Today in History for 15th July 2015

1099 - City of Jerusalem is captured and plundered by Christian forces during the First Crusade
1205 - Pope Innocent III states Jews are doomed to perpetual servitudea and subjugation due to crucifixion of Jesus
1207 - King John of England expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton.
1240 - A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
1307 - Duke Henrik of Corinthia chosen as King of Bohemia
1381 - John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hung, drawn and quartered in the presence of Richard II of England.
1410 - Battle of Grunwald (2nd Battle of Tannenburg), one of the largest battles of medieval Europe, during Poland-Lithuanian Teutonic War. Polish King Władysław Jagiełło (Jogaila) and Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas led defeat against Teutonic Ulrich von Jungingen
1500 - Duke Albrecht of Saxon beats Friese rebellion
1500 - Baglione family massacre at the "Blood Wedding" of Astorre Baglione & Lavinia Colonna in Perugia

1501 - Explorer Pedro Cabral back in Lisbon
Key Figure of Medieval Rus Alexander Nevsky 1524 - Emperor Karel I bans German national synode
1538 - Peace talks between Karel & King Francois I
1662 - King Charles II charters Royal Society in London
1741 - Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
1755 - French ambassador recalled from London
1779 - American troops under Gen A Wayne conquer Ft Stony Point, NY
1783 - 1st steamboat, Pyroscaphe, 1st run in France
1787 - Parliament of Paris banished to Troyes
1789 - Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, is named by acclamation colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris.
1795 - "Marseillaise" becomes French national anthem
1799 - The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte 1806 - Zebulon Pike began his journey to explore the Southwest
1808 - French marshal Joachim Murat becomes king of Naples
1815 - Napoleon surrenders to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon at Rochefort after his earlier defeat at the Battle of Waterloo
1815 - 1st flat horse race held at English race track Cheltenham on Nottingham Hill
1823 - A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.
1830 - Indian tribes, Sioux, Sauk & Fox, sign fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien giving the US most of Minnesota, Iowa & Missouri
1840 - Great Britain, Russia, Austria & Prussia sign Quadruple Alliance
1850 - John Wisden bowls all 10 South batsmen, North v South at Lord's
1856 - Natal forms as a British colony separate from Cape Colony
1862 - CSS Arkansas vs USS Cardondelet & Queen of the West engage at Yazoo R
1863 - Pres Davis orders service duty for confederate army
1864 - Troop train loaded with Confederate prisoners collided with a coal train killing 65 & injuring 109 of 955 aboard
1867 - San Francisco Merchants' Exchange opens
1869 - Margarine is patented by Hippolye Méga-Mouriès for use by French Navy
1870 - Georgia becomes last confederate to be readmitted to US
1870 - Manitoba becomes 5th Canadian province & NW Territories created
1870 - Hudson's Bay & Northwest Territories transferred to Canada
1876 - Baseball's 1st no-hitter, St Louis' George W Bradley no-hits Hartford
1880 - 4th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: John Hartley beats H Lawford (6-2 6-3 6-2 2-6 6-3)
1888 - Bandai volcano (Japan) erupts for 1st time in 1,000 years
1895 - 12th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Charlotte Sterry beats H Jackson (7-5 8-6)
1895 - 19th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Wilfred Baddeley beats W Eaves (4-6 2-6 8-6 6-2 6-3)
Physician and Nobel Laureate Camillo Golgi 1898 - Camillo Golgi discovers the Golgi Apparatus (a delicate network inside cells essential for the transmission and reception of information between cells)
