Facts

1894: The first car rally on a public road takes place in France. Participants cover a 78-mile route from Paris to Rouen. Comte de Dion breaks the average speed with 22.5 km/h.

1943: Two hundred thousand people in occupied Athens hold a militant demonstration against the decision of the Germans to cede to Bulgaria the whole of Northern Greece up to Axios. A hundred demonstrators dead on the tarmac will make Hitler suspend the decision “indefinitely”.

1944: The Bretton Woods Summit concludes, under the auspices of the United Nations, to shape the post-war world economic order. Two new organizations are established: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The dollar is replacing gold as a medium of international trade.

1974: In Cyprus, the president – puppet of the junta, Nikos Sampson, declares the union of the mega-island with Greece, while the Turks take out tanks in Kyrenia, drop paratroopers in the northern part of the island, send new ships and land eighty airplanes in the Agyrta position. On the same day, the UN Security Council orders a ceasefire in Cyprus from 5:00 PM, but the Turkish invaders violate it.

1980: Stelios Mygiakis wins the gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at 62 kg at the Moscow Olympics.

1987: An unprecedented heat wave (combination of high temperature and humidity) hits Greece. Until July 29, the temperature will be consistently above 40 degrees Celsius. The official estimate of the dead is 1,300 (1,115 in Athens).

Births

1882: Edward Hopper, American painter, who depicted in his paintings the loneliness of modern man. (D. 15/5/1967)

1947: Don Henley, American drummer and singer of the “Eagles”, but also with an important personal career. (“Dirty Laundry”, “Boys of Summer”)

1955: Willem Dafoe, American actor. (“Guilty Body”, “The Last Temptation”, “Secret Passions”)

Deaths

1920: Konstantinos Hatzopoulos, Greek novelist, poet, short story writer, translator and essayist, one of the pioneers of populism and socialism in Greece. (Born 11/5/1868)

1988: Tonis Maroudas, Greek light song troubadour. (Born 17/3/1920)

2018: Manos Eleftheriou, Greek poet, lyricist and prose writer. (Born 12/3/1938)