On July 15 in …

484 BC –- The Temple of Castor and Pollux is dedicated in ancient Rome. During the days of the Republic, it will be used as the site of Senate meetings. During the Imperial period, it will be used for such things as housing the government treasury.

1799 –- The Rosetta Stone, which eventually will be used to decipher ancient lost languages, is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign.

1834 –- The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.

1870 –- Georgia becomes the last of the former breakaway Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

2006 –- Twitter is launched, and quickly will become one of the largest social media platforms in the world.

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On July 14 in …

1789 –- During the start of the French Revolution a crowd of citizens of Paris storms the Bastille, a fortress and prison seen as a symbol of royal authority in the city.

1874 –- The Great Chicago Fire burns down 47 acres of the city, killing at least 20 people, destroying 812 buildings, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago’s city council.

1881 –- Convicted murderer William H. Bonney, popularly known as Billy the Kid, is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner, NM, about two months after he had escaped from jail while awaiting hanging.

1933 -– Nazi eugenics begin with the proclamation of the “Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring.” It calls for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffers from alleged genetic disorders as determined by the government.

1943 –- The George Washington Carver National Monument is formally dedicated in Diamond, MO, the first U.S. National Monument in honor of an African-American.

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On July 13 in …

1787 –- The Continental Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance, establishing rules of governance for the Northwest Territory. It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states to the U.S.A. and limits the expansion of slavery.

1863 –- In New York City, opponents of conscription into military service — the draft — begin three days of rioting that later will be regarded as the worst in U.S. history.

1878 –- Bulgaria, which did not appear as a separate nation on world maps, comes into existence with the signing of the Treaty of Berlin — a redrawn map of the Balkans region as decided by European power and the Ottoman Empire. The treaty also gives independence to Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania from the Ottoman Empire.

1923 –- The iconic Hollywood sign officially is dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles, as part of a real estate promotion. It reads “Hollywoodland,” but the four last letters will be dropped after renovation in 1949.

1973 -– Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield reveals during a U.S. Senate hearing into the Watergate scandal that President Richard Nixon has a secret tape recording system in his office.

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On July 12 in …

1429 –- In the Hundred Years War, Joan of Arc leads the French army in the capture of the city and the English commander, Duke William de la Pole, in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau, France.

1775 –- British General Sir Thomas Gage declares martial law in the Massachusetts colony. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms except for Samuel Adams and John Hancock who they say, if captured, will be hanged.

1939 –- The National Baseball Hall of Fame officially opens in Cooperstown, NY, the result of an effort by Stephen Carlton Clark, owner of a local hotel.

1967 -– The United States Supreme Court, in the case of Loving v. Virginia, declares all state laws prohibiting interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.

1994 –- Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, CA. Celebrity athlete/actor O.J. Simpson, her estranged husband, will be acquitted in a criminal court of the killings, but later held liable in a wrongful death civil suit.

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On June 11 in …

1184 B.C. –- The city-state of Troy, located in a portion of Asia Minor that today is part of Turkey,  is sacked and burned during the Trojan War, according to calculations by Eratosthenes, the Greek scholar, librarian, poet, and inventor.

1895 –- The Paris–Bordeaux–Paris Run, widely acknowledged as the first automobile race in history, is completed. The curiosity of it is that the car finishing first is not declared the winner. Paul Koechlin, who arrives third in his four-seat Peugeot, is declared the winner even though he is 11 hours behind two other finishers. The reason: the race is for four-seaters, and the first two finishers were two-seaters.

1919 –- The thoroughbred race horse Sir Barton becomes the first horse to win the Triple Crown by taking the Belmont Stakes  at Belmont Park in Elmwood, Queens, New York, after having won the Kentucky Derby in Lousiville, KY, and the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, MD.

1944 –- The USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the U.S. Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese “Instrument of Surrender” in World War II, is commissioned.

2001 –- Domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh is executed by lethal injection in the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, IN, for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995. The attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, carried out by McVeigh and Terry Nichols, destroyed one-third of the building, killed 168 people, injured more than 680 others, destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius, shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings, and destroyed or burned 86 cars, causing an estimated $652 million worth of damage.

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On June 10 in …

1692 –- Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, MA, for “certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries,” part of the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

1898 — U.S. Marines land in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

1903 – Binney & Smith Company of New York City begins developing a product line of wax crayons. The product is named Crayola.

1935 –- Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, OH, by him and Bill Wilson.

1940 –- Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom, broadening the early scope of World War II.

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On June 9 in …

A.D. 68 –- The Roman emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer’s “Iliad.” His death ends the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starts the civil war known as “The Year of the Four Emperors.”

1732 –- James Edward Oglethorpe, a British general, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist, is granted an English Royal Charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia.

1934 –- The iconic cartoon character Donald Duck makes his debut in “The Wise Little Hen.”

1968 –- President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) three days earlier in Los Angeles.

1973 –- In thoroughbred horse racing, Secretariat wins the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in Elmwood, Queens, NY, the final race in the Triple Crown. Earlier, the horse had captured the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY, and the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD.

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On July 8 in …

1099 –- On the First Crusade, 15,000 thousand starving Christian soldiers march in a religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on.

1831 -– John Pemberton is born in Knoxville, GA. He will go on to become a chemist and pharmacist and the person who created the secret formula for Coca-Cola.

1932 –- The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, closing at 41.22.

1948 –- The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).

2011 -– The space shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. shuttle program.

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On July 7 in …

1456 –- A posthumous retrial results in a verdict acquitting Joan of Arc 25 years after she was burned at the stake on charges of heresy and witchcraft.

1846 -– American troops occupy the towns of Monterey and Yerba Buena during the Mexican-American War, thus beginning the American acquisition of California.

1928 –- Pre-sliced bread is sold for the first time, by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Michigan.

1947 –- It initially is reported that an alien spacecraft has crashed near Roswell, NM, but the government quickly declares it a downed weather balloon. Conspiracy theories and speculation erupt, giving rise to a cottage industry in Roswell books, documentaries, and broad public debate about extraterrestrial life and government coverups that thrives to this day.

1981 –- President Ronald Reagan appoints Sandra Day O’Connor the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States.

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On July 6 in …

1189 -– Richard I, popularly known as “The Lionheart” or, in the Norman French language widely used in parts of England, “Coeur de Lion,” ascends to the English throne. Richard spoke langue d’oïl, a French dialect, and lenga d’òc, a Romance language spoken in southern France and nearby regions. Although he was born in England, where he spent his childhood, before becoming king he lived for most of his adult life in the Duchy of Aquitaine in the southwest of France. Following his accession he spent very little time in England, perhaps as little as six months. Most of his life as king was spent on Crusade, in captivity, or in actively defending his lands in France.

1777 — American forces under General Arthur St. Clair retreat from Fort Ticonderoga on Lake George after it was besieged for five days by British artillery under General John Burgoyne.

1854 –- In Jackson, MI, the first convention of the Republican Party is held.

1885 -– Scientist Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog.

1907 -– Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón is born in the Coyoacán district of Mexico City. As Frida Kahlo she will go on to become a legendary Mexican muralist and educator and will be celebrated in the 2002 Selma Hayek motion picture “Frida.”

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