“What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past.” – Victor Hugo

July 15

July 15, 1918 – During the Battle of the Marne in World War I, German General Erich Ludendorff launched Germany‘s fifth, and last, offensive to break through the Chateau-Thierry salient. However, the Germans were stopped by American, British and Italian divisions. On July 18, General Foch, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied troops, launched a massive counter-offensive. The Germans began a retreat lasting four months until they requested an armistice in November.

Birthday – Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was born in Leiden, Holland. Best known for The Night Watch and many portraits and self-portraits.

Birthday – The first American saint, Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) was born in Lombardy, Italy. She was the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and established Catholic schools, orphanages, convents and hospitals. She was canonized, July 7, 1946, by Pope Pius XII.

July 16

July 16, 1769 – San Diego was founded as the mission San Diego de Alcala by Father Junipero Serra.

July 16, 1945 – The experimental Atomic bomb “Fat Boy” was set off at 5:30 a.m. in the desert of New Mexico desert, creating a mushroom cloud rising 41,000 ft. The bomb emitted heat three times the temperature of the interior of the sun and wiped out all plant and animal life within a mile.

July 16, 1969 – The Apollo 11 Lunar landing mission began with a liftoff from Kennedy Space Center at 9:37 a.m.

July 16, 1999 – A small plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. took off at 8:38 p.m. from Fairfield, New Jersey, heading toward Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren were passengers on the 200-mile trip. The plane was expected to arrive about 10 p.m. but disappeared off radar at 9:40 p.m. Five days later, July 21, following an extensive search, the bodies were recovered from the plane wreckage in 116 feet of water roughly 7 miles off Martha’s Vineyard. The next day, following an autopsy, the cremated remains of John F. Kennedy, 38, his wife Carolyn, 33, and her sister Lauren, 34, were scattered at sea from a U.S. Navy ship, with family members present, not far from where the plane had crashed.

Birthday – British portrait painter Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was born in Plympton, Devon, England.

Birthday – Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was born near Concord, New Hampshire.

Birthday – African American journalist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was born to slaves at Holly Springs, Missouri. Following the Civil War, as lynchings became prevalent, Wells traveled extensively, founding anti-lynching societies and black women’s clubs.

Birthday – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) was born near Oslo. He was the first to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean via the Northwest Passage. He discovered the South Pole in 1911 and flew over the North Pole in a dirigible in 1926. In June 1928, he flew from Norway to rescue survivors of an Italian Arctic expedition, but his plane vanished.

July 17

July 17, 1918 – In the Russian town of Ekaterinburg in Siberia, former Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their five children were brutally murdered by Bolsheviks.

July 17, 1996 – TWA Flight 800 departed Kennedy International Airport in New York bound for Paris but exploded in mid-air 12 minutes after takeoff, apparently the result of a mechanical failure. The Boeing 747 jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island about 8:45 p.m. All 212 passengers and 17 crew members on board were killed.

Birthday – Puerto Rican patriot Luis Munoz-Rivera (1859-1916) was born in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. He worked tirelessly to attain self-government for his homeland.

July 18

July 18, 1947 – President Harry Truman signed an Executive Order determining the line of succession if the president becomes incapacitated or dies in office. Following the vice president, the speaker of the house and president of the Senate are next in succession. This became the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on February 10, 1967.

Birthday – American politician Samuel Hayakawa (1906-1992) was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is remembered as the college president who climbed atop a sound truck at San Francisco State College in 1968 during student protests, then disconnected the wires thus silencing the demonstrators. This made him popular among conservatives including California Gov. Ronald Reagan. Hayakawa became a Republican and was elected in 1976 to the U.S. Senate, serving just one term. In 1986, he led the successful California initiative to declare English the state’s official language.

Birthday – Nelson Mandela was born the son of a Tembu tribal chieftain on July 18, 1918, at Qunu, near Umtata, in South Africa. He became a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944, eventually becoming deputy national president in 1952. In 1964, he was convicted for sabotage as a result of his participation in the struggle against apartheid. He spent the next 28 years in jail but remained a symbol of hope to South Africa’s non-white majority. Released in 1990, he was elected was elected President of South Africa in 1994 in the first election in which all races participated.

July 19

July 19-20, 1848 – A women’s rights convention was held at Seneca Falls, New York. Topics discussed included voting rights, property rights and divorce. The convention marked the beginning of an organized women’s rights movement in the U.S.

July 19, 1863 – During the American Civil War, Union troops made a second attempt to capture Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina. The attack was led by the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry, commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who was killed along with half of the 600 men in the regiment. This battle marked the first use of black Union troops in the war.

Birthday – French impressionist painter Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was born in Paris. Best known for his paintings of dancers in motion.

July 20

July 20, 1715 – The Riot Act took effect in Britain. If a dozen or more persons were disturbing the peace, an authority was required to command silence and read the following, “Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the king.” Any persons who failed to obey within one hour were to be arrested.

July 20, 1954 – An agreement was signed in Geneva, Switzerland, ending hostilities between French forces in Vietnam and the People’s Army of Vietnam.

July 20, 1969 – A global audience watched on television as Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the moon. As he stepped onto the moon’s surface he proclaimed, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – inadvertently omitting an “a” before “man” and slightly changing the meaning.

Birthday – Explorer Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand, July 20, 1919. In 1953, he became first to ascend Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 29,023 ft.

July 21

July 21, 1898 – Guam was ceded to the United States by Spain.

Birthday – Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. His works included The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954, he wrote little afterward, became ill and shot himself to death on July 2, 1961.

Birthday – University professor and author Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Best known for stating, “The medium is the message,” regarding modern mass communication.