Today in History: Sunday, July 30

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762 – Baghdad is founded by caliph Al-Mansur. 1419 – First Defenestration of Prague: A crowd of radical Hussites kill seven members of the Prague city council. 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage. 1608 – At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years. 1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time. 1626 – An earthquake in Naples, Italy, kills about 10,000 people. 1635 – Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army. 1656 – Swedish forces under the command of King Charles X Gustav defeat the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Warsaw. 1676 – Nathaniel Bacon issues the "Declaration of the People of Virginia", beginning Bacon's Rebellion against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. 1729 – Founding of Baltimore, Maryland. 1733 – The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States is constituted in Massachusetts. 1756 – In Saint Petersburg, Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers. 1811 – Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, leader of the Mexican insurgency, is executed by the Spanish in Chihuahua City, Mexico. 1825 – Malden Island is discovered by captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron. 1859 – First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps. 1863 – American Indian Wars: Representatives of the United States and tribal leaders including Chief Pocatello (of the Shoshone) sign the Treaty of Box Elder. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater: Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches. 1865 – The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time. 1866 – Armed Confederate veterans in New Orleans riot against a meeting of Radical Republicans, killing 48 people and injuring another 100. 1871 – The Staten Island Ferry Westfield's boiler explodes, killing over 85 people. 1912 – Japan's Emperor Meiji dies and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō. 1930 – In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first FIFA World Cup. 1932 – Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short. 1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis, killing 883 seamen. 1956 – A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God we trust as the U.S. national motto. 1962 – The Trans-Canada Highway, the longest national highway in the world, is officially opened. 1965 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid. 1966 – England defeats West Germany to win the 1966 FIFA World Cup at Wembley after extra time. 1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders. 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission: David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon land on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover. 1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Iwate, Japan killing 162. 1974 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the Supreme Court of the United States. 1974 – Six Canadian Army cadets are killed and fifty-four are injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp. 1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again. 1978 – The 730 (transport), Okinawa Prefecture changes its traffic on the right-hand side of the road to the left-hand side. 1980 – Vanuatu gains independence. 1980 – Israel's Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law 1981 – As many as 50,000 demonstrators, mostly women and children, took to the streets in Łódź to protest food ration shortages in Communist Poland. 1990 – George Steinbrenner is forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign as principal partner of New York Yankees for hiring Howie Spira to "get dirt" on Dave Winfield. 2003 – In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line. 2006 – The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years. 2012 – A train fire kills 32 passengers and injures 27 on the Tamil Nadu Express in Andhra Pradesh, India. 2012 – A power grid failure in Delhi leaves more than 300 million people without power in northern India. 2014 – One hundred and fifty people are trapped after a landslide in Maharashtra, India; 20 are killed.