HistoryPod
The 'on this day in history' podcast, with a new episode every single day. Featuring historical events that range from the Roman Empire to the World Wide Web, HistoryPod proves that there is always something to be remembered 'on this day'. Written and presented by Scott Allsop, creator of the award-winning www.mrallsophistory.com
22nd July 1894: World’s first organised automobile race takes place between Paris and Rouen
The Comte Jules-Albert de Dion’s steam tractor crossed the finish line first but the judges concluded that his vehicle required too much support to satisfy the competition’s objectives, so the principal prize was shared between the manufacturers Panhard et Levassor and Peugeot, whose petrol cars were considered the most practical ...
21st July 1925: ‘Monkey Trial’ finds John T. Scopes guilty of teaching evolution
John Thomas Scopes, a substitute science teacher in Tennessee, was found guilty of teaching evolution in ...
20th July 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully land on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission
The words ‘Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed’ confirmed the safe touchdown at around 8:17pm ...
19th July 1843: The ship SS Great Britain designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel launched in Bristol
Combining an iron hull with screw-propeller propulsion, SS Great Britain was the largest ship afloat at the time of its launch and introduced technologies that would influence ocean-going ships for the remainder of the nineteenth ...
18th July 1976: Nadia Comăneci scores the first ever Olympic gymnastic ‘perfect 10’
Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci scored the first ever perfect 10 in Olympic history on the uneven bars at the Summer Games in ...
17th July 1453: The Battle of Castillon, widely accepted as last conflict of the Hundred Years’ War
The Battle of Castillon, considered to be the last battle of the Hundred Years’ War, was fought between France and ...
16th July 1661: Europe’s first banknotes issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco
The new banknotes were welcomed because they were lighter, easier to carry, and more convenient for trade. The bank also found that paper currency encouraged greater commercial ...
15th July 1834: Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition, formally known as the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition
By the time it was abolished, up to 150,000 people had been tried by the Spanish Inquisition, of whom somewhere between two and five thousand were ...
14th July 1789: Storming of the Bastille marks the start of the French Revolution
The Bastille had long been a symbol of tyranny as a place for the imprisonment of people without trial, but when it was stormed it only contained seven ...
13th July 1930: Inaugural FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay during the centenary of the country’s first constitution
FIFA president Jules Rimet organised football’s own independent international championship, with Uruguay as the host nation due to Uruguay’s victories in the Olympic football tournaments of 1924 and 1928, as well as the country’s willingness to finance the event during the centenary celebrations of its first ...
12th July 1561: The consecration of Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow
Moscow’s Trinity Church, later renamed Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat and better known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, was ...
11th July 1922: The Hollywood Bowl opens in Los Angeles
The Hollywood Bowl opened in Bolton Canyon near Los ...
10th July 1991: Boris Yeltsin is inaugurated as the first elected President of Russia
Yeltsin swore to uphold the constitution and protect the rights of Russian citizens, emphasising political reform and democratic ...
9th July 1971: Henry Kissinger makes a secret diplomatic trip to China
Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s National Security Advisor, made a secret trip to China to meet with Premier Zhou ...
8th July 1932: Dow Jones falls to its lowest point during the Great Depression
From its high of 381.17 on September 3, 1929, the Dow plummeted by almost 90 per cent to 41.22 on July 8, ...
7th July 1937: Marco Polo Bridge Incident acts as a trigger for the Second Sino-Japanese War
What began as a local military incident near the Marco Polo Bridge on the outskirts of Beijing developed into the Second Sino-Japanese War, which later became part of the wider Second World War in ...
6th July 1947: The Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle goes into production in the USSR
The Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle went into production in the Soviet ...
5th July 1948: Launch of the National Health Service in England and Wales
The Labour government of Clement Atlee won the first post-war election with a pledge to implement the recommendations of the 1942 Beveridge Report and improve the social welfare system in ...
4th July 1776: United States Declaration of Independence adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress
The Declaration of Independence announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as “free and independent States”, marking the birth of the United States as a political entity with a set of principles upon which the new nation claimed ...
3rd July 1938: World speed record for steam locomotives set by Number 4468 Mallard at just under 126mph
Mallard set the record of 125.88mph on a stretch of slightly downhill railway track at Stoke Band, south of the town of ...
