Today in History

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2405

July 7, 1456: Joan of Arc is acquitted 25 years after her execution

Jeanne d’Arc was the daughter of Jacques d’Arc and was born in Domrémy FRA circa 1412 during the Hundred Years‘ War (1337-1453, between France and England). When she was about 13 years old she experienced a vision of a figure she identified as Saint Michael surrounded by angels in her father’s garden. After the vision, she reported weeping because she wanted them to take her with them. Throughout her life, she continued to have visions of Saint Michael, as well as Saint Margaret the Virgin, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

She acquitted herself well in battle, especially at the siege of Orléans, and she advocated for the coronation of Charles VII. She was at his side when he was crowned at the Reims Cathedral.

In 23 May 1430 she was defeated and captured in Margny-lès-Compiègne. On 09 January 1431 she was tried for heresy in Rouen. On 30 May 1431, after being convicted, she was burned at the stake in the old marketplace, Rouen’s Vieux-Marché. Her remains were scattered in the Seine River.

She was executed on 30 May 1431.
She was acquitted on 07 July 1456.
She was beatified on 18 April 1909 by Pope Pius X.
She was canonized on 16 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV.

2406

July 8, 1947: Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident.

2407

July 8, 2011: The final space shuttle program mission is launched when the Atlantis takes off from KSC, Kennedy Space Center, on Merritt Island, Florida.

From STS-1 launched on 12 Apr 1981 to STS-135 launched on 08 Jul 2011, there were a total of 135 space shuttle missions over 30 years. Of the 135 missions, 133 returned safely.

Five functional orbiters were built after the test vehicle Enterprise:

Enterprise — used in landing tests but had no orbital capability. The Enterprise is currently on display on the USS Intrepid (CV-11) museum ship in New York City.

Columbia — the first to fly in space, STS-1 on 12 Apr 1981; 27 successfully completed flights; disintegrated on reentry on STS-107 on 01 Feb 2003, on its 28th mission

On STS-109, launched on 01 Mar 2002, Columbia brought and deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. It was Columbia’s final mission. Columbia disintegrated on reentry on its next mission, STS-107, on 01 Feb 2003.

Challenger — the second to fly in space, STS-6 on 04 Apr 1983; 9 successfully completed flights; exploded during launch on STS-51-L on 28 Jan 1986, on its 10th launch

On STS-7, launched on 18 Jun 1983, Challenger brought Sally Ride to be America’s first female astronaut.

Discovery — the third to fly in space, STS-41-D on 30 Aug 1984; 39 successfully completed flights. The Discovery is currently on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Házy Center in Chantilly VA, about 25 miles west of Washington DC

On STS-26, launched on 29 Sep 1988, the Discovery was the first shuttle to ‘return to flight’ after the Challenger disaster.

Atlantis — the fourth to fly in space, STS-51-J on 03 Oct 1985; 33 successfully completed flights. The Atlantis is currently on display at the KSC Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida.

On STS-61-B, launched on 26 Nov 1985, Atlantis completed the quickest turnaround time between successive missions of any orbiter when it was launched only 50 days after its previous mission, STS-51-J on 03 Oct 1985.

Endeavor — the fifth to fly in space, STS-49 on 07 May 1992; 25 successfully completed flights. The Endeavor is currently on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

On STS-113, launched on 24 Nov 2002, the Endeavor completed the last mission before the STS-107 Columbia disaster on 01 Feb 2003.

2408

July 9, 1850: U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies after eating raw fruit and iced milk; he is succeeded in office by Vice President Millard Fillmore.

2409

July 9, 1993: Canada passes the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act to establish the territory of Nunavut. It is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. On 01 April 1999 Nunavut officially separated from the Northwest Territories and became its own territory.

“Nunavut Day” is celebrated each year on 09 July. It is a public holiday in Nunavut. Nunavut Day is not a public holiday holiday in other parts of Canada.

Here is the Nunavut coat of arms:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Nunavut_coat_of_arms.svg

2410

July 10, 1040: Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes.

2411

July 10, 1913: at Death Valley, California, the highest temperature ever recorded on earth was observed. The temperature reached 134°F on that day.

2412

July 11, 1735: It was on this day that Pluto moved from the ninth to the eighth most distant planet from the Sun for the last time before 1979.

2413

July 11, 1955: USAFA opens. The U.S. Air Force Academy officially opened at temporary quarters at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado.

2414

July 11, 1804: The duel between Vice President Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton took place in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton died the next day.

2415

July 12, 1962: The Rolling Stones perform their first concert, at London’s Marquee Club… 60 years ago!

2416

July 12, 1862: The MOH — The Medal of Honor is authorized by the United States Congress.

On February 15, 1862, Senator Henry Wilson (R-MA), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and the Militia, introduced a resolution for a Medal of Honor for the Army. The resolution (37th Congress, Second Session; Resolution No. 52, 12 Stat. 623–624) was approved by Congress and signed into law on July 12, 1862.

Although not required by law or military regulation, members of the uniformed services are encouraged to render salutes to recipients of the Medal of Honor as a matter of respect and courtesy regardless of rank or status, whether or not they are in uniform. This is one of the few instances where a living member of the military will receive salutes from members of a higher rank.

2417

July 13, 1966: Richard Speck tortures, rapes and murders eight student nurses in Chicago, via stabbing, strangling, slashing their throats, or a combination of the three, hunting them down one by one. A ninth potential victim survives by hiding beneath a bed.

2418

July 14, 2016: A terrorist vehicular attack in Nice, France kills 86 civilians and injures over 400 others.

2419

July 15, 1799: The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign. It is inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. As the decree is the same (with some minor differences) in all three versions, the Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.

2420

July 15, 1912: American Jim Thorpe won a gold medal for the decathlon at the Olympics in Stockholm; he also captured a gold medal for the pentathlon.

2421

July 16, 1945: First automatic parking meter in the U.S. is installed, in Oklahoma City.

2422

And about 600 miles to the southwest of Oklahoma City…

July 16, 1945: The first manmade nuclear explosion occurred on July 16, 1945, at 5:50 am on the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, in the United States, an area now known as the White Sands Missile Range. The event involved the full-scale testing of an implosion-type fission atomic bomb. In a memorandum to the U.S. Secretary of War, General Leslie Groves describes the yield as equivalent to 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT. Following this test, a uranium-gun type nuclear bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, with a blast yield of 15 kilotons; and a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, with a blast yield of 21 kilotons. Fat Man and Little Boy are the only instances in history of nuclear weapons being used as an act of war.

2423

July 17, 1974: John Lennon is ordered to leave the U.S. in 60 days.

2424

July 18, 1976: Nadia Comaneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.