July 20/Events2

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This page is to record events of July 20 from 1950 to date.

Contents 1 1950-1959 2 1960-1969 3 1970-1979 4 1980-1989 5 1990-1999 6 2000-2099 7 Births 7.1 1950-1959 7.2 1960-1969 7.3 1970 to date 8 Deaths 9 References

[edit] 1950-1959

• 1950 - Belgium: Parliament authorizes king Leopold III to return from exile in Austria.
• 1950 - Korean War: North Korea attacks the temporary South Korean capital, Taejon.
• 1950 - United States: Senator Millard Tydings (D-Maryland) says Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) had lied at a hearing and that his claims of Communists in the State Department are a "fraud and a hoax".
• 1950 - Korean War: The Daily Worker, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, editorializes that President Harry S. Truman is trying "to convert the Korean War into World War III."
• 1950 - Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
• 1950 - Indonesia: A new federal system for the country's government is agreed on to take effect August 17.
• 1951 - Middle East: King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
• 1951 - World War II: The United States invites fifty nations to San Francisco to consider a peace treaty with Japan.
• 1951 - United States: The Missouri River continues to flood in the Midwest.
• 1952 - Middle East: The Egyptian prime minister, Hussein Sirry Pasha resigns.
• 1952 - Olympics - The 15th Olympic Games begin in Helsinki, Finland.
• 1952 - New York State - A train on the Long Island Rail Road strikes an automobile near Central Islip, killing seven.
• 1953 - Middle East: Israel and the Soviet Union resume diplomatic relations after five month lapse.
• 1953 - United Nations: The United Nations Economic and Social Council votes to make UNICEF a permanent agency.
• 1953 - United States: President Dwight Eisenhower presents his agenda to Congressional leaders.
• 1953 - Far East: Eisenhower names Ellis O. Briggs ambassador to South Korea.
• 1954 - Germany: Otto John, head of West Germany's secret service, defects to East Germany.
• 1954 - United States: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy accepts the resignation of his aide Roy Cohn.
• 1954 - Southeast Asia: At Geneva, Switzerland, an armistice is signed that ends fighting in Vietnam and divides the country along the 17th parallel.
• 1955 - Far East: China shells Taiwan's islands Quemoy and Matsu.
• 1955 - Cold War: The summit between leaders of the United States, Soviet Union, France, and the United Kingdom continues at Geneva, Switzerland.
• 1955 - Michigan: The United Auto Workers is indicted under the Federal Corrupt Practices Act for its activities in Michigan in the 1954 elections.
• 1955 - United States: The committee working on the merger of America's two largest labor federations, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, agrees to call the combined organization the "AFL-CIO"
• 1956 - Middle East: The British Foreign Office announces it was cancelling funding for Egypt's Aswan High Dam
• 1956 - United States: A nationwide civil defense drill, "Operation Alert", is held, simulating a Soviet nuclear strike on seventy-five American cities. As part of the exercise, 10,000 bureaucrats and officials leave Washington, D.C., for bunkers around the capital.
• 1956 - Far East: In Mukden, Pu Yi, the former Emperor of China, testifies in the war crimes trials of twenty-two Japanese, the first time Pu Yi's whereabouts had been known since 1946.
• 1956 - Western Hemisphere: United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower leaves for Panama, where a summit of leaders of the hemisphere's nations is to be held.
• 1957 - United States: President Dwight Eisenhower appoints a panel of federal officials to work with a committee of state governors on defining federal-state relations.
• 1957 - Freedom of the seas: The Soviet Union closes Peter the Great Bay, which provides access to Vladivostok, to foreign ships.
• 1958 -Yugoslavia: Twenty-six are dead in an explosion at a military base near Kokin Breg.
• 1958 - Middle East: Jordan suspends diplomatic relations with the United Arab Republic after it recognized the new government of Iraq.
• 1958 - United States: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs legislation to give federal employees a 10 percent raise.
• 1958 - Baseball: Jim Bunning of the Detroit Tigers pitches a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox.
• 1959 - Europe: The Organization for European Economic Cooperation admits Spain.
• 1959 - Africa: Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, arrives in Paris for a state visit with President Charles de Gaulle.
• 1959 - Soviet Union: Premier Nikita Khrushchev postpones his visit to Scandinavia citing anti-Soviet sentiment there.

