01010720 This Day In History, July 20

70: The Roman army (see also Ancient Empires - Rome) under the command of Titus (see Titus Vespasianus) stormed the area of Jerusalem north of the Temple Mount (see also What Did Jesus Christ Say About Those Stones? and What Was Holy About Herod's Temple?).

1402: Tamerlane, leading a massive force of Tartars, defeated and captured the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Angora, now known as Ankara (listen also to our Sermon The Ottoman Empire).

1654: Portugal was placed under English control after the signing of the Anglo-Portuguese treaty.

1667: The Peace of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1664-1667). The city of New Amsterdam was conceded by the Dutch to the English - who renamed it New York.

1773: Scottish settlers arrived at what is today Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia means New Scotland).

1810: Colombia declared independence from Spain.

1866: Austrians partially destroyed the Italian fleet at Lissa Island during the Seven Weeks War.

1871: British Columbia joined the Canadian confederation, thereby becoming a Province of Canada.

1903: The first Ford Motor Company automobile was sold.

1917: The Pact of Corfu was agreed under which Serbs, Croats and Slovenes agreed to form a union called Yugoslavia.

1923: Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa was assassinated at age 46 by political rivals.

1924: In Teheran, Persia (Persia is known today as Iran; see also Ancient Empires - Persia), martial law was declared after U.S. vice-consul, Robert Imbrie, was killed by a religious mob who rioted after hearing a rumor that the diplomat had poisoned a water fountain that killed a number of people.

1932: Washington, D.C. police fired tear gas on protesting First World War veterans who were attempting to march to the White House.

1933: In response to rising anti-Jewish attitudes in Europe, 500,000 people marched in London against anti-Semitism (see also Presidential Quotes On War, Terrorism, Religion and listen to our Sermon The European World Wars).

1944: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler by planting a bomb under his conference table in the "Wolf's Lair" headquarters.

1951: King Abdullah, 69, the first ruler of independent Jordan, was assassinated by dissident Arabs on the steps of the el-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. He was the only Arab ruler to accept the United Nations partitioning of "Palestine" (see Where Is Palestine?) into Jewish and Arab states (listen also to our Sermon The Balfour Declaration). In the 1948 war with Israel, his armies occupied the West Bank and Old Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his 16 year old grandson, Hussein.

1960: 2 dogs aboard a Russian spacecraft became the first living creatures to be launched into space and survive re-entry.

1969: Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command module.

1976: Viking 1 landed on Mars. It then transmitted back to earth the first-ever images from the surface of Mars.

1977: The Central Intelligence Agency released documents under the Freedom of Information Act that revealed that the CIA had conducted mind control and drugs experiments on unknowing people in the U.S.

2005: James Doohan died at age 85. The Canadian actor (born in Vancouver, BC) played "Scotty" in the widely popular Star Trek TV and movie series. The accent of "Scotty" was actually part of the character's portrayal; in real life, Doohan spoke like a Canadian (William Shatner, who played Captain James Kirk was also Canadian, born in Montreal).