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July 18

John Glenn (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was a United States Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, and politician. Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the United States. He was one of the Mercury Seven, military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA as the nation's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, Glenn flew the Friendship 7 mission, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth, and the fifth person and third American in space. After retiring from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic U.S. senator from Ohio. In 1998, Glenn flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95, making him the oldest person to enter Earth orbit and the only person to fly in both Project Mercury and the Space Shuttle program. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. (Full article...)

July 18

Coronation of Pedro II of Brazil

• 1806 – An explosion at a gunpowder magazine in Birgu, Malta, killed an estimated 200 people.
• 1841 – Pedro II, the last emperor of Brazil, was crowned (depicted) at the Old Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.
• 1949 – Francisco Javier Arana, the chief of the Guatemalan armed forces, was killed in a shootout with supporters of President Juan José Arévalo.
• 1984 – A gunman massacred 21 people and injured 15 others at a McDonald's restaurant in the district of San Ysidro of San Diego, California.
• 2019 – An arson attack at the studio of Kyoto Animation in Japan led to the deaths of 36 people.

July 18

Salisbury Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. Built in early English Gothic style, it was constructed between 1220 and 1258. This photograph, taken in 2014, shows the interior of the cathedral, looking eastwards towards the high altar through the tall and narrow nave. It has three levels: a tall pointed arcade, an open gallery, and a small clerestory. In the foreground is an unconventional modern baptismal font, installed in September 2008. Designed by the water sculptor William Pye, it is the largest working font in any British cathedral. The font is cruciform in shape, and has a 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) vessel filled to its brim with water, designed so that the water overflows in filaments through each corner into bronze gratings embedded in the cathedral's stone floor. Photograph credit: David Iliff Recently featured: Bispira volutacornis Snake handling in Christianity Bronze-winged jacana Archive More featured pictures

July 19

John D. Whitney (July 19, 1850 – November 27, 1917) was an American Catholic priest who was the president of Georgetown University from 1898 to 1901. Born in Massachusetts, he joined the United States Navy at the age of sixteen. He became a Jesuit in 1872 and spent the next twenty-five years studying and teaching mathematics at Jesuit institutions in Canada, England, Ireland, and the United States. He became the vice president of Spring Hill College in Alabama before becoming the president of Georgetown. He oversaw the completion of Gaston Hall, the construction of the entrances to Healy Hall, and the establishment of Georgetown University Hospital and what would become the School of Dentistry. Afterwards, Whitney became the treasurer of Boston College and then engaged in pastoral work in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Baltimore, where he became the prefect of St. Ignatius Church. (This article is part of a featured topic: Presidents of Georgetown University.)

July 19

Remnants of the Mary Rose

• 1333 – Second War of Scottish Independence: Scottish forces under Sir Archibald Douglas were heavily defeated by the English at the Battle of Halidon Hill while trying to relieve Berwick-upon-Tweed.
• 1545 – The English warship Mary Rose sank outside Portsmouth during the Battle of the Solent; it was raised from the seabed in 1982 (remnants pictured).
• 1916 – First World War: The "worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history" occurred when Australian forces unsuccessfully attacked German defences at Fromelles, France.
• 1957 – The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh was published.
• 2014 – Gunmen perpetrated an assault against an Egyptian military checkpoint in the Libyan Desert near Farafra, killing 22 soldiers.

July 19

German Mission House, Chatham

Ten locations in the Chatham Islands are listed on the New Zealand Heritage List. The Chatham Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 800 kilometres (430 nautical miles) east of New Zealand's South Island, administered as part of New Zealand. Heritage New Zealand classification of sites on the New Zealand Heritage List / Rārangi Kōrero, in accordance with the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, distinguishes between Category 1 ("places of special or outstanding historical or cultural significance") and Category 2 ("places of historic or cultural significance"). Nine historic places (one pictured) are located on the main island of Chatham, while one, Whaler's Cottage, is on neighboring Pitt Island. Two additional sites – Hunts Forge on Pitt Island and Zimmerman House at Waitangi West on Chatham – were initially listed as Category 2 sites, but were later destroyed and removed from the list. (Full list...)

