On this day

1261 – The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Alexios Strategopoulos, re-establishing the Byzantine Empire.

1797 - British naval commander Horatio Nelson's right arm was shattered by grapeshot during an assault on Tenerife. The injured arm was amputated later.

1909 - Frenchman Louis Bleriot won the Daily Mail prize for the first successful flight across the English Channel. He made the trip in 37 minutes, landing close to Dover Castle.

1917 - Margaretha Zelle, the Dutch spy known as Mata Hari, was sentenced to death, she was executed by firing squad on 15 October.

1943 – Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.

1959 - A hovercraft, the SRN 1, made its first English Channel crossing from Dover to Calais.

1978 - Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England; she'd been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.

2000 - A New York-bound Air France Concorde (Air France Flight 4590), crashed outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four people on the ground.

2007 - Top Gear: Polar Special - Jeremy Clarkson and James May become the first people to reach the magnetic North Pole in a car.

Births:

1967 – Matt LeBlanc, American actor
1973 – Kevin Phillips, English footballer
1975 – Jody Craddock, English footballer
1975 – Jean-Claude Darcheville, French footballer
1976 – Tera Patrick, American pornographic actress
1978 – Louise Brown, World's first test tube baby
1979 – Allister Carter, English professional snooker player
1986 – Barbara Meier, German model
1986 – Hulk, Brazilian footballer

1745 - The first recorded women's cricket match was played near Guildford, Surrey, between teams from Hambledon and Bramley.

1878 – In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside.

1945 - Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were defeated by the Labour Party in a landslide victory.

1953 - Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl led a group of approximately 160 rebels in the Moncada Barracks attacks, widely accepted as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution.

1956 - The Suez Crisis began when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the British- and French-owned Suez Canal.

1963 – Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.

1989 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

2000 - A federal judge approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.

2005 – Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days.

1996: Bomb rocks Atlanta Olympics
A bomb has exploded at a crowded concert in Atlanta, Georgia, the city hosting this year's Olympic Games.
Two people are reported to have been killed and firefighting officials say as many as 200 people may have been injured.

The explosion happened at 0125 local time during a rock concert in the Centennial Olympic Park.

Three months ago, the Atlanta Olympic Committee transformed the 21-acre site from an unused area of slums and old warehouses into a popular entertainment venue.

It has attracted an estimated 100,000 people day and night who gather to hear music, watch concerts and contests on giant screens or buy souvenirs.

A band called Jack Mack and the Heart Attack had just finished playing a song when the bomb went off near a sound tower.

Warning came too late

After the blast, the area was immediately surrounded by police and cordoned off.

The nearby press centre was closed because guards feared another explosion.

Eyewitnesses described a scene of chaos and carnage. People lay on the ground with head and other injuries as police tried to clear the area.

The police say they received a phone call warning of the bomb and describing its location but it was too late to evacuate the park. They did, however, manage to clear the immediate vicinity.

It is reported the caller's voice had the characteristics of a white American male.

Security at the Games - already billed by the authorities as the largest peacetime security operation for a public event in American history - has been stepped up with extra bag searches and regular sweeps for explosives.

'Act of vicious terror'

It seems most visitors are determined the attack will not stop them enjoying the Games and events such as boxing, diving and track and field attracted healthy numbers of spectators today.

President Bill Clinton has reacted defiantly saying the Olympic Games should carry on as planned to show the nation would not be cowed by acts of terrorism.

"An act of vicious terror like this is clearly directed at the spirit of our own democracy," he said. "We must not let these attacks stop us from going forward. We cannot let terror win. That is not the American way."

He made his comments during a White House news conference just two days after announcing strict new security measures at US airports following the crash of TW Flight 800. On 17 July just 45 minutes after it left New York's Kennedy Airport the plane carrying 228 people exploded in mid air.


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Witnesses described scenes of carnage in the minutes following the blast


President Clinton condemns Atlanta bombing as cowardice






In Context
The pipe bomb at Atlanta killed two people and injured 111.
At first the FBI suspected the security guard who raised the alarm - Richard Jewell - but he was later cleared of any involvement.

Two years later Eric Rudolph was charged for the bombing in his absence after a Tennessee couple identified him as the man to whom they sold the smokeless powder, believed to have been used in the Atlanta device.

He became one of America's 10 most wanted fugitives and was finally caught in May 2003 and brought to trial in July 2004.

He was also charged with three other bombings including that of an abortion clinic in Alabama.

In April 2005 he admitted to the crime as part of a plea bargain and was spared the death penalty, but received four life sentences without parole.


Stories From 27 Jul
1996: Bomb rocks Atlanta Olympics
1965: Heath is new Tory leader
1982: Seychelles coup leader guilty of hijack
2003: Comic legend Bob Hope dies
2000: Labour publishes plans to revolutionise NHS
1978: Transatlantic balloonists in trouble

1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the Revolution".

1900 – Kaiser Wilhelm II makes a speech comparing Germans to Huns; for years afterwards, "Hun" would be a disparaging name for Germans.

1949 – Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner.

1953 – The Korean War ends when the United States, the People's Republic of China, and North Korea sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, President of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.

