Military Historical Dates

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 19th

711 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete – Umayyad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King Roderic.
1333 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill – The English win a decisive victory over the Scots.
1544 – Italian War of 1542: the first Siege of Boulogne begins.
1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth.
1553 – Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days of reign.
1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel.
1843 – Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and also becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
1863 – American Civil War: Morgan's Raid – At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
1864 – Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking – The Qing Dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
1879 – Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up his New Mexico saloon.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles – British and Australian troops attack German trenches in a prelude to the Battle of the Somme.
1919 – Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen riot and burn down Luton Town Hall.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada – The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
1942 – World War II: Battle of the Atlantic – German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to the effective American convoy system.
1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
1964 – Vietnam War: at a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 20th,

70 – First Jewish-Roman War: Siege of Jerusalem - Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots.
911 – Rollo lays siege to Chartres.
1304 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle – King Edward I of England takes the stronghold using the War Wolf.
1402 – Ottoman-Timurid Wars: Battle of Ankara – Timur, ruler of Timurid Empire, defeats forces of the Ottoman Empire sultan Bayezid I.
1656 – Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War: Battle of Lissa – The Austrian Navy , led by Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, defeats the Italian Navy near the island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea.
1881 – Indian Wars: Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford, North Dakota
1898 – Spanish-American War: A boiler explodes on the USS Iowa off the coast of Santiago de Cuba.
1916 – World War I: In Armenia, Russian troops capture Gumiskhanek.
1917 – World War I: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
1918 – World War I: German troops cross the Marne.
1929 – Soviet troops attempt to cross the Amur River into Manchuria near Blagoveschensk as tensions mount between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China.
1932 – In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House.
1932 – Crowds in the capitals of Bolivia and Paraguay demand their governments declare war on the other after fighting on their border.
1933 – Vice-Chancellor of Germany Franz von Papen and Vatican Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli sign a concordat on behalf of their respective nations.
1936 – The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.
1940 – Denmark leaves the League of Nations.
1941 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrenti Beria its chief.
1942 – World War II: The first unit of the Women's Army Corps begins training in Des Moines, Iowa.
1944 – World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (known as the 20 July plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1946 – World War II: The US Congress's Pearl Harbor Committee says Franklin D. Roosevelt is completely blameless for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and calls for a unified command structure in the armed forces.
1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman issues a peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
1948 – In New York City, twelve leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Smith Act including William Z. Foster and Gus Hall.
1949 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their nineteen-month war.
1950 – Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
1954 – At Geneva, Switzerland, an armistice is signed that ends fighting in Vietnam and divides the country along the 17th parallel.
1960 – The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time.
1960 – Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council while the government of the Congo appeals to the Soviet Union to send troops to push back the Belgians. The governments of the United States and France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization warn the Soviets to stay out of the dispute.
1960 – The head of the Physics Department at the Israel Institute of Technology, Kurt Sitte, is arrested for espionage.
1961 – French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
1969 – Apollo Program: Apollo 11 successfully lands on the Moon at 20:17 UTC on July 20.
1969 – A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, 6 days after the beginning of the "Football War"
1973 – The US Senate passes the War Powers Act.
1973 – Vietnam War: In testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Jerry Friedheim to the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, the US Defense Department admits it lied to US Congress about bombing Cambodia .
1973 – Palestianian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai.
1974 – Turkish occupation of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after a "coup d' etat", organised by the dictator of Greece, against president Makarios. NATO's Council praises the United States and the United Kingdom for attempts to settle the dispute. Syria and Egypt put their militaries on alert.
1976 – Vietnam War: The U.S. military completes its troop withdrawal from Thailand.
1980 – The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
1982 – Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings: The Provisional IRA detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
1983 – The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon.
1987 – UN Security Council Resolution 598, condemning the Iran–Iraq War and demanding cease-fire, is unanimously adopted.
2006 – Ethiopian invasion of Somalia Ethiopian troops enter Somalian territory.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 21st,