July 19

Horatius Cocles was an officer in the army of the early Roman Republic who famously defended the Pons Sublicius from the invading army of Etruscan king Lars Porsena of Clusium in the late 6th century BC, during the war between Rome and Clusium. By defending the narrow end of the bridge, he and his companions were able to hold off the attacking army long enough to allow other Romans to destroy the bridge behind him, blocking the Etruscans' advance and saving the city. This fanciful engraving of Cocles was produced in 1586 by the German-born Dutch printmaker Hendrick Goltzius. The full-length portrait shows him holding a raised sword in his right hand and a shield in his left. In the lower right of the background, Cocles takes on an army by himself. Engraving credit: Hendrick Goltzius Recently featured: Salisbury Cathedral Bispira volutacornis Snake handling in Christianity Archive More featured pictures

July 20

The Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), also known as the steinbock, is a species of goat that lives in the Alps of Europe. Its closest living relative is the Iberian ibex. They have brownish-grey coats and sharp hooves adapted to steep, rough terrain. Found at elevations as high as 3,300 metres (10,800 ft), they are active throughout the year, primarily feeding on grass in open alpine meadows. Adult males, which are larger than the females, segregate from them for most of the year, coming together only during the breeding season, when they fight for access to the females using their long horns. The Alpine ibex has been successfully reintroduced to parts of its historical range, but all individuals living today descend from a population bottleneck of fewer than 100 individuals from Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy. The species has few predators and is not threatened, but it has very low genetic diversity. (Full article...)

July 20

Buzz Aldrin's bootprint on the moon

• 1651 – Wars of the Three Kingdoms: After crossing the Firth of Forth, English Commonwealth forces defeated a Scottish army at the Battle of Inverkeithing, opening the rest of the country to occupation.
• 1867 – The United States Congress established the Indian Peace Commission to seek peace treaties with a number of Native American tribes.
• 1917 – The prime minister of Serbia, Nikola Pašić, and the president of the Yugoslav Committee, Ante Trumbić, signed the Corfu Declaration, agreeing to seek the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
• 1969 – The Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon six-and-a-half hours later (Aldrin's bootprint pictured).
• 2012 – A gunman carried out a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.

July 20

Theodore von Kármán (1881–1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer and physicist, who worked in aeronautics and astronautics. He was responsible for crucial advances in aerodynamics characterizing supersonic airflow. The human-defined threshold of outer space is named the Kármán line in recognition of his work. This 1959 photograph shows von Kármán (left) joined by United States Air Force and NASA officials while inspecting two missile models used in the high-velocity, high-altitude wind tunnels at Arnold Air Force Base. The missiles shown are the AGARD-B and the Atlas Series-B. Photograph credit: United States Air Force; restored by Chris Woodrich Recently featured: Horatius Cocles Salisbury Cathedral Bispira volutacornis Archive More featured pictures

July 21

Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s; these included seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His debut novel The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926. His wartime experiences as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms, and he drew on his experience as a journalist in the Spanish Civil War for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway was with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. He was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. (Full article...)

July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)

Depiction of the Ciompi Revolt by Giuseppe Lorenzo Gatteri

• 625 – Paulinus of York was consecrated as the first Bishop of York by Justus.
• 1378 – Unrepresented labourers revolted and violently took over the government of the Republic of Florence (depicted), demanding that they be granted political office.
• 1946 – After weeks of unrest, rioters shot and lynched Bolivian President Gualberto Villarroel, desecrating and hanging his corpse in the streets of La Paz.
• 1959 – The inaugural International Mathematical Olympiad, the leading mathematical competition for pre-university students, began in Romania.
• 1977 – Libyan forces carried out a raid at Sallum, sparking a four-day war with Egypt.

July 21

Frances Cleveland (July 21, 1864 – October 29, 1947) was the first lady of the United States from 1886 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897, as the wife of President Grover Cleveland. She met him while an infant, as he was a friend, and later the executor, of her father, Oscar Folsom. Grover settled Oscar's debts and provided for Frances. She graduated from Wells College, then married Grover while he was president. When he lost reelection in 1888, they went into private life for four years, returning when he was elected again in 1892. Much of her time during Grover's second term was dedicated to their children. They had five; four survived to adulthood. Frances Cleveland served on the Wells College board, supported women's education, and organized kindergartens. Grover died in 1908, and she married Thomas J. Preston Jr. in 1913. During World War I, she advocated military preparedness. She died in 1947 and was buried alongside Grover Cleveland in Princeton Cemetery. This portrait photograph of Frances Cleveland was taken in 1886. Photograph credit: Charles Milton Bell; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Theodore von Kármán Horatius Cocles Salisbury Cathedral Archive More featured pictures

July 22

Thekla (right) with Michael III

Thekla (820s or 830s – after 870) was a princess of the Amorian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. The daughter and eldest of seven children of the emperor Theophilos and empress Theodora, she was proclaimed augusta (an imperial title) in the late 830s. After her father's death in 842, her mother became regent for her younger brother Michael III, and Thekla was associated with the regime as a co-empress alongside Theodora and Michael. Thekla was deposed by Michael, possibly alongside her mother, in 856 and consigned to a convent in Constantinople. In one narrative, accepted by some Byzantinists and rejected by others, she became the mistress of Michael's friend and co-emperor Basil I, but was neglected after Basil murdered Michael in 867 and took power as the sole emperor. In this narrative, she took another lover, was discovered, and fell out of favor, then was beaten and had her property confiscated. (Full article...)

