World/Nation trivia 7-13-24: July 14-20

July 14:

1789, in an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed by the government of Nazi Germany.

1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall first arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her study of the wild chimpanzees living there.

2020, researchers reported that the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. boosted people’s immune systems as scientists had hoped; the vaccine was developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.

July 15:

1799, the Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts, was found at Fort Julien in the Nile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.

1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 350 years after its creation.

1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who’d fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

July 16:

1790, a site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington, D.C.

1957, Marine Corps Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record by flying a Vought F8U Crusader jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.4 seconds.

1969, Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.

2008, Florida resident Casey Anthony, whose 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, had been missing a month, was arrested on charges of child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. (Casey Anthony was later acquitted at trial of murdering Caylee, whose skeletal remains were found in December 2008; Casey was convicted of lying to police.)

July 17:

1862, during the Civil War, Congress approved the Second Confiscation Act, which declared that all slaves taking refuge behind Union lines were to be set free.

1918, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.

1981, 114 people were killed when a pair of suspended walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a tea dance.

July 18:

1536, the English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.

1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Presidential Succession Act which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

1976, at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Nadia Comaneci of Romania became the first gymnast to receive a perfect score of 10 from Olympic judges for her performance on the uneven bars.

2020, Canadian officials said the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team would not be able to play its home games in Toronto during the shortened 2020 season because it wasn’t safe for players to travel back and forth from the United States. (The Blue Jays would play “home” games in the ballpark of their minor league affiliate in Buffalo, N.Y.)

July 19:

1812, during the War of 1812, the First Battle of Sackets Harbor in Lake Ontario resulted in an American victory as U.S. naval forces repelled a British attack.

1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.

1993, President Bill Clinton announced a policy allowing gays to serve in the military under a compromise dubbed “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue.”

2018, a duck boat packed with tourists capsized and sank in high winds on a lake in the tourist town of Branson, Missouri, killing 17 people.

July 20:

1917, America’s World War I draft lottery began as Secretary of War Newton Baker, wearing a blindfold, reached into a glass bowl and pulled out a capsule containing the number 258 during a ceremony inside the Senate office building.

1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon after reaching its surface in their Apollo 11 lunar module.

1976, America’s Viking 1 robot spacecraft made a successful, first-ever landing on Mars.

2012, gunman James Holmes opened fire inside a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 people and wounding 70 others. (Holmes was later convicted of murder and attempted murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)

— Associated Press