TODAY IN HISTORY: 03 AUGUST, 1949 Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form National Basketball Association (NBA)

After a damaging three-year battle to win both players and fans, the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form the National Basketball Association (NBA), on 3 August, 1949.

Incorporated in 1946, the Basketball Association of America which established itself in bigger cities, challenged the hegemony of the nine-year old National Basketball League, which existed only in small Midwestern cities like Forte Wayne, Sheboygan and Akron. While the National Basketball League held its games in small gymnasiums, the upstart Basketball Association of America, played its games in large major-market arenas such as the Boston Garden and New York City’s Madison Square Garden. By the 1948-49 season, the Basketball Association of America had begun to attract some of the country’s best players, and four National Basketball League franchises—Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Rochester—moved to the Basketball Association of America, bringing their star players with them. George Mikan, the biggest attraction in either league who by himself could virtually assure a team’s success, defected to the new league with the Minneapolis Lakers.

On this day in 1949, representatives from the two leagues met at the Basketball Association of America offices in New York’s Empire State Building to put finishing talk on the merger. Maurice Podoloff, the pioneer head of the Basketball Association of America, was elected head of the new merger league, the National Basketball Association which was made up of 17 teams that represented both small towns and large cities across the country. Through the 1950s, though, the number of teams dwindled, along with fan support, and by the 1954-55 season, only eight teams remained. That year, the league transformed the game with the creation of the 24-second clock, making play faster-paced and more fun to watch. Fans returned, and the league, now financially solvent, expanded throughout the 1960s and '70s. Today, 

The 73 year old NBA today, has drawn players and millions of fans from countries around the world.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 02 AUGUST, 1990 Iraq forces capture Kuwait

Exactly thirty-two years today, at about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces invade oil rich neighbouring country Kuwait. Kuwait’s defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia. The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the Iraqis had established a provincial government.

For the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf, Iraq gained control of 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves. The United Nations Security Council, an organ of United Nations tasked with ensuring international peace and security, unanimously denounced the invasion and demanded Iraq’s immediate withdrawal from Kuwait and imposed a worldwide ban on trade with Iraq on 6 August. 

Also, on 9 August,the Operation Desert Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as U.S. forces raced to the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator had built up his occupying army in Kuwait to about 300,000 troops. On November 29, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw by January 15, 1991. Hussein refused to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, which he had established as a province of Iraq, and some 700,000 allied troops, primarily American, gathered in the Middle East to enforce the deadline.

At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm, the massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire on television footage transmitted live via satellite from Iraq. Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international coalition under the supreme command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The allied force in another six weeks, engaged in an intensive air war against Iraq’s military and civil infrastructure and encountered little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force or air defenses. Iraqi ground forces were helpless during this stage of the war, and Hussein’s only significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile (first deployed by the Soviets in the mid-1960s) attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel to enter the conflict, thus dissolving Arab support of the war. At the request of the United States, however, Israel remained out of the war.

On February 24, 1991, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq’s outdated and poorly supplied armed forces were rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded, 10,000 of its troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had been established deep inside Iraq. After less than four days, Kuwait was liberated, and the majority of Iraq’s armed forces had either surrendered, retreated to Iraq, or been destroyed.

On February 28, U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and on April 3 the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 687, specifying conditions for a formal end to the conflict. According to the resolution, Bush’s cease-fire would become official, some sanctions would be lifted, but the ban on Iraqi oil sales would continue until Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction under U.N. supervision. On April 6, Iraq accepted the resolution, and on April 11 the Security Council declared it in effect. During the next decade, Saddam Hussein frequently violated the terms of the peace agreement, prompting further allied air strikes and continuing U.N. sanctions.

In the Persian Gulf War, 148 American soldiers were killed and 457 wounded. The other allied nations suffered about 100 deaths combined during Operation Desert Storm. There are no official figures for the number of Iraqi casualties, but it is believed that at least 25,000 soldiers were killed and more than 75,000 were wounded, making it one of the most one-sided military conflicts in history. It is estimated that 100,000 Iraqi civilians died from wounds or from lack of adequate water, food, and medical supplies directly attributable to the Persian Gulf War. In the ensuing years, more than one million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the subsequent U.N. sanctions.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 01 AUGUST, 1941 First World War blows up

On this day in 1914 and four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France orders a general mobilization, and the first German army units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. During the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium and Great Britain all lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium. These led to a “Great War” that ensued that caused unprecedented destruction and loss of lives, resulting in the death of now fewer than 20 million soldiers and civilians.

The June 28, 1914 gruesome murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire and his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia  was an event widely regarded as sparking the outbreak of World War I.

Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle’s imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who wanted these Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. 

However, as Russia supported Serbia, an Austria-Hungary declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention. The tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed following the war declared on Serbia by Austria-Hungary on July 28. 

On July 29, Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia’s ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize on August 1. France and Germany declared war against each other on August 3. After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on the night of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain, Belgium’s ally, to declare war against Germany.

For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Of the initial belligerents, Germany was most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders had formatted a sophisticated military strategy known as the “Schlieffen Plan,” which envisioned the conquest of France through a great arcing offensive through Belgium and into northern France. Russia, slow to mobilize, was to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.

The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front–the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium–the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition.

In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had joined the Central Powers in October 1914, but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in early 1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately set about negotiating peace with Germany. In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies’ favor. Bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with an imminent invasion, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in November 1918.

World War I was known as the “war to end all wars” because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict—the Treaty of Versailles of 1919—forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for World War II.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 31 JULY, 1975 American labour leader, Jimmy Hoffa declared missing

In the morning of  31st July, 1975, one of the most American influential labour leaders, James Riddle Hoffa, was officially reported missing after he failed to return home the previous night. Though Hoffa is popularly believed to have been the victim of a Mafia hit, conclusive evidence was never found and Hoffa’s fate remains a mystery.

Born in 1913 to a poor coal miner in Brazil, Indiana, Jimmy Hoffa proved a natural leader in his youth. At the age of 20, he helped organize a labor strike in Detroit, and remained an advocate for downtrodden workers for the rest of his life. Hoffa’s charisma and talents as a local organizer quickly got him noticed by the Teamsters and carried him upward through its ranks. Then a small but rapidly growing union, the Teamsters organized truckers across the country, and through the use of strikes, boycotts and some more powerful though less legal methods of protest, won contract demands on behalf of workers.

Hoffa became president of the Teamsters in 1957, when its former leader was imprisoned for bribery. As chief, Hoffa was lauded for his tireless work to expand the union, and for his unflagging devotion to even the organization’s least powerful members. His caring and approachability were captured in one of the more well-known quotes attributed to him: “You got a problem? Call me. Just pick up the phone.”

His dedication to the worker and his electrifying public speeches made him wildly popular, both among his fellow workers and the politicians and businessmen with whom he negotiated. Yet, for all the battles he fought and won on behalf of American drivers, he also had a dark side. In Hoffa’s time, many Teamster leaders partnered with the Mafia in racketeering, extortion and embezzlement. Hoffa himself had relationships with high-ranking mobsters, and was the target of several government investigations throughout the 1960s. In 1967, he was convicted of bribery and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

While in jail, Hoffa never ceded his office, and when Richard Nixon commuted his sentence in 1971, he was poised to make a comeback. Released on condition of not participating in union activities for 10 years, Hoffa was planning to fight the restriction in court when he disappeared on the afternoon of July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of a restaurant in Detroit, not far from where he got his start as a labor organizer. His family filed a missing persons report to the Bloomfield Township police the next day. Several conspiracy theories have been floated about Hoffa’s disappearance and the location of his remains, but the truth remains unknown.

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History.com Editors

TODAY IN HISTORY: 29 JULY, 1996 Olympic gold medalist, Carl Lewis wins fourth consecutive long jump

On 29 July, 1996, 35 year-old track and field legend Carl Lewis wins his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the long jump. It was the ninth and final Olympic gold of his storied career.

Born 11 July, 1961, in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in a middle-class community in New Jersey, Frederick Carlton Lewis met Olympic champion Jesse Owens, who became his hero. As a teenager, Lewis participated in track and field, but was undersized until high school, when he grew the long legs that help a sprinter cover ground and underwent a huge growth spurt that forced him to walk with crutches for three months while he fine-tuned his gait. Once fully developed at 6 feet 2 inches tall, Lewis set a national high school record in the long jump with a 26-foot-8-inch leap.

After a standout career at the University of Houston, Lewis won the 100 meters, 200 meters and the long jump at the 1983 National Championships, and entered the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles as the top-ranked sprinter in the world. There, he met his goal of four gold medals, winning the long jump, the 100 meters, the 200 meters and anchoring the victorious U.S. team in the 4 x 100 meter relay.

The win at Atlanta made Lewis the first Olympian since American discus thrower Al Oerter to win the same event four times. His career is considered among the greatest in track and field history.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 28 JULY , 2016 Hillary Clinton becomes first woman to lead a major U.S. political party, accepting Democratic nomination for president

After 95 years women were granted the right to vote in United States of America, a former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, makes history by accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president, becoming the first woman to lead a major U.S. political party. 

