On This Day: 15 July

The Temple of Castor and Pollux, in Rome – built in gratitude for victory at the Battle of Lake Regillus eleven years earlier – is dedicated. (According to legend, Castor and Pollux appeared on the battlefield as two able horsemen in aid of the Republic; and after the battle had been won they again appeared on the Forum in Rome watering their horses at the Spring of Juturna, thereby announcing the victory. The temple stands on the supposed spot of their appearance.)		484 BC
During a four–month siege, the Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, breaches the wall of Jerusalem, which had been controlled by Judean rebel factions for the previous four years		70
The remains of St. Swithin (former Bishop of Winchester, who died 108 years previously) are moved, in torrential rain, from a church in the city to the newly–built cathedral		971
Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev, dies		1015
The First Crusade reaches its climax as Christian soldiers led by Godfrey of Bouillon take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege, taking the city from the Fatimid Caliphate after 400 years of Muslim rule, and laying the foundations for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Contemporaneous sources suggest that the slaughter of Muslims and Jews perpetrated by the Christian crusaders was savage and widespread		1099
On the fiftieth anniversary of its being recaptured by Crusaders, the reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre (containing, according to tradition, the place where Jesus was crucified and the site of his tomb) is consecrated		1149
King John expels monks of the Canterbury Chapter for supporting the election of Archbishop Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury		1207
John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II		1381
King Ladislas II of Poland fights the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Tannenburg		1410
Muhammad XII is crowned as the twenty–second and last Islamic king of Granada		1482
The Royal Society receives its Royal Charter		1662
James Scott, Duke of Monmouth – the eldest illegitimate son of King Charles II, who died on 6 February of the same year – is executed for treason on Tower Hill, nine days after the defeat of his rebellion against his father's brother, James II (of England) at the Battle of Sedgemoor and seven days after his capture		1685
Russian navigator and captain Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat – making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska		1741
On the day after the Storming of the Bastille, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, is named by acclamation as Colonel General of Paris's new National Guard		1789
The Marseillaise is adopted as the French national anthem		1795
The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre–François Bouchard, during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign		1799
Napoleon surrenders to Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland on board HMS Bellerophon		1815
The ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls (one of Rome's four major, ancient, papal basilicas, along with those of Saint John in the Lateran, Saint Peter's, and Saint Mary Major) is destroyed by fire. (It was re–opened in 1840 and reconsecrated in 1855)		1823
The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years. According to Wikipedia, "Some historians have come to conclude that many of the charges [of religious intolerance and repression] levied against the Inquisition are exaggerated and are a result of the Black Legend produced by political and religious enemies of Spain, especially England"		1834
The Protestant community reacts with outrage when Ralph Waldo Emerson, in an address to Harvard Divinity School, discounts Biblical miracles and declares Jesus a great man, but not God		1838
Following the surrender of forces of the British East India Company under siege at the garrison town of Cawnpore (during the Indian Rebellion), and the massacre of male soldiers and civilians despite an assurance of safe passage to Allahabad, 120 British women and children captured by the Sepoy forces are killed in what came to be known as the Bibighar Massacre, their remains being thrown down a nearby well in an attempt to hide the evidence. Following the recapture of Cawnpore and the discovery of the massacre the British rank–and–file, greatly embittered against the Sepoy rebels, would engage in widespread retaliation against captured rebel soldiers and local civilians		1857
In an encounter that would help to reverse Rebel fortunes on the Mississippi River, the CSS Arkansas, the most effective ironclad on the river, battles with Union ships commanded by Admiral David Farragut – severely damaging three of them but sustaining heavy damage herself		1862
The French chemist Hippolyte Mege–Mouries, working at the Emperor Napoleon III's private farm in Vincennes, near Paris, patents margarine. In the following year he would claim the prize offered by the Emperor to anyone who could produce an alternative to butter, but his attempts to exploit his invention commercially were unsuccessful; he sold the patent to the Dutch company Jurgens (now part of Unilever) one year later		1869
As the United States undergo Reconstruction, Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union		1870
Rupert's Land and the North–Western Territory are transferred to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, and the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are established from these vast territories		1870
Approximately 500 lives are lost in the eruption of the stratovolcano Mount Bandai, in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture		1888
The German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, in his book entitled Clinical Psychiatry, names "presenile dementia" after his colleague Alois Alzheimer, who is credited with identifying the first published case of it		1910
Social Insurance comes into effect in Britain as the National Insurance Act comes into force		1912
The Pacific Aero Products Company is incorporated in Seattle by Edward Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt		1916