[edit] 1960-1969

• 1960 - Asia: Ceylon elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government.
• 1960 - United States: The Polaris missile is successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington (SSBN-598), for the first time.
• 1960 - Africa: Belgium defends its intervention in the Congo to the United Nations Security Council while the government of the Congo appeals to the Soviet Union to send troops to push back the Belgians. The governments of the United States and France and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation warn the Soviets to stay out of the dispute.
• 1960 - Africa: In Salisbury, Rhodesia, 20,000 protest over police brutality.
• 1960 - Middle East: In Lebanon, Saeb Salem is named Prime Minister.
• 1960 - United States: The Treasury Department reports the government had a budget surplus of $1,068,101,353 in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
• 1960 - Israel: The head of the Physics Department at the Israel Institute of Technology, Kurt Sitte, is arrested for espionage.
• 1960 - South Asia: King Mahendra of Nepal arrives in New Delhi, India, for a state visit, the first stop on a three month world tour that will include a visit to the United States.
• 1961 - United States: The United States House of Representatives rejects President John F. Kennedy's proposal to reform the National Labor Relations Board.
• 1961 - United States: President John F. Kennedy transfers authority for civil defense planning to the Defense Department.
• 1961 - Middle East: The Arab League admits Kuwait to membership.
• 1961 - Africa - French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
• 1962 - United States: General Maxwell Taylor is named chairman of the U.S.Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• 1962 - South America: Earthquakes in Colombia kill 40.
• 1962 - Africa: France and Tunisia restore diplomatic relations after one year break.
• 1963 - Pop culture: Jan and Dean's song "Surf City" hits number one.
• 1963 - Africa - The United States announced suspension of aid to the Republic of the Congo.
• 1963 - Indonesia announces it will in the future refer to the Indian Ocean as the "Indonesian Ocean".
• 1964 - Vietnam War - Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
• 1964 - Space exploration: NASA successfully tests the first electric rocket engine in California.
• 1964 - Caribbean: Cuba's Premier Fidel Castro compares U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Barry M. Goldwater to Adolf Hitler.
• 1965 - United States: Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court.
• 1965 - Pop culture: Columbia Records releases Bob Dylan's groundbreaking single "Like a Rolling Stone" to radio stations.
• 1965 - United States: In Hayneville, Alabama, two civil rights protesters, one a priest and the other a seminarian, are shot by a deputy sheriff. The seminarian died of his wounds.
• 1965 - Greece - Elias Tsirimokos becomes prime minister.
• 1965 - Turkey - Prime Minister Suat Hayri Urguplu returns from a visit to Moscow and announces the Soviet Union will provide aid to his country.
• 1965 - United States: Missouri experiences its greatest one-day rainfall as 18.18 inches (462 mm) fall near Edgerton.
• 1966 - United Kingdom: Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces budget cuts to combat inflation and calls for voluntary wage and price controls.
• 1966 - United States: In Cleveland, Ohio, the National Guard moves in after days of rioting.
• 1967 - North America: French President Charles de Gaulle arrives in St. Pierre and Miquelon.
• 1968 - Mexico: In Mexico City, students protest for more student participation in the management of universities.
• 1969 - Apollo Program: Apollo 11 lands on the Moon and Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first humans to walk on its surface.
• 1969 - Middle East: The Israel Air Force bombs Egyptian bases on the west bank of the Suez Canal.

