On July 20 in …

1799 — Tekle Guyorgis I begins the first of his six separate reigns as emperor of Ethiopia.

1807 — Nicephone Nuepce is awarded a patent by Napolean for what he calls the “Pyreolophore.” It is the first internal combustion engine and was used to power a boat upstream on the river Saone in France.

1903 — The Ford Motor Company ships its first car.

1917 — The modern Kingdom of Yugoslavia is created by the Corfu Declaration, a document codifying an agreement between the Yugoslav Committee and the Kingdom of Serbia.

1968 — The first International Special Olympics Summer Games begin at Soldier Field in Chicago, with about 1,000 athletes participating.

On July 19 in …

1545 –- The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth, England. In 1982, the wreck will be salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.

1845 –- The last great fire to broadly affect Manhattan begins early in the morning and is subdued by late afternoon, but not before it claims the lives of four firefighters and 26 civilians, and destroys 345 buildings.

1848 — In Seneca Falls, NY, the first Women’s Rights Convention takes place. Bloomers are introduced at the event.

1943 –- Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft in a major World War II  strike, inflicting thousands of casualties.

1997 -– The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) resumes a ceasefire to end “The Troubles,” its 25-year-long campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

On July 18 in …

64 A.D. –- The Great Fire of Rome begins, and will rage for six days, causing widespread devastation that will destroy half of the city. Emperor Nero will counter widespread rumors that the fire was started at his behest to clear the way for his new projects by blaming the devastation on the Christian community in the city. That will initiate the Roman Empire’s first persecution of the Christians.

1290 –- King Edward I of England issues the “Edict of Expulsion,” banishing all of England’s 16,000 Jews from the land. This is called Tisha B’Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities.

1925 –- Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto, “Mein Kampf” (“My Struggle”).

1969 -– After a party on Chappaquiddick Island at Martha’s Vineyard, Senator Ted Kennedy, D-MA, drives his car off a bridge and his young passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.

1976 –- Nadia Comăneci of Romania becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics during the Montreal Summer Olympics.

On July 17 in …

180 –- Twelve inhabitants of Scillium, a city in the part of North Africa that today is Tunisia, are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.

1762 –- Catherine the Great, born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg in Germany, becomes the absolute ruler of Russia upon the murder of her husband, Peter III. She will rule until her death, at the age of 67, in 1796.

1902 -– Willis H. Carrier, a Cornell University engineering graduate, unveils drawings for what will be recognized as the world’s first true air conditioner. It controlled temperature, humidity, air circulation, and cleansed the air.

1917 — Reacting to anti-German sentiment during World War I, England’s King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family hereafter will bear the surname Windsor. It had been the rather unwieldy “Saxe-Coburg and Gotha,” reflecting the German paternal lineage of the royal rulers.

1955 –- The Disneyland amusement park is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, CA.

On July 16 in …

1661 –- The first banknotes in Europe are issued, by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.

1790 –- President George Washington signs into law the “Residence Act,” establishing an area known as the District of Columbia as the capital city of the United States. The federal government currently is located in New York City, but will move once office construction is completed in DC.

1861 — President Abraham Lincoln orders Union troops to begin a 25-mile march into Virginia for what will become known as the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the Civil War.

1945 –- The “Atomic Age” begins when the U.S. government successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon in the desert near Alamogordo, NM. The test is part of the Manhattan Project that will help develop the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

1973 –- During U.S. Senate hearings on what was nicknamed “Watergate,” former White House aide Alexander Butterfield reveals that President Richard Nixon has secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.