TODAY in HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, July 18, the 199th day of 2017. There are 166 days left in the year.
1334 The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone. 1555 The College of Arms is reincorporated by Royal charter signed by Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain. 1806 A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, kills around 200 people. 1841 Coronation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. 1862 First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps. 1870 The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility. 1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf. 1942 World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia. 1942 The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time. 1966 Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle. 1966 A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order. 1968 Intel is founded in Mountain View, California. 1969 US Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal basin at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger, campaign specialist Mary Jo Kopechne. 1976 Nadia Comaneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics. 1982 Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan peasants are slain in the Plan de Sanchez massacre. 1984 McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fastfood restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police. 1990 A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web. 1994 The bombing of the Argentine Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300. 1994 The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.