The Second Battle of the Marne begins with Germany's last major offensive of the First World War on its Western Front. An Allied counterattack, supported by several hundred tanks, would overwhelm the Germans on their right flank, inflicting severe casualties. This would mark the beginning of the relentless Allied advance that culminated in the Armistice on 11 November		1918
The Japanese Communist Party is established. Today it is one of the world's largest non'governing communist parties		1922
In Vienna, 89 protesters are shot dead by police and more than 600 are injured after a furious crowd, bent on bringing down the government of Christian Social Party chancellor Ignaz Seipel, attacks the Palace of Justice		1927
HM Government orders 1,000 Spitfire fighter planes		1930
Howard Hughes and a crew of four complete a round–the–world flight in a record time of 3 days, 19 hours and 17 minutes		1938
Mrs. Clara Adams of New York becomes the first woman to complete a round–the–world flight (19 hours 4 minutes)		1939
Plebiscites in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are declared to show a unanimous desire for union with the Soviet Union		1940
Blackout lifted in Britain		1945
The UK annexes the state of North Borneo (originally established by concessions of the Sultanates of Brunei and Sulu in 1877 and 1878 to a German–born representative of Austria–Hungary, businessman and diplomat Gustav von Overbeck)		1946
Alcoholics Anonymous opens in Britain		1948
Boeing's 367–80 – a prototype for the Boeing 707 (and also for the C–135 series of transport aircraft) makes its maiden flight		1954
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration – an appeal against the use of nuclear weapons (later co–signed by 34 others)		1955
Members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) begin a 116–day strike over working practices. The strike would paralyse the US steel industry, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time. In the long run, the United States' domestic steel industry would be replaced by imports		1959
Mariner 4 transmits TV pictures from within 10,000 km of the surface of Mars – revealing no signs of life		1965
US and South Vietnamese forces begin Operation Hastings – a moderately successful attempt to push the North Vietnamese out of the Demilitarized Zone (for which they had demonstrated little respect)		1966
A leading West Indian group calls for an investigation into race relations at British Rail after Asquith Xavier, a train guard from Dominica, is finally given the transfer from Marylebone to Euston that he was refused two weeks ago. A BR spokesman insists that there is no colour bar at Euston but "the ban ... had been instigated by the workers out of a desire to protect their jobs and had never been management policy"		1966
The United Red Army (URA) is founded in Japan by the merger of two existing extreme left–wing groups. The URA would come to a sudden end seven months later as a widely–publicized nine–day siege at its mountain hideout in Nagano Prefecture ended in a shoot–out with riot police		1971
The UK's Home Office allows five fishermen to kill 350 seal pups in The Wash, off the Lincolnshire coast – under the terms of the Conservation of Seals Act 1970, which is designed to protect the seal population from overcrowding and indiscriminate killing		1971
Archbishop Makarios is deposed as President of Cyprus by Greek officers in the Cyprus National Guard		1974
Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft are launched simultaneously on the first international space mission. Officially known (in English) as the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), it is generally considered to mark the end of the Space Race. It was also the final launch for both the Apollo series of spacecraft and the Saturn family of rockets		1975
At the height of yet another energy crisis, US President Jimmy Carter, in what would become known as his "malaise speech", speaks of a crisis of confidence in US society – which his advisers had attributed to the assassinations of major leaders in the 1960s, the Vietnam War, and the Watergate scandal		1975
Eight people lose their lives, and 55 are injured, in an attack at Paris's Orly Airport by the Armenian militant organisation ASALA		1979
The British Lions, captained by Scotland's Finlay Calder, defeat Australia by 19 points to 18 in the final match of a three– match series, winning the series 2–1 and becoming the only Lions team ever to come from behind to win a series		1989
11 die and 127 are injured during clashes in Abkhazia, Georgia, USSR		1989
168 Muslims are massacred by Tamil Tigers in Colombo, Sri Lanka		1990
Rachel Nickell, aged 23, is sexually assaulted and stabbed to death, in full view of her 3–year–old son Alex, on Wimbledon Common		1992
Prince Charles is granted a decree nisi in respect of his marriage to Princess Diana		1996
Police discover an IRA bomb factory in London – 'only hours' before a planned attack on service utilities		1996
Fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead outside his Miami apartment. America's biggest manhunt leads ten days later to a houseboat three miles from the murder scene – the home of Andrew Cunanan, a 27–year–old gay prostitute with an "affluent clientele". After a five–hour siege, a SWAT team stormed the boat and found Cunanan dead – shot in the head with the same gun that he used to kill Versace		1997
A boycott of the Stormont assembly by Ulster Unionists leaves the Northern Ireland peace process in tatters		1999
In a ruling that is expected to cause confusion for many drivers, a Birmingham judge dismisses the charges against two men who were caught on speed cameras, on the grounds that the letter sent to them by police required them to incriminate themselves, contrary to their rights under Article Six of the European Convention on Human Rights which becomes law in England and Wales later this year		2000
Pakistan's Anti–Terrorism Court sentences British–born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death, and three others to life imprisonment, after their conviction for murdering the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl		2002
The microblogging and social networking service Twitter – created in March of the same year by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams – is launched		2006
At least 24 people lose their lives, and more than 160 others are injured, when a train derails on the Moscow Metro		2014

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On This Day: 15 July