Everybody knows that on July 20, 1969 the first men set foot on the moon, you know Apollo 11 and all. But since the advent of the Gregorian calendar there have been over 400 July 20th’s, so lets see what else has happened, shall we?

• 1656: Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw.
• 1738: North America: French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
• 1810: Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain.
• 1864: American Civil War: Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
• 1871: British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada.
• 1881: Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford, North Dakota.
• 1903: Ford Motor Company ships its first car.
• 1917: The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-World War I Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
• 1921: Air mail service begins between New York City and San Francisco.
• Also in 1921: Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives.
• 1924: Teheran, Persia comes under martial law after the American vice-consul, Robert Imbrie, is killed by a religious mob enraged by rumors he had poisoned a fountain and killed several people.
• 1929: Soviet troops attempt to cross the Amur River into Manchuria near Blagoveschensk as tensions mount between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China.
• 1932: In Washington, D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bonus Expeditionary Force who attempt to march to the White House.
• 1934: Labor unrest in the U.S., as police in Minneapolis fire upon striking truck drivers, wounding fifty; Seattle police fire tear gas on and club 2,000 striking longshoremen, and the governor of Oregon calls out the National Guard to break a strike on the Portland docks.
• 1940: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Hatch Act of 1939, limiting political activity by Federal government employees.
• 1944: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (known as the July 20 plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg; an event so huge that Tom Cruise made a terrible movie about it.
• 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins the Democratic Party nomination for the fourth and final time at the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1945: The US Congress approves the Bretton Woods Agreement (and your money’s been worthless ever since).
• 1948: 12 leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Alien Registration Act. Despite most of the convictions under the act being ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the law remains on the books to this day.
• 1954: At Geneva, Switzerland, an armistice is signed that ends fighting in Vietnam and divides the country along the 17th parallel. Elections held a year later which would have unified the country with leadership from the North is nullified by South Vietnamese (American-backed) leader Ngo Dinh Diem. The country would subsequently remain in a state of war for another 21 years.
• 1960: Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world’s first elected female head of government.
• 1968: The Special Olympics is founded, almost on cue, the nations first black president makes an inappropriate joke about the event on national television 40 years later.
• 1973: First coast-to-coast black-owned and operated radio network: The National Black Network (NBN) begins operations.
• 1976: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars. See, not every space event is about the moon.
• Also in 1976: Hank Aaron hits his 755th and final home run of his career.
• 1977: The CIA releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
• 1980: The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the one notable abstention being the United States which 20 years later was still trying to put an embassy in Jerusalem
• 1984: Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after Penthouse publishes nude photos of her.
• 1986: In South Africa, police fire tear gas into a church service for families of those held under the government’s emergency decrees.
• 1989: Burma’s ruling junta puts opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
• 1995: The Regents of the University of California vote to end all affirmative action in the UC system by 1997.
• 2000: The leaders of Salt Lake City’s bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics are indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud, and racketeering.
• 2005 – Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 receives its Royal Assent.

Most importantly, 6 of my friends’ birthdays are today. Happy Birthday, guys!

Happy Birthday Jocelyn, Matt, Crystal, Philip, Regan, and Joe!