21 juli

Twelve years of peace under Ahmed III and his grand vizier Nevşehirli İbrahim Pasha: garden palaces at Sadabad, an embassy to Paris, tulip bulbs at fortune prices. A revolt led by Patrona Halil, an Albanian ex-Janissary, ended it.

After six years of war, Russia gained Black Sea ports and the Crimean Khanate became independent, a step to its annexation in 1783. The sultan was recognised as caliph of the Crimean Muslims, the first time a treaty used the title.

The first big battle, fought with picnicking spectators from Washington nearby. Confederate reinforcements arriving by rail broke the Union attack, Thomas Jackson earned the name “Stonewall”, and the rout ran back to the capital. About 4,700 casualties (NPS estimate).

From tonnes of pitchblende residue given by the Austrian government’s mine at St Joachimsthal, four years of crystallizations yielded a tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride. She put radium’s atomic weight at 225; the modern value is 226.

A 326-kilometre stage from Luchon to Bayonne over the Peyresourde, the Aspin, the Tourmalet and the Aubisque. Much of it was walked. At the Aubisque Lapize called the officials “assassins”, and went on to win the stage.

Ten weeks after the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrendered, the Geneva conference split Vietnam at the 17th parallel, pending elections in 1956. The elections were never held.

The ceasefire agreements split Vietnam at the 17th parallel until nationwide elections in July 1956, which were never held. Neither the United States nor the State of Vietnam in Saigon endorsed the final declaration.

Called to settle Korea and Indochina, with Britain and the Soviet Union in the chair. The Indochina talks opened on 8 May, the day after Dien Bien Phu fell. Zhou Enlai and Moscow pressed the Viet Minh to accept less than their army had won.

France had fought the Viet Minh since December 1946 to hold on to Indochina. By 1954 the war was being paid for largely by Washington, and the French commander, Henri Navarre, wanted one set-piece battle that would let France negotiate from strength. He got the battle, and lost it.

The 64-metre dish stood in a sheep paddock in New South Wales. As Armstrong stepped out, gusts of up to 110 km/h were rocking it beyond its safety limits; the director John Bolton kept it on the Moon, and its pictures carried most of the two-and-a-half-hour moonwalk to the world.

The first pictures of Armstrong on the Moon came through Goldstone and Honeysuckle Creek; minutes later the 64-metre dish at Parkes, working in gales beyond its safety limits, took over and carried most of the two-and-a-half-hour walk. An estimated 600 million people watched.

From hatch open to hatch closed: 2 h 31 min 40 s. They set up a seismometer, a solar wind collector and a laser retroreflector that observatories still bounce lasers off today, and filled two boxes with samples.

That's one small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind. — Armstrong Armstrong said he meant to say a man; nobody has convincingly found the “a” in the recording. An estimated 600 million people watched live. Transcript: Apollo Lunar Surface Journal

Magnificent desolation. — Aldrin Transcript: Apollo Lunar Surface Journal

A 3-by-5-foot nylon flag on an aluminium pole, with a crossbar to hold it out in the airless sky. Aldrin saw the ascent engine's exhaust blow it over at liftoff.

A Soviet robot sent to scoop up lunar soil and bring it home before the Americans. It crashed into the Sea of Crises while Armstrong and Aldrin were still on the surface, two hours before they lifted off.

After 21 h 36 min on the surface. The ascent stage had one engine and no backup, and the circuit breaker that armed it had snapped off inside the cabin. Aldrin pushed it in with a felt-tip pen.

27 h 51 min after they parted. Just before docking Eagle's guidance platform hit gimbal lock and the craft tumbled briefly. It held steady on the backup guidance system while Collins docked.

With the crew and samples moved into Columbia, the ascent stage was cut loose and left in lunar orbit. Where it came down is not known.

Declared in 36 magisterial districts, it gave police and soldiers power to detain without charge and immunity for acts in good faith. Thousands were detained, and television crews were barred from filming unrest.

Team-mates and rivals, they crossed the line together, Hinault taking the stage. Hinault had promised to help LeMond and attacked him all race; LeMond became the first American to win.

The biggest overhaul of American financial rules since the 1930s gave regulators a way to wind down a failing giant like Lehman, created a consumer finance bureau, and cut TARP’s ceiling to 475 billion dollars.

AtlantisSpace Shuttle Atlantis

OV-104. 33 missions, from a classified Defense Department flight to the last of all. It launched the Magellan and Galileo probes, docked with Mir seven times and made the final visit to Hubble.

STS-88 joined the American node Unity to the Russian Zarya. From then on most shuttle flights went to the station: 37 of them, carrying the trusses, solar arrays, laboratories and airlock that no other vehicle could lift.

Mission complete, Houston. After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle’s earned its place in history, and it’s come to a final stop. — Chris Ferguson Atlantis rolled to a halt before dawn, ending 135 missions. The United States had no way to launch its own astronauts again until…

The Kenyan took 4.69 seconds off the record, the biggest cut in the women’s mile since 1977, in a summer in which she also broke the 1500 and 5000 metres records.

Four years and nine days.

Still standing. Her Breaking4 run in 2025 was faster, but could not count.

With Paris preparing for the Olympics, the Tour ended in a time trial from Monaco to Nice. Pogačar won it and the Tour, the first Giro–Tour double since 1998.