[edit] 1970-1979

• 1970 - Europe: Finland's President Urho Kaleva completes his state visit to the Soviet Union.
• 1970 - Africa: The government of the United Kingdom says it is considering resuming arms sales to South Africa.
• 1970 - Middle East: President Richard Nixon says he is asking for a three month truce in the Middle East.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: Richard Nixon says the United States will oppose a coalition government for Vietnam that includes the Communist Party.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: Saigon is shelled by the Communists
• 1970 - United States: The Federal Trade Commission accuses McDonald's of fraud in a promotional contest.
• 1971 - Far East: President Richard M. Nixon tells Taiwan the United States will continue to sell it arms.
• 1971 - United States: The United States Postal Service reaches an agreement with its labor unions to avoid a strike.
• 1971 - United States: President Richard M. Nixon appoints Rush Moody, Jr. to the Federal Power Commission.
• 1971 - Space exploration: President Richard M. Nixon declares the day "National Moon Walk Day" in honor of the Apollo 11 landing this date in 1969.
• 1971 - Far East: The Soviet Union says it will support China's admission to the United Nations
• 1971 - Middle East: Syria and Jordan's armies exchanged fire over the common frontier.
• 1972 - Netherlands: The cabinet of Prime Minister Barend Biesheuvel resigns in a dispute over the budget.
• 1972 - United States: Senator George McGovern of South Dakota asks Lawrence O'Brien to become his campaign manager in his campaign for president.
• 1972 - United States: President Richard M. Nixon announces the transfer of twelve parcels of federal land to the states for use as parks.
• 1972 - South America: Uruguay is crippled by a general strike called to obtain wage increases in the face of high inflation.
• 1972 - Australia: Police in Canberra break up a protest by Aborigines in front of Parliament over land reform .
• 1973 - United States: The United States Senate passes the War Powers Act.
• 1973 - Vietnam War: In testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Jerry Friedheim to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, the United States Defense Department admits it lied to U.S. Congress about bombing Cambodia .
• 1973 - Greece: Seventy-three government officials and military officers are charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government.
• 1973 - Kenya: Julius Kiano, the government's Commerce and Industry Minister, tells Asian-owned businesses to close by the end of the year.
• 1973 - Middle East: Palestianian terrorists hijack a Japan Airlines jet en route from Amsterdam to Japan and force it down in Dubai.
• 1973 - Indiana: The state is found guilty of operating segregated schools by federal judge S. Hugh Dillin, who orders the state to develop a desegregation plan for Indianapolis's schools.
• 1974 - Turkish occupation of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after Greek Cypriots' attempt at enosis. NATO's Council praises the United States and the United Kingdom for attempts to settle the dispute. Syria and Egypt put their militaries on alert.
• 1974 - Connecticut: The Democratic state convention nominates Ella T. Grasso forgovernor.
• 1974 - Middle East: Iraq announces plans to improve navigation on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
• 1974 - California: Reconsidering its decision in June to create nude beaches, the Los Angeles city council votes to ban nudity on all public beaches after a public outcry.
• 1975 - Africa: In Angola, cease fire in the country between the government and UNITA rebels is broken only hours after it begins.
• 1975 - South Asia: India expels three reporters from The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and Newsweek because they refused to sign a pledge to abide by government censorship.
• 1975 - Florida: Three employees of Mel Fisher drown near Key West as part of efforts to find the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
• 1975 - United States: The United States Postal Service reaches an agreement with its unions.
• 1976 - Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.
• 1976 - Vietnam War: The United States military completes its troop withdrawal from Thailand.
• 1977 - United States: Leon Jaworksi agrees to be the House Ethics Committee's special counsel in its probe of the Koreagate scandal.
• 1977 - Pennsylvania: Johnstown is hit by a flash flood that kills eighty and causes $350 million in damage.
• 1977 - United States: The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.
• 1978 - Middle East: Israel's parliament exempts religious women from military service.
• 1978 - Watergate: Former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell is released on parole.
• 1978 - Africa: The Organization of African Unity continues its annual meeting in Khartoum, Sudan.
• 1979 - Swimming: Diana Nyad swims the sixty miles from the Bahamas to Florida.
• 1979 - Far East: American President Jimmy Carter says troop withdrawals from South Korea will cease and the remainder will stay for at least two years.

