On July 11, 1801, French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons discovers a comet, using a telescope of his own design. Pons had little formal education and most of his knowledge of astronomy was attained hands-on, working as a caretaker at the Marseilles Observatory and later as director of observatories in Tuscany and Florence. Despite his lack of formal training, colleagues noted Pons had a phenomenal ability to remember the layout of star charts and note changes in them over the course of time. From 1801-1827, Pons would personally discover 37 comets, more than any other person in history. He retired from observing due to failing eyesight not long before his death in 1831. On July 11, 1947, the Exodus departs Marseilles, France with about 4,500 Jewish refugees aboard. It is the largest single attempted migration of the "Aliyah Bet", the attempts by European Jews - mostly Holocaust survivors - to emigrate to Palestine. Following the war, the demand for a Jewish homeland greatly intensified, but the quotas permitted for legal immigration to British-controlled Palestine were far below the demand. Zion activists would secretly transport about 100,000 Jews to Palestine in that time, though many of the transports would be quietly stopped by the British. The Exodus incident would prove to be a major blow to Britain's post-war image. The Royal Navy intercepted the Exodus before it entered Palestinian waters, forcibly taking control of the ship and sailing it back to Marseilles. France denied any responsibility for the refugees and after a month, the British sailed the Exodus to Hamburg, Germany, where it disembarked the refugees and interned them in a holding camp. Word got out and the sight of Jews being detained in a camp in post-Holocaust Germany enflamed world opinion against the British. It also hastened the United Nations' effort to partition Palestine into two states, including the Jewish state of Israel (with no immigration quota) the following year. (members of the Royal Navy boarding party aboard the Exodus after its capture) On July 11, 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland, Boris Spassky (left in photo) begins defense of his World Chess Championship against American Bobby Fischer. The 35-year old Spassky had been champion since 1969, the latest in a series of Russian world champions that began in 1948. The eccentric 29-year old Fischer had waylaid the competition in the most recent Candidates tournament to earn the right to challenge the champ. The agreed-upon format was a 24 game match, with wins counting for one point and draws a half-point each. First player to 12 1/2 points would win; if a 12-12 tie resulted, Spassky would retain the title. Fischer was late to the table on July 11 and Spassky actually played his first move before an empty chair, waiting 9 minutes before Fischer finally arrived, shook hands and made his first move. Fischer would resign the game on the 56th move, but over the next 8 weeks, would hammer out a 12 1/2 - 8 1/2 win, becoming America's first World Chess Champion when Spassky resigned in game 21. Fischer won 7 games to Spassky's 3, with 11 draws. Despite the win, Fischer despised the "first to 12 1/2" format and was stripped of his title when he refused to play in that format in his first defense, in 1975 against Russian Anatoly Karpov. (note: although Fischer is considered America's only World Chess Champion, Austrian Wilhelm Steinitz became a naturalized U.S. citizen two years after becoming the first-ever World Champion in 1886.)
On July 17, 1821, Spain cedes the Florida Territory to the United States. The Spanish had been the primary European settlers of the Florida Peninsula (and much of the Gulf Coast to the west) since Ponce de Leon's arrival in 1513. The land was traded to the British in exchange for control of Havana, Cuba in 1763. Most colonial Floridians readily changed their loyalties to the British crown, and the territory was mostly untouched by the American Revolution, though it was returned to Spanish control by the Treaty of Paris in 1783. American incursions into the territory in the subsequent decades convinced the Spanish government that keeping Florida was not worth the trouble, and gave the U.S. the territory in exchange for about $5 million in legal settlements. Florida was admitted as the 27th state in 1845. (a possible depiction of Florida in a closeup of the Cantino Planisphere, a Portuguese world map published in 1502) On July 17, 1944 near Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery, Normandy, 3 Allied fighter pilots (two British, one Canadian) strafe the staff car of Germany's Western Defence Inspector General, Irwin Rommel. The driver was struck in the arm and subsequently crashed; Rommel was thrown from the car and suffered 3 skull fractures. Though not serving in a combat role at the time, the attack robbed Nazi Germany of perhaps its finest military commander. Three days later, a failed attempt on Hitler's life took place and Rommel was soon implicated (historians disagree as to his role in the conspiracy). While still convalescing on October 14, two generals from Hitler's staff visited Rommel and informally charged him as a conspirator. They offered him three choices, one of which was to take his own life (one brought a cyanide capsule); in exchange for which, his role would not be revealed, he would be buried with honors for his service, and his family would not be implicated. Rommel agreed, taking his own life after donning the jacket he wore as commander of the Afrika Korps. Hitler ordered a national day of mourning and a state funeral. On July 17, 1917, England's King George V proclaims that he and his male descendents will bear the surname Windsor. George's father, Edward VII, inherited the throne from his mother, Queen Victoria in 1901, ending the line of the House of Hanover. Edward took the name of his father, Prince Albert, who was of the heavily-German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha line. George ascended to the throne in 1910, and with World War I escalating in 1917, wanted to distance himself and his heirs from his German lineage. He chose the name of the family's traditional home, Windsor Castle, as his new surname. King Charles III is the fifth monarch of the House of Windsor.