The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia formally nominated Clinton two days earlier, with South Dakota casting 15 votes to put Clinton over the threshold of 2,382 required delegates.

Reacting to the nomination in her acceptance speech on the night of July 28, Clinton acknowledged the historic nature of her nomination.

She said, "Tonight, we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union: the first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president,"  

"Standing here as my mother's daughter, and my daughter's mother, I'm so happy this day has come. Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. Happy for boys and men, too because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit," she stated.

The Former First Lady who ran in the general against immediate past president of United States of America, Donald J. Trump, won the popular vote but lost the election in the electoral college. Trump served one term between 2017 and 2021 and made history himself, becoming the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, 2019 and 2021.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 28 JULY, 2013 Vigilante-extremist clash kills 25 in Borno state, Nigeria

On 28 July 2013,  a leader of vigilante, Aliko Musa and his group stormed villages, to hunt Boko Haram members in Borno state, but the sect retaliated with big fire power. This resulted in the killing of no fewer than twenty civilians and five vigilantes.

A military source who spoke with the newsmen disclosed that at least 25 people were confirmed killed in separate attacks by suspected members of the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, on that fateful Saturday.

In an email sent from Baga, the spokesman of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), Lieutenant Haruna Sani, said at least 20 civilians died after the terrorist group launched what appeared to be a reprisal attack in Dawashi Village.

Sani said the members of the youth vigilante, Civilian JTF, had earlier invaded the town and arrested some members of the Boko Haram – an action the terrorists blamed on the connivance of the villages

In the statement Lieutenant Musa revealed that, “A group of Civilian Joint Task Force from Maiduguri stormed the village Dawashi in search of Boko Haram members when the suspected sect members came armed and fired sporadic shots that killed over twenty innocent civilians while a dozen secured serious gunshot injury. The victims are mostly fishermen and traders who pursue their legitimate business in the area.

“As part of the Excellent Civil Military Relations and humanitarian gesture demonstrated by Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) a dozen of Boko Haram victims affected by the attack in Dawashe District of Kukawa Local Government Borno State got medical treatment in the Headquarters Field Ambulance in Baga.

The leader of the vigilante, Aliko Musa, said, the outing was a huge loss to them as five of their brave minds were killed by the outlawed Boko Haram.

However, the spokesman of the JTF, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, denied the figure even though he confirmed the Mainok attack. According to him, only one of the youth vigilante died while one other sustained injuries.

The killings occur despite a ceasefire the Nigerian government led by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said it achieved with sect, and despite the heavy military presence since a state of emergency was declared in the State in May 2013.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 27 JULY, 1794 Architect of French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, Robespierre overthrows by National Convention

On this day in 1794, Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, is overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. As a leading member of the Committee of Public Safety from 1793, Robespierre used his position to encourage the execution of more than 17,000 enemies of the Revolution mostly by guillotine. Robespierre alongside 21 of his followers were guillotined before a cheering mob on the second day of his arrest in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.

Born in Arras, France in 1758, Maximilien Robespierre studied law through a scholarship and was elected to be a representative of the Arras commoners in the Estates General in 1789. After the Third Estate, which represented commoners and the lower clergy, declared itself the National Assembly, Robespierre became a prominent member of the Revolutionary body. He took a radical, democratic stance and was known as “the Incorruptible” for his dedication to civic morality. In April 1790, he presided over the Jacobins, a powerful political club that promoted the ideas of the French Revolution.

He called for King Louis XVI to be put on trial for treason and won many enemies, but the people of Paris consistently came to his defense. In 1791, he excluded himself from the new Legislative Assembly but continued to be politically active as a member of the Jacobin Club. In 1792, he opposed the war proposal of the Girondins–moderate leaders in the Legislative Assembly–and lost some popularity. 

However, Robespierre was elected to the insurrectionary Commune of Paris after the people of Paris rose up against the king in August 1792. He then was elected to head the Paris delegation to the new National Convention.

In the National Convention, he emerged as the leader of the Mountain, as the Jacobin faction was known, and opposed the Girondins. In December 1792, he successfully argued in favor of Louis XVI’s execution, and in May 1793 he encouraged the people to rise up in insurrection over military defeats and a food shortage. The uprising gave him an opportunity to finally purge the Girondins.

On July 27, 1793, Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, which was formed in April to protect France against foreign and domestic enemies and to oversee the government. Under his leadership, the committee came to exercise virtual dictatorial control over the French government. Faced with the threat of civil war and foreign invasion, the Revolutionary government inaugurated the Reign of Terror in September. In less than a year, 300,000 suspected enemies of the Revolution were arrested; at least 10,000 died in prison, and 17,000 were officially executed, many by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution. In the orgy of bloodshed, Robespierre succeeded in purging many of his political opponents.

