Saturday, July 30, 2011

30th of July

Today is the 211th day of the year with only 154 days remaining.

1608 - At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs.  This event will set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next hundred years.

1619 - In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses convenes for the first time.

1629 - An earthquake in Naples, Italy kills almost 10,000 people.

1733 - The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts.

1818 - English novelist Emily Bronte is born on this day.

1863 - American industrialist and founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford is born today.

1864 - Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by digging a tunnel and planting gunpowder underneath Rebel positions.  The gunpowder explodes and then begins the Battle of the Crater.

1865 - The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers.  It is the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the United States, at the time.

1866 - New Orlean's Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.

1875 - Confederate general, known for the infamous charge at Gettysburg, George Edward Pickett, died at theage of 50.

1890 - Famed Major League Baseball manager Casey Stengel is born today.  He is known for his eleven years as manager of the New York Yankees, and served baseball with a 53 year career as player and manager.

1898 - First Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, dies at the age of 83.

1945 - Japanese submarine, I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, leading to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the United States Navy.  300 men went down with the ship, and over 880 faced exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks.  Only 316 sailors survived the ordeal.

1947 - Austrian-born American actor, bodybuilder and politician --- 38th Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger is born.

1965 - President Lyndon Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

1970 - English-American film director, screenwriter, and producer Christopher Nolan, was born today.

1971 - David Scott and James Irwinon the module Falcon, land on the moon with the first Lunar Rover.

1974 - President Richard Nixon finally releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so.

1997 - Bao Dai, the puppet head-of-state under Japanese rule named his country Vietnam, he was then chief of state of South Vietnam until 1955.  He died at the age of 83, while in exile in Paris, France.

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