1974 – Watergate Scandal: the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon.

1981 – British television: on Coronation Street, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton, which proves to be a national event scoring massive viewer numbers for the show.

1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria invades Scotland to support Malcolm Canmore against Macbeth of Scotland, who usurped the Scottish throne from Malcolm's father, King Duncan. Macbeth is defeated at Dunsinane.

1586 - Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco to England, from Virginia.

1694 - The Bank of England was founded by act of Parliament.

1921 – Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.

1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny.

1985 - English athlete Steve Cram set a new world record for the mile at 3 minutes 46.32 seconds in Oslo.

1540 - King Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed, the same day Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1586 - Thomas Harriot was credited with bringing the first potato to Britain, (from Colombia) ahead of Sir Walter Raleigh.

1609 – Bermuda is first settled by survivors of the English ship Sea Venture en route to Virginia.

1821 - Peru declared its independence from Spain.

1858 - Fingerprints were first used as a means of identification by William Herschel, who later established a fingerprint register.

1933 - The first singing telegram was delivered, to singer Rudy Vallee on his 32nd birthday.

1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

1945 - A U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building, killing 14 people.

1976 - An earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude on the Richter scale leveled Tangshan, China, killing nearly a quarter million people; it was the worst earthquake in modern history.

1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.

2001 – Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championships.

2008 – The historic Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare burns down for the second time in 80 years.

1965: US orders 50,000 troops to Vietnam
President Johnson has commited a further 50,000 US troops to the conflict in Vietnam.
Monthly draft calls will increase from 17,000 to 35,000 - the highest level since the Korean War, when between 50,000 and 80,000 men were called up each month.

It will take the US force in Vietnam up to 125,000 but officials say at this stage demands should be met by conscription, without calling upon the reserves.


I do not find it easy to send the flower of our youth...into battle

President Johnson

Speaking in a televised address from the White House President Johnson said: "We do not want an expanding struggle with consequences no one can foresee."

"Nor will we bluster, bully or flaunt our power. But we will not surrender, nor will we retreat," he continued.

The President gave the news conference after a week of intensive talks with senior military and security advisers in Washington.

He explained the decisions were in response to requests made by General Westmoreland, the US Commander in the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon.

Mrs Johnson and her daughter looked close to tears as Mr Johnson admitted: "I do not find it easy to send the flower of our youth, our finest young men, into battle."

The US leader also made clear his desire for peace and recalled the - unsuccessful - efforts of 40 countries to bring an end to the fighting on 15 occasions.

He called upon the United Nations to redouble its efforts to restore peace to Vietnam and detailed a personal letter to that effect being personally delivered to the UN Secretary-General, U Thant, in New York by the new US Ambassador to the UN, Arthur Goldberg.

The Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, and the Secretary of Defence, Robert S McNamara, are to persuade Congress of the need to finance the US' new military commitments, in the light of a reduced defence budget this year.

President Johnson explained: "We intend to convince the communists that we cannot be defeated by force of arms or by superior power."


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The US draft for Vietnam is set to double





In Context
By the end of the year 180,000 US troops had been sent to Vietnam.
In 1966 the figure doubled.

80,000 Americans had been killed or wounded in the Vietnam War by summer 1967.

Pressure to withdraw mounted, not least because money for domestic reforms was diverted to the military.

There was Rioting in US cities and demonstrations on university campuses in the summer of 1967.

President Johnson and the Democratic Party were already losing votes. In the 1966 congressional elections the Republicans gained 47 seats in the House of Representatives and three in the Senate.

In March 1968 President Johnson announced a pause in the US bombings of Vietnam and said he would not be standing for re-election later that year.


Stories From 28 Jul
1976: Chinese earthquake kills hundreds of thousands
2005: IRA declares end to armed struggle
2000: Last prisoners leave the Maze
1965: US orders 50,000 troops to Vietnam
1972: National dock strike begins
1988: Ashdown to lead Britain's third party

Births:
1954 – Hugo Chávez, 52nd President of Venezuela
1969 – Dana White, UFC dude
1972 – Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
1974 – Justin Lee Collins, British comedian
1978 – Jacob Oram, New Zealand cricketer
1980 – Noel Sullivan, Welsh reality television contestant (Hear'Say)
1981 – Michael Carrick, English footballer
1983 – Goran Pandev, Macedonian footballer
1985 – Dustin Milligan, Canadian actor
1990 – Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, American rapper

1565 - Mary, Queen of Scots married her cousin Lord Darnley (Henry Stuart) in the Old Abbey Chapel at Holyrood, Edinburgh, thus alienating Scottish protestants and England because Darnley was a Catholic heir to the throne.

1567 – James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.

1833 - William Wilberforce, English campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire died, a month before the Slavery Abolition Act was passed.

1836 – Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

1899 – The First Hague Convention is signed.

1938 - Dennis the Menace first appeared in the 'Beano' comic.

1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

1967 – During the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela is shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead.

1981 - The Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer at London's St Paul's Cathedral. The televised ceremony was watched by over 700 million viewers around the world.

1988 – The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities.

2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.