On June 4, 1794, Robespierre was almost unanimously elected president of the National Convention. Six days later, a law was passed that suspended a suspect’s right to public trial and to legal assistance. In just a month, 1,400 enemies of the Revolution were guillotined. The Terror was being escalated just when foreign invasion no longer threatened the republic, and an awkward coalition of the right and the left formed to oppose Robespierre and his followers.

On July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor in the Revolutionary calendar), Robespierre and his allies were placed under arrest by the National Assembly. Robespierre was taken to the Luxembourg prison in Paris, but the warden refused to jail him, and he fled to the Hotel de Ville. Armed supporters arrived to aid him, but he refused to lead a new insurrection. When he received word that the National Convention had declared him an outlaw, he shot himself in the head but only succeeded in wounding his jaw. Shortly thereafter, troops of the National Convention attacked the Hotel de Ville and seized Robespierre and his allies. The next evening–July 28–Robespierre and 21 others were guillotined without a trial in the Place de la Revolution. During the next few days, another 82 Robespierre followers were executed. The Reign of Terror was at an end.

In the aftermath of the coup, the Committee of Public Safety lost its authority, the prisons were emptied, and the French Revolution became decidedly less radical. The Directory that followed saw a return to bourgeois values, corruption, and military failure. In 1799, the Directory was overthrown in a military coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte, who wielded dictatorial powers in France as first consul and, after 1804, as French emperor.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 27 JULY, 1974 US Congress commences impeachment process against President Nixon

The US House Committee on Judiciary, on 24 July 1974, recommends that American president, Richard Nixon, be impeached from office. The impeachment proceedings resulted from a series of political scandals involving the Nixon administration that came to be collectively known as Watergate.

The Watergate scandal first came to light following a break-in on June 17, 1972, at the Democratic Party’s national headquarters in the Watergate apartment-hotel complex in Washington, D.C. A group of men linked to the White House were later arrested and charged with the crime. Nixon who was the 37th American president, denied any involvement with the break-in, but several of his staff members were eventually implicated in an illegal cover-up and forced to resign. Subsequent government investigations revealed “dirty tricks” political campaigning by the Committee to Re-Elect the President, along with a White House “enemies list.” 

In July 1973, one of Nixon’s former staff members revealed the existence of secretly taped conversations between the president and his aides. Nixon initially refused to release the tapes, on grounds of executive privilege and national security, but a judge later ordered the president to turn them over. The White House provided some but not all of the tapes, including one from which a portion of the conversation appeared to have been erased.

In May 1974, the House Judiciary Committee began formal impeachment hearings against Nixon. On July 27 of that year, the first article of impeachment against the president was passed. Two more articles, for abuse of power and contempt of Congress, were approved on July 29 and 30.

On August 5, Nixon complied with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring that he provide transcripts of the missing tapes, and the new evidence clearly implicated him in a cover up of the Watergate break-in. On August 8, Nixon announced his resignation, becoming the first president in U.S. history to voluntarily leave office. After departing the White House on August 9, Nixon was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford, who, in a controversial move, pardoned Nixon on September 8, 1974, making it impossible for the former president to be prosecuted for any crimes he might have committed while in office. 

Apart from Donald Trump that was impeached in 2019 and 2021, two other US presidents have also been impeached in the history of America. They were Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 26 JULY, 2007 DSP Alamieyeseigha bags 12 years imprisonment for money laundering

On 26 July, 2007, a former Bayelsa State Governor, Dieprieye Alamieyeseigha was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by Justice Mohammed Shuaibu of Federal High Court, Lagos on charges of corruption and money laundering and ordered him to forfeit millions in property and cash.

The former governor who had been under EFCC custody for close to two years before the Court judgement, according to the prison calendar, was said to be free from detention having spent two years in Federal custody. He is expected to face his health problems described as "terrible" by a source.

Diepreye Alamieyeseigha popularly called the Governor-General of Ijaw nation, returned to  Bayelsa State in November 2005 after apparently escaping Europe on a forged passport and in a red dress, necklace, head-dress and lipstick. Crowds cheered and waved leaves to welcome back the governor.

The governor was arrested at Heathrow airport in September and had his passport confiscated. He faced three money-laundering charges after police found £1m in cash at his London address and property in his name worth £10m.

Mr. Alamieyeseigha was coy when asked how he evaded British controls to make it back to his village in the Niger delta. "I don't know myself. I just woke up and found myself in Amassoma."

