01010702 This Day In History, July 2

437: Emperor Valentinian III, began his reign over the Western Roman Empire.

626: Li Shimin, the succeeding Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor of China, killed his rival brothers in an ambush at the Xuanwu Gate.

1298: An army under Albert of Austria defeated and killed Adolf of Nassua near Vorms (often rendered in English as "Worms"), Germany (see also The Holy Roman Empire Of The German Nation).

1494: The Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified by Spain. It divided the "New World" outside of Europe between Portugal and Spain.

1555: The Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacked Paola, Italy (listen to our Sermon The Ottoman Empire).

1625: The Spanish army took Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.

1644: The Battle of Marston Moor near York brought the first major Royalist defeat in the English Civil War.

1747: Marshall Saxe led French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.

1777: Vermont becomes the first U.S. territory to abolish slavery.

1853: The Russian army crossed the Pruth River, invading Turkey and beginning the Crimean War.

1871: Rome officially became capital of a united Italy; after 1,500 years, Rome again the capital of Italy.

1881: U.S. President James Garfield, who was sworn-in only 3 months earlier, was shot by Charles Guiteau. He died from the injury on September 19.

1897: Guglielmo Marconi, a scientist from Italy, obtained a patent for his "radio" in London.

1900: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew his first airship, over Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1937: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while trying to fly around the world.

1940: The liner Arandora Star was torpedoed by a German submarine while transporting German and Italian prisoners to Canada; over 750 prisoners and crew died.

1962: The first Wal-Mart store opened, in Rogers, Arkansas.

1964: U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and the Public Accommodations Bill that guaranteed equality to blacks. Despite the new laws, a month later 3 civil rights workers were found murdered in Mississippi; police were implicated.

1966: France detonated a nuclear bomb at a test site in the Pacific.

1976: Following Vietnam War (which was actually a civil war between the Vietnamese people whose nation had been divided into two by western imperial powers in 1954), North and South Vietnam were reunited as one country with Hanoi as the capital.

2000: Vicente Fox Quesada was elected President of Mexico, the first from an opposition party, after over 70 years of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.