[edit] 1980-1989

• 1980 - Middle East: Takieddih Solh is named Lebanon's new prime minister.
• 1980 - Middle East: The United Nations Security Council votes 14-0 that member states should not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
• 1980 - United States: The Air Force reveals it has a stealth aircraft.
• 1981 - Middle East: The United States suspends sales of F-16 fighter jets to Israel.
• 1982 - United Kingdom: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonates two bombs in Hyde Park and Regents Park in central London, killing eight soldiers, wounding forty-seven people, and leading to the deaths of seven horses.
• 1982 - United Kingdom: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher faces an angry House of Commons when she refuses to answer questions about Geoffrey Arthur Prince, an employee of GCHQ accused of spying for the Soviet Union.
• 1983 - United States: The United States House of Representatives censures two of its members, Gerry Studds (D-Massachusetts) and Daniel B. Crane (R)-Illinois, for having sex with congressional pages. Studds was censured, 420-3, for having sex with a sixteen year old male page in 1973. Crane was censured, 338-87, for having sex with a seventeen year old female page in 1980.
• 1983 - Middle East: The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon.
• 1983 - United States: The United States House of Representatives voted 220-207 to continue funding for the MX missile.
• 1984 - United States: Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after Penthouse published nude photos of her.
• 1985 - Oceanography: The main ship wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha (which sank in 1622) is found 40 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida by treasure hunters who soon begin to raise $400 million in coins and silver.
• 1985 - Africa: The Organization of African Unity ends its annual meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by declaring that most of the continent's nations are on the brink of economic collapse and blames the developed world for the situation.
• 1985 - South Africa: The government declares a state of emergency because of unrest in the black townships.
• 1985 - Austria: 120 Polish pilgrims on their way to Rome ask for political asylum.
• 1985- Caribbean: The government of Aruba passes legislation to secede from the Netherlands Antilles.
• 1986 - South Africa: Police fire tear gas into a church service for families of those held under the government's emergency decrees. Near Johannesburg, AFL-CIO chief Lane Kirkland is detained by police.
• 1986 - Massachusetts: In Cambridge, Gerald Amirault of the Fell Acres Day School is convicted of molesting nine children.
• 1986 - Pennsylvania: Municipal employees in Philadelphia vote to return to work after a twenty day strike.
• 1987 - Europe: Morocco announces it will apply for membership in the European Community.
• 1987 - Middle East: The United Nations Security Council demands a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq War.
• 1987 - Arizona: A recall drive is begun against Governor Evan Mecham.
• 1987 - United States: President Ronald Reagan appoints Larry Kramer, co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis, to a federal panel on AIDS.
• 1987 - Special Olympics: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs legislation, Public Law 100-75, designating August 3 "International Special Olympics Day".
• 1988 - United States: The Democrats nominate Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts for President.
• 1988 - Cold War: The United States Department of State rejects a Soviet offer to dismantle the Krasnoyarsk radar in exchange for concessions regarding the ABM Treaty.
• 1989 - Space exploration: President George H.W. Bush calls for a manned mission to Mars .
• 1989 - Art: Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's show opens at Washington, D.C.'s Project for the Arts after the Smithsonian Institution's Corcoran Gallery cancelled it.
• 1989 - Nuclear weapons: The United States Senate voted 73-26 to privatize the Energy Department's uranium enrichment program by creating a private company, the United States Enrichment Corporation.
• 1989 - Southeast Asia: Burma's ruling junta puts opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

