The world this week: From Amy Winehouse’s death aged 27 to London 2012’s opening ceremony
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Your support makes all the difference.22 July
The world’s first competitive motor race took place in 1894 – the Paris-Rouen, Le Petit Journal Competition for Horseless Carriages.
American aviator Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the Earth in 1933. He departed from, and landed on, Floyd Bennett Field in New York.
In 2003, Saddam Hussein’s sons, Uday and Qusay, were shot and killed in a gun battle between them and the US army in northern Iraq.
Prince George, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, was born in 2013.
Deaths: James Whitcomb Riley, American poet, 1916; Harold Larwood, English cricketer, 1995; Ulrich Muhe, German actor, 2007.
23 July
Vanessa Williams, after becoming the first African American woman to win the beauty pageant, resigned as Miss America in 1984. Williams was forced to give up her title after Penthouse magazine revealed it would be publishing nude photos of her.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson married at Westminster Abbey in 1986. The pair had two children together, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, before divorcing 10 years later.
Military rule in Greece collapses in 1974, and former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis is invited back after exile – marking a return to democracy.
In 2011, Amy Winehouse was found dead in her Camden home aged 27. The singer had a lengthy battle with drug addiction, alcoholism and bulimia.
Deaths: Ulysses S Grant, 18th US president, 1885; Philippe Petain, prime minister of France, 1951; Emile Griffith, Virgin Island boxer, 2013.
24 July
Mary Queen of Scots was deposed in 1567, in favour of her one-year-old son, who was later crowned King James VI of Scotland.
Machu Picchu was “rediscovered” in 1911 by American explorer Hiram Bingham III, bringing the Inca citadel to international attention.
In 1974, the US Supreme Court ordered President Nixon to surrender the Watergate tapes. The scandal led to his eventual resignation.
Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France in 2005. The cyclist later had all seven titles stripped, and given a life-long ban after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs.
Deaths: Martin van Buren, eighth US president, 1862; Peter Sellers, English actor and comedian, 1980; John Atta Mills, Ghanaian president, 2012.
25 July
In 1978, the first “test tube baby” was born. Louise Brown was conceived using in vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Princess Diana opened a ground-breaking Aids centre in London in 1989. Giving the director a firm handshake, the Princess of Wales aimed to destigmatise the disease at a time when police still wore rubber gloves when dealing with Aids patients.
A Concorde plane crashes shortly after taking of from Charles de Gaulle airport in 2000, killing 113. The accident would later be one of the main catalysts leading to its retirement three years later.
Pratibha Patil became India’s first female president in 2007. She remained head of state for five years.
Deaths: Constantius Chlorus, Roman emperor, 306; Ben Hogan, American golfer, 1997; Harry Patch, “the Last Fighting Tommy” in the First World War, 2009.
26 July
The Office of the Chief Examiner was founded by attorney general Charles Bonaparte in 1908. It would later be renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Winston Churchill lost the 1945 general election to Clement Attlee’s Labour Party by a landslide margin.
Egypt seizes the Suez Canal in 1956 after funding for the Aswan Dam was refused by international bodies. The move caused wide-spread condemnation, leading to the Suez Crisis later that year.
Israel’s London embassy was bombed in 1994. The explosion was caused by a car bomb detonating outside the building, injuring 14 people.
Deaths: William Jennings Bryan, US secretary of state, 1925; Eva Peron, Argentinian first lady, 1952; George W Romney, US businessman and politician, 1995.
27 July
Vincent van Gogh shot himself in 1890. The Dutch painter had battled with mental illness issues for many years leading up to his death.
Hostilities in the Korean War come to an end after three years of fighting. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarised Zone, separating the north from the south.
Tony Blair’s Labour government announced plans to revolutionise the NHS in 2000. The 10-year plan included improvements such as reducing waiting times and employing an extra 7,500 consultants.
Queen Elizabeth officially opened the London 2012 Olympic Games. The opening ceremony was called Isles of Wonder and was directed by Danny Boyle.
Deaths: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, shah of Iran, 1980; Bob Hope, English/American actor and singer; APJ Abdul Kalam, 11th president of India, 2015.
28 July
Under the leadership of Jose de San Martin, the Peruvian War concluded in 1821 and gained Peru independence from Spain.
The US ordered 50,000 troops to Vietnam in 1965, in what would become one of the most scandalous wars in modern history.
The national dock strike began in 1972. Thousands of British dockers were protesting to safeguard jobs.
The IRA declared an end to its armed struggled in 2005. The organisation said it would be closing all armed campaigns and pursuing exclusively peaceful means.
Deaths: Thomas Cromwell, English statesman, 1540; Otto Hahn, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate; Francis Crick, English biologist and neuroscientist, 2004.
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