1521 – Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire
1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyōto’s Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).
1642 – Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers Martian south polar cap
1788 – Prussia joins Anglo-Dutch alliance to form Triple Alliance to prevent spread of Russo-Swedish War of 1788-90
1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Japanese forces begin the Battle of Shanghai, a conflict that will last 3 months and involve 1 million troops
1942 – The ‘Manhattan Project’ commences, under the direction of US General Leslie Groves: its aim – to deliver an atomic bomb
1951 – Great Britain & Iraq sign new oil contract
1996 – Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 3.0
1997 – South Park’s first episode is aired.
2015 – Swedish Prosecutors announce they are dropping allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange of sexual molestation and coercion
2020 – Israel strikes historic deal with the United Arab Emirates to normalize relations, Israel suspends plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank
2020 – New details about enormous “Terror Crocodile” (Deinosuchus), the size of a bus, with teeth as big as bananas, that lived during late Cretaceous period (75-84 million years ago) in North America published [1]
Film & TV:
1967 – “Bonnie and Clyde” crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, is released
Music:
2013 – “Crash My Party” 4th studio album by Luke Bryan is released (Billboard Album of the Year 2014)
Sport:
2008 – American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins 3 gold medals, all in world record time, in the one day at the Beijing Olympics; 200m I/M (1:54.23), 200m butterfly (1.52.03) and 4 x 200m freestyle relay (6:58.56)