[edit] 1990-1999

• 1990 - Caribbean: Haiti asks the United States to send observers to monitor its upcoming elections.
• 1990 - United Kingdom: A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at the International Stock Exchange.
• 1990 - United States: Supreme Court Justice William Brennan announces his retirement from the Court.
• 1990 - Iran Contra: All of Colonel Oliver North's convictions for perjury and other offenses are overturned by an appeals court.
• 1991 - Europe: The United States Department of Defense begins airlifting supplies to Albania
• 1992 - Czechoslovakia: Václav Havel resigns as president.
• 1992 - Poland: 4,000 copper miners go on strike
• 1992 - Georgia: A TU-154 cargo plane crashes in the suburbs of Tbilisi, killing forty.
• 1993 - United States: President Bill Clinton nominates Judge Louis Freeh to be director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• 1993 - United States: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the $20 billion Commerce, Justice, State appropriation bill by 327-98.
• 1993 - Free trade: The U.S. House of Representatives upholds President Bill Clinton's waiver of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to continue China's most favored nation trade status for another year by a vote of 318-105.
• 1993 - United States: The United States Senate, by a vote of 68-31, passes a bill that would amend the Hatch Act to allow limited participation by federal employees in local politics.
• 1993 - United Kingdom: 20,000 policemen gather at Wembley Stadium in London to protest pay reforms.
• 1994 - Middle East: Israel's Shimon Peres visits Jordan, the highest ranking Israeli official to do so
• 1994 - Astronomy: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Fragment Q1 hits Jupiter.
• 1994 - United States: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 410-16 to pass a secret law authorizing an estimated $28 billion for intelligence agencies.
• 1994 - United States: The United States Senate passed a $68 billion appropriation bill for the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration, 92-8.
• 1995 - United States: The Regents of the University of California vote to end all affirmative action in the UC system by 1997.
• 1995 - Far East: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 416-10 to pass the China Policy Act of 1995 which required the President to try to secure the release of dissident Harry Wu, for China to improve its human rights record, and to require the United States Information Agency to create Radio Free Asia to transmit information to China. On a separate vote of 321-107, the House upholds President Bill Clinton's waiver of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to continue China's most favored nation trade status for another year.
• 1995 - Farm subsidies: The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to end farm subsidies to farmers who have income of over $100,000 from non-farm sources by a vote of 158-249.
• 1995 - Journalism: The United States Senate voted 60-39 to require journalists accredited to the Senate to file the same financial disclosure statements the senators must file.
• 1996 - Spain: An ETA bomb at an airport kills 35
• 1997 - United Kingdom: A Provisional Irish Republican Army truce takes effect.
• 1997 - Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Serb Democratic Party forces President Biljana Plavšić to resign.
• 1998 - Afghanistan: 200 aid workers from CARE International, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups leave the country on orders of the Taliban.
• 1998 - United States: The U.S. House of Representatives votes 390-0 to express the sense of the House that it is a national priority to provide affordable housing for all.
• 1998 - United States: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 383-1 to reauthorize the WIC welfare program to 2003.
• 1998 - Far East: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 390-1 to reaffirm the support of the United States for Taiwan.
• 1999 - Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1999 - Europe: The European Parliament elects Nichole Fontaine its president.
• 1999 - United States: Officials of the Public Broadcasting System admit in testimony to Congress that its stations gave donor lists to the Democratic party and Democratic candidates.

