Today:
356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.
1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte’s French forces defeated the Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids in Egypt.
1861 – The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the American Civil War, was fought near Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1873 – Jesse James and his gang carried out the first successful train robbery in the American West, in Adair, Iowa.
1899 – Ernest Hemingway, American novelist and short-story writer, was born.
1925 – John T. Scopes, a high school biology teacher, was found guilty in the “Monkey Trial” for teaching human evolution in Tennessee.
1944 – Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators involved in the failed July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler were executed.
1954 – The Geneva Accords were signed, effectively partitioning Vietnam into North and South Vietnam.
1969 – Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.
2007 – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, was released.