July 22: Feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene (Christianity)

Jules-Albert de Dion

• 838 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The forces of the Abbasid Caliphate defeated Byzantine troops led by Emperor Theophilos at the Battle of Anzen, near present-day Dazman, Turkey.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate forces unsuccessfully attacked Union troops at the Battle of Atlanta.
• 1894 – Jules-Albert de Dion (pictured) finished first in the world's first motor race, but did not win as his steam-powered car was against the rules.
• 1944 – World War II: In opposition to the London-based government-in-exile, the Soviet-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation was proclaimed to govern territory recaptured from Germany.
• 1954 – A limited state of martial law was declared in Russell County, Alabama, due to organized crime.

July 22

AC/DC in 2009

Australian rock band AC/DC have released 18 studio albums, two soundtrack albums, three live albums, one extended play, 57 singles and two box sets. Brothers Angus (lead guitar) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar) formed AC/DC in 1973. The band released two albums in Australasia before issuing their first international album, High Voltage (1976); the Youngs had been joined by vocalist Bon Scott, bass guitarist Mark Evans and drummer Phil Rudd. In 1980, Scott died and was replaced by English singer Brian Johnson, with whom the band released the second best-selling album in history, Back in Black, to which it sold 50 million copies worldwide. In 50 years of their career, AC/DC have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, and 83 million in the United States. Their most certified singles in the US are "Thunderstruck" and "Back in Black" – each received Diamond and 7× Platinum from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2024, respectively. In Australia, "Thunderstruck" was accredited 10× Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) in 2022. (Full list...)

July 22

The marabou stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer) is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae native to sub-Saharan Africa. The marabou stork is a large bird, with individuals reaching a height of 152 centimetres (4.99 feet) and a weight of 9 kg (20 lb). It has the largest wingspan of any land bird, with an average of 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) and some recorded examples of up to 3.2 metres (10 ft). The marabou stork breeds in Africa south of the Sahara. In East Africa, the birds interact with humans and breed in urban areas. In southern African countries, the birds breed mainly in less populated areas. This marabou stork in flight was photographed in the town of Batu, by Lake Ziway, Ethiopia. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp Recently featured: Frances Cleveland Theodore von Kármán Horatius Cocles Archive More featured pictures

July 23

Flask from Iznik, c. 1560–1580

Empire of the Sultans was a touring exhibition from 1995 to 2004 displaying objects from the Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. Around two hundred exhibits, including calligraphy, textiles, pottery (example pictured), weapons, and metalwork, illustrated the art and daily life of six centuries of the Ottoman Empire. Many of the objects had been created for the leaders of the empire, the sultans. Two of the calligraphic pieces were the work of sultans themselves. In the 1990s, the exhibition was hosted by institutions in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Israel, and its first catalogue was published by J. M. Rogers. The exhibits visited thirteen cities in the United States from 2000 to 2004, despite controversies in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War. Critics described the exhibition as wide-ranging and informative. They praised it for showing beautiful art works – naming the calligraphy in particular – and for presenting a fresh view of Islam. (Full article...)

July 23: Seventeenth of Tammuz (Judaism, 2024), Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)

Wilfred Rhodes in 1906

• 1860 – The trial of the Eastbourne manslaughter, which later became an important legal precedent in the United Kingdom for discussions of corporal punishment in schools, began in Lewes.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Henry Halleck was appointed general-in-chief of the Union Army.
• 1927 – Wilfred Rhodes (pictured) of England and Yorkshire became the only person to play in 1,000 first-class cricket matches.
• 1942 – The Holocaust: The gas chambers at Treblinka extermination camp began operation, killing 6,500 Jews who had been transported from the Warsaw Ghetto the day before.
• 1999 – In Tulia, Texas, 47 people were arrested for dealing cocaine; years later, 35 of the 47 were pardoned by the Governor of Texas.