[edit] 2000-2099

• 2000 - Olympics: The leaders of Salt Lake City's bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics are indicted by a federal grand jury for bribery, fraud, and racketeering.
• 2000 - Africa: In Zimbabwe, Parliament opens its new session and seats opposition members for the first time in a decade.
• 2000 - Europe: Terrorist Carlos (the Jackal) sues France in the European Court of Human Rights for allegedly torturing him.
• 2000 - United States: The House of Representatives votes to ease the trade embargo and travel restrictions on Cuba.
• 2000 - Japan: American President Bill Clinton arrives in Okinawa for the G8 summit and pledges to the islanders that the United States will reduce the impact American military bases have on their lives.
• 2000 - World War II: The Commission on Fine Arts approves the World War II Memorial's design and location on the Mall in Washington, D.C..
• 2001 - United States: Vanessa Legget is found in contempt by a Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.
• 2001 - United Kingdom: The London Stock Exchange goes public.
• 2002 - Italy: The 27th Annual G8 summit opens in Genoa. An Italian protester in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani, is shot by police.
• 2002 - United States: The United States Senate confirms Roger L. Gregory as the first black to sit on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
• 2002 - South America: A fire in a discotheque in Lima, Peru kills over twenty-five.
• 2003 - Liberia: Fighting between militias controlled by the country's president, Charles Taylor, and rebels continues in Monrovia.
• 2003 - Middle East: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets with Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem.
• 2003 - United Kingdom: Richard Sambrook, the Director of BBC News reveals that Dr. David Kelly was the source of claims that Downing Street had "sexed up" the September Dossier, aka the Dodgy Dossier.
• 2003 - South Korea: British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives in Seoul to meet with President Roh Moo Hyun and faces questions from the press about the death of David Kelly.
• 2003 - France: Sixteen people are injured after two bombs explode outside a tax office in Nice.
• 2003- Africa: Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is in a coma at a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as Uganda refused permission for him to return home.
• 2003- Golf: Rookie Ben Curtis, ranked 396th in the world wins the British Open. He is the first golfer to win a major golf tournament in his first attempt in more than ninety years.
• 2003- Africa: Fourteen people - a US family of twelve who had chartered the plane and the South African crew of two - die when their light plane crashes into Mount Kenya after taking off from Nairobi for Buffalo Springs National Reserve in northern Kenya.
• 2004 - Middle East: Palestinian lawmaker Nabil Amr is shot in the West Bank.
• 2004 - Middle East: The United Nations Security Council votes to demand Israel cease construction on its wall through the West Bank.
• 2004 - Iraq War: Angelo de la Cruz, a Fillipino truck driver taken hostage in Iraq, is released.
• 2004 - United Kingdom: The House of Commons debates the Butler report on pre-Iraq War intelligence.
• 2004 - Canada: Prime Minister Paul Martin appoints his new cabinet.
• 2004 - United States: Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger resigns as an advisor to Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign after it was revealed he stole classified documents from the National Archives.
• 2004 - United States: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) releases a video of gross cruelty to chickens taken at Pilgrim's Pride, one of KFC's suppliers in West Virginia, and the company pledged to investigate the claims.
• 2004 - Middle East: Ahmed Qurei, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, agrees to withdraw his resignation, three days after tendering it.
• 2004 - Iraq War: Human Rights Watch releases a report stating that Sudanese government documents confirm support for the Arab Janjaweed militia in their campaign of ethnic cleansing against African Muslims in Darfur.
• 2004 - United States: The House of Representatives votes to override a proposal by the Financial Accounting Standards Board that would require publicly traded companies to record all forms of share-based payments to employees, including stock options, as expenses.
• 2004 - Business: The European Union approves a 50-50 merger between BMG and Sony.
• 2004 - Theatre: Jennifer Laura Thompson replaces Kristin Chenoweth in the Broadway show Wicked.
• 2005 - Canada: Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalized same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 received its Royal Assent. See Same-sex marriage in Canada

[edit] Births

[edit] 1950-1959

• 1950 - Naseeruddin Shah, Indian actor
• 1950 - Tantoo Cardinal, Canadian actress
• 1951 - Anne Dymna, Polish actress
• 1951 - Hans Royards, Belgian actor
• 1951 - Jeff Rawle, English actor
• 1952 - Keiko Maysuzako, Japanese actress
• 1953 - Marcia Hines, American born-Australian singer
• 1956 - Paul Cook, English musician (The Sex Pistols)
• 1956 - Donna Dixon, American actress (Spies Like Us), wife of Dan Aykroyd
• 1958 - Michael MacNeil, American musician (Simple Minds)
• 1959 - Radney Foster, American singer