356 BC – Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
285 – Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar and co-ruler.
1403 – Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.
1545 – The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight occurs.
1568 – Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau.
1718 – The Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
1774 – Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the war.
1861 – American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army.
1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
1877 – After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.
1918 – U-156 shells Nauset Beach, in Orleans, Massachusetts. This is the first time that the United States is shelled since the Mexican-American War.
1944 – World War II: Battle of Guam – American troops land on Guam starting the battle. It would end on August 10.
1944 – World War II: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators are executed in Berlin, Germany for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.
1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
1961 – Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
1969 – Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission.
1972 – Bloody Friday bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army around Belfast, Northern Ireland – 22 bomb explosions, 9 people killed and 130 people 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.
1977 – The start of a four day long Libyan-Egyptian War takes place.
1983 – The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2°C (−129°F).
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.
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 are captured and later convicted and imprisoned for long terms.
2008 – Bosnian-Serb alleged war criminal Radovan Karadžić is arrested in Serbia and is indicted by the UN's ICTY tribunal.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 22,

838 – Battle of Anzen: the Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids.
1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1298 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk – King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk.
1456 – Ottoman Wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade – John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire
1484 – Battle of Lochmaben Fair – A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas are defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany's brother James III of Scotland; Douglas is captured.
1499 – Battle of Dornach – The Swiss decisively defeat the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition – Battle of Cape Finisterre – an inconclusive naval action is fought between a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War – Battle of Salamanca – British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta – outside Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
1942 – The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
1942 – Holocaust: the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
1943 – World War II: Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.
1944 – The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland
1946 – King David Hotel bombing: a Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandate Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths.
2002 – Israel kills Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas's military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
2003 – Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year old son, and a bodyguard.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 23,

1793 – Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.
1862 – American Civil War: Henry W. Halleck takes command of the Union Army.
1914 – Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia will reject those demands and Austria will declare war on July 28.
1936 – In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of Socialist and Communist parties.
1940 – The United States' Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U.S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1942 – The Holocaust: the Treblinka extermination camp is opened.
1942 – World War II: Operation Edelweiss begins.
1945 – The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain begin.
1961 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.
1962 – Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.
1962 – The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed.
1967 – 12th Street Riot: in Detroit, Michigan, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It will leave 43 killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned.
1968 – Glenville Shootout: in Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization led by Ahmed Evans and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.
1968 – The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying 10 crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route from Rome, Italy, to Lod, Israel.
2005 – Three bombs explode in the Naama Bay area of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killing 88 people.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 24th,

1132 – Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.
1148 – Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.
1411 – Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scotland, takes place.
1715 – A Spanish treasure fleet of 10 ships under Admiral Ubilla leaves Havana, Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 9 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
1814 – War of 1812: General Phineas Riall advances toward the Niagara River to halt Jacob Brown's American invaders.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown – Confederate General Jubal Anderson Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.
1923 – The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I.
1929 – The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it is first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by most leading world powers).
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
1974 – After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus the Greek military junta collapses and democracy is restored.
1977 – End of a four day long Libyan-Egyptian War.
1990 – Iraqi forces start massing on the Kuwait-Iraq border.
2001 – Bandaranaike Airport attack is carried out by 14 Tamil Tiger commandos, all died in this attack. They destroyed 11 Aircrafts (mostly military) and damaged 15, there are no civilian casualties. This incident slowed down Sri Lankan economy.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 25th,

