July 15
1099 –
First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault
of a difficult siege.
1149 – The reconstructed Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated in Jerusalem.
1381 – John Ball, a leader in the
Peasants' Revolt, is
hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of
King Richard II of England.
1741 –
Aleksei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
1799 – The
Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain
Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's
Egyptian Campaign.
1806 –
Pike expedition: United States Army Lieutenant
Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri, to explore the west.
1834 – The
Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years.
1870 –
Reconstruction Era of the United States: Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
1910 – In his book Clinical Psychiatry,
Emil Kraepelin gives a name to
Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague
Alois Alzheimer.
1916 – In Seattle, Washington,
William Boeing and
George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
1954 – First flight of the
Boeing 367-80, prototype for both the
Boeing 707 and
C-135 series.
1959 – The
steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
1966 – Vietnam War: The United States and South Vietnam begin
Operation Hastings to push the North Vietnamese out of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone.
1985 - Nude photos of
Madonna taken in 1977 appeared in this months
Playboy and
Penthouse Magazines.
1998 -
Aerosmith were forced to cancel a forthcoming US tour after
Joey Kramer was involved in a freak accident. The drummer's car caught fire and was completely destroyed as he was filling up with petrol. He was admitted to hospital with second-degree burns.
2002 – "American Taliban"
John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.
Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering The Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl.
2003 – AOL Time Warner disbands
Netscape. The
Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
2005,
Victor Edward Willis, the original policeman in the
Village People, was arrested after police found a gun and drugs in his convertible in Daly City, south of San Francisco. Willis also had an outstanding $15,000 felony warrant for possession of narcotics.
2006 –
Twitter is launched, becoming one of the largest social media platforms in the world.
2015 - A judge trimmed more than $1m (£639,000) from the damages
Pharrell Williams was ordered to pay after the
Blurred Lines copyright trial. The case revolved around the question of whether Williams and his co-writer
Robin Thicke had copied
Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit '
Got To Give It Up'. The judge also gave Gaye's family a 50% cut of future earnings from the song.
Births
1573 – Inigo Jones; 1606 – Rembrandt; 1779 – Clement Clarke Moore; 1796 – Thomas Bulfinch; 1913 – Cowboy Copas; 1919 – Iris Murdoch; 1925 – Philip Carey ('Asa Buchanon' on
One Life To Live); 1931 – Clive Cussler; 1935 – Alex Karras, Ken Kercheval; 1940 –
Ronald Gene Simmons; 1944 – Millie Jackson, Jan-Michael Vincent; 1946 – Linda Ronstadt; 1947 – Peter Banks (Yes); 1948 – Artimus Pyle; 1950 – Arianna Huffington; 1951 – Jesse 'The Body' Ventura; 1952 – Marky Ramone, Johnny Thunders, Jeff Carlisi (.38 Special); 1953 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Alicia Bridges (
I Love The Night Life); 1956 – Joe Satriani; 1961 – Lolita Davidovich, Forest Whitaker; 1963 – Brigitte Nielsen; 1966 – Jason Bonham; 1967 – Adam Savage (
Mythbusters); 1968 – Eddie Griffin; 1972 – Scott Foley; 1973 – Brian Austin Green
Deaths
1381 – John Ball; 1871 – Tad Lincoln; 1904 – Anton Chekhov; 1940 – Robert Wadlow (8' 11'' tall

); 1948 – John J. Pershing; 1958 – Julia Lennon (John's mother); 1991 – Bert Convy; 1997 – Gianni Versace; 2003 – Tex Schramm; 2006 – Robert H. Brooks (founded Hooters); 2012 – Celeste Holm; 2015 – Aubrey Morris (
A Clockwork Orange)