July 23

Censorship under the military dictatorship in Brazil consisted of restrictions on the media, artists, journalists, and others which the government deemed "subversive", "dangerous" or "immoral". The political system installed by the 1964 coup d'état, which persisted until 1985, also set out to censor material that went against what it called "morality and good manners". The constitution of 1967 established censorship as an official, centralized activity of the Brazilian federal government. There were several protests against the practice, including the Cultura contra Censura protest of February 1968, which is depicted here. In the photograph are actresses Tônia Carrero, Eva Wilma, Odete Lara, Norma Bengell and Cacilda Becker. Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Marabou stork Frances Cleveland Theodore von Kármán Archive More featured pictures

July 24

Ty Cobb

Ty Cobb was suspended for ten days during the 1912 baseball season. Cobb was disciplined for beating Claude Lucker, a fan who had been heckling him during the four-game series between Cobb's Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees. Cobb was ejected from the game on May 15, 1912, and American League president Ban Johnson suspended him indefinitely. Cobb's teammates took his side, and after defeating the Philadelphia Athletics on May 17, told Johnson that they would not play again until Cobb was reinstated. Johnson refused to do so. Seeking to avoid a $5,000 fine, owner Frank Navin told manager Hughie Jennings to recruit a team; he did so. Facing the Athletics, baseball's World Champions, the replacement players, joined by Jennings and his coaches, lost 24–2, after which Cobb persuaded his teammates to return. They and Cobb were fined, but Navin paid. The walkout was baseball's first major league strike; it had little effect, but teams put additional security into stadiums. (Full article...)

July 24: Pioneer Day in Utah, United States (1847)

Konstantinos Karamanlis in 1978

• 1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son, James VI.
• 1959 – Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. vice president Richard Nixon held an impromptu debate at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow.
• 1974 – The Metapolitefsi period in Greece began with Konstantinos Karamanlis (pictured) taking office as prime minister after the collapse of a military junta.
• 1980 – The Australian swimming team, nicknamed the Quietly Confident Quartet, won the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the Moscow Olympics.
• 2014 – Air Algérie Flight 5017 disappeared from radar shortly after take-off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; its wreckage was found the following day in Mali with no survivors.

July 24

Justice was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in the early 1900s. She was the second member of the Liberté class, which included three other vessels and was a derivative of the preceding République class. Justice carried a main battery of four 305 mm (12 in) guns, with ten 194 mm (7.6 in) guns for her secondary armament. On entering service, Justice became the flagship of the 2nd Division of the Mediterranean Squadron, participating in the training routine of squadron and fleet maneuvers and cruises, as well as several naval reviews. During World War I, Justice was used to escort troopship convoys carrying elements of the French Army from North Africa to face the Germans invading northern France and also steamed to contain the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea, taking part in the minor Battle of Antivari. She was sent to the Black Sea after the war to oversee the surrender of German-occupied Russian warships, and then briefly became a training ship, before being decommissioned in the early 1920s. This photograph shows Justice in 1909, near New York City. Photograph credit: Detroit Publishing Company; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: Censorship under the military dictatorship in Brazil Marabou stork Frances Cleveland Archive More featured pictures

July 25

The great cuckoo-dove (Reinwardtoena reinwardti) is a species of bird in the pigeon family. First described by zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1824, it is found on islands from New Guinea to Wallacea in primary forest and the forest edge. It is a large pigeon, and in adults the head, neck, and breast are whitish or blue-grey, the underparts are bluish-grey, the upperparts are chestnut-brown, and the outer wings are black. Females differ from males in having yellower irises and duller orbital skin. Juveniles are mainly dull grey-brown, with dirty-white throats and bellies. The bird feeds on fruit and seeds, usually alone or in pairs, but forms mixed flocks at fruit trees. It will defend fruiting shrubs, an uncommon foraging behaviour among birds. Breeding occurs throughout the year, although timing varies over its range. Nests are platforms made of plant material and the clutch is one white egg. This species is classified as least concern due to its large range and stable population. (Full article...)

July 25: National Day of Galicia, Saint James's Day

Pratibha Patil

• 306 – Constantine the Great was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops after the death of Constantius Chlorus.
• 1788 – Mozart completed his Symphony No. 40, one of his two extant minor-key symphonies.
• 1898 – Spanish–American War: After more than two months of sea-based bombardment, the United States invaded Puerto Rico.
• 1943 – The Grand Council of Fascism voted a motion of no confidence against Benito Mussolini, who was arrested the same day by King Victor Emmanuel III and replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
• 2007 – Pratibha Patil (pictured) was sworn in as the first female president of India.

July 25

Pisaura mirabilis is a species of arachnid in the nursery web spider family, Pisauridae. It has a palearctic distribution, being found all over Europe, and also inhabits the Canary Islands and Madeira, the Asian part of Russia, China and North Africa. Pisaura mirabilis lives in all habitats, but prefers wet environments. It inhabits all strata, from the ground to the top of trees, at altitudes up to 1100 m, but is not found under rocks or in caves. This spider has relatively long legs, the fourth pair being the longest, and a slender opisthosoma. The male is between 10 and 13 mm, while the female is 12 to 15 mm. This photograph shows a female P. mirabilis spider carrying an egg sac in Wolvercote Lakes, Oxfordshire, England. Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp Recently featured: French battleship Justice Censorship under the military dictatorship in Brazil Marabou stork Archive More featured pictures