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- 1192 Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
- 1560 Tycho Brahe becomes interested in astronomy
- 1583 The Delight, with 85 persons aboard, founders on the banks of Sable Island; first Canadian shipwreck on record.
- 1680 Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.
- 1680 Pueblo Indians took possession of Santa F‚ from Spanish
- 1760 The church (later cathedral) of "Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagez (Puerto Rico)" is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city.
- 1770 James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
- 1772 King Gustav III completes his coup d'etat by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing him as an enlightened despot.
- 1796 Mississauga Chief Wabakinine, protecting his sister from a British soldier, is struck on the head with a rock and killed; his wife is also seriously injured.
- 1810 Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.
- 1816 Quebec has an early season snowfall. WOW that is early even for us Canadians!!
- 1821 Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the Eliza Frances.
- 1831 Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion.
- 1831 Nat Turner slave revolt kills 55 (Southampton County, Virginia)
- 1841 John Hampson patents venetian blind
- 1841 The Venetian blind is first patented in the United States by John Hampson.
- 1842 The city of Hobart, Tasmania, is founded.
- 1852 Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
- 1852 Tlingit warriors destroy Hudson's Bay Company Fort Selkirk, Yukon after the HBC tries to break the Tlingit monopoly on trade with interior tribes.
- 1856 America's first consul to Japan, Townsend Harris, arrives in Shimoda. (Traditional Japanese date: July 21, 1856)
- 1857 First book published by an Australian female author: Gertrude the Emigrant, by Caroline Atkinson.
- 1857 In one of Australia's worst maritime disasters, 121 people drown when the Dunbar sinks off Sydney Heads;
- 1858 First Lincoln-Douglas debate (Illinois)
- 1858 The Lincoln-Douglas debates begin.
- 1862 Billy Barker discovers gold in creeks running into the Quesnel River; town of Barkerville, BC, grows up around mine; the find sparks a massive gold rush into the Cariboo.
- 1862 The Vienna Stadtpark opens its gates.
- 1863 Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
- 1878 American Bar Association organizes at Sarasota, NY
- 1878 The American Bar Association is founded.
- 1879 The Virgin Mary, along with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist reportedly appear to the people of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
- 1911 The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.
- 1912 Mr Carter-Cotton chosen first chancellor of Univ of British Columbia
- 1917 Company Sgt. Major Robert Hanna (29th Cdn. Infantry Batt.) wins the Victoria Cross at Hill 70, France
- 1917 Cpl. Fliip Konowal (47th Cdn. Infantry Batt.) wins the Victoria Cross at Hill 70, France
- 1942 World War II: A Nazi flag is installed atop the Mount Elbrus.
- 1942 World War II: Allied forces involved in the Guadalcanal campaign defeated an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
- 1942 World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad began.
- 1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.
- 1944 Dumbarton Oaks conference opens in Washington, DC; establishes UN
- 1944 HMCS Alberni lost
- 1945 Pres Truman ends Lend-Lease program
- 1953 Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reaches record 25,370 m
- 1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the United States
- 1961 Australian TV current affairs program Four Corners makes TV debut.
- 1963 Martial law declared in S Vietnam
- 1963 Xa Loi Pagoda raids: The Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalises Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
- 1964 Canadian Bette Singer dives a record-setting 307 feet into Bahaman waters.
- 1965 Gemini 5 launched into Earth orbit (2 astronauts)
- 1968 After 5 years Russia once again jams Voice of America radio
- 1968 Democratic Convention opens in Chicago
- 1968 James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.
- 1968 Radio Prague (Czech) at 12:50 AM announces a soviet led invasion. Warsaw Pact forces enter Czechoslovakia to end reform movement
- 1968 Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring; on the same day, Nicolae Ceauescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
- 1968 William Dana reaches 80 km (last high-altitude X-15 flight)
- 1969 An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire
- 1971 A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.
- 1971 Number one hit on UK music charts - Diana Ross - I'm Still Waiting
- 1972 First hot air balloon flight over the Alps
- 1972 Republican convention opens in Miami Beach
- 1972 US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus launched
- 1975 3 truck pile up kills 10, injures 26 on French highway
- 1976 Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea.
- 1977 Visitor posting - Melissa A Grant is born San Francisco, CA - USA
- 1981 Ottawa Roughrider Tony Gabriel catches a pass in his 128th consecutive game; sets world pro football record; record eclipsed in 1987 by the Steve Largent of the NFL.
- 1983 Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport).
- 1984 Australia's federal budget speech is televised live from Canberra for the first time
- 1985 Near Coast of Northern Peru a 6.3 quake injured at least 100 people, 60 homes destroyed and damage to other buildings in the Chimbote area
- 1985 Premier Neville Wran ratifies legislation in NSW to make AIDS a notifiable disease.
- 1986 Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range.
- 1986 Lake Nios Volcanic eruption in Cameroon releases poison gas, killing 1,746
- 1987 Clayton Lonetree, first marine court-martialed for spying, convicted
- 1988 Cease fire between Iran and Iraq takes effect after 8 years of war
- 1989 Fifty-one people drown in the River Thames, London when a dredger rams the pleasure cruiser Marchioness.
