Scott Allsop's Blog, page 8

20th July 1807: The world’s first internal combustion engine is patented in France

Napoleon granted a patent for the Pyréolophore to Nicéphore Niépce and his brother ...

19th July 1545: The Mary Rose, a Tudor warship of the English navy, sinks in the Solent in full view of King Henry VIII

According to contemporary accounts, the Mary Rose had just fired a broadside at the French navy, and was turning when she keeled over and ...

18th July 1938: ‘Wrong Way’ Douglas Corrigan lands in Ireland from New York, despite filing a flight plan to Long Beach, California

Corrigan later claimed that a navigational error, caused by a faulty compass and poor weather conditions, had led him to fly east to Ireland instead of west to ...

16th July 622: Start date of the Islamic calendar

The Islamic calendar was dated to start with the first new moon after the Prophet Muhammad and his followers migrated to ...

15th July 1099: First Crusade ends when Crusader forces capture the city of Jerusalem, after a siege lasting several weeks

After two days of fighting, the Crusaders breached Jerusalem's defences and entered the city, leading to intense fighting in the streets and buildings that led to a large-scale massacre of the city’s Muslim and Jewish ...

12th July 1790: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy passed by the National Constituent Assembly of France

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy restructured the Church in France to align with the new administrative divisions of the country, bringing the Church under the control of the state and reducing the influence of the papacy in French ecclesiastical ...

8th July 1497: Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon on the first known voyage to India from Europe

In May 1498, the expedition reached the Indian city of Calicut (present-day Kozhikode) on the Malabar Coast. Da Gama met with the the local ruler, and attempted to establish a trading ...

6th July 1988: Piper Alpha oil platform destroyed by a series of explosions in the deadliest offshore oil disaster in history

The public inquiry into the Piper Alpha oil platform disaster identified numerous failings in maintenance procedures, communication, design, and emergency ...

5th July 1865: United States Secret Service established in Washington, D.C., by the Department of the Treasury

Although the Secret Service is now most commonly associated with the protection of national leaders, this didn’t begin until after the assassination of President William McKinley in September ...

3rd July 1973: David Bowie announces the end of Ziggy Stardust during a concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London

Prior to the last song of the performance, Bowie told the crowd, “Not only is it the last show of the tour, but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do.” Even some of the band members were taken by surprise at the ...