306 – Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
864 – The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.
1139 – Battle of Ourique: The independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of León declared after the Almoravids, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, are defeated by Prince Afonso Henriques. He then becomes Afonso I, King of Portugal, after calling the first assembly of the estates-general of Portugal at Lamego, where he is given the Crown from the Bishop of Bragança, to confirm the independence.
1261 – The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.
1722 – The Three Years War begins along the Maine and Massachusetts border.
1758 – Seven Years' War: the island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
1759 – French and Indian War: in Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
1797 – Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife (Spain).
1799 – At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.
1814 – War of 1812: Battle of Lundy's Lane – reinforcements arrive near Niagara Falls for General Riall's British and Canadian forces and a bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown's Americans commences at 18.00; the Americans retreat to Fort Erie.
1824 – Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua. Good for us!
1861 – American Civil War: the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
1866 – The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (commonly called "5-star general"). Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to be promoted to this rank.
1869 – The Japanese daimyō begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869).
1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.
1898 – The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with U.S. troops led by General Nelson Miles landing at harbor of Guánica, Puerto Rico (The land invasion, proper, began that day: Sea-based bombardment and shelling of the capital city of San Juan had been occurring since May 1898).
1907 – Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.
1915 – RFC Captain Lanoe Hawker becomes the first British military aviator to earn the Victoria Cross, for defeating three German two-seat observation aircraft in one day, over the Western Front.
1920 – France captures Damascus.
1934 – The Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
1940 – General Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.
1942 – Norwegian Manifesto calls for nonviolent resistance to the Nazis.
1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
1944 – World War II: Operation Spring – one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war: 1,500 casualties, including 500 killed.
1946 – Operation Crossroads: an atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll.
1956 – 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.
1961 – In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.
1979 – Another section of the Sinai peacefully returned by Israel to Egypt.
1983 – Black July: 37 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.
1993 – Israel launches a massive attack against terrorist forces in Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call Seven-Day War.
1994 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, which formally ends the state of war that had existed between the nations since 1948.
2000 – Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, F-BTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 26th

657 – Battle of Siffin.
811 – Battle of Pliska; Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I is slain, his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded.
920 – Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.
1469 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Edgecote Moor – Pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England.
1758 – French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
1822 – José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
1861 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
1863 – American Civil War: Morgan's Raid ends – At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.
1914 – Serbia and Bulgaria interrupt diplomatic relationship.
1936 – The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
1937 – End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.
1941 – World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
1944 – World War II: Soviet army enters Lviv, major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160,000 Jews in Lviv prior to Nazi occupation.
1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.
1945 – The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.
1945 – The US Navy cruiser Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
1947 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.
1953 – Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution.
1968 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
1974 – Greek Prime Minister Constantinos Karamanlis forms the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule.
1975 – Formation of a military triumvirate in Portugal.
1994 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders the removal of Russian troops from Estonia.
1999 – Cessation of combat activities after the Kargil War; Celebrated as Kargil Vijay Diwas in India.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 27th,

1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria invades Scotland to support Malcolm Canmore against Macbeth of Scotland, who usurped the Scottish throne from Malcolm's father, King Duncan. Macbeth is defeated at Dunsinane.
1214 – Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England.
1302 – Battle of Bapheus: Decisive Ottoman victory over the Byzantines, opens up Bithynia for Turkish conquest.
1689 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of Killiecrankie ends.
1720 – The second important victory of the Russian Navy – the Battle of Grengam. Which was the first one?
1778 – American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant – British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the Revolution".
1880 – Second Anglo-Afghan War: Battle of Maiwand – In a pyrrhic victory, Afghan forces led by Ayub Khan defeat the British Army in battle near Maiwand, Afghanistan.
1917 – The Allies reach the Yser Canal at the Battle of Passchendaele.
1941 – Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.
1953 – Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, and North Korea, sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.
1955 – The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends.
1964 – Vietnam War: 5,000 more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
1987 – RMS Titanic, Inc. begins the first expedited salvaging of wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
1995 – The Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..
2002 – Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 28th,

1364 – Troops of the Republic of Pisa and of the Republic of Florence clash in the Battle of Cascina.
1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
1794 – Maximilien Robespierre is executed by guillotine in Paris during the French Revolution.
1809 – Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera – Sir Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force led by Joseph Bonaparte.
1821 – José de San Martín declares the independence of Peru from Spain.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church – Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
1914 – World War I: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after Serbia rejects the conditions of an ultimatum sent by Austria on July 23 following the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
1932 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
1933 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Spain are established.
1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
1942 – World War II: Allied Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so were to be immediately executed.
1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah – The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26.
1965 – Vietnam War: U.S.Democrat Party President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army calls an end to its thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 29th,

1014 – Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars: Battle of Kleidion: Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, and his subsequent treatment of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of a heart attack several months later, on October 6.
1030 – Ladejarl-Fairhair succession wars: Battle of Stiklestad – King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes.
1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.
1693 – War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen – France wins a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.
1836 – Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
1858 – United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.
1864 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C..
1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.
1932 – Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans.
1937 – Tongzhou Incident
1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
1958 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
1965 – Vietnam War: the first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.
1967 – Vietnam War: off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134.