Dressed as a woman, the governor is said to have taken a Eurostar train from London to Paris and then flown to Douala, a port city in Cameroon neighbouring Nigeria, where a speedboat took him home under cover of darkness. The disguise was helped by the fugitive's weight loss during his stay in Europe, which included a tummy tuck operation in Germany.

Thousands lined the streets to cheer his cavalcade through the province but elsewhere several thousand people marched in protest at his return.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), part of the federal government's anti-corruption drive, hinted that it would seek to prosecute him. "What I feel bad about is that Nigeria is viewed as a safe haven for people to be protected," said Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, then commission's chairman.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 25 JULY, 2000 Air France Concorde jet crashes, killing all passengers and crew onboard

Exactly twenty-two years ago, today, the Concorde, which is the fastest commercial jet, that had enjoyed an exemplary safety record with no crashes in the plane’s 31-year history, crashes upon takeoff in Paris killing 109 passengers and crew onboard as well as four other people on the ground.

The commercial jet that left DeGaulle Airport for New York carrying nine crew members and 96 German tourists who were planning to take a cruise to Ecuador, plunged to the ground almost immediately after takeoff, near Michèle Fricheteau's hotel in Gonesse, France. A huge fireball erupted and all 105 people on the plane were killed immediately.

The Concorde fleet was grounded in the wake of this disaster while the cause was investigated. The Concorde, powered by four Rolls Royce turbojets, was able to cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than three-and-a-half hours, reaching speeds of 1,350 miles per hour, which is more than twice the speed of sound. The July 25 incident, though, was not related to the Concorde’s engine construction or speed.

The investigation revealed that the plane that took off just prior to Flight 4590 had dropped a piece of metal onto the runway. When the Concorde jet ran over it, its tire was shredded and thrown into one of the engines and fuel tanks, causing a disabling fire.

Concorde jets went back into service in November 2001, but a series of minor problems prompted both Air France and British Airways to end Concorde service permanently in October 2003.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 25 JULY, 1978 World’s first "test tube" baby, Louise Joy Brown is born

On July 25, 1978, an English woman who was the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation experiment (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to Mr. and Mrs. Lesley and Peter Brown.

Her birth, following a procedure pioneered in Britain, has been lauded among "the most remarkable medical breakthroughs of the 20th Century".  

The healthy baby who was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section, weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces.

Before giving birth to Louise, Lesley Brown, a home maker had suffered nine years of infertility due to blocked fallopian tubes. In November 1977, she underwent the then-experimental IVF procedure. A mature egg was removed from one of her ovaries and combined in a laboratory dish with her husband’s sperm to form an embryo. The embryo then was implanted into her uterus a few days later. Her IVF doctors, British gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and scientist Robert Edwards, had begun their pioneering collaboration a decade earlier. Once the media learned of the pregnancy, the Browns faced intense public scrutiny. Louise’s birth made headlines around the world and raised various legal and ethical questions.

Louise’s birth became an instant global sensation and a turning point in the treatment of infertility, offering hope to millions of couples who had been unable to have children. Since then, more than four million babies worldwide have been born through in vitro fertilization.

The Browns had a second daughter, Natalie, several years later, also through IVF. In May 1999, Natalie became the first IVF baby to give birth to a child of her own. The child’s conception was natural, easing some concerns that female IVF babies would be unable to get pregnant naturally. In December 2006, Louise Brown, the original “test tube baby,” gave birth to a boy, Cameron John Mullinder, who also was conceived naturally.

Lesley, the mother of Louise, died on June 6, 2012 at age of 64 in Bristol, England. Her death, at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, was caused by complications of a gallbladder infection, said Michael Macnamee, executive director of the Bourn Hall Clinic in Cambridge, where the in vitro fertilization technique that produced Louise was developed by Robert G. Edwards and Dr. Patrick Steptoe.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 25 JULY, 1943 Relief returns to Italy as Benito Mussolini falls from power

On July 25, 1943, the Italian fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, is voted out of power by his own Grand Council and arrested upon leaving a meeting with King Vittorio Emanuele, who tells Il Duce that the war is lost. Mussolini responded to it all with an uncharacteristic meekness.

Preceding the incident, the evening of July 24 and the early hours of the 25th, the Grand Council of the fascist government met to discuss the immediate future of Italy. While all in attendance were jittery about countermanding their leader, Mussolini who was sick, tired, and overwhelmed by the military reverses suffered by the Italian military. 

Mussolini seemed to be looking for a way out of power. One of the more reasonable within the Council, Dino Grandi, argued that the dictatorship had brought Italy to the brink of military disaster, elevated incompetents to levels of power, and alienated large portions of the population. He proposed a vote to transfer some of the leader’s power to the king. The motion was passed, with Mussolini barely reacting. While some extremists balked, and would later try to convince Mussolini to have those who voted with Grandi arrested, Il Duce was simply paralyzed, unable to choose any course of action.

