1925 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

1931 - CBS's New York City station begins broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the U. S.

 
 

1944 - World War II: Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).

1954 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

1961 - Mercury program: Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule "Liberty Bell 7" becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).

1963 - Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini is elected Pope Paul VI by the College of Cardinals.

1969 - Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon.

1970 - After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.

1972 - Bloody Friday bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army, (PIRA) around Belfast, Northern Ireland, 22 bomb explosions, 9 people were killed,130 seriously injured.

1973 - In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in 1972's Munich Olympics Massacre.

1976 - Christopher Ewart-Biggs British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland is assassinated by the Provisional IRA

1983 - The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at ?89.2°C (?129°F).

1984 - In Jackson, Michigan, a factory robot crushes a worker against a safety bar in apparently the first robot-related death in the United States.

1994 - Tony Blair is declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour Party, paving the way to him becoming Prime Minister in 1997.

1995 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.

 
 

1997 - The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.

2002 - Telecom giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history.

2003 - The last Volkswagen old-style Beetle rolls off the assembly line at Puebla, Mexico.

2004 - The United Kingdom government publishes Delivering Security in a Changing World, a paper detailing wide-ranging reform of the country's armed forces.

2005 - Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar July 7 bombings, target London's public transportation system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers escape.

 

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