July 20: On This Day in World History … briefly
Interesting historic snippets and facts taken from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London.
1588: The Spanish armada sets sail for England from Corunna, a day later than planned because of a storm.
1605: French cartographer Samuel de Champlain reaches Cape Cod in search of an ideal spot for French settlement in the NewWorld.
1629: English adventurer Sir David Kirke seizes Quebec from the French.
1808: Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, enters Madrid as Spanish patriots conquer the French army at Bailen.
1837: Railway finds a new home
Euston Grove, an area of London once described as a ‘quiet scene of nursery gardens’ is home to a new terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway. The station, which replaced the old terminus at Chalk Farm, comprises two 420ft (136m) long platforms and a 200ft (65m) long double train shed designed by Charles Fox.
1937: Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of radio telegraphy, dies aged 63.
1942: NBC broadcasts war symphony
A new composition by a living composer is a major event. The live broadcast by the NBC Symphony Orchestra of the Seventh Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich was special on several counts. The work was, in the composer’s own words, ‘an interpretation of war’ dedicated to the city of Leningrad. The first three movements were written in that besieged city between July and December in 1941. Shostakovitch finished the symphony in Kuibyshev after the Soviet authorities, fearful for his safety, insisted that he should move from Leningrad.
1944: Bomb plot fails
Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes death when a bomb explodes at his headquarters in Rastenburg. The bomb was left in a briefcase under the table of the conference room in which the Fuhrer was meeting with his top military brass. The German leader was shielded from the full blast of the bomb partly by the heavy oak table top over which he was leaning, and partly by the thick table leg against which the briefcase had been leant. The bomb had been planted by a German officer with liberal sympathies, Colonel Klaus Schenk, Count von Stauffenberg. An attempt to capture Berlin was foiled and several of the ringleaders were rounded up and shot. A manhunt was underway for the rest of the conspirators, who were thought to include several high-ranking officers. Hitler took his miraculous deliverance from what was estimated to be the seventh attempt on his life as a sign of God’s favour.
1951: King Abdullah of Jordan is shot dead outside a mosque.
1954: The Geneva Agreement brings about a cessation of hostilities between North and South Vietnam.
1968: Jane breaks off engagement
Jane Asher stuns listeners to the BBC radio programme ‘Dee Time’, hosted by Simon Dee, with the news that her engagement to Beatle Paul McCartney is off, after announcing their engagement in December 1967. In February Asher joined the controversial pilgrimage to the Rishikesh Retreat Centre of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India. The only surprise about the break-up was that Asher should have chosen to announce it in this way – without telling McCartney first. According to insiders, the five-year old relationship had been cooling rapidly.
1973: Bruce Lee found dead
Kung Fu film star Bruce Lee was found dead in the bathroom of actress Betty Ting Pei in Hong Kong on July 19 at age 32. Reputedly the fittest man on earth, San Francisco-born Lee (real name Lee Yuen Kam) is thought to have died of a swollen brain, possibly caused by an allergic reaction to aspirin. Lee’s martial arts films – ‘Fists of Fury’, ‘Enter the Dragon’, ‘Way of the Dragon’ and ‘Game of Death’ – won him a large following. Many fans refused to believe that Bruce Lee was really dead, suggesting that cult status was not far off for the former king of kung fu.
1976: The American spacecraft ‘Viking’ lands on Mars and starts sending back television pictures.
1979: The Sandinista National Liberation Front takes power in Nicaragua after ousting General Anastasio Somoza, whose family had ruled the country since 1933.
1982: An IRA bomb explodes outside the Horse Guards barracks in London’s Knightbridge, killing two guardsmen and seven horses.
1999: Death of King Hassan II of Morocco, prompting widespread mourning in the Arab world.
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