1900 - President Steyn/General De Law escape Brandwater Basin
1901 - NY Giant Christy Mathewson no-hits St Louis, 5-0
1902 - Ranjitsinhji scores 180 before lunch, for Sussex v Surrey
1904 - 1st Buddhist temple in US forms, Los Angeles
1906 - Republic museum opens Rembrandt hall in Amsterdam
1909 - Ty Cobb hits 2 inside-the-park HRs
1911 - 46" of rain (begining 7/14) falls in Baguio, Philippines
1912 - British National Health Insurance Act goes into effect
1914 - Mexican president Huerta flees with 2 million pesos to Europe
1915 - The head of German propaganda in the US, Dr Heinrich Albert, loses his briefcase on a subway in New York City; an examination of its content reveals an extensive network of German espionage and subversion across the US
MLB Legend Ty Cobb 1915 - The Austro-German forces launch an offensive along the Eastern Front
1916 - 22.22" (56.4 cm) of rain falls in Altapass NC (state record)
1916 - Boeing Company (Pacific Aero) formed by William Boeing in Seattle Wash
1918 - World War I: Second Battle of Marne begins
1920 - Ruth ties his record of 29 HRs in a season
1922 - 1st duck-billed platypus publicly exhibited in US, at NY zoo
1922 - 26th US Golf Open: Gene Sarazen shoots a 288 at Skokie CC in Ill
1923 - 27th US Golf Open: Bobby Jones shoots a 296 at Inwood CC in NY
1923 - Italian parliament accepts new constitution
1926 - VPRO (Free thinking Protestant Radio Broadcast) forms
1927 - 62nd British Golf Open: Bobby Jones shoots a 285 at St Andrews
1927 - Massacre in Vienna: 89 protesters are killed by the Austrian police
1929 - 1st airport hotel opens-Oakland Ca
31st US President Herbert Hoover 1932 - President Hoover cuts own salary 15%
1933 - Wiley Post began 1st solo flight around world
1934 - Continental Airlines commences operations.
1936 - Dutch 2nd Chamber agree to temporarily increase defense budget
1937 - Buchenwald Concentration Camp opens
1937 - Japanese attack Marco Polo Bridge, invade China
1938 - Arthur Fagg completes 244 & 202 in the same cricket game for Kent
1939 - Clara Adams (NYC) is 1st woman to complete round world flight
1940 - 1st betatron placed in operation, Urbana, Il
1940 - Nazi occupiers seize library of IISG Amsterdam
1940 - Physicist Donald Kerst becomes the first person to accelerate electrons using electromagnetic induction, reaching energies of 2.3 MeV, when his betatron device (for particle acceleration) becomes operational
1941 - Florey & Heatley present freeze dried mold cultures (Penicillin)
Pathologist and Nobel Laureate Howard Florey 1942 - 1st deportation camp at Westerbork, Jews sent to Auschwitz
1942 - Dutch Jews invoked for "Labor camps"
1944 - Greenwich Observatory damaged by WW II flying bomb
1945 - 27th PGA Championship: Byron Nelson at Morraine CC Dayton Ohio
1946 - British North Borneo Company transfers its rights to modern day Sabah to the British Crown
1948 - Alcoholic Anonymous founded in Britain
1948 - Pres Harry Truman nominated for another term (Phila)
1949 - "Miss Liberty" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 308 performances
1949 - Czech tennis stars Jaroslav Drobny & Vladimir Cernik, defect to US
1949 - WBTV TV channel 3 in Charlotte, NC (CBS) begins broadcasting
1952 - 1st transatlantic helicopter flight begins
1953 - ANC members, Walter Sisulu and Duma Nokwe leave South Africa and go overseas under false names
Golfer Byron Nelson 1954 - 110°F (43°C) at Balcony Falls, Virginia (state record)
1954 - 1st coml jet transport plane built in US tested (Boeing 707)
1954 - KOCO TV channel 5 in Oklahoma City, OK (ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 - WBOC TV channel 16 in Salisbury, MD (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
1955 - WNDU TV channel 16 in South Bend, IN (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 - Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.
