Shakespeare play's deadly performance; Shackleton’s remarkable and epic voyage; Indian woman, 70, gives birth; George W Bush’s near-death experience; future king of England replaces his mother in parliament ...
1291 Scottish nobles recognise the authority of Edward I of England pending the selection of a king. Ironically the new king becomes a much-hated enemy referred to as ‘The Hammer of the Scots’.
1497 Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America is named, leaves Cádiz, Spain, on his first voyage to the New World.
1614 Zacharias Wagenaer, commander of the Cape and who succeeded Jan van Riebeeck, is born in Dresden, Germany.
1773 The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
1752 Benjamin Franklin tests the lightning conductor with his kite-flying experiment
1801 Africa’s Barbary pirates go to war with the US.
1849 A riot breaks out in Manhattan over a dispute between an American actor and his British counterpart over a Shakespearean role; 25 people die.
1904 The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG is founded in Germany. Today we know it as the Audi car company.
1916 With remarkable seamanship, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton arrives at South Georgia island in a lifeboat after an 800-nautical mile journey in frigid waters from Elephant Island to get help for his stranded crewmen.
1924 J Edgar Hoover becomes first director of the FBI, and remains so until his death in 1972.
1940 Britain invades Iceland to prevent the strategically important island nation from being invaded by Germany.
1941 Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland, but fails to get a peace deal. Instead he gets a jail cell.
1954 Bill Haley & His Comets release Rock Around the Clock, the first rock and roll record to reach #1 on the Billboard charts.
1960 The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth.
1973 World-famous martial artist Bruce Lee collapses in Hong Kong and is diagnosed with cerebral edema. He dies on July 20. His demise is ruled as “death by misadventure”.
1994 Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as the first president of a democratic South Africa.
2005 A thrown hand grenade lands 20m from US President George W Bush in Tbilisi, Georgia. It fails to detonate.
2012 Pope Benedict XVI signs decree of canonization of Benedictine nun and composer Hildegard von Bingen, completing sainthood process started in 1228.
2016 An Indian fertility clinic announces that a 70 year-old woman has successfully gave birth to a baby boy.
2018 China announces plans for the world's largest weather-control mechanism, rain-inducing machines for the Tibetan Plateau (area the size of Alaska)
2018 Mahathir Mohamad is sworn in as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia and the world's oldest leader at 92.
2021 The almost 1km long Kazungula road and rail bridge opens over the Zambezi River linking Botswana and Zambia, with a curve so it doesn’t encroach on Zimbabwe (Robert Mugabe had opposed it when plans were drawn up).
2022 Apple ends production of its iPod music player after 21 years
2022 For the first time, Prince Charles delivers the Queen's Speech at the state opening of the UK parliament.