Soon afterwards, the Grand Council vote, Mussolini, groggy and unshaven, kept his routine 20-minute meeting with the king, during which he normally updated Victor Emanuele on the current state of affairs. This morning, the king informed Mussolini that General Pietro Badoglio would assume the powers of prime minister and that the war was all but lost for the Italians. Mussolini offered no objection. 

Upon leaving the meeting, he was arrested by the police, who had been secretly planning a pretext to remove the leader for quite some time. They now had the Council vote of “no confidence” as their formal rationale. Assured of his personal safety, Mussolini acquiesced to this too, as he had to everything else leading up to this pitiful denouement. When news of Mussolini’s arrest was made public, relief seemed to be the prevailing mood. There was no attempt by fellow fascists to rescue him from the penal settlement on the island of Ponza to which he was committed. The only remaining question was whether Italy would continue to fight alongside its German allies or surrender to the Allies.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 25 JULY, 2007 Gunmen kidnapped two oil workers, in Port-Harcourt

On 25 July 2007, gunmen ferried in speedboats kidnapped two oil engineers of Damas Oil and Marine Services, one from the Philippines and one Nigerian, in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.

The incessant kidnapping of oil workers in the oil rich Niger Delta was a disturbing security problem in Nigeria at the time. There were four cases of kidnapping of oil workers in the month of July of 2007 alone.

The Niger Delta militants used kidnapping as a bait or pressure tactic to press home their demands from Nigerian government to address the grievances of oil pollution in their communities. 

The victims, at the initial stage, were expatriates oil workers. They were abducted and political demands made for their release. In the second stage of the problem’s evolution, the militants collected ransoms for releasing their captives and the money used to finance their insurgency against the Nigerian state. The third stage of the evolution was when it was hijacked by some criminal elements that turned it to a form of extortionate terrorism now difficult to manage. At this stage, the oil workers, members of their families, rich community members and politicians were kidnapped and ransoms taken before releasing them. 

The problem soon extended to the other parts of the country from the Niger Delta because of the poor way this form of violent extremism was managed by the Nigerian government. Not even the amnesty granted the Niger Delta militants in 2009 and in several other parts of Nigeria (where kidnapping now takes place) has been good enough to stop what now appears to be new form of career criminality.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 24 JULY, 2007 Nigerian President Yar'adua orders release of ceased Lagos Council Funds

After four years of legal tussles and negotiations, on 24 July, 2007, the then President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, directed the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Dankwambo, to release the N10.8 billion belonging to Lagos state local councils, with immediate effect.

Presidential spokesperson Mr Segun Adeniyi told reporters that Yar'Adua took the decision after consulting with legal experts who advised that the seizure of the 10.8 billion naira by the government of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004 was illegal.

Adiniyi said president Yar’adua has directed the country's accountant-general to release the money immediately to Governor Babatunde Fashola.

Obasanjo had ordered the seizure to show his displeasure with then Lagos governor Bola Tinubu for ignoring his instruction that he should not create new local government areas in the state.

Tinubu challenged the action in court and the Supreme Court ordered Obasanjo to release the money, but he refused to do so until he left office in May.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JULY 23, 1952 Military topples King Farouk’s govt in Egypt

On 23 July, 1952, the Society of Free Officers seizes control of King Farouk government in a military coup d’etat staged by Colonel Gamal Abdal Nasser’s Free Officers. King Farouk of Egypt, whose rule had been criticized for its corruption and failures in the first Arab-Israeli war, was forced to abdicate and relinquish power to General Muhammad Naguib, the figurehead leader of the coup.

The revolutionaries redistributed land, tried politicians for corruption, and in 1953 abolished the monarchy. In 1954, Nasser emerged from behind the scenes, removed Naguib from power, and proclaimed himself prime minister of Egypt. For another two years, Nasser ruled as an effective and popular leader and promulgated a new constitution that made Egypt a socialist Arab state, consciously nonaligned with the prevalent communist and democratic-capitalist systems of the Cold War world.

The consistent popular and influential Nasser was elected unopposed, to the new office of president in 1956. The office he occupied until 1970 when he died of heart attack.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: JULY, 23, 2000 40 fuel scavengers die in pipeline explosion in Delta State

July 23, 2000 was a black Sunday in Warri, Delta state when forty fuel scavengers burnt to death in a pipeline fire outbreak, near Warri port.

The sad occurrence was the second pipeline explosion that happened in the oil city of Warri in July, 2000.

On Monday 10 July, 2000, a similar explosion had rocked a village called Adeje, near Warri where no fewer than 250 Nigerians scooping up the petrol in buckets feared dead.