1956 - Beverly Hanson/Kathy Cornelius wins LPGA Hot Springs Golf Invitational
1956 - Iharos runs world record 10k (28:42.8)
1957 - Dutch Super Constellation crashes near New Guinea, 56 die

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Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 230
1273 - Ewostatewos, Ethiopian monk and religious leader (d. 1352)
1353 - Vladimir the Bold, Russian prince (d. 1410)
1471 - Eskender, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1494)
1553 - Archduke Ernest of Austria (d. 1595)
1573 - Inigo Jones, architect (Old St Paul's Cathedral, Coven Garden), born in London, England
Painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606) 1606 - Rembrandt van Rijn, Leiden Netherlands, painter (Night Watch), (d. 1669)
1631 - Jens Juel, Danish diplomat (d. 1700)
1638 - Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, composer
1700 - Johann Christoph Richter, composer
1701 - Pierre Joubert, became oldest known Canadian (113 y 124 d at death)
1704 - August Gottlieb Spangenberg, founder of Moravian Church in North America
1737 - Princess Louise-Marie of France, daughter of king Louis XV (d. 1787)
1779 - Clement Clarke Moore, US, author ('Twas the Night Before Xmas)
1796 - Thomas Bulfinch, mythologist (Bulfinch's Mythology)
1798 - Charles H Bell, Comm (Union Navy), (d. 1875)
1802 - John Barnett, composer
1808 - Henry Cole, promotor (Great Exhibition of 1851)
1808 - Henry Edward Manning, cardinal/archbishop (Westminster)
1812 - Benno Adam, animal painter
1812 - James Hope-Scott, English barrister (d. 1873)
1817 - John Fowler, English engineer (London Metropolitan Railway)
1818 - Heinrich Esser, composer
1837 - Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, queen of Portugal (d. 1859)
1848 - Vilfredo F D Pareto, Italian economist/sociologist
1849 - Moritz Heuzenroeder, composer
1850 - Francesca Xavier Cabrini, [Mother Cabrini], 1st US saint
1851 - Eduardo Gutiérrez, Argentinian author (d. 1889)
1856 - Owen Dunell, cricketer (South Africa's 1st Test captain)
1858 - Emmeline Pankhurst, England, found (Women's Social & Political Union)
1864 - Marie Tempest, [Marie Susan Etherington], actress (Yellow Sands)
1865 - Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st viscount Northcliffe
1865 - Wilhelm Wirtinger, Austrian mathematician (d. 1945)
1867 - Maggie Mitchell Walker, 1st woman bank director/philanthropist
1870 - Ernest Walker, composer
1871 - Kunikida Doppo, Japanese writer (d. 1908)
1875 - Frank "Pop" Morgenweck, basketball hall of famer (elected 1962)
1875 - Jean van den Eeckhoudt, Belgian painter
1878 - Willem Paerels, Neth/Belgian painter/graphic artist
1884 - Enrique Soro Barriga, composer
1889 - Marjorie Rambeau, SF California, actress (Primrose Path, Torch Song)
1892 - Walter Benjamin, German literature critic/writer
1893 - Enid Bennett, Australia, silent film actress (Skippy, Hairpins)
1894 - Tadeusz Sendzimir, Polish-American engineer and inventor (d. 1989)
1898 - Noel Gay, [Richard Moxon Armitage], composer
1898 - Norman Demuth, composer
1899 - Seán Lemass, Irish leader (d. 1971)
1901 - Pyke F C Koch, Dutch surrealistic painter (Dolores' Breakfast)
1902 - Jean Rey, Belgium, pres of European Commission (1967-70)
1902 - Raymond Hackett, husband of Blanche Sweet/actor (Faithless Lover), born in NYC, New York
1903 - Kumaraswami Kamaraj, Indian politician (d. 1975)
1904 - Rudolf Arnheim, German-born author (d. 2007)
1905 - Dorothy Fields, lyricist (I'm in the Mood for Love)
1906 - Edmund Davies, British lord of appeal
1906 - Rudolf "Rudi" Uhlenhaut, German automotive engineer and test driver (Mercedes Benz) (d. 1989)
1907 - Paterson Fraser, British air marshal
1909 - Enid Kathleen Hutchinson, adult educationalist
1909 - Isabel Jewell, Shoshone WY, actress (Ceiling Zero, Arousers)
1909 - John Cochrane, South African cricket pace bowler (one Test 1931)
1910 - Ronald Binge, composer
1911 - Juliet Pannett, English portrait painter
1911 - Lord Shackelton, explorer/government minister
1911 - Edward Shackleton, English explorer (d. 1994)
1913 - Murvyn Vye, Quincy Mass, actor (Bob Cummings Show)
1913 - Ralph Hammond Innes, English author
1913 - Cowboy Copas, American country singer (d. 1963)
1913 - Dorothy Schwartz, American violinist (d. 2007)
1913 - Abraham Sutzkever, Yiddish language poet and memoirist.
