July 21 – Some important events on this day.
356 BC 👉🏼 Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
365 👉🏼 Crete Earthquake followed by tsunami around the Eastern Mediterranean allegedly destroys Alexandria
1403 👉🏼 Battle of Shrewsbury: Army led by the Lancastrian King of England, Henry IV defeats a rebel army led by Henry “Harry Hotspur” Percy of Northumberland thus ending the Percy challenge to the throne. Also the first battle English archers fought each other on English soil.
1861 👉🏼 First Battle of Bull Run [Battle of First Manassas], 1st major battle of the US Civil War is fought near Manassas, Virginia, Confederate victory
1865 👉🏼 In market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown
1904 👉🏼 After 13 years, the 4,607-mile Trans-Siberian railway is completed
1925 👉🏼 John T. Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution in the “Scopes monkey trial”, Dayton, Tennessee, fined $100 & costs
1944 👉🏼 Hitler to Germany: “I’m still alive.”
On this day, Adolf Hitler takes to the airwaves to announce that the attempt on his life has failed and that “accounts will be settled.”
Recall that he had survived the bomb blast that was meant to take his life, on July 20. He had suffered punctured eardrums, some burns and minor wounds, but nothing that would keep him from regaining control of the government and finding the rebels. In fact, the coup d’etat that was to accompany the assassination of Hitler was put down in a mere 11 1/2 hours. In Berlin, Army Major Otto Remer, believed to be apolitical by the conspirators and willing to carry out any orders given him, was told that the Fuhrer was dead and that he, Remer, was to arrest Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda. But Goebbels had other news for Remer—Hitler was alive. And he proved it, by getting the leader on the phone (the rebels had forgotten to cut the phone lines). Hitler then gave Remer direct orders to put down any army rebellion and to follow only his orders or those of Goebbels or Himmler. Remer let Goebbels go. The SS then snapped into action, arriving in Berlin, now in chaos, just in time to convince many high German officers to remain loyal to Hitler.
1969 👉🏼 Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to step on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT).
1970 👉🏼 Aswan High Dam opens in Egypt, enables human control of the flooding of the Nile
1983 👉🏼 World’s lowest-ever natural temperature recorded −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at Soviet Vostok Station, Antarctica
1990 Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is performed where the Berlin Wall once stood
2002 👉🏼 With a record 6 races remaining, German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher clinches his 5th F1 World Drivers Championship with victory in the French Grand Prix at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours; 3rd straight title win.