July 8 - Events

Events

• 1099 – First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in a religious procession around Jerusalem as itsMuslim defenders look on.
• 1283 – War of the Sicilian Vespers: the naval Battle of Malta between the Aragonese and the Neapolitan fleets is fought.
• 1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.
• 1579 – Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city ofKazan, Tatarstan.
• 1663 – Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.
• 1680 – The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• 1709 – Great Northern War: Battle of Poltava – Peter I of Russia defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava thus effectively ending Sweden's role as a major power in Europe.
• 1716 – Great Northern War: the naval Battle of Dynekilen takes place.
• 1758 – French forces hold Fort Carillon against the British at Ticonderoga, New York.
• 1760 – French and Indian War: Battle of Restigouche – British forces defeat French forces in last naval battle inNew France.
• 1775 – The Olive Branch Petition is signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies.
• 1776 – The Declaration of Independence is read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell is rung.
• 1822 – Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom.
• 1853 – Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay.
• 1859 – King Charles XV & IV accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.
• 1864 – Ikedaya Jiken: the Choshu Han shishi's planned Shinsengumi sabotage on Kyoto, Japan at Ikedaya.
• 1874 – The Mounties begin their March West.
• 1876 – White supremacists kill five Black Republicans in Hamburg, SC.
• 1879 – Sailing ship USS Jeannette (1878) departs San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole.
• 1889 – The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
• 1892 – St. John's, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892.
• 1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetalism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention inChicago.
• 1898 – The death of crime boss Soapy Smith (who is shot) releases Skagway, Alaska from his iron grip.
• 1907 – Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
• 1932 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22.
• 1947 – Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
• 1948 – The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF).
• 1960 – Francis Gary Powers is charged with espionage resulting from his flight over the Soviet Union.
• 1962 – Ne Win besieges and dynamites the Rangoon University Student Union building to crash the Student Movement.
• 1965 – Train robber Ronald Biggs escapes from Wandsworth Prison, London.
• 1966 – King Mwambutsa IV Bangiriceng of Burundi is deposed by his son Prince Charles Ndizi.
• 1968 – The Municipality of General Santos was converted into a City status, named General Santos City.
• 1969 – IBM CICS is made generally available for the 360 mainframe computer.
• 1970 – Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American Self-Determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination Act.
• 1982 – Assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Dujail.
• 1982 – The Senegalese Trotskyist political party LCT is legally recognized.
• 1992 – The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe creates the office of High Commissioner on National Minorities.
• 1996 – A schizophrenic man armed with a machete wounds three children and four adults at a primary school in Wolverhampton, England. Teacher Lisa Potts received the George Medal for protecting her pupils, despite being severely injured.
• 1997 – NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
• 1999 – Allen Lee Davis is executed by electric chair by the state of Florida, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida.
• 2007 – Boeing unveiled its first 787 in a roll-out ceremony at its Everett assembly factory.