1914 - Akhtar Hameed Khan, pioneer of Microcredit in developing countries (d. 1999)
1914 - Howard Vernon, Swiss actor (d. 1996)
1915 - Alexander Durie, vice president (British AA)
1915 - Ron Smith, union leader (British Postal Workers)
1916 - George Maduro, Antillian resistance fighter (Willemsorde/Madurodam)
1917 - Robert Conquest, English author (Back to Life)
1918 - Lord Buxton of Alsa, CEO (ITV)
1919 - Iris Murdoch, novelist (Severed Head, Unicorn), born in Dublin, Ireland
1920 - Eldon Rudd, (Rep-R-AZ, 1977- )
1920 - Ruthven Wade, British Air Chief marshal
1921 - Jack Hamilton Beeson, composer
1922 - Jef Houthuys, chairman Belgian labor union (ACV 1968-87)
1922 - Jeffrey Benson, CEO (600 group)
1922 - Jiri Lederer, Czechoslovakia, journalist/dissident
1924 - David Cox, warden (Nuffield College, Oxford)
1924 - Jeremiah A Denton, (Sen-R-AL, 1981-86)
1925 - Phil Carey, Hackensack NJ, actor (Asa Buchanan-One Life to Live)
1926 - John Arthur Neill Lambert, composer
1926 - John Graham, British ambassador to NATO
1926 - Driss Chraïbi, Moroccan author
1926 - Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator (d. 2003)
1927 - Ann Jellicoe, theater director/playwright (Knack)
1927 - Carmen Zapata, actress (Hagen, Viva Valdez, Man & the City), born in NYC, New York (d. 2014)
1928 - Carl Woese, American microbiologist
1929 - Larry Lamb, newspaper editor
1929 - Charles Anthony, American tenor
1930 - Charles Kelly, chief constable (Staffordshire England)
1930 - Jacques Derrida, French philosopher (d. 2004)
1930 - Stephen Smale, American mathematician
1931 - Clive Cussler, Aurora Illinois, American writer (Raise The Titanic, Sahara)
1931 - Eugene Louw, South African minister of Internal affairs
1932 - Nina Van Pallandt, Copenhagen Denmark, actress (American Gigolo)
1933 - Frederico Davia, opera singer

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Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 9 of 9
1500 - "Blood Wedding" of Astorre Baglione & Lavinia Colonna in Perugia family Baglione massacre
1952 - Gerald D Lascelles (under English princess Mary) weds Angela Dowding
Actress, Comedian and T.V. Host Joan Rivers (1965) 1965 - Actress Joan Rivers (32) weds TV producer Edgar Rosenberg
1999 - "Grateful Dead" guitarist Bob Weir (51) weds Natasha Muenter (31) in Mill Valley, California
2005 - Heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis (39) weds former Miss Jamaica runner-up Violet Chang at William Knibb Memorial Baptist Church in Falmouth, Jamaica
2006 - Singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne (21) weds "Sum 41" lead singer and guitarist Deryck Whibley (26) at a private estate in Montecito, California
2006 - Soccer star player Ashley Cole (25) weds "Girls Aloud" member Cheryl Tweedy (23) at Holy Trinity Church in Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire
2011 - American TV personality and host Vanessa Minnillo (30) weds American singer-songwriter Nick Lachey (37) at Sir Richard Branson's private Necker Island in British Virgin Islands
2011 - Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy (44) weds Amy Petitgout in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts

Famous Divorces

Divorces 1 - 1 of 1
