July 20
356BC – Alexander the Great is born in Pella, Macedon.
70 – Titus’ Roman army storms the Fortress Antonia north of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
1189 – Richard the Lionheart of England is officially invested as Duke of Normandy.
1738 – Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan.
1810 – Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada (now Colombia) declare independence from Spain.
1831 – The Seneca and Shawnee tribes agree to cede land in western Ohio for 60,000 acres west of the Mississippi River.
1864 – Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman at Peach Tree Hill near Atlanta
1903 – The Ford Motor Company ships its first automobile.
1923 –José ‘Pancho Villa’ Arámbula, is killed by a group of 7 assassins in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico
1940 – California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1944 – Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1950 – In Federal Court held in Philadelphia , Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying, by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs to the Soviet Union.
1960 – The Polaris submarine launched ballistic missile – SLBM – is successfully launched from the USS George Washington
1969 – At 20:17:40 UTC, Apollo 11’s Lunar Module, Eagle, piloted by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin makes the first manned landing on the Moon at Lunar coordinates 00°41′15″N 23°26′00″E, in the Sea of Tranquility, becoming Tranquility Base
1976 – The Viking 1 probe successfully lands on Mars.
1977 – Heavy rain in Cambria County, Pennsylvania overtops 6 dams which fail which causes a flash flood through the Conemaugh River Valley, killing 84 people in several towns and cities.
1993 – Vince Foster reportedly commits suicide in Fort Marcy Park, Fairfax County Virginia
1997 – The Navy celebrates the 200th birthday of the fully restored USS Constitution by setting sail on it for the first time in 116 years.
2012 – James Holmes, later sentenced to 12 consecutive life terms plus 3318 years without parole, opens fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and injuring 70 others.
2013 – 17 government soldiers are killed in an attack by FARC revolutionaries in the Colombian department of Arauca.
2015 – The United States and Cuba resume full diplomatic relations after 5 decades.
2017 – O. J. Simpson is granted parole from prison after serving 9 years of a 33 year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery in Las Vegas.
2021 – American businessman Jeff Bezos flies aboard New Shepard NS-16 operated by his private spaceflight company Blue Origin.
On today’s holiday in Colombia…
“Criollos (natives born of Spanish heritage) who desired independence grabbed the opportunity after the Napoleonic wars in Europe. There were uprisings and declarations of juntas (Military governments) in the months preceding July 20, and similar occurrences occurred in Bogota. The Criollos devised a plan to ensure that the rebellion began. They intended to enrage José González Llorente, a well-known local businessman, to agitate the community. They went to see him on the morning of July 20; they fully expected him to say no when they asked to borrow a flowerpot to offer to a fellow Criollo. It is not entirely clear how he declined if the flowerpot got shattered and who was responsible for it. The visit was effective and fuelled the riots in Bogota; the People’s Junta got established that afternoon. The location of the flowerpot incident, Llorente’s house in Bogota, is now the “July 20 Museum” and a well-liked destination on July 20.”
Comparing the leadup to the Flowerpot Incident and the incident itself, one is left with a decidedly quizzical attitude toward the whole “independence day” celebration. It’s a far cry from the Declaration of Independence and the events running up to the 13 British colonies severing the ties with the British sovereign.