July 20th is

National Lollipop Day

National Moon Day *

Space Exploration Day

Ugly Truck Day

World Jump Day

International Cake Day

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MORE! Petrach, Barbara Mikulski and Hugh Masekela, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Columbia – Independence Day

Iran – Imam Sadeq Martyrdom

Laos – Lao Women’s Union Establishment Day

Morocco – Marrakesh: Folk Festival
(folkdance – part of the ongoing Arts Festival)

North Cyprus – Peace and Freedom Day

United States – Key West FL:
Hemingway Days Marlin Tournament

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 70 –  Siege of Jerusalem: Titus, son of Roman Emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount; his army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots

1248 – The University of Oxford receives its Royal Charter

1304 – Petrach (Francesco Petrarca) born, Italian Renaissance poet, scholar and pioneering humanist

1304 – Wars of Scottish Independence: King Edward I of England takes Stirling Castle, the last Scottish stronghold of resistance to English rule, using the Warwolf, the largest trebuchet ever built. It took five master carpenters, and 49 laborers three months to complete, and 30 wagons to move the Warwolf when it was disassembled

Full-Size Riding Lawnmower with 1/20th scale model of the Warwolf

1756 – British POWs interned in the “Black Hole of Calcutta”

1782 – U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States

The 1782 Great Seal of the United States

1815 – Giuseppe La Farina born, influential leader of the Italian Risorgimento (‘resurgence’/the Italian Unification movement)

1837 – Queen Victoria succeeds to the throne of the British Empire

1837 – Euston railway station opens in London as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR), the city’s first intercity railway station

1840 – Samuel Morse gets the patent for the telegraph

1847 – Max Liebermann born, German painter and etcher

Self-Portrait by Max Liebermann (Tate Gallery)

1848 – The second and concluding day of the Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls NY. It is the first women’s right convention, called “to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman”

1871 – British Columbia becomes a Canadian province

1872 – Deodat de Severac born, French composer, noted for vocal and choral music

1877 – First commercial telephone service is installed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

1881 – Sitting Bull surrenders to federal troops in Montana

1887 – Victoria Terminus, the busiest railway station in India, opens in Bombay

1894 – Errett Lobban Cord born, American automobile manufacturer

1900 – Imperial Chinese forces begin a 55-day siege of the Beijing Legation Quarter

1917 – WWI draft lottery becomes operational

1918 – Cindy Walker born, American singer-songwriter; “You Don’t Know Me”

1921 – Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson (R-OK) becomes the first woman to preside over the U.S. House of Representatives – surprisingly, not a fan of feminists, considering she could not have been a member of Congress without their untiring efforts

1924 – The international chess federation, Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE), is founded in Paris

1927 – Simin Behbahani born as Simin Khalili, Iranian icon of contemporary Persian poetry, lyricist and activist, dubbed “the lioness of Iran.” She became a major force in bringing the ghazal, a traditional Persian verse form somewhat like an ode, into modern usage; President of the Iranian Writers Association; honored with awards for both her poetry and her humanitarian and civil rights advocacy

1933 – Under German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, 200 Jewish merchants from Nuremberg are arrested and paraded through the streets

1936 – Barbara Mikulski born, American politician, U.S. Senator (D-Maryland 1987-2017); U.S.House of Representatives (D-Maryland 1977-1987); the longest-serving woman in the history of the U.S. Congress, and longest-serving Senator from Maryland

1938 – Dame Diana Rigg born, British stage, television and screen actor; former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; memorable as Mrs. Emma Peele in the British television series The Avengers, and as Olenna Tyrrell in Game of Thrones. When she discovered after making 12 episodes of The Avengers that the cameraman was earning more money than she was, “I made a bit of a stink. At the time, it was considered very bad form.” She claimed not to be a feminist because she enjoys a man being courteous

1939 – Judy Chicago born, American artist, feminist and author, known for large collaborative art installations; her masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now at the Brooklyn Museum, consists of three ‘wings’ with place settings for remarkable female figures in legend and history

1942 – Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WACS) first detachment begins basic training

1944 – Hitler wounded in failed assassination attempt in his Rastenburg headquarters

1944 – FDR nominated for an unprecedented fourth term at Democratic Convention

1947 – Carlos Santana, Grammy-winning guitarist, is born

1953 – The United Nations Economic and Social Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency

1961 – “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off” opens in London

1965 – Bob Dylan releases “Like a Rolling Stone”

1968 ­– Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing in the Grass” is #1 on the singles chart

1968 – Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-gadda-da-vida” is heavy metal’s first song to hit the charts

1969 – National Moon Day * – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on moon

1976 – NASA’s unmanned Viking 1 Lander touches down on Mars

1985 – A team of divers led by American treasure hunters Mel Fisher and Finley Richard find the wreck of Spanish treasure Galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, one of the richest shipwrecks ever recovered, setting off a legal battle between Mel Fisher and the state of Florida, which is finally settled by the U.S Supreme Court in Fisher’s favor July 1, 1992

1989 – Aung San Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy (NLD) General Secretary, is arrested after NLD wins 81% of the seats in Parliament, because the ruling military junta nullifies the election results and refuses to hand over power. She will remain under house arrest for almost 15 years, until November 13, 2010

1990 – A federal appeals court sets aside Oliver North’s Iran-Contra convictions, after a special hearing to determine if any of the witnesses at his trial had been influenced by his testimony before Congress, which he had been assured would not be used against him at his trial

1991 – The German Bundestag votes to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin

2002 – U.S. Supreme Court rules 6-3 that executing mentally retarded murderers is cruel and unusual punishment

2007 – The Senate Judiciary Committee votes 13-6, to approve Elena Kagan as the Supreme Court’s fourth female justice

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