July 191525 - The Catholic princes of Germany formed the Dessau League to fight against the Reformation. 1553 - Fifteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed Queen. 1788 - Prices plunged on the Paris stock market. 1799 - The Rosetta Stone, a tablet with hieroglyphic translations into Greek, was found in Egypt. 1848 - The Women's Rights Convention took place in Seneca Fall, NY. Bloomers were introduced at the convention. 1870 - France declared war on Prussia. 1909 - The first unassisted triple play in major-league baseball was made by Cleveland Indians shortstop Neal Ball in a game against Boston. 1939 - Dr. Roy P. Scholz became the first surgeon to use fiberglass sutures. 1942 - German U-boats were withdrawn from positions off the U.S. Atlantic coast due to effective American anti-submarine countermeasures. 1943 - During World War II, more than 150 B-17 and 112 B-24 bombers attacked Rome for the first time. 1946 - Marilyn Monroe acted in her first screen test. 1960 - Juan Marichal (San Francisco Giants) became the first pitcher to get a one-hitter in his major league debut. 1964 - In Illinois, Cahokia Mounds was designated as a U.S. National Landmark. 1971 - In New York, the topping out ceremony for Two World Trade Center (South Tower) took place. The ceremony for One World Trade Center had taken place on December 23, 1970. 1974 - The House Judiciary Committee recommended that U.S. President Richard Nixon should stand trial in the Senate for any of the five impeachment charges against him. 1975 - The Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts separated after being linked in orbit for two days. 1979 - In Nicaragua, the dictatorship of the Somozas was overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional or FSLN). 1982 - The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 14% of the population had an income below the official poverty level in 1981. 1984 - Geraldine Ferraro was nominated by the Democratic Party to become the first woman from a major political party to run for the office of U.S. Vice-President. 1985 - George Bell won first place in a biggest feet contest with a shoe size of 28-1/2. Bell, at age 26, stood 7 feet 10 inches tall. 1985 - Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. She died with six others when the Challenger exploded the following year. |