15 July

1099   First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege.

1149    The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.

1291    Rudolph I of Germany (died) (born 1218)

1353    Vladimir the Bold (born), Russian prince (died 1410)

1381    John Ball, a leader in the Peasants’ Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England.

1573    Inigo Jones (born), English architect, designed the Queen’s House (died 1652)

1606   Rembrandt (born), Dutch painter (died 1669)

1609   Annibale Carracci (died), Italian painter (born 1560)

1638   Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani (born), Italian violinist and composer (died 1693)

1655    Girolamo Rainaldi (died), Italian architect (born 1570)

1741    Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.

1765    Charles-André van Loo (died), French painter (born 1705)

1789    Jacques Duphly (died), French harpsichord player and composer (born 1715)

1796    Thomas Bulfinch (born), American banker and author (died 1867)

1799    The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign.

1806   Pike expedition: United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.

1815    Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon.

1823   A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, Italy.

1834   The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years of terror.

1838   Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage.

1844   Claude Charles Fauriel (died), French philologist and historian (born 1772)

1848   Vilfredo Pareto (born), Italian economist and sociologist (died 1923)

1857    Carl Czerny (died), Austrian pianist and composer (born 1791)

1858   Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov (died), Russian painter (born 1806)

1865    Wilhelm Wirtinger (born), Austrian mathematician (died 1945)

1867    Jean-Baptiste Charcot (born), French physician and explorer (died 1936)

1870   Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1870   Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are established from these vast territories.

1871    Tad Lincoln (died), American son of Abraham Lincoln (born 1853)

1885   Rosalía de Castro (died), Spanish author and poet (born 1837)

1904   Anton Chekhov (died), Russian physician and author (born 1860)

1904   Rudolf Arnheim (born), German-American psychologist and author (died 2007)

1909   Jean Hamburger (born), French physician and surgeon (died 1992)

1910    In his book Clinical Psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer’s disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.

1911     Edward Shackleton (born), Baron Shackleton, English geographer and politician (died 1994)

1916    In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).

1919    Hermann Emil Fischer (died), German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852)

1922    Japanese Communist Party is established in Japan.

1927    Carmen Zapata (born), American actress (died 2014)

1930   Jacques Derrida (born), French philosopher (died 2004)

1930   Leopold Auer (died), Hungarian violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1845)

1931    Clive Cussler (born), American author

1933    Julian Bream (born), English guitarist

1935    Alex Karras (born), American football player, wrestler, and actor (died 2012)

1935    Ken Kercheval (born), American actor

1938   Barry Goldwater, Jr. (born), American lawyer and politician, 65th Governor of Ohio

1940   Eugen Bleuler (died), Swiss psychiatrist (born 1857)

1940   Robert Wadlow (died), American giant (born 1918)

1944    Jan-Michael Vincent (born), American actor

1944    Marie-Victorin Kirouac (died), Canadian botanist (born 1885)

1946    Linda Ronstadt (born), American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (Stone Poneys and Free Creek)

1947    Lydia Davis (born), American author

1947    Peter Banks (born), English guitarist and songwriter (Yes, The Syn, and Flash) (died 2013)

1948   Artimus Pyle (born), American drummer and songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

1948   Dimosthenis Kourtovik (born), Greek anthropologist and critic

1948   John J. Pershing (died), American general (born 1860)

1949    Richard Russo (born), American author

1950    Arianna Huffington (born), Greek-American author and journalist, founded The Huffington Post

1951    Jesse Ventura (born), American wrestler, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of Minnesota

1952    Johnny Thunders (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers) (died 1991)

1954    First flight of the Boeing 367-80, prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series.

1954    Jeff Jarvis (born), American journalist and blogger

1956    Joe Satriani (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Chickenfoot and The Greg Kihn Band)

1956    Marky Ramone (born), American drummer and songwriter (Ramones, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and Misfits)

1958    Julia Lennon (died), English mother of John Lennon (born 1914)

1959    Ernest Bloch (died), Swiss-American composer (born 1880)

1959    The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.

1961    Forest Whitaker (born), American actor, director, and producer

1962    Steve Brown (born), American darts player

1966    Jason Bonham (born), English singer-songwriter and drummer (Bonham, Damnocracy, and Black Country Communion)

1966    Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.

1972    Scott Foley (born), American actor

1975    Space Race: Apollo–Soyuz Test Project features the dual launch of an Apollo spacecraft and a Soyuz spacecraft on the first joint Soviet-United States human-crewed flight. It was both the last launch of an Apollo spacecraft, and the Saturn family of rockets.

1976    Paul Gallico (died), American journalist and author (born 1897)

1979    U.S. President Jimmy Carter gives his so-called malaise speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as “this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation” but in which he never uses the word malaise.

1982   Bill Justis (died), American saxophonist, songwriter, and producer (born 1926)

1983   Orly Airport attack is launched by Armenian militant organisation ASALA at the Paris-Orly Airport in Paris; it leaves 8 people dead and 55 injured.

1990   Margaret Lockwood (died), English actress (born 1916)

1991    Bert Convy (died), American actor, singer, and game show host (born 1933)

1997    Gianni Versace (died), Italian fashion designer, founded Versace (born 1946)

1997    In Miami, Florida, serial killer Andrew Cunanan guns down Gianni Versace outside his home.

2002   “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.

2002   Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

2003   AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day

2006   Alireza Shapour Shahbazi (died), Iranian archaeologist (born 1942)

2006   Robert H. Brooks (died), American businessman, founded of Hooters and Naturally Fresh, Inc. (born 1937)

2006   Twitter is launched, becoming one of the largest social media platforms in the world.

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EO Smith

Interests include biological anthropology, evolution, social behavior, and human behavior. Conducted field research in the Tana River National Primate Reserve, Kenya and on Angaur, Palau, Micronesia, as well as research with captive nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Institute for Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya.
EO Smith
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