July 22: On This Day in World History … briefly

1861:   Picnickers watch Confederates triumph in battle

The first major set-to in the American Civil War ends in a bloody nose for the Union Army under General Irvin McDowell. Forced by his political masters into launching a premature attack against the Confederate forces holding Bull Run (or Manassas), McDowell found himself outnumbered by an enemy that had already received advance information of his battle plan. The Confederates were only marginally more competent in battle than their adversaries, however, and had it not been for the resolution of General Jackson’s brigade all might have been lost for the southerners. Confusion and an air of unreality was intensified by the presence of Washington sightseers who picnicked while watching the action.

1910:   Murder he cried

‘Have strong suspicions that Crippen London cellar murderer and accomplice are amongst saloon passengers; moustache taken off; growing beard; accomplice dressed as boy; voice manner and build undoubtedly a girl; both travelling as Mr and Master Robinson.’ Captain Kendell send a telegram from his ship concerning the murderous Dr Crippen.

1932:   Death of American impresario Florence Ziegfeld, founder of the Ziegfeld follies.

1933:   Wiley smashes his own record

One-eyed Texan Wiley Post betters his own record-breaking circumnavigation of the globe two years previously. This time flying solo in the veteran aircraft ‘Winnie Mae’, Post sliced some 21 hours off the time of 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes he set with navigator Harold Gatty. Post followed the same course plotted by Gatty, eastward from New York over the British Isles and Russia. Post, 34, then bought ‘Winnie Mae’ from his former boss, Oklahoma oilman FC Hall.

1934:   The last round-up

The short but spectacular criminal career of bank robber John Dillinger comes to a bloody end. As Dillinger emerged from the Biograph Theatre in Chicago, he walked straight into an ambush sprung by a combined force of FBI agents and Indiana police. Since escaping from Indiana’s Crown Point jail in March, Dillinger had led a charmed life, twice escaping FBI traps as well as shootouts with police in Wisconsin and Minnesota. A tip-off by a mysterious lady in red ensured that the law enforcement agencies got their man this time. Dillinger (31) began his successful run as a bank robber in 1933, after finishing a nine-year sentence for a bungled hold-up in Mooresville, Indiana. His ‘tutors’ in prison had been some of the best bank-busters in the business. Dillinger robbed seven banks in Indiana and Ohio before fleeing to Tucson, where he and his gang were arrested.

1946:   91 killed in Jerusalem bomb explosion

A bomb planted in part of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem leaves 91 people dead and 45 injured. The target of the terrorists – most likely the Jewish extremist organisation Irgun Zvai Leumi – was the British military headquarters and the civil secretariat. The extremist campaign against British administration in Palestine seemed set to intensify, assisted, either actively or passively, by the great majority of the Jewish population. The long-awaited report by the Analo-US Committee of Enquiry regarding the problems of Europeans Jewry and Palestine concluded that any attempt to establish an independent state or states in the area would result in civil strife and that the mandate should be maintained.

1946:   Don’t let them eat bread

Britons faced their first day of bread rationing – more than a year after the end of World War Two. The extension of rationing to bread was due to a poor harvest, droughts and shortages in war transport and fertilisers. In the US, a voluntary system of restriction by customers was in operation. However, millers were required by law to produce not less than 80lb (36kg) of flour from each 100lb (45kg) of wheat, as opposed to the usual extraction rate of 72lb (33kg) or lower to each 100lb.

1950:   Death of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian statesman and Liberal Prime Minister three times, his chief political aim being national unity.

1969:   Spanish dictator General Franco names Juan Carlos, grandson of King Alfonso XIII, as his heir apparent.

1969:   Apollo II leaves the Moon.

1976:   Death of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, British archaeologist known for his skill in interpreting archaeological strata.

2003:   Saddam Hussein’s two sons Qusai and Udai are killed as American soldiers, backed by helicopters, storm a house in the northern city of Mosul following a tip-off from an Iraqi source.

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