On July 18, 1969, a small group of investors and semiconductor pioneers found the Intel Corporation in Mountain View, CA. The name is an abbrevation of integrated electronics,and its first focus was on semiconductor memory devices. In 1971, Intel produced its first microprocessor for business computers. With the introduction of personal computers, Intel's impact soared. Now with nearly 125,000 employees, Intel was largely responsible for the growth of Silicon Valley as one of the world's major microprocessor producing centers, and is the dominant producer of microprocessors in the world, with a greater than 70% share of the world market. (founders Andy Grove, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore) On July 18, 1914 by Congressional appointment, the Aviation Section, U.S. Army Signal Corps, is formed. America's first venture into military aviation started with 120 officers and men, and 23 aircraft but expanded quickly. At its height in 1917, the Aviation Section had grown to 1,200 men and about 225 aircraft, but several incidents of malfeasance among its officers led to court martials and a scathing Inspector General's report. From 1918-1947, the Aviation Section would undergo a series of reorganizations and reassignments, all under authority of the Army, until finally being established as a separate branch of the military as the United States Air Force. (The 1st Aero Squadron, photographed at their base in San Diego in 1915) On July 18, 1976, Nadia Comaneci scores the first perfect "10" in the history of Olympics gymnastics. The 14-year old Romanian was first enrolled in gymnastics classes at the age of 5 by her mother as a means to harness her hyperactivity. Barely two years later she began training in the national experimental gymnastics school founded by Bela Karolyi. A series of national and international wins beginning at age 9 followed, culminating in the '76 Summer Olympics in Montreal. On 7/18, Comaneci scored a perfect "10" in the uneven parallel bars compulsory competition (the score actually appeared as "1.00" on the scoreboard; the manufacturer did not program the scoreboard to display a 10, believing a perfect score was impossible.) Over the following days, Comaneci would post 6 more perfect scores, leaving Montreal with 3 individual gold medals, a bronze, and a team silver. She would win two more golds and 2 silvers at the '80 Olympics in Moscow, retired from competition in 1984, defected from Communist Romania to the U.S. in 1989, was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1993.
On July 19, AD64, a fire breaks out in a merchant's shop where flammable goods were stored near Rome's Circus Maximus. It quickly spread and over the next 9 days the Great Fire of Rome destroyed about 71% of one of the world's great cities. Emperor Nero was at his country villa outside the city at the time and rumors would quickly spread that he had ordered the fire started in order to clear space for a new imperial palace. It didn't help that his current palace was among the structures lost and Nero wasted no time starting construction on a new one, but modern historians generally agree that the city's structures were so tightly packed that a devastating fire (Rome actually suffered at least 7 major fires in the first century AD; this was the largest) was inevitable. On July 19, 1545, the British carvel Mary Rose is sunk in the Solient, a passage between Great Britain and the Isle of Wight, while defending against an invading French fleet. The Mary Rose was one of the largest (perhaps the largest) ships in King Henry VIII's Tudor Navy. The wreck was discovered in 1971 and raised in 1982 in one of the most complex maritime salvage projects in history. Salvaging the Mary Rose (the restoration is still ongoing) has given historians great insight into the Tudor era maritime practices, with thousands of artifacts recovered and restored. The ship itself is on display at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and is protected by England's 1973 Protection of Wrecks Act. On July 19, 1963, test pilot Joe Walker takes the experimental rocket plane X-15 to an altitude of 106 kilometers; about 66 miles. By exceeding the Karman line, the internationally agreed upon boundary to outer space at 100 kilometers, Walker became the first man to fly an airplane into outer space. He would break his own altitude record in the same plane about a month later (108km this time), making him the first man to make multiple trips into space. Walker had exceeded the 50 kilometer mark - the accepted boundary to outer space in U.S. terms - earlier in the year, officially making him an astronaut though he never flew for NASA in a designated space craft. Walker was killed in 1966 in the infamous Valkyrie mid-air collision. He was at the controls of an F-104 flying in a 5-plane formation with the experimental Valkyrie bomber for publicity photos (red tailed plane in the photo at right) when he lost control (possibly due to turbulence from the bigger aircraft) and collided.