Police were seen cordoning off the scene of the explosion, on the following day of the tragic incidence when the State petroleum workers rushed to the area to assess the damage. The cause of the accident was unclear and a government statement signed by information minister, Prof. Jerry Gana late on Monday said "several lives" were lost and a "vital" petroleum pipeline destroyed.

"The government sympathises with the families of those who lost their lives in the incident," the statement added. A reporter who returned from the scene quoted officials as saying that the initial leak was caused by vandals who punctured the pipeline with sharp tools.

The incident occurred close to the town of Jesse where more than 700 people died in a similar disaster in 1998. Pipeline sabotage was a common phenomenon in Nigeria at that time and vandals have triggered numerous explosions.

The Warri pipeline, owned by state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC), was originally built to carry crude oil to a refinery in the northern town of Kaduna. It has been modified to transport refined products following a prolonged shutdown of NNPC's 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna refinery for repairs.

President Olusegun Obasanjo administration who came to office in May 1999, has set up a task force of soldiers and police backed by helicopters to protect pipelines.

At least 497 cases of vandalism were recorded in 1999 compared with 57 cases in 1998, according to the state petroleum company. Each incident forced costly shutdowns and repairs. Sabotage is sometimes carried out by militant activists trying to force the government and oil companies to give compensation to communities for land use and alleged pollution. In other cases, villagers collect the gushing fuel to make a crude mixture of oil and gasoline for cheap generators and other motors.

The government said it had allocated "enormous resources" in its attempt to educate Nigerians about the need to protect oil pipelines to avoid "tragic accidents which have always resulted in loss of lives and property". It also called on all Nigerians to cooperate with the state petroleum company's efforts to guarantee an uninterrupted supply of petroleum.

 

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JULY 23, 1914 Franz Ferdinand and wife assassination: Austria-Hungary gives Serbia ultimatum

Nearly one month after the gruesome assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a young Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, at about 6: 0’clock in the evening of July 23, 1914, Baron Giesl von Gieslingen, ambassador of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Serbia, delivers an ultimatum to the Serbian foreign ministry.

Austria-Hungary, acting with the full support of its allies in Berlin, had determined in the aftermath of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination to pursue a hard-line policy towards Serbia. Their plan, developed in coordination with the German foreign office, was to force a military conflict that would, Vienna hoped, end quickly and decisively with a crushing Austrian victory before the rest of Europe—namely, Serbia’s powerful ally, Russia—had time to react.

According to the terms of the ultimatum delivered on July 23, the Serbian government would have to accept an Austro-Hungarian inquiry into the assassination, notwithstanding its claim that it was already conducting its own internal investigation. Serbia was also to suppress all anti-Austrian propaganda and to take steps to root out and eliminate terrorist organizations within its borders—one such organization, the Black Hand, was believed to have aided and abetted the archduke’s killer, Gavrilo Princip, and his cohorts, providing weapons and safe passage from Belgrade to Sarajevo. The Dual Monarchy demanded an answer to the note within 48 hours—by that time, however, anticipating Serbian defiance, Gieslingen had already set to leave the embassy.

While the world waited for Serbia’s response, Germany worked diplomatically to contain the effects of the ultimatum, but none of the other great powers, with reason, were inclined to see Austria-Hungary, with its relatively weak military, as acting alone. By 1914, the battle lines had been drawn in Europe: if Germany stood with Austria-Hungary against Serbia (and by extension, Russia) then Russia’s allies, France and Britain, would be likely to step into the fray as well.

The British cabinet, just after receiving the news of the Austrian note to Serbia, held a meeting in London, one that had previously been devoted to discussing Ireland’s desire for independence. This note, as Winston Churchill famously wrote, was clearly an ultimatum, but it was an ultimatum such as had never been penned in modern times. As the reading proceeded it seemed absolutely impossible that any State in the world could accept it, or that any acceptance, however abject, would satisfy the aggressor. The parishes of Fermanagh and Tyrone faded back into the mists and squalls of Ireland, and a strange light beganto fall upon the map of Europe.

On receipt of the ultimatum, Serbia at once appealed to Russia, whose council of ministers met on July 24 to determine a course of action. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov voiced his belief that Germany was using the crisis over the archduke’s death as a pretext for starting a preventive war to defend its interests in the region. Defying Austro-German expectations that Russia would back down in the case of such a conflict, the council agreed to order four military districts to prepare for mobilization.

