#TodayInHistory – July 22

July 22 – Some important events on this day.

1099 👉🏼 First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem
1456 👉🏼 Battle at Nandorfehervar (Belgrade): Hungarian army under Janos Hunyadi beats Sultan Murad II
1484 👉🏼 Battle of Lochmaben Fair – a 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas are defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany’s brother James III of Scotland. Douglas is captured.
1515 👉🏼 First Congress of Vienna settles issues between Poland and Holy Roman Empire – rise of the Habsburgs influence
1648 👉🏼 10,000 Jews of Polannoe murdered in Chmielnick massacre during Khmelnytsky Uprising
1793 👉🏼 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada
1898 👉🏼 Crew of Belgium RV Belgica see 1st sunrise in 1600 hrs – 1st expedition to endure Antarctic winter
1942 👉🏼 Warsaw Ghetto Jews (300,000) are sent to Treblinka Extermination Camp

1959 👉🏼 Ed Wood’s cult classic “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, called one of the worse films ever, premieres.
Try to imagine a movie so bad, so awful, that it has become a cult classic for many film fans. You might have a few of your own to rattle off, but they’re unlikely to be as bad as the comical science fiction film Plan 9 from Outer Space, directed by Ed Wood and released in 1959.
The plot itself is comical: extraterrestrials are hoping to prevent humanity from creating a doomsday device that could destroy the universe. Plan 9 refers to the alien’s attempts to resurrect Earth’s dead and cause chaos, thereby hoping to make humanity listen to them.
Even for its time, the special effects used in the movie were considered horrendous, and the movie also contained several technical mistakes (including the visibility of the boom microphone in one shot and an actor clearly reading from a script on his lap.) Critics and fans alike have savaged the movie’s bad dialogue and plot. Bela Lugosi even appears in the movie despite the fact that his footage was shot for a different movie shortly before he passed away.
Many critics consider the movie ‘so bad it’s good’. Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus says: “The epitome of so-bad-it’s-good cinema, Plan 9 from Outer Space is an unintentionally hilarious sci-fi ‘thriller’ from anti-genius Ed Wood that is justly celebrated for its staggering ineptitude”.

1963 👉🏼 Sarawak achieves independence from British colonial rule
1933 👉🏼 Caterina Jarboro sings “Aida” at the New York Hippodrome, becoming the 1st black female opera singer to perform in the US
1997 👉🏼 “One Piece”, world’s best-selling manga and comic series, written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda first appears serialized in “Weekly Shōnen Jump” in Japan
2011 👉🏼 Norway is the victim of twin terror attacks, the first a bomb blast targeting government buildings in central Oslo, second a massacre at a youth camp on island of Utøya
2019 👉🏼 Marvel superhero film “Avengers: Endgame” becomes the world’s highest-grossing film overtaking “Avatar” earning $2.9 billion