July 20th Major News Events

1931 United Kingdom Help Germany

1931 : Prime Minister MacDonald of Great Britain is hosting one of the most important conferences since Versailles with 7 of the worlds most important statesman attending, The Conference is to try and help the war stricken Germany get free from the economic catastrophe it is currently facing.

1944 Germany Assassination Attempt Hitler

1944 : Adolf Hitler and 12 of his military and naval leaders were injured when a bomb exploded during a meeting at Hitler's headquarters in an assassination attempt on Hitler.

1948 U.S.A. Peacetime Military Draft

1948 : President Harry Truman issued a proclamation today calling for a peacetime military draft because of rising tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1950 India Conflict In China

1950 : India has again requested that communist China is given a seat on the United Nations Security Council as a first step to ending the conflict in Korea, The United States has again vetoed the idea.

1951 Jordan King Abdullah Assassinated

1951 : King Abdullah of Jordan was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian nationalist.

1952 Finland Emil Zatopek

1952 : Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia wins the 10,000 meter race at the 15th Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland . Emil Zatopek went on to win three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and the marathon making him possibly one of the greatest runners of the 20th century.

1956 UK and U.S.A. Withdraw Funds For Aswan Dam

1956 : The UK and U.S.A. withdraw offers of aid for creation of the Aswan high dam in response to President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt forming closer relationships with the Soviet Union. President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced 5 days later he would nationalize the Suez Canal to provide revenue for the construction of the high Aswan dam leading to the Suez Crisis. The Soviet Union stepped up in 1958 and funded the Aswan high dam project, the project was completed in 1970 and created the man made reservoir Lake Nasser.

1960 Ceylon / Sri Lanka (From 1972) Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike

1960 : Ceylon has chosen the world's first women prime minister (Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike) the wife of the murdered former prime minister Solomon Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka Freedom Party).

1964 U.S.A. Harlem Riots

1964 : Violence has flared up again in Harlem New York during burial services for those killed during the earlier riots with 14 more hurt. African-American leaders in the community are urging calm but hooligans are continuing to cause damage to property in the area.

1974 Turkey Invades Northern Cyprus

1974 : Turkish troops invade northern Cyprus following on from the breakdown of talks, Greek warships have now put to sea and Greek and Turkish warships are now exchanging fire near Paphos, a port in south-western Cyprus. Currently (2008) Cyprus is still a very divided country with a Turkish-occupied area in the north and the Republic of Cyprus in the south of the island with a UN green line separating the two.

1976 Space Viking 1 Lands On Mars

1976 : On the seventh anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the Viking 1 lander, an unmanned U.S. planetary probe, becomes the first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars.

1982 UK IRA Bombing Campaign

1982 : The IRA is continuing it's bombing campaign on the British mainland with two IRA bomb blasts in central London, one in Hyde Park, killing two soldiers and injuring 23 others and the other in Regents Park killing six soldiers and injuring a further 24.

1990 UK IRA Bombing Campaign

1990 : The IRA bombs the London Stock Exchange. The IRA did give a coded warning prior to the bomb detonation and no body was killed or injured.

1995 Native Canadian Indians

1995 : Native Canadian Indians are blocking roads, threatening sit-ins and challenging government authorities , and many believe it is only a matter of time before bloodshed happens. They are angry that Government Departments are bypassing the Chiefs and going to local bands to negotiate treaty rights because they are not as strong. The Indian Chiefs believe the government should negotiate with the chiefs which represent 500,000 Indians in Canada, and not take their fishing and hunting rights by using a divide and conquer strategy.

1997 Deaf Illegal Mexican Immigrant Ring Broken

1997 : A crime ring using 60 smuggled deaf Mexicans into the United States to sell trinkets in the subways and airports of New York, Chicago, Boston and other cities has been broken after 2 of the deaf immigrant workers go to a police station and with sign language and interpreters give police the information they need to break the ring and place charges. The Mexicans are given immunity from prosecution and work visa's for helping police.

2001 Italy G8 Summit

2001 : The leaders of world's seven richest nations begin the G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy with a focus on reducing global poverty in third world countries. One of the announcements later this week is expected to be a $1bn global health fund to fight Aids, TB and malaria. The other main area of discussion is expected to be talks on free trade around the world which would mean removing tariffs on imports and ending subsidies in some area's. There are expected to be over 100,000 demonstrators protesting everything from Free Trade to Mr Bush's plans for new anti missile defense systems for the United States.

2006 Malta Migrant Ship Refused Landing

2006 : After the country of Malta refused to let a Spanish ship carrying 51 African migrants dock, the country reached an agreement with Spain over the dispensation of the migrants. After massive immigration to the Mediterranean islands from Africa, many of the smaller nations including Malta could no longer support such increases in population and looked to the European Union for greater control over immigration. Malta is a small Island in the Mediterranean of just 121 sq miles.

2007 U.S.A. Terrorist Torture Banned

2007 : United States President George W. Bush signed an executive order that banned the torture of terror suspects. The order was intended to clarify the legal bounds that surround interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency after scandals surrounding the United States’ treatment of detainees suspected of terrorist activities. The executive order still faced scrutiny and was said to be too vague. The Executive Order was in response from criticism from home and abroad over Torture and Prisoner abuse used at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq made public in a 60 Minutes broadcast in 2004.

2008 New Batman Movie "The Dark Knight"

2008 : The Batman sequel, The Dark Knight, opened on this weekend. By the end of the weekend, the movie broke the record for the biggest opening weekend ever. The movie took in $155.4 million, beating the previous record set by Spider-Man 3 in 2007.

2011 NBA Star Yao Ming Announces Retirement

2011 : Yao Ming, a basketball player and one of China's most popular athletes, announced his retirement from the NBA. Ming, over seven feet tall, played from the Houston Rockets and had suffered from breaking his foot late in 2010. Yao Ming had missed a lot of games in the last six seasons due to foot and ankle injuries.

2012 Shooting at Denver Batman Midnight Showing

2012 : A gunman opened fire on a theater full of people attending the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado killing twelve and injuring fifty-eight others. The gunman was found in a parking lot outside the theater by police and was identified as twenty-four year old James Holmes, a former neuroscience student at the University of Colorado-Denver.

2013 Journalist Helen Thomas Dies

2013 : Ninety-two year old former White House journalist Helen Thomas died after battling with an illness. Thomas had covered White House news through ten different presidents and over nearly five decades. She was known for asking tough questions and was as a pioneer for women in journalism.