Unix Timestamp: 1153353600
Thursday, July 20. 2006, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Serbia arrests Goran Hadžić, a Croatian Serb wartime leader, indicted for alleged crimes against humanity during the Croatian War of Independence. //www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-20/serbia-war-crimes-goran-hadzic/2803266 (Reuters via ABC Online)

An international conference on the future of Afghanistan opens in Kabul co-chaired by the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai and the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon. The conference endorses a goal for Afghan forces to lead security operations across the country by 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai suggests raising the size of the Afghan National Army to 170,000 troops and the Afghan National Police to 134,000 officers by 2011. //news.bbc.co.uk/world-south-asia-107527 (BBC) //news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/kabul-hosts-international-conference-20100720-10j52.html (AFP via "Sydney Morning Herald")

500,000 people attend the closing mass of World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia, celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, who announces Madrid as the host city for the next World Youth Day in 2011. //www.smh.com.au/news/world-youth-day/pope-declares-wyd-unforgettable-experience/2008/07/20/1216492232536.html ("Sydney Morning Herald")

The President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva orders an inquiry into the crash of TAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 3054. //edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/07/21/brazil.crash.reut/index.html?eref=rss_world (CNN)

16 people are injured after two bombs explode outside tax offices in Nice, France. //news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3081025.stm

Richard Sambrook, the Director of BBC News reveals that Dr. David Kelly was the source of claims that Downing Street had sexed up the September Dossier. (see also: Dodgy Dossier)

July 22 – The 27th G8 summit takes place in Genoa, Italy. Massive demonstrations are held against the meeting by anti-globalisation groups. One demonstrator, Carlo Giuliani, is shot dead by a carabiniere. Several others are badly injured during a police attack on a school used by the protesters as their headquarters.

The 27th G8 summit takes place in Genoa, Italy until July 22nd. Massive demonstrations against the meeting by anti-globalisation groups. One demonstrator, Carlo Giuliani, is shot dead by a carabiniere and several others are badly injured during an attack by the police on a school which the protesters were using as their headquarters.

Vanessa Legget is found in contempt by a Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Fragment Q1 hits Jupiter.

White House deputy counsel Vince Foster commits suicide in Virginia.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is placed under house arrest.

The Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Georgia nominates Michael Dukakis for U.S. President and Lloyd Bentsen for Vice President.

State President of South Africa, P. W. Botha, declares a state of emergency in 36 magisterial districts of South Africa amid growing civil unrest in black townships.

The government of Poland announces the end of martial law and amnesty for political prisoners.

The Provisional IRA detonates 2 bombs in central London, killing 8 soldiers, wounding 47 people, and leading to the deaths of 7 horses.

Viking program: The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars.

Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Apollo program: The lunar module "Eagle" lands on the lunar surface. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the Moon at 02:56 UTC, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.

The "Apollo 11" astronauts return from the first successful Moon landing, and are placed in biological isolation for several days, on the chance they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to preclude microscopic life.

The Soviet Union returns Gerald Brooke to the United Kingdom in exchange for spies Peter and Helen Kroger (Morris and Lona Cohen).

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda receives the first Viareggio-Versile prize.

France and Tunisia reestablish diplomatic relations.

Ceylon elects Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike as its Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government. She takes office the following day.

Various rebel groups in Cuba join forces but the communists do not join them.

King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.

Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their 19-month war.

Cold War: President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States, amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt).

WWII: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg.

The Geibeltbad Pirna is opened in Dresden, Germany.

Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world, traveling in 7 days 18 hours 45 minutes.

Machine-Gun Kelly and Albert Bates kidnap Charles Urschel, an Oklahoma oilman, and demand $200,000 ransom.

Vatican state secretary Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) signs an accord with Hitler.

The Soviet sports newspaper "Sovetskiy Sport" is founded.

Undated ndash Hyperinflation in Germany means that 563 marks are now needed to buy a single American dollar - almost double the 263 needed eight months ago and dwarfing the mere 12 needed in April 1929 and even the 47 needed in December of that year.

The German protectorate of Togoland is divided into the League of Nations mandates of French Togoland and British Togoland.

The United Kingdom cedes its brief control of the key Black Sea port of Batum to the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

July 28 ndash WWI: Austrian and German forces repulse the Russian advance into Galicia.

Professional football (soccer) is legalized in Britain.

American Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.

Naval Battle of Lissa: The Austrian fleet under Wilhelm von Tegetthoff defeats the Italian fleet of Carlo di Persano.

American Civil War ndash Battle of Peachtree Creek: Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.

Battle of Milazzo: The forces of Giuseppe Garibaldi defeat royal Neapolitan forces near Messina, bringing nearly all of Sicily under Garibaldi's control.

Charles Sturt enters the Simpson Desert in central Australia.

The Mercantile Agency (ancestor of Dun Bradstreet is founded in New York City by Lewis Tappan.

Charles Darwin climbs Green Hill on Ascension Island.

Greece grants citizenship to Jews.

Saint Cronan\\\\'s Boys National School opens in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Ireland under the title "Bray Male School". It is the oldest school in Bray and its notable pupils will include President of IrelandCearbhall Ó Dálaigh.

Colombia declares its independence from the Spanish Empire.

Nicéphore Niépce was awarded a patent by Napoleon Bonaparte for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.

Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie's 1792ndash1793 Peace River expedition to the Pacific Ocean reaches its goal at Bella Coola, British Columbia, making him the first known person to complete a transcontinental crossing of northern North America.

Tekle Giyorgis I begins the first of his five reigns as Emperor of Ethiopia.

The Jews in New Amsterdam petition for a separate Jewish cemetery.

The Netherlands and Brandenburg sign a military treaty.

The Amsterdam Town Hall (now the Royal Palace) is inaugurated.

Battle of Inverkeithing in Scotland: The English ParliamentarianNew Model Army under Major-General John Lambert defeats a Scottish Covenanter army acting on behalf of Charles II, led by Sir John Brown of Fordell.

August 19 ndash Eighty Years' War: Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, lays siege to Grol, the last Spanish stronghold in the eastern Netherlands, and captures it after a 1-month siege.

August 19 ndash Eighty Years\\\' War: Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, lays siege to Grol, the last Spanish stronghold in the eastern Netherlands, and captures it after a 1-month siege.

Pluto reaches, according to sophisticated mathematical calculations, its second most recent aphelion. The next one occurs in 1866, and the following one will occur 2113.

Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, dies in Rome, thus concluding the Flight of the Earls from Ireland.

Hugh O\\'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, dies in Rome, thus concluding the Flight of the Earls from Ireland.

The Spaniards defeat the Aztecs at Otumba near Lake Texcaco.

John of Denmark is crowned King of Norway.

Battle of Ankara: An invading Timurid Dynasty force defeats the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, who is captured. A period of interregnum begins in the Ottoman Empire with the future Mehmed I as one of the leading claimants to the throne.

September ndash Penal Laws against Wales The English Parliament pass the Penal Laws against Wales. The Laws stopped the Welsh from gathering together, obtaining office, carrying arms and living in English towns. Any Englishman who married a Welsh woman also came under the Penal Laws of 1402.

Queen Margaret forms the Kalmar Union, uniting the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland and Greenland) and Sweden (including Finland).

Fall of Stirling Castle: Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold in the Wars of Scottish Independence.

Titus storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount. The Romans are drawn into street fighting with the Zealots.