On July 22, 1833, the British Parliament's House of Commons approves the Slavery Abolition Act. One of a series of laws regulating slavery in the Empire, the SAA would be the most significant in outlawing slavery altogether. In practical terms, slaves over the age of six were designated as "apprentices" with their servitude completed by August 1840. Slaves under the age of six were granted their freedom outright. Although a few colonial territories in the Eastern Hemisphere were excluded from the Act, those exclusions were eliminated by 1843. (early 19th century painting depicts the House of Commons in session) On July 22, 1943, a provisional force of Major General George Patton's 7th Army captures the city of Palermo on the northern coast of Sicily. Not an original objective of Operation Husky, Palermo became the focus of Patton's attention nine days earlier when the operation's C-I-C, British General Sir Harold Alexander, ordered Patton to give control of a key north-south highway in Sicily to the British 8th Army, relegating Patton to a support role. In Patton's (and most of his staff's) eyes, the order confirmed what he'd thought since Husky's planning stages; that Alexander saw the American troops as subordinate to the British. Palermo would be a noteworthy PR target in the eyes of the American public, and at first, Alexander approved Patton's request to take the city. He later rescinded the approval, but Patton pretended the radio message was "garbled" and by the time Alexander could send a second message to "clarify" it, Patton was already rolling into Palermo. (Patton, in center wearing binoculars, in an unidentified Sicilian town) On July 22, 1099, a council of leaders of the First Crusade appoint one of their number, French lord Godfrey of Bouillon, first Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre. The gathering took place in Jerusalem's massive Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which, tradition dictates, was built over the site of Jesus Christ's tomb, as well as Calvary, the hill on which he was crucified. The original intent was that Godfrey would be crowned King of Jerusalem, but he refused, saying he would not wear a crown of gold at the place where the Lord wore a crown of thorns. He proposed instead the title of Advocatus (Defender), which ended almost a year to the day later on his death. His successor, Baldwin I, would accept the title of King. Subsequent kings of Jerusalem would accept Advocate as a secondary title.
On July 23, 1972, NASA launches satellite ERTS-1, later to be dubbed Landsat-1. It is the first satellite designed to obtain information on Earth's natural resources. From activation until failure in January 1978, Landsat would record about 300,000 photo images providing data on agriculture and forestry, mineral resources, oceanography and other data. (Landsat photo of San Francisco Bay area) On July 23, 1962, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The first 4-sport letterman in UCLA history (he would later call baseball his "worst college sport"), Robinson tried semipro football (the NFL was still segregated) but had that career interrupted by WWII. After a court martial and honorable discharge for refusing to move to the back of a segregated Army bus, Robinson joined the Negro Baseball League, where he caught the attention of Los Angeles Dodgers GM Branch Rickey, who saw in Robinson the perfect candidate to break baseball's color barrier. His accolades probably would have gotten him in the Hall in any case; in 10 seasons, he was Rookie of the Year, the '49 National League MVP, 6x All Star, 2x stolen base champ, and 1x batting champ. In 1997, Robinson became the first player to have his jersey number (42) retired universally by Major League Baseball.
On July 24, 1701, French explorer Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac establishes a trading post on a narrow strait (in French, le Detroit) connecting Lake Erie with Lake Saint Clair. A fort would soon follow, which Cadillac would name Ft. Pontchartrain to honor the home town of his noble patron. The location of the fort is now deep in downtown Detroit, MI. (statue honoring Cadillac in Detroit's Hart Plaza) On July 24, 1950, Bumper 7 (an 8-launch program which studied problems involved with two-stage rockets) is launched, the first rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Originally established as a naval air station in 1940 and transferred to the air force in 1949, Cape Canaveral would become the base of operations for NASA on its establishment in 1958. Its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean (a safe zone for failed launches) and the Equator (the Earth's faster rotation there gave launching rocket an extra kick of speed) made the location in south Florida the most advantageous spot in the continental U.S. for space launches.
Wow, never thought to consider the earth's rotation speed into a rocket launch. Those dudes think of everything
