This Week In History
July 22, 1933
U.S. aviation pioneer Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world, taking seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes to complete the trip 1972: The European Economic Community (EEC) and European Free Trade Area (EFTA) agreed on a joint new free trade area 1999: Chinese authorities outlawed the spiritual sect Falun Gong
2010: A new henge was discovered at Stonehenge in England, the biggest discovery at the site in over 50 years 2011: A Norwegian right-wing extremist killed 77 people in central Oslo and on the island of Utoeya
July 23, 1903
The first Ford Model A was sold. Designed and manufactured by then little-known engineer Henry Ford, it featured a twin-cylinder internal combustion engine
1829: The “typographer”, a forerunner of the typewriter, was patented in the United States 1952: King Farouk of Egypt was deposed in an army coup 2001: President Wahid of Indonesia was ousted in favour of popular vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri 2015: The discovery of Kepler-452b, the first potentially rocky exoplanet found in the habitable zone of a sun-like star, was announced
July 24, 1783
Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He freed much of South America from Spanish control 1938: Swiss firm Nestlé introduced Nescafé instant coffee to help solve Brazil’s coffee surplus problem 1991: Indian finance minister Manmohan Singh presented his budget that led to economic liberalisation 1993: Russia’s central bank announced drastic reforms, withdrawing all banknotes issued up to the end of 1992 2006: World Trade Organisation talks to liberalise global trade collapsed after nearly five years of negotiations
July 25, 1978
The world’s first “test-tube baby” was born. Louise Brown was conceived by the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF), pioneered in Britain
1995: Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity 2000: An Air France Concorde crashed after taking off from Paris. The crash killed 113 people
2003: Scientists reported that the first human migration to the Americas took place no later than 18,000 years ago 2010: Wikileaks released over 92,000 U.S. documents related to the war in Afghanistan
July 26, 1908
The FBI, or Federal Bureau of Investigation, was created in the United States. Headquartered in Washington DC, it is concerned primarily with internal security
1953: Fidel Castro led a failed assault on the Moncada barracks in Cuba in the fight against dictator Fulgencio Batista 2001: Scientists concluded that the 5,300-year-old “iceman” found in the Alps was killed by an arrow wound
2006: Fragments of an early Irish Christian prayer book from around AD800, were discovered in a bog 2010: Plastiki, a ship made of plastic bottles, crossed the Pacific to Sydney to raise awareness of environmental issues
July 27, 1953
The armistice ending the threeyear Korean War was signed at Panmunjom. The conflict claimed the lives of at least 2.5 million soldiers and civilians 1995: Footprints preserved in volcanic ash proved that humans were walking upright 3.7m years ago 2001: Scientists blamed overfishing for the collapse of the world’s coastal ecosystems
2003: U.S. teenager Michael Phelps, 18, was the first swimmer to set five world records in a single meet at the world championships in Barcelona, Spain 2013: The first Przewalski’s horse foal was born via artificial insemination
July 14, 2014
The first use of fingerprints as a means of identification was made by William Herschel in India. He asked a businessman to impress his hand print on a contract 1996: The bones of a prehistoric man some 9,000 years old were discovered in the U.S. state of Washington 1998: Monica Lewinsky agreed to testify about her relationship with U.S. President Bill Clinton 2008: King George Tupou V of Tonga relinquished his powers, ending centuries of absolute monarchy 2010: Spain’s autonomous community of Catalonia banned the centuries-old sport of bullfighting