This day in history
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19 July
Events
- 1290: King Ladislas IV of Hungary is murdered by Cumans. He is succeeded by his adopted heir, Andrew III, grandson of Andrew II. King Rudolf I of Germany invests his own son, Albert, as king, while Pope Nicholas IV favours Charles Martel of Anjou, who is crowned by a papal legate.
- 1572: The assembly of the estates of Holland at Dordrecht elects William the Silent, Prince of Orange, as stadtholder (provincial executive officer), and recognizes him as stadtholder in Zeeland, Utrecht, and Friesland. At the suggestion of William's representative, Philip Marnix, Count van der Marck, is appointed lieutenant governor; standing colleges of the admiralty, finance, and the Gecommitteerde Raad (for general administration) are created, and 500,000 florins of tax voted.
- 1610: The Russian tsar Vasily IV Shuysky is deposed by the Muscovites, following the defeat of his Swedish allies by the Poles. The conservative boyars (nobles), fearing the rule of the second false Dmitri, offer the throne to Wadysaw, son of King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.
- 1843: English engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel's ship Great Britain is launched at Bristol, England. It is the world's largest ship (98 m/322ft long; weighing 3,332 tonnes/3,270 tons), with six masts and a screw propeller, and becomes the first propeller-driven iron ship to cross the Atlantic. It sets a pattern for ocean liners for the rest of the century.
- 1870: France declares war on Prussia following its receipt of the Ems Telegram of 13 July.
- 1917: The SPD, Centre Party, and Progressives in the German Reichstag (parliament) combine to pass a motion demanding peace with no annexations or indemnities.
- 1928: King Fuad I stages a coup in Egypt, where parliament is dissolved and the constitution suspended; the king rules by decree.
- 1958: Following the coup in Iraq, Iraq (nominally under the control of King Hussein of Jordan) and the United Arab Republic (UAR), formed of Egypt and Syria, sign a treaty of mutual defence, and on 20 July the UAR severs relations with Jordan.
- 1973: The British government introduces a child-benefit scheme giving weekly cash payments of 2 per child to mothers.
- 1979: Left-wing Sandinista rebels take the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, and set up a new government.
- 1980: The 22nd Olympic Games open in Moscow, USSR. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the games are boycotted by 65 countries, most notably the USA, West Germany, Japan, and Kenya.
- 1984: French finance minister Jacques Delors is named president of the European Commission from January 1985, in succession to Gaston Thorn.
- 1996: Radovan Karadi, the president of the independent Serb region of Bosnia-Herzegovina, resigns following his indictment on war crimes charges.
- 2001: Lord Jeffrey Archer, writer and former UK Conservative Party deputy chairman, is jailed for four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star tabloid.
Births and Deaths
- Petrarch
1374: Petrarch (Petrarca), Italian poet whose work was a major influence on the growth of Renaissance poetry, dies in Arqua, near Padua, Carrara (70). - Edgar Degas
1834: Edgar Degas, French artist known for his paintings, drawings, and bronzes of the human figure in motion, born in Paris, France (1917). - Benito Mussolini
1883: Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, Italian prime minister 192243, first of Europe's fascist dictators, born in Predappio, Italy (1945).
Data provided by Helicon Publishing