[Karl Heidenreich]

June 30th,

1608 – At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua, Mexico.
1863 – Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing to stop the harassment of emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
1866 – New Orleans's Democratic government orders police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.
1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen.
1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto.
1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and U.S. military commanders.
1974 – Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets killed and fifty-four injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp.
2006 – Lebanon War: At least 28 civilians, including 16 children are killed by the Israeli Air Force in what Lebanese call the Second Qana massacre.
2009 – A bomb explodes in Palma Nova, Mallorca, killing 2 police officers. Basque separatist group ETA is believed to be responsible.

[yellowtail3]

June 30th,
1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto.

Nothing military about THAT, is there?

2009 – A bomb explodes in Palma Nova, Mallorca, killing 2 police officers. Basque separatist group ETA is believed to be responsible.

Heck - that's just plain murder by criminal thugs; no military connection. Or is there?

[Karl Heidenreich]

July 31st,

30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
904 – Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city.
1423 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant – the French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654-1667): the Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
1667 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Treaty of Breda ends the conflict.
1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
1777 – The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States."
1913 – The Balkan States signs an armistice at Bucharest.
1932 – The NSDAP wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
1936 – The International Olympic Committee announces that the 1940 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo. However, the games are given back to the IOC after the Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out, and are eventually cancelled altogether because of World War II.
1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
1941 – Holocaust: under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."
1945 – Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
1959 – The Basque separatist organisation ETA is founded.
1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
1972 – Operation Motorman: British troops move into the no-go areas of Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland. End of Free Derry.
1972 – Three car bombs are detonated in Claudy, Northern Ireland, killing nine in what is believed to be a Provisional Irish Republican Army attack.
1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the Start I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.
1991 – The Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania. Soviet OMON attacks Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai, killing 7 officers and severely wounding one other.
2002 – Hebrew University of Jerusalem is attacked when a bomb explodes in a cafeteria, killing 9.
2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro.
2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.

[Karl Heidenreich]

August 1st,

30 BC – Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic.
69 – Batavian rebellion: The Batavians in Germania Inferior (Netherlands) revolt under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis.
902 – Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily, is captured by the Aghlabid army.
1203 – Isaac II Angelus, restored Eastern Roman Emperor, declares his son Alexius IV Angelus co-emperor after pressure from the forces of the Fourth Crusade.
1291 – The Swiss Confederation is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.
1492 – Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile drive the Jews out of Spain.
1498 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
1664 – The Ottoman Empire is defeated in the Battle of Saint Gotthard by an Austrian army led by Raimondo Montecuccoli, resulting in the Peace of Vasvár.
1759 – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Minden, an allied Anglo-German army ictory over the French. In Britain this was one of a number of events that constituted the Annus Mirabilis of 1759 and is celebrated as Minden Day by certain British Army regiments.
1798 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Nile (Battle of Aboukir Bay) – Battle begins when a British fleet engages the French Revolutionary Navy fleet in an unusual night action.
1801 – First Barbary War: The American schooner USS Enterprise captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya.
1832 – The Black Hawk War ends.
1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea.
1914 – Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I. The Swiss Army mobilises because of World War I
1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.
1937 – Tito reads the resolution "Manifesto of constitutional congress of KPH" to the constitutive congress of KPH (Croatian Communist Party) in woods near Samobor.
1941 – The first Jeep is produced.
1944 – Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
1944 – Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation breaks out in Warsaw, Poland.
1948 – The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
1957 – The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1966 – Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official People's Republic of China policy at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1977 – Former Lockheed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers crashes the news helicopter he is flying in Los Angeles