- 1989 Soviet Union reveals deadliest weapon in its air force arsenal, needle-nosed bomber that NATO calls the Blackjack
- 1989 Voyager 2 begins a flyby of the planet Neptune
- 1990 Gang of convicts from Siberian labour camp overpower guards aboard Aeroflot passenger flight, hijack plane to Pakistan and seek political asylum
- 1991 Communist coup is crushed in USSR in 2 days
- 1991 Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
- 1991 Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.
- 1993 NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.
- 1995 NSW Police Royal Commission key witness Trevor Haken accuses 35 high ranking officers and others of corruption.
- 1996 Visitor posting - on this date the amazing Joseph Panetta was born - USA
- 1997 British rock band Oasis release their 3rd album Be Here Now - the fastest selling album of all time in the UK.
- 1997 Death of Norris Bradbury, American physicist who led the team charged with assembling the components for the world's first atomic bomb explosion.
- 1998 Visitor posting - Jermey Smith born. My pet is a German Shepard named Yami - USA
- 2000 British troops are rushed on to Belfast streets after two men are killed in a violent feud between Protestant guerrilla groups.
- 2001 Visitor posting - Jake Powers was born. - USA
- 2001 NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
- 2001 The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
- 2004 Visitor posting - Aug 21, 2004, Kelan Frazer Adams is born from Quinton and Dawn Adams.
- 2007 A barge overturned and dumped a loaded diesel truck into the water near an ecological reserve off northern Vancouver Island on Monday morning.
- 2007 Hurricane Dan first of the season hits Mexaco's Yucatan peninsula just south of tourist area
- 2007 Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph. Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
- 2007 Over the 78 years this semi has been home to the Taylor and Hatchett families, it has changed little, With the decor and period features barely touched since the late 1920s, stepping inside is like stepping back in time. The original buyers, Tom and Milly Taylor, paid £1,095 for the Tudor-style property in Hove, West Sussex, in 1929. It is now valued at £435,000 - around 400 times more.
- 2007 Russian bear provokes a Cold War in the sky with largest airshow in post-Soviet history, bombers approached British airspace at the weekend - and defence chiefs scrambled supersonic Eurofighter Typhoon jets to counteract the potential threat.
- 2007 Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth safely Tuesday, ending a nearly two-week orbital drama that centred on a deep gouge in the shuttle's belly and an early homecoming prompted by a hurricane.
- 2007 The leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico emerged from their two-day meeting in Montebello, Que. Tuesday to discount the fears of critics who suggest the summit will diminish sovereignty and blur borders.
- 2009 20 people are killed and 40 injured after clashes between pro-government and Islamist forces in Mogadishu, Somalia.
- 2009 A 34-year-old Tunisian woman from Gafsa, thought to have been pregnant with 12 babies and whose story had attracted international attention, is determined to have been the victim of a phantom pregnancy.
- 2009 A North Korean delegation arrives in South Korea to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
- 2009 A missile fired from a U.S. unmanned plane destroyed a suspected militant hide-out in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 12 people in a stronghold of a jihadi leader blamed for attacks in Afghanistan.
- 2009 A rockfall on a beach in the Algarve, Portugal, kills 5 holidaymakers and injures several others.
- 2009 Argentina's association football championship kicks off after President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner puts it on the state payroll to avoid a financial crisis.
- 2009 Brazil becomes Chile's third largest trading partner, displacing Japan, according to recently released government trade figures.
- 2009 Four policemen are killed after 4 suicide bombs on bicycles detonate in Grozny, Chechnya.
- 2009 Important Islamic date - Ramadan: August 21 - September 19, 2009
- 2009 László Sólyom, President of Hungary was declared unwelcome by Slovakia and was not allowed to step on Slovak soil to attend an unveiling of a statue depicting King Saint Stephen, first King of Hungary.
- 2009 Mexico decriminalises the use of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs for "personal use".
- 2009 South African President Jacob Zuma makes a pilgrimage to a former anti-apartheid guerrilla camp in Angola where he lays a wreath and pays tribute to fallen comrades.
- 2009 The presidents or heads of state of five nations, including Seretse Ian Khama of Botswana and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, along with ministers and musical troupes gather at the cricket stadium in Oranjemund, Namibia, for a welcoming ceremony at the conclusion of explorer Kingsley Holgate's latest expedition, which took him through nine countries.
- 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama condemns Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi's homecoming in Libya
- 2009 Visitor posting - Draken was born - USA
- 2009 William Calley, the former US army officer found guilty of organizing mass killings in the Vietnamese community of My Lai during the Vietnam War makes a public apology.
- 2010 Visitor posting - Michelle Barnaville marries - United Kingdom
- 2010 Visitor posting - CM and CD meet. - USA
- 2017 Next total solar eclipse visible from North America
- 2017 The next total solar eclipse visible from Canada will happen on this day.
More historical events added daily - keep checking back