On This Day: 20 July

During the Siege of Jerusalem, Titus, son of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount; the Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots		70
The Viking warrior Rollo lays siege to Chartres, on his way to becoming the first ruler of Normandy		911
Two weeks after the death of his predecessor Henry II, King Richard I of England is officially invested as Duke of Normandy		1189
The Spanish Armada leaves Corunna (Times)		1588
French cartographer Samuel de Champlain, searching for a suitable place for a settlement, reaches Cape Cod		1605
Sir David Kirke, English adventurer, seizes Quebec from the French		1629
French Emperor Napoleon awards a patent to Nicéphore Niépce for the Pyréolophore – the worlds first internal combustion engine – after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France		1807
Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, enters Madrid as Spanish patriots defeat the French army at Bailen		1808
Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada, declare independence from Spain		1810
Seneca and Shawnee people agree to relinquish 60,000 acres of their land in western Ohio west of the Mississippi River		1831
London's first inter–city railway station – Euston – is opened as the terminus of the London & Birmingham Railway		1837
Charles Sturt, explorer of Australia, enters Simpson's Desert		1845
British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada		1871
Marshal Osman Nuri Pasha, Turkish commander, beats back the Russian attack on Plevna, Bulgaria		1877
The Football Association legalizes professionalism in football, under pressure from the British Football Association (a short–lived pressure group, set up the previous year to campaign for professionalism)		1885
The Ford Motor Company ships its first car		1903
The Yugoslav Committee and the Kingdom of Serbia sign the Corfu Declaration, which would lead to the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after the end of World War I		1917
The League of Nations awards mandates of Togoland to France and Tanganyika to the United Kingdom		1922
The conviction and imprisonment of Oscar Slater on 25 May 1909 is quashed, as due to mistaken identity		1928
German President Paul von Hindenburg issues an emergency decree under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, allowing Chancellor Franz von Papen to take over the Free State of Prussia, the largest State of the German Reich, removing the Socialist premier Otto Braun by a show of force		1932
During the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike, police fire upon striking truck drivers – killing two and wounding 67		1934
Thirteen lives are lost when a Royal Dutch Airlines plane, en route from Milan to Frankfurt, crashes into a Swiss mountain		1934
The Montreux Convention is signed, authorising Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime		1936
The Games of the XIth Olympiad open in Berlin		1936
The US Department of Justice files suit in New York City against the motion picture industry, charging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act in regards to the studio system. The case would eventually result in a break–up of the industry ten years later		1938
NBC broadcasts Shostakovich's 7^th Symphony – the Leningrad		1942
Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, when a bomb explodes at his headquarters in Rastenberg, East Prussia, known as the "wolf's lair"		1944
The Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission brokers the last of four ceasefire agreements to end the 1948 Arab–Israeli War		1949
In Philadelphia, Swiss–born laboratory chemist Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs		1950
King Abdullah of Jordan is shot dead by a Palestinian outside a mosque in Jerusalem, while attending Friday prayers		1951
Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia wins the 10,000 metres on the first full day of competition at the Games of the XVth Olympiad in Helsinki. Within eight days he would also win the 5,000 metres and the marathon – a feat never achieved before or since in Olympic history		1952
An armistice is signed dividing Vietnam into North and South		1954
In Ceylon, Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the world's first elected female head of government		1960
The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine (the USS George Washington) for the first time		1960
Actress Jane Asher announces on Dee Time (BBC TV) that her engagement to Paul McCartney is off		1968
Apollo 11 makes the first manned landing on the Moon, in the Sea of Tranquility. Six and a half hours later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon		1969
The 'Football War', between Honduras and El Salvador, is ended after six days by a cease fire		1969
Turkish forces invade Cyprus after a coup d'état, organised by the dictator of Greece, against president Makarios		1974
NASA's Viking I becomes the second spacecraft to make a soft landing on Mars (the first was the Soviet Union's Mars 3 in 1971, which stopped transmitting after 14.5 seconds)		1975
The CIA releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act, revealing that it had engaged in mind–control experiments		1977
84 lives are lost in floods at Johnstown, Pennsylvania		1977
Sandinista National Liberation Front takes power in Nicaragua, after 46 years of rule by the Somoza family		1979
Two IRA bombs outside the Horse Guards barracks in Knightsbridge kill eight guardsmen and seven horses; 47 people are injured. In admitting responsibility, the IRA echoes Margaret Thatcher's words about the right of self–determination in her announcement ten weeks earlier of military conflict with Argentina over the Falklands		1982
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is placed under house arrest		1989
An IRA bomb blows a 10–foot hole in the London Stock Exchange, but there are no casualties as coded warnings had been received		1990
Vaclav Havel steps down as president as Czechoslovakia heads for a split		1992
USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrates its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years, after restoration		1997
Social Security Secretary Harriet Harman orders a review of child care regulations, after registered childminder Helen Stacey is jailed for life for the murder of 5–month–old Joseph Mackin, and unmasked as a former prostitute		1998
Thousands are arrested actoss China as the Communist Party begins a campaign against Falun Gong (a new religious movement)		1999
A disciplinary hearing of the General Medical Council (GMC) finds North Yorkshire gynaecologist Richard Neale guilty of a catalogue of blunders		2000
One protestor is shot dead by police, and 185 people injured, as violence erupts in Genoa during the G8 leaders' conference		2001
The BBC confirms that weapons expert Dr. David Kelly, found dead two days ago, was the source for Andrew Gilligan's reports which claimed that the government had "sexed up" a dossier concerning Iraqi weapons of mass destruction		2003
Same–sex marriages are legalised in Canada		2005
James Holmes, a 24–year–old failed PhD student, shoots 12 people dead and injures 70 others at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado. Five weeks later he would be sentenced to 12 consecutive life sentences plus 3,318 years without parole, after his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was accepted		2012
The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after five decades		2015
O. J. Simpson is granted parole to be released from prison, after serving nine years of a 33–year sentence for armed robbery in Las Vegas		2017

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On This Day: 20 July