1534 – Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France
1567 – Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate; her 1-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scots
1832 – Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by Wyoming’s South Pass
1911 – American explorer Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas
1917 – Dutch-born dancer and courtesan Mata Hari, whose name became a synonym for the seductive female spy, went on trial this day in 1917, accused of spying for Germany, and was subsequently found guilty and shot by a firing squad.
1943 – Operation Gomorrah: RAF begins bombing Hamburg (till 3rd August), creating a firestorm and killing 42,600 people
2019 – Global warming is the fastest in 2,000 years and scientific consensus that humans are the cause is at 99%, according to three major reports published in journals “Nature” and “Nature Geoscience”
Births & Deaths:
1897 – Amelia Earhart, one of the world’s most-celebrated aviators and the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, was born in Atchison, Kansas.
1969 – American actress and singer Jennifer Lopez—who was one of the highest-paid Latina actresses in the history of Hollywood and later found crossover success in the music industry with a series of pop albums—was born.
2013 – American sex researcher and therapist Virginia E. Johnson—who, with William H. Masters, formed Masters and Johnson, a pioneering research team noted for their studies on human sexuality—died at age 88.
Film & TV:
1952 – “High Noon”, American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Gary Cooper and Thomas Mitchell, is released
1998 – The World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, starring Tom Hanks, was released, and it became a critical and commercial success, earning five Academy Awards, including best director for Steven Spielberg.
Music:
1982 – Single “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor from “Rocky III” soundtrack starts 6-week run at No. 1 on US charts (Grammy for Best Rock Performance)
Sport:
2005 – American cyclist Lance Armstrong became the first rider to win the Tour de France seven times; however, he was later stripped of all his titles after an investigation revealed that he was the key figure in a wide-ranging doping conspiracy while he compiled his Tour victories.
Via Britannica / On This Day
