On This Day: 10 July

Hadrian, emperor of Rome, dies of heart failure at Baiae on the Gulf of Naples		138
The Norse King Glúniairn recognises Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill as High King of Ireland, and agrees to pay taxes and accept Brehon Law; the event is considered to be the founding of the city of Dublin		988
Spanish warrior El Cid (Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar) dies – supposedly of grief at the defeat of his forces by the Moors		1099
Most of London is burnt to the ground, in the most severe of several early fires		1212
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, defeats Henry VI's Lancastrian forces and takes the King prisoner, at the Battle of Northampton		1460
Portuguese explorer Nicolau Coelho returns to Lisbon, after discovering the sea route to India as a companion of Vasco da Gama		1460
Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England		1553
William I, Prince of Orange (William the Silent) is assassinated at his home in Delft by Balthasar Gérard, a Catholic supporter of Philip II of Spain, who hoped to collect a reward offered by Philip. In fact he was quickly captured, and brutally tortured and slaughtered; but his parents were rewarded with three estates in their Burgundian homeland		1584
Theodore II, Tsar of Russia, assassinated		1605
Battle of Langport (near Yeovil, Somerset): Parliamentary forces destroy the last Royalist field army and take control of the West of England		1645
Benjamin Franklin blocks a plan for the unification of Britain's American colonies		1754
Peter III, Tsar of Russia, dethroned		1762
Louis XVI of France declares war on England in support of the American colonies		1778
Wyoming is admitted as the 44th US state		1890
Paris Metro opens		1900
A temperature of 134 °F (57 °C) – the highest ever recorded on Earth – is recorded in Death Valley, California		1913
17 people are killed and 70 injured, and over 160 houses destroyed, in a day of violence in Belfast "Belfast's Bloody Sunday"), after Protestant loyalists attack Catholic enclaves in retaliation for an IRA ambush of a police raiding party		1921
Mongolia is proclaimed an independent state		1921
The so–called "Monkey Trial" opens in Dayton, Tennessee, when John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, is accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act		1925
Kevin O'Higgins, Vice–President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, is assassinated by the IRA in retaliation for ordering the execution of 77 political prisoners		1927
Rheims Cathedral re–opened after restoration of bomb damage sustained during World War I		1938
Howard Hughes begins a 91–hour flight around the world that will set a new record		1938
The Battle of Britain begins, as the Luftwaffe attacks convoys in the Channel in order to engage RAF Fighter Command		1940
The Vichy Government is established in France		1940
At least 340 Jewish men, women and children are murdered – some 300 of them locked in a barn which was then set on fire – in Jedwabne, in German–occupied Poland. About 40 non–Jewish Poles are implicated as perpetrators. (Knowledge of the event only becomes widespread around the year 2000)		1940
The Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) begins		1943
The engagement of Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten is announced		1947
British Prime Minister Clement Attlee recommends Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the first Governor–General of Pakistan		1947
Britain's first parking meters appear in Mayfair		1958
Telstar – the first TV communications satellite – is launched		1962
David Broome, on Beethoven, becomes the first British rider to win the World Showjumping Championship		1970
Northern Ireland Secretary William Whitelaw informs the House of Commons that he has held secret talks with the IRA, who demanded (in return for peace) a total withdrawal of British forces, the right to self–determination by the Irish people, and an amnesty for political prisoners – essentially a re–statement of "routine and unworkable demands", which he knew the British Government would not accept; but before he'd even had the chance to discuss the matter with his Cabinet colleagues, hostilities had recommenced in Belfast over the distribution of housing amongst Catholics and Protestants		1972
The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations		1973
Cher petitions for divorce from Gregg Allman after ten days of marriage		1975
Four mercenaries – three British and one American – are executed by firing squad in Angola		1976
A chemical leak forms a poison cloud over Meda, near Seveso, Italy		1976
The Cable and Broadcasting Act is passed, allowing cable broadcasting in the UK		1984
Nigerian diplomat Umaru Dikko is discovered in a diplomatic bag (attempt by the Nigerian ruling junta to smuggle him out of Britain)		1984
The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is blown up in Auckland harbour by French Government agents; one crew member – Fernando Pereira, a freelance Dutch photographer, of Portuguese origin – drowns		1985
All 200 people on board lose their lives in the USSR's worst–ever airline disaster, when an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu–154 stalls and crashes near Uchkuduk, Uzbekistan		1985
Glasgow Rangers FC signs its first Catholic player – Maurice 'Mo' Johnstone, from Nantes, for £1.5 million		1989
Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia		1991
South Africa is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid		1991
Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering offences, after being indicted by federal grand juries in Miami and Tampa, Florida		1992
The battered bodies of Lin Russell and her six–year–old daughter Megan are found half a mile from their home in Kent, after being reported missing the previous evening. Megan's nine–year–old sister Josie survived despite serious head injuries. 38–year–old Michael Stone was convicted of two murders and one attempted murder, and lost two appeals (the first after a key witness was found to have lied)		1996
MPs vote themselves a 26% pay rise (as recommended by the Senior Salaries Review Body)		1996
British troops of NATO's S–For shoot one Bosnian war criminal (Simo Drijaca) dead and capture another (Milan Kovacevic)		1997
100,000 hunters demonstrate in Hyde Park, London		1997
In London, scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa" theory of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago		1997
Government figures suggest that one in four British homes are now using the Internet – a 100% increase over the same time last year		2000
Street violence erupts in East Belfast after the Orange Order's Drumcree march is again prevented from marching down Garvahy Road		2000
Home Secretary David Blunkett announces to Parliament that he is reclassifying cannabis from Class B to Class C		2002
Peter Paul Rubens's painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5 million (US$76.2 million), at a Sotheby's auction, to Lord Thomson (Canada's richest man)		2002
Hurricane Dennis causes billions of dollars' worth of damage in the Florida Panhandle		2005
Turkish–American adventurer Erden Eruç begins the first entirely solo and entirely human–powered circumnavigation of the Earth, from Bodega Bay, near San Francisco		2007
122 lives are lost when the Russian cruise ship Bulgaria sinks in the Volga river near Syukeyevo, Tatarstan		2011
The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the production line in Puebla, Mexico		2019

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On This Day: 10 July