July 15th

On this day in 1099, Jerusalem was captured by the First Crusade. In the traditional Christian manner, 10,000 were massacred and the Crusaders plundered everything they could get their hands on.

July 15, 1205 was another of those great moments in Vatican History. In the words of the infallible Pope Innocent III, the Jews "shall not dare raise their neck, bowed under the yoke of perpetual slavery." The Pope declares that the Jews are consigned to continual subjugation just for crucifying our Lord and Savior.

On this day in 1606 one of the greatest painters and print makers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born in Leiden, Netherlands.

In 1863 after three days of death the New York anti-draft riots ends. Over 1,000 died in the riots, including many free blacks attacked & murdered by Confederate sympathizers.

July 15, 1869 "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" Well they didn't win the war but they had a better spread. On this day in tactical history after French ruler Napoleon III commissioned Hippolye Mege Mouries to find a butter substitute for the war with Prussia, a patent for a beef based buttery spread is issued. Probably because the taste was marginal it was called margarine. Well actually it was because Hippolye Mege Mouries "had used the fatty acid component, margaric acid."

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union while Manitoba entered confederation as the fifth Canadian province.

In 1908, at age eighteen, Jean Cocteau publishes his first poem, "Les Façades."

"The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head."
— Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

On July 15, 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I.

The Second Battle of the Marne marked the turning of the tide in World War I. It began with the last German offensive of the conflict and was quickly followed by the first allied offensive victory of 1918. The American Expeditionary Force with over 250,000 men fighting under overall French command played key roles both in the initial defense and the later advances. In the Second Battle of Marne with 30,000 killed and wounded, the United States started suffering casualties on the enormous scale usually associated with the battles of the Great War.

According to the New York Times article "the American troops in a magnificent counterattack threw a whole division of Germans back across the Marne River."

On July 15, 1922, for the first time in the United States, the Bronx Zoo displayed a duck-billed
platypus.

In the Summer of 42, The Glen Miller Orchestra recorded "Juke Box Saturday Night" and on the same day the movie The Pride of the Yankees opened in new York starring Gary Cooper and Babe Ruth. Those Were the Days.

A Great Day for Democratic Hopefuls. On this day in 1948 President Harry S. Truman was nominated for another term by the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Twenty-six years later Jimmy Carter delivered his great acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination at Madison Square Garden. Forty-four years later, Bill Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention, also in New York City. There was another good nomination for Democrats on this day, on July 15, 1964 Barry Goldwater was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. San Francisco?

In 1965, the Mariner IV spacecraft sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars.

"One Life to Live." On this day in 1968 Llanview, Pennsylvania was born. The creation by Agnes Nixon would lead to an ABC dominance in daytime dramas. The first few years of the show were rich in issue stories and characters including Jewish characters, Polish-American families, and the first African-American leads, Carla Gray (Ellen Holly), and Ed Hall (Al Freeman, Jr.).

On July 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon startled the country by announcing he would visit the People's Republic of China. Back then our government portrayed an evil empire of communists but Nixon was going to to seek a "normalization of relations." Not so shocking now that they have become a "one party nation" that when they say "Jump," America owing so much money to China asks "How High?"

In 1973, Let's Not Drink to the Death of a Clown. On that day the very Kinky Ray Davies, announces retirement from Kinks and his wife's decision to leave him, then attempted suicide.

My makeup is dry and is cracked on my chin
I'm drowning my sorrows in whisky and gin
The lion tamer's whip doesn't crack anymore
The lions they won't fight and the tigers won't roar

What a crying shame that would have been. Ray is still going strong. Keep on Rockin' Dave.

In 1974 there was a televised suicide. During a live broadcast of the Sarasota, Florida morning news program Suncoast Digest, newscaster Chris Chubbuck last words before shooting herself in the head was "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first: an attempted suicide."

On this day in 1975, the first international manned spaceflight. The Russian Soyuz and the U.S. Apollo launched. The Apollo-Soyuz mission was also the last mission in the Apollo program.

Five years after the televised suicide, Reality TV. America was not ready for reality but on this day in 1979 President Jimmy Carter went on television to bring up an American "Crisis of Confidence." In a call for energy independence, protecting the environment and helping the Americans that need help most, President Carter showed way too much confidence in the elected officials and his own Party. While he never used the word, what should have been the most important speech of the late 20th century, became known as the "malaise" speech.

In 1987 Plausible deniability was stretched to the extreme as John Poindexter took the stand and took the rap at the Iran-Contra hearings.

In 1995, Serbs forced Muslims out of Srebrenica. Some 40,000 women, children and elderly people were ordered to leave the "safe area" of Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serbs. Reported by the BBC "United Nations officials say it is the biggest "ethnic cleansing" operation since World War II."

In 1996 MSNBC, a 24-hour all-news network, made its debut on cable TV and the Internet. Now Rupert Murdoch has one of those too.

In 1999, on the day that China declared they had invented their own neutron bomb, the U.S. government acknowledged for the first time that thousands of workers were made sick while making nuclear weapons and announced a plan to compensate some of them.

In 2007, the Philadelphia Phillies lost their 10,000th game, 10-2, to the visiting St. Louis Cardinals. On the same day, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles announced it was settling clergy sex-abuse cases for $660 million.