His Royal Highness Prince Charles (1996) 1996 - Prince Charles & Princess Diana sign divorce papers

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 129
668 - Constantius II, emperor of Byzantium, dies at 37
1085 - Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia & Calabria, dies at 70
1262 - Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, English soldier (b. 1222)
1274 - John F Bonaventura, Ital/French theologist/dominican/saint, dies
1291 - Rudolf I, King of Germany & Holy Roman Empire, dies
1381 - John Ball, English priest/ideologist of Boer uprising, hanged
1406 - Duke William of Austria (b. c.1370)
1410 - Ulrich von Jungingen, German Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, killed at the Battle of Grunwald (b. 1360)
1411 - Johannes Parvus, [Jean Petit], French theologist, dies
1416 - John, Duke of Berry, captain of Paris, dies
1417 - Willem J Eggert, financier (W E Center, Purmerend), dies
Explorer and Conquistador Juan Ponce de León (1521) 1521 - Juan Ponce de León, Spanish Explorer and conquistador - 1st European to discover Florida
1571 - Shimazu Takahisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1514)
1609 - Annibale Carracci, painter, dies
1614 - Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, French historian and biographer (b. c.1540)
1655 - Girolamo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1570)
1685 - James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles 2, executed
1738 - Alexander Voznitsyn, Rus Naval officer converted to Judaism, executed
1738 - Antonio Maria Pacchioni, composer, dies at 84
1738 - Baruch Leibov, converted Russian Naval officer to Judaism, executed
1750 - Vasily Tatishchev, Russian statesman (b. 1686)
1751 - John Wilson, botanist, dies
1765 - Charles-André van Loo, French painter (b. 1705)
1767 - Michael Bruce, Scottish poet (b. 1746)
1782 - Farinelli, Italian singer, dies at 77
1782 - Robert Wainwright, composer, dies at 33
1784 - Johan B Straub, South German sculptor, dies
1789 - Jacques Duphly, composer, dies at 74
1798 - Gaetano Pugnani, composer, dies at 66
1810 - Jean-Baptiste Rey, composer, dies at 75
1828 - Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (b. 1741)
1839 - Winthrop Mackworth Praed, politician/poet, dies
1844 - Claude Charles Fauriel, French historian (b. 1772)
1854 - Wincenty Studzinski, composer, dies at 39
1856 - Margaretha J de Neufville, author (The Kidnap), dies at 81
1857 - Carl Czerny, Austrian pianist/composer, dies at 66
1862 - David Emanuel Twiggs, US Confederate gen-mjr (Monterrey), dies at 72
1865 - Reinier C Bakhuizen van de Brink, Dutch historian, dies at 55
1868 - William Thomas Morton, dentist (1st to use ether), dies
1869 - A J Haynes, US army captain and civil war veteren, assassinated by KKK
1876 - Aleksander Fredro, Polish comedy writer (Zemstra), dies at 82
1881 - Billy the Kid [William H Bonney], shot by sheriff Pat Garrett at 21
1883 - Tom Thumb, famous small person (40"), dies of a stroke at 44
1885 - Rosalia de Castro, Spanish writer and poet in the Galician language ('Séculos Escuros') (b. 1837)
1890 - Gottfried Keller, writer, dies at 70
1898 - Jean Baptiste Salpointe, second Archbishop of Santa Fe (d. 1825)
Author and Playwright Anton Chekhov (1904) 1904 - Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (Uncle Vanya), dies at 44