Meanwhile, in Belgrade on the afternoon of July 25, convinced that Austria-Hungary was preparing for a fight, Serbian Prime Minister Nicola Pasic ordered the Serbian army to mobilize. Pasic himself delivered the Serbian answer to the ultimatum to Gieslingen at the Austrian embassy, just before the 6 p.m. deadline. Serbia’s response effectively accepted all terms of the ultimatum but one: it would not accept Austria-Hungary’s participation in any internal inquiry, stating that this would be a violation of the Constitution and of the law of criminal procedure. This response did much to appeal Pasic and his country to international observers of the conflict; to Vienna, however, it made little difference. Gieslingen, bags packed and car waiting to drive him to the railroad station, broke the Dual Monarchy’s diplomatic relations with Serbia and left to catch his train. Three days later, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning the First World War.

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THIS DAY IN HISTORY JULY 23, 1885 Former president Ulysses S. Grant dies at 63

On July 23, 1885, the Civil War hero and 18th president of United States, Ulysses S. Grant dies of throat cancer just after completing his memoirs.

The son of a tanner, Grant showed little enthusiasm for joining his father’s business, so the elder Grant enrolled his son at West Point in 1839. Though Grant later admitted in his memoirs that he had no interest in the military apart from honing his equestrian skills, he graduated in 1843 and went on to serve first in the Mexican-American War, which he opposed on moral grounds, and then in California and Oregon, tours of duty that forced him to leave behind his beloved wife and children. 

The loneliness and sheer boredom of duty in the West, drove Grant to binge drinking. By 1854, Grant’s alcohol consumption so alarmed his superiors that he was asked to resign from the Army. He did, and returned to Missouri to try his hand at farming and land speculation. Although he kicked the alcohol habit, he failed miserably at both vocations and was forced to take a job as a clerk in his father’s tanning business.

If it were not for the Civil War, Grant might have slipped quickly into obscurity. Instead, he re-enlisted in the Army in 1861 and embarked on a stellar military career, although his tendency to binge-drink re-emerged and he developed another unhealthy habit: chain cigar-smoking, which probably caused the throat cancer that eventually killed him. 

Grant led troops in the captures of Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee in 1862, and forced the Confederate Army to retreat back into Mississippi after the Battle of Shiloh. After the Donelson campaign, Grant received over 10,000 boxes of congratulatory cigars from a grateful citizenry.

In 1863, after leading the Union Army to victory at Vicksburg, Grant caught President Abraham Lincoln’s attention. The Union Army had suffered under the service of a series of incompetent generals and Lincoln was in the market for a new Union supreme commander. In March 1864, Lincoln revived the rank of lieutenant general—a rank that had previously been held only by George Washington in 1798—and gave it to Grant. As supreme commander of Union forces, Grant led troops in a series of epic and bloody battles against Confederate General Robert E. Lee. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. The victory solidified Grant’s status as national hero and, in 1869, he began his first of two terms as president.

Grant had unimpressive talent as political leader compared to his military prowess. He was unable to stem the rampant corruption that plagued his administration and failed to combat a severe economic depression in 1873. However, successes of Grant’s tenure include passage of the Enforcement Act in 1870, which temporarily curtailed the political influence of the Ku Klux Klan in the post-Civil War South, and the 1875 Civil Rights Act, which attempted to desegregate public places such as restrooms, “inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement.” In addition, Grant helped to improve U.S. and British diplomatic relations, which had been damaged by the British offer to supply the Confederate Army with tools to break the Union naval blockade during the Civil War. He also managed to stay sober during his two terms in office.

Upon leaving office, Grant’s fortunes again declined. Although he and his wife Julia traveled to Europe between 1877 and 1879 amid great fanfare, the couple came home to bankruptcy caused by Grant’s unwise investment in a scandal-prone banking firm. Grant spent the last few years of his life writing a detailed account of the Civil War and, after he died of throat cancer in 1885, Julia lived on the royalties earned from his memoirs.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: JULY 22, 2017 South African golfer, Branden Grace shoots men's major Record 62 in Round 3 of 2017 in Southport, England

On this day in July, 2017, Branden Grace of South Africa walks up the 18th fairway during the third round of the 146th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England.

South African golfer Branden Grace became the first player in history to shoot a 62 in a men's major championship with an eight-under third round of the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England.

Numerous golfers had carded a 63 in the four majors; there were at least two instances in each of the sport's premier events, including 10 at the British Open.

The 29-year-old seven-time winner on the European Tour surged into contention with his record-breaking day. He started Saturday in a tie for 45th place and walked off the course in a tie for second at four under, though the afternoon wave of play is still to come.

Grace who started his round with a birdie and kept rolling from there, added four more birdies on the front side and dropped three strokes in a four-hole stretch starting at No. 14, which left him needing only a par on the 18th to set the new major mark.