2nd July 1964: Civil Rights Act signed into law by US President Lyndon B. Johnson
The Act outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin and is consequently viewed as a landmark piece of civil rights ...
1st July 1569: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth created with the signing of the Union of Lublin
Agreed at the city of Lublin after months of negotiation, the union joined the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single political entity with a single elected monarch and a joint parliament responsible for matters affecting the Commonwealth as a ...
30th June 1934: Hitler purges the Nazi party in the Night of the Long Knives
Although the popular name suggests the purge lasted for one night, the executions went on throughout the ...
29th June 2008: Apple release the iPhone
The 29th June 2008 shaped the technological landscape we live in today, when Apple released the very first ...
28th June 1838: Queen Victoria crowned at Westminster Abbey following the death of her uncle, William IV
For many observers, Victoria’s appearance and behaviour during the coronation ceremony contributed positively to perceptions of the monarchy as her youth and visibility contrasted with the image of earlier Hanoverian ...
27th June 1905: Mutiny on board the Russian battleship Potemkin
Seven of the ship’s eighteen officers, including Giliarovsky and the Captain, were killed in the mutiny before the Tsar's forces launched a crackdown at the Odessa ...
26th June 1974: World’s first barcode scanned on a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum
Sharon Buchanan, a cashier at the Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, scanned the world’s first Universal Product Code (better known as a barcode) on a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit ...
25th June 1967: Our World, live global television production, broadcast using satellite technology
Organised by the BBC in cooperation with broadcasters from around the world, the Our World programme connected participants in Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia using satellite ...
24th June 1374: Dancing Plague breaks out in the German city of Aachen and continues for many weeks
Known variously as St John's Dance, St Vitus' Dance, or the ‘dancing plague’, the occurrence in Aachen was neither the first nor the last outbreak but is one of the best ...
23rd June 1314: The Battle of Bannockburn begins, resulting in a victory for Robert the Bruce against Edward II
Bannockburn was unusual for a medieval battle in that it lasted for two days, with the first day being notable for Bruce single-handedly killing the young English knight Sir Henry de Bohun with an axe blow to the head after he tried to charge him with a ...
22nd June 1941: Operation Barbarossa begins as German forces and their allies invade the Soviet Union during the Second World War
By the end of 1940 Hitler had authorised the invasion of the USSR, with the intention of securing agricultural land and raw materials, alongside the eradication of ...
21st June 1919: German High Seas naval fleet scuttled in Scapa Flow, resulting in 52 ships being sunk
Concerned that the entire fleet might be shared out between the victors as the spoils of war Admiral von Reuter, the German officer in charge of the interned fleet, decided to purposely sink the ...
20th June 1789: Tennis Court Oath sworn by the French National Assembly in which they vowed not to separate until a written constitution had been established
The Deputies of the French Third Estate swore not to separate until a written constitution had been established for the ...
19th June 1846: First officially recorded baseball game takes place in Hoboken, New Jersey
On 19 June 1846, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club travelled across the Hudson River to play against the New York Nine at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New ...
18th June 1815: Battle of Waterloo heralds the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte
Combined British and Prussian military forces defeated the French, but Wellington himself said that the battle was ‘the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your ...
17th June 1885: Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbour on board the French steamship Isère
The statue arrived disassembled, and remained in its 210 separate crates for 10 months while construction of the enormous pedestal it was to stand on was ...
16th June 1824: Reformers meet in London to establish what becomes the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The meeting in Old Slaughter’s Coffee House formalised the organisation’s structure and objectives. Early activities included bringing prosecutions against individuals accused of mistreating animals, distributing pamphlets, and encouraging more humane standards in markets, transport, and ...
15th June 1215: Magna Carta approved by King John at Runnymede near Windsor in England
Magna Carta, which is Latin for ‘the Great Charter’, confirmed the principle that everyone including the king was subject to the law of the land and gave all free men the right to justice and a fair ...
14th June 1645: The Battle of Naseby fought in the English Civil War
The Battle of Naseby, a decisive engagement of the English Civil War, was fought between the Royalist army of King Charles I and the Parliamentarian New Model ...
13th June 1917: The deadliest air raid on London of the First World War conducted by German Gotha bombers
162 people were killed and over 400 were injured, including at a school in Upper North Street School in Poplar where a bomb struck during school ...