1910 - Daniel Kinet, auto racer/1st Belgian flyer, dies
1912 - Francisco Lazaro, Portuguese marathon runner (Olympics), dies at 21
1915 - Ludwik Grossman, composer, dies at 80
1919 - Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate, commits suicide at 66
1929 - Hugo Von Hofmannsthal, playwright/poet, dies
1930 - Leopold von Auer, Hungarian/US violinist, dies
1931 - Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Russian economist (b. 1868)
1933 - Irving Babbitt, US writer (Democracy & Leadership), dies at 67
1933 - Freddie Keppard, American musician (b. 1890)
1934 - Jules Renkin, Belgian PM (1931-32), dies
1935 - Alfred Archer, cricketer (England batsman in one Test 1899), dies
1935 - Pieter WA Cort van de Linden, Dutch premier (1913-18), dies at 89
Chemist and Nobel Laureate Hermann Emil Fischer (1919) 1937 - Walter Gay, artist, dies
1939 - Johon Mellanby, physiologist, dies
1939 - Percy Scott Worthington, architect, dies
1940 - Donald Calthrop, dies at 52
1940 - Robert Wadlow, world's tallest man (8'11.1"), dies at 32
1942 - Denis Moloney, cricketer (during WW II 3 Tests for NZ 1937), dies
1946 - Razor Smith, English cricketer (b. 1877)
1947 - Henry Kolker, dies at 76
1947 - Walter Donaldson, American songwriter (b. 1893)
1948 - John J. Pershing, [Black Jack], US general (Mexico, WW I), dies at 87
1953 - Servant of God Archbishop Mar Ivanios (b.1882)
1957 - George Cleveland, actor (Grampa-Lassie), dies at 74
1957 - Marie C of Zeggelen, author (Dessajongen), dies at 87
1957 - James M. Cox, American politician (b. 1870)
US WW1 Commander John J. Pershing (1948) 1957 - Vasily Maklakov, Russian orator and liberal politician (b. 1869)
1958 - Julia Lennon, mother of Beatle John, dies in an auto accident
1958 - Nuries-Said, Iraqi soldier/statesman, assassinated, dies
1959 - Ernest Bloch, Swiss/US composer (Macbeth), dies at 78
1959 - Peter A Egge, Norwegian writer (The Dream), dies
1959 - Vance Palmer, Australian author (b. 1885)
1960 - Lawrence Mervil Tibbett, baritone, dies after surgery at 63
1960 - Set Persson, Swedish communist politician (b. 1897)
1961 - John E. Brownlee, Canadian politician (b. 1884)
1965 - Francis Cherry, American politician (b. 1908)
1968 - Lura Anson, dies in Woodland at 76
1969 - Peter Van Eyck, dies after long illness at 56
1971 - Guy Wilkerson, dies of cancer at 71
1974 - Christine Chubbuck, television news reporter (b.1944)
1975 - Charles Weidman, US dancer/choreographer (Fables for Our Time), dies
1976 - Paul William Gallico, writer, dies at 78
1977 - Konstantin Fedin, writer, dies
1979 - Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, President of Mexico (b. 1911)
1980 - Eddie Jackson, comedian (Jimmy Durante Show), dies at 84
1980 - Henri Martelli, composer, dies at 85
1982 - Donald Beard, cricketer (4 Tests for NZ 1952-56), dies
1982 - Wendy Caulfield, 1st Green River victim, found near Seattle
1982 - Bill Justis, American musician and producer (b. 1926)
1983 - Eddie Foy Jr, actor (Eddie-Fair Exchange), dies of cancer at 78
1986 - Benny Rubin, actor/comedian (Benny Rubin Show), dies at 87
1986 - Florence Halop, actress (Florence-Night Court), dies at 63
1986 - Billy Haughton, American harness driver and trainer (b. 1923)