Like today – July 8

– In 1497 the Portuguese Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon bound for India. He will become the first explorer to make it by sea.

– In 1693, for the first time, a uniform is imposed on the policemen of New York.

– In 1709 at the Battle of Potlava, Ukraine, Czar Peter I of Russia defeats King Charles VII of Sweden, thus ending Sweden’s role as one of the Great Powers of Europe.

– In 1796 the American State Department issues the first passport.

– In 1822 the Chippewas Indians cede large tracts of land in Ontario, USA to Britain.

– In 1889, the first page of the American newspaper Wall Steet Journal is published.

– In 1909 the Vatican denounces women’s fashion as obscene.

– In 1910, an assassination attempt was made against the director of the “Acropolis” newspaper, Vlasis Gavrielidis, who conducted a systematic and intense struggle to rid the University of incompetent professors.

– In 1921 great victorious battle of the Greeks in Eski Sehir. Advance to Ankara.

– In 1951 in Paris, the 2,000th anniversary of the founding of the city is celebrated with brilliant events.

-In 1958 the first US gold disc for an album is awarded to the soundtrack of the musical “Oklahoma” for surpassing $1 million in sales.

– In 1965, Prime Minister George Papandreou’s break with the palaces begins and constitutes the beginning of the abnormal parliamentary period, which was called Apostasy and led to the coup of the colonels of April 21, 1967.

– In 1969, the Athens Conservatory was founded at the junction of B. Konstantinou and Georgiou streets.

– In 1979 China becomes the second socialist country, after Yugoslavia, to allow foreigners to make investments.

– 1982 Pan Am airliner crashes in New Orleans, killing 149 people.

– In 1990, the new agreement on the American bases is signed at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairsaccording to which the bases of Hellinikon, Nea Makri and hub stations are abolished.

– In 1993, the maritime region of Vladivostok, in eastern Russia, was declared a Republic. The decision is made by the local Parliament and is aimed at greater economic independence from Moscow.

– In 1995 Steffi Graf wins her 6th Wimbledon title. In the same summer she also wins her fourth US Open title.

– In 1995 in northern Iraq, 3,000 Kurds are forced to leave their homes, after the combined attack of Turkish forces.

– In 1997, Prime Minister Kostas Simitis and President of Turkey Suleiman Demirel signed an agreement to promote their bilateral relations in Madrid, Spain.

– In 1999, the 20-times international Brazilian Giovani was transferred to Olympiakos for the amount, which reaches 4 billion drachmas.

– In 2002, without any mitigating circumstances being recognized, Panagiotis Krampis is sentenced to life and 25 years in prison by the Mixed Jury Court for moral complicity in the murder of businessman Giorgos Nikolaidis and Soula Kalathaki.

Births

On this day in 1838, Ferdinand Zeppelin, designer of the planes of the same name, was born, in 1839 the founder of the Standard oil company, John Rockefeller, in 1851 the archaeologist Arthur Evans, who brought to light the Minoan palaces of Knossos, in 1906 the architect Philip Johnson whose work is also the glass skyscraper Seagram Building in New York, in 1935 the Russian cosmonaut Vitaly Sevastianov, who participated in the Soyuz 9 and 18 space missions, in 1951 the American actress, Anjelica Houston, in 1970 the American rock singer Beck and in 1981 the Russian tennis player Anastasia Myskina.

Deaths

In 1695 Christian Igens, physicist and mathematician, who patented the pocket watch (in 1675) died, in 1961 University professor and former Prime Minister during the Occupation Konstantinos Logothetopoulos died, and in 1967 Vivian Lee, British film actress.