July 21
In the first major land battle of the Civil War, a large Union force of 34,000 soldiers under General Irvin McDowell is routed by a Confederate army of approximately 29,000 men under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard. – 1861.
A die-cast operator in Jackson, Mich. is pinned by a hydraulic Unimate robot and dies five days later. Incident is the first documented case in the U.S. of a robot killing a human. – 1984.
July 22
Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John Dillinger, America’s “Public Enemy No. 1,” is killed in a hail of bullets fired by federal agents. In a bank-robbing career that lasted just over one year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks for more than $300,000, which in today’s money would be approximately $5.2 million. – 1934.
Milwaukee, Wis. police officers spot Tracy Edwards running down the street in handcuffs, and upon investigation find one of the grisliest scenes in modern history, Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment. Dahmer confessed to 17 murders in all. – 1991.
July 23
In the early-morning hours of July 23, 1967, one of the worst riots in U.S. history breaks out on 12th Street in the heart of Detroit’s predominantly African-American inner city. By the time it was quelled four days later by 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops, 43 persons were dead, 342 injured, and nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned. – 1967.
July 24
The steamer Eastland overturns in the Chicago River; between 800 and 850 of its more than 2,500 passengers drown. The boat was designed to carry 650 passengers, but was retrofitted in 1913 to carry 2,500 passengers. That same year a naval architect told officials the boat had structural defects, but his warning was not heeded. – 1915.
July 25
Workers stage a general strike, believed to be the Nation’s first, in St. Louis, in support of striking railroad workers. The successful strike was ended when approximately 3,000 federal troops and 5,000 deputized special police kill at least 18 individuals in skirmishes around the city. – 1877.
Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first baby to be conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown. The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section and weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces. – 1978.
An Air France Concorde jet crashes upon takeoff in Paris and kills everyone on board as well as four individuals on the ground. The Concorde, the world’s fastest commercial jet, had enjoyed an exemplary safety record up to that point, with no crashes in the plane’s 31-year history. – 2000.
July 26
The U.S. Postal Service is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. Franklin put in place the foundation for many aspects of today’s mail system. – 1775.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is created when U.S. attorney general Charles Bonaparte orders a group of newly-hired federal investigators to report to chief examiner, Stanley W. Finch, of the Department of Justice. One year later, the Office of the Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau of Investigation, and in 1935 it became the Federal Bureau of Investigation. – 1908.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) takes effect. It requires employers to offer reasonable accommodations to qualified disabled employees and bans discrimination against such workers. – 1992.
July 27
The House Judiciary Committee recommends that America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, be impeached and removed from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate. – 1974.