1192 – Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. - (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1703 - The Edirne Event: Turkish army removes Sultan Mustafa II, lessening the power of the sultans
1772 - King Gustav III of Sweden completes a coup d’etat by adopting a new Constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot, ending 50 years of parliamentary rule
1888 - American inventor William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine
1911 - “Mona Lisa” stolen from the Louvre by Vincenzo Perugia (Recovered in 1913)
1959 – Hawaii becomes the 50th US state
1991 - Conservative coup in the Soviet Union is crushed by popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin in three days
2017 – For the first time in nearly 40 years, the continental United States experienced a total solar eclipse, which was viewed from Oregon to South Carolina.
Births & Deaths: 2005 – American electronic engineer Robert Moog—who invented the Moog electronic music synthesizer, which revolutionized rock, electronica, pop, and experimental music in the late 1960s and early ’70s—died at age 71.
Film & TV 1942 - Walt Disney’s animated movie “Bambi”, based on the book by Felix Salten, is released
Music: 2001 - “How You Remind Me” single released by Nickelback (Billboard Song of the Year 2002)
Sport: 1986 - Ian Botham takes world-record 356th Test Cricket wkt (v NZ, The Oval)
2004 – American swimmer Michael Phelps wins his eighth medal of the 2004 Athens Olympics in spite of sitting out his eighth scheduled event, the final of the 4 x 100-meter medley relay.