[edit] 1960-1969

• 1961 - Robert Peters, American actor
• 1961 - Cheryl Rusa, American wrestler (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) and motion picture stuntwoman
• 1962 - Carols Alazraqui, American actor
• 1963 - Alexander Zhulin, Russian ice skater
• 1963 - Dino Espisito, American singer
• 1963 - Frank Whaley, American actor
• 1963 - Amir Derakh, American guitarist (Orgy
• 1964 - Chris Cornell, American musician
• 1964 - Kool G. Rap, American musician
• 1964 - Terri Irwin, American television personality, wife of Steve Irwin
• 1964 - Michael Richard Plowman, British-born Canadian composer
• 1964 - Melissa A. Stock, American writer and historian
• 1965 - Laurent Lucas, French actor
• 1966 - Steve Gossard, American musician (Pearl Jam)
• 1967 - Reed Diamond, American actor (Judging Amy)
• 1968 - Michael Park, American actor (As the World Turns)
• 1968 - Jimmy Carson, American hockey player
• 1968 - Julian Rhind-Tutt, English actor (Keen Eddie)
• 1968 - Dave Revsine, American television sportscaster
• 1969 - Vitamin C, British singer
• 1969 - Josh Holloway, American actor (Lost)

[edit] 1970 to date

• 1971 - Yasmine Pendavis, American actress in pornographic films
• 1971 - Charles Johnson, American baseball player
• 1972 - Geena Lisa, Beligan musician (The Dinky Toys)
• 1973 - Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway
• 1973 - Marco Wiedmann-Valaitis, German producer
• 1973 - Peter Forsberg, Swedish-born hockey player
• 1973 - John D. Beck, American screenwriter (According to Jim)
• 1974 - Simon Rex, American actor
• 1974 - Bengie Molina, American baseball player
• 1975 - Judy Evans Greer, American actress
• 1975 - Jason Raize, American actor (The Lion King) (d. 2004)
• 1976 - Florian Panzer, German actor
• 1977 - Dora Lipoucan, German actress
• 1977 - Susana Werner, Brazilian actress
• 1977 - Bert Ratundo, American actor
• 1978 - Charlie Korsmo, American actor (Dick Tracy)
• 1978 - Denny Mendez, Italian model and former Miss Italy
• 1979 - Claudine Barretto, Filipino actor
• 1980 - Gisele Bundchen, Brazilian model
• 1985 - John Francis Daley, American actor
• 1991 - Scout Willis, daughter of actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
• 1997 - Billi Bruno, American actress (According to Jim)

[edit] Deaths

• 1951 - Friedrich Wilhelm Hohenzollern, Crown Prince of Germany
• 1951 - King Abdullah, King of Jordan
• 1953 - Dumarsaid Estime, President of Haiti (b. 1900)
• 1953 - Jan Struther, British author
• 1957 - Dr. Alfred Einstein Cohen, American cardiologist
• 1959 - Admiral William D. Leahy, American naval officer
• 1967 - Albert Lutuli, South African civil rights leader, winner of the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize
• 1968 - Bray Hammond, American historian
• 1973 - Bruce Lee, actor and martial artist
• 1990 - Herbert T. Jenkins, American policeman, former police chief of Atlanta, Georgia (1947-1973)
• 1991 - Earl Robinson, American singer and composer
• 1992 - John Bratby, British painter
• 1996 - Colin Mitchell, British Member of Parliament
• 1993 - Vincent Foster Jr., White House deputy counsel
• 1997 - John Akii-Bua Ugandan hurdler
• 1999 - Sandra Gould, American actress (Bewitched)
• 2001 - Carlo Giuliani Italian activist
• 2003 - Nicolas Freeling, crime writer
• 2004 - Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fijian chieftainess and former First Lady; widow of long-time former Prime Minister and President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
• 2005 - James Doohan, actor

[edit] References

• Facts on File Yearbook, various years
• Facts on File's Day by Day series
• Encyclopaedia Britannica Yearbook, various years
• Internet Movie Database July 20 in Movie History page
• The New York Times, July 21st issues of various years
• The New York Times: On This Day