July 11
On this day in 1916, in a ceremony at the White House, president Woodrow Wilson signs the Federal Aid Road Act. The law established a national policy of federal aid for highways. – 1916.
Fulfilling agreements reached at various war-time conferences, the Soviet Union promises to hand power over to British and U.S. forces in West Berlin. Although the division of Berlin, and of Germany as a whole, into zones of occupation was seen as a temporary postwar expedient, the dividing lines quickly became permanent. The divided city of Berlin became a symbol for Cold War tensions. – 1945.
July 12
A heat advisory is issued in Chicago in a warning of an impending record-breaking heat wave. Temperatures in the city reach 106F and the heat index was above 120 F. By the time the heat breaks a week later, nearly 1,000 residents are dead in Illinois and Wisconsin. – 1995.
Viet Cong ambush Company A of the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, led by U.S.M.C. Lt. Frank Reasoner of Kellogg, Idaho. Reasoner and the five-man point team he was accompanying were cut off from the main body of the company. He ordered his men to lay down a base of fire and then, repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire, killed two Viet Cong, single-handedly wiped out an enemy machine gun emplacement, and raced through enemy fire to rescue his injured radio operator. Trying to rally his men, Reasoner was hit by enemy machine gun fire and was killed instantly. For this action, Reasoner was nominated for America’s highest award for valor. – 1965.
July 13
At Wembley Stadium in London, Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially open Live Aid, a worldwide rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans. Continued at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia and at other arenas around the world, the 16-hour superconcert was linked globally by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations. In a triumph of technology and good will, the event raised more than $125 million in famine relief for Africa. – 1985.
July 14
During the First Crusade, Christian knights from Europe capture Jerusalem after seven weeks of siege and begin massacring the city’s Muslim and Jewish population. – 1099.
Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and terror, in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and tens of thousands of individuals, including the king and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed. – 1789.
July 15
During a live television and radio broadcast, president Richard Nixon stuns the nation by announcing that he will visit communist China the following year. The statement marked a dramatic turning point in U.S.-China relations, as well as a major shift in American foreign policy. – 1971.
July 16
The young American Congress declares the site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation’s permanent capital. “Washington,” in the newly-designated federal “District of Columbia,” was named after the leader of the American Revolution and the country’s first president: George Washington. – 1790.
Apollo 11, the first U.S. lunar landing mission, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on an historic journey to the surface of the moon. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 enters into a lunar orbit July 19. – 1969.
U.S. president George W. Bush announces his plan for strengthening homeland security in the wake of the shocking September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.. Bush launches a massive overhaul of the Nation’s security, intelligence, and emergency-response systems through the creation of the White House Office of Homeland Security. – 2002.
July 17
U.S. president Harry S Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British prime minister Winston Churchill, meet in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam to discuss issues relating to postwar Europe and plans to deal with the ongoing conflict with Japan. The meeting was marked by growing suspicion and tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. – 1945.
Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, Calif., and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland is host to more than 14 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion. – 1955.