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On This Date In 1402 The Battle of Ankara took place at the field of Çubuk (near Ankara) between the forces of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I and the Turko-Mongol forces of Timur, ruler of the Timurid Empire. The battle was a major victory for Timur, and it led to a period of crisis for the Ottoman Empire.On This Date In 1636 During the Pequot War, respected trader John Oldham was attacked on a trading voyage to Block Island. He and several of his crew were killed and his ship looted by Narragansett-allied Indians who sought to discourage English settlers from trading with their Pequot rivals.On This Date In 1780 During the American Revolution, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne led two brigades of Pennsylvania militia, supported by four artillery pieces, in an attempt to destroy a fortified blockhouse located approximately four miles north of Hoboken, in Bull's Ferry, New Jersey. The blockhouse, or observation shelter, was surrounded by iron stakes and defended by 70 Loyalists, who managed to hold on to it despite the best efforts of the Americans. The Patriots lost 18 men killed and 46 wounded in the unsuccessful assault.On This Date In 1789 Through August 5, 1789, the “Great Fear” occurred in France at the start of the French Revolution. Rural unrest from harvest failures and a worsening grain shortage brought up the need for a new social structure.On This Date In 1864 The Battle of Peachtree Creek was fought in Georgia as part of the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War. The attack was against Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Union army, which was perched on the doorstep of Atlanta. The main armies in the conflict were the Union Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas, and the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Lt. Gen. John B. Hood, his first major attack since taking command. The Union lines were bent but not broken under the weight of the Confederate attack, and by the end of the day the Rebels had failed to break through anywhere along the line. Estimated casualties were 6,506 in total: 1,710 on the Union side and 4,796 on the Confederate.On This Date In 1864 The Battle of Rutherford's Farm was a small engagement between Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur and Union forces under Brig. Gen. William W. Averell in Frederick County, Virginia, during the American Civil War, as part of Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Valley Campaign, which resulted in a Union victory.On This Date In 1881 Five years after General George A. Custer's infamous defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army, which promised amnesty for him and his followers. Sitting Bull had been a major leader in the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn.On This Date In 1903 Pope Leo XIII (March 2, 1810 – July 20, 1903), the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903, died at the age of 93. He was the oldest pope, and had the third longest pontificate, behind his immediate predecessor Pius IX and John Paul II.On This Date In 1907 On the Pere Marquette Railway, which operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, an excursion train carrying 800 passengers from Ionia to Detroit, Michigan, collided near Salem with a freight train, killing 31 and injuring 101. The accident apparently happened because of a hand-written schedule on unlined paper whose columns did not line up, and was misread by the freight crew. The Interstate Commerce Commission investigation also cited safety violations, including use of pine instead of oak for car walls and the omission of steel plates required for mail cars. This was Michigan's worst rail disaster.On This Date In 1919 Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand. A beekeeper by trade, Hillary became the first human, along with Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, to reach the peak of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. At 29,035 feet, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth, as well as one of the most forbidding.On This Date In 1944 During World War II, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government. The failure of both the assassination and the military coup d'état which was planned to follow it led to the arrest of at least 7,000 people by the Gestapo. According to records of the Führer Conferences on Naval Affairs, 4,980 of these were executed, resulting in the destruction of the organized resistance movement in Germany for the remainder of the war.On This Date In 1948 President Harry S. Truman instituted a military draft with a proclamation calling for nearly 10 million men to register for military service within the next two months. Truman's action came during increasing Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union.On This Date In 1950 “The Men,” a film produced by Stanley Kramer and directed by Fred Zinnemann, was released. It tells the story of a World War II Lieutenant, who is seriously injured in combat, and the struggles he faces as he attempts to re-enter society. It stars Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, and Everett Sloane. The movie was written by Carl Foreman who had previously scripted Champion and Home of the Brave. Although not a commercial success, this film was notable for being Marlon Brando’s film debut.On This Date In 1951 Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, King of Jordan, while visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in the company of his grandson, Prince Hussein, was shot dead by “a Palestinian from the Husseini clan.”On This Date In 1964 During the Vietnam War, Viet Cong forces overran Cai Be, the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, killing 11 South Vietnamese militiamen, 10 women, and 30 children.On This Date In 1968 The First International Special Olympics Games (Summer Special Olympics) were held in Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois. 1000 athletes from 26 states, and Canada competed in track and swimming. Swimming included 25 meter races, and track had short distance runnings, ball throws, and standing long jump. The athlete's oath was introduced at these games by founder Eunice Shriver at the opening ceremony. The oath is, “Let me win. But if I can not win, let me be brave in the attempt.”On This Date In 1969 The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. The Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” carried two astronauts, Commander Neil A. Armstrong and LM pilot Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., the first men to walk on the Moon. The command module Columbia stayed in orbit with Michael Collins on board as pilot. Also included on the LM was the Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package (EASEP), which consisted of several self-contained experiments to be deployed and left on the lunar surface, and other scientific and sample collection apparatus. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1969-059COn This Date In 1969 A top-secret study, commissioned by presidential assistant Henry Kissinger, was completed by the office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Code-named Duck Hook, the study proposed measures for military escalation against North Vietnam. The military options included a massive bombing of Hanoi, Haiphong, and other key areas of North Vietnam; a ground invasion of North Vietnam; the mining of harbors and rivers; and a bombing campaign designed to sever the main railroad links to China.On This Date In 1972 The results of a two-year study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation were released; the study concluded that 1960-63 Chevrolet Corvair models were at least as safe as comparable models of other cars sold in the same period, directly contradicting charges made by the leading consumer advocate Ralph Nader.On This Date In 1973 Actor and martial-arts expert Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) died in Los Angeles at age 32 from a brain edema possibly caused by a reaction to a prescription painkiller. During Lee’s all-too-brief career, he became a movie star in Asia and, posthumously, in America.On This Date In 1976 On the seventh anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the Viking 1 lander, an unmanned U.S. planetary probe, became the first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars.On This Date In 1977 A flash flood hit Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing 84 people and causing millions of dollars in damages. This flood came 88 years after the infamous Great Flood of 1889 that killed more than 2,000 people in Johnstown. As they had in the first flood, the dams in the Conemaugh Valley failed, bringing disaster to the town.On This Date In 1995 Through July 23, The 1995 Open Championship was the 124th Open Championship held at the Old Course at St Andrews in St Andrews, Scotland. John Daly won his first Open Championship and second major title in a four-hole playoff over Costantino Rocca.On This Date In 2000 Through July 23, the 2000 Open Championship was the 129th Open Championship, held at the Old Course at St Andrews in St Andrews, Scotland. Tiger Woods, 24, won his first Open Championship and fourth major title, eight strokes ahead of runners-up Thomas Bjørn and Ernie Els. With the victory, Woods became the youngest ever to win all four of golf's major championships, passing Jack Nicklaus by two years. Woods became the fifth player to complete the feat, known as the “career grand slam.” In doing so, he also achieved the lowest 72-hole score in relation to par of –19, which is a record for all major championships. Woods also became the sixth to win the U.S. Open and Open Championship in the same year, joining fellow Americans Bobby Jones (1930), Gene Sarazen (1932), Ben Hogan (1953), Lee Trevino (1971), and Tom Watson (1982).On This Date In 2006 Through July 23, the 2006 Open Championship was the 135th Open Championship, played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club. Tiger Woods held off Chris DiMarco, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, and Sergio García for a two-shot victory. The win was his second consecutive Open Championship title and third overall. It was also Woods' first major tournament win since the death of his father, Earl Woods, in May. http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/golf/07/23/golf.open/On This Date In 2009 Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned leading opposition politicians to avoid undermining the country’s security in the dispute over the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aL1azpuCECmgOn This Date In 2009 Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (IL) announced his run for the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama, billing himself as an independent who wants to lead others who are “not afraid to stand alone” against the corruption that has infiltrated Illinois politics. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/20/mark-kirk-enters-senate-r_n_240876.htmlHat tip to any included contributing sources, along with: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page , http://www.-history.com/this-day-in-history , http://timelines.com/QuotesThe way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. Mitch AlbomDon't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard ThurmanThe life that conquers is the life that moves with a steady resolution and persistence toward a predetermined goal. Those who succeed are those who have thoroughly learned the immense importance of plan in life, and the tragic brevity of time. W.J. DavisonLife is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanisms of the universe. Alfred North WhiteheadA conviction of self-worth and passion for ideals fuse in a life attitude that is positive, free, noble and spiritually enhancing. Bill JayCourtesy You Tube et alSun's Corona Seen In Highest Resolution YetThe High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) launched aboard a sounding rocket on July 11th, 2012 and has delivered the clearest image of the solar atmosphere to date. The resolution is 5x greater than is captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.NewsBusted 7/20/12Topics: Obamacare-Obama College records-Ebay-US Treasury-Green Funeral-Rahm Emanuel-Cash for Clunkers-Drew Brees I.R.S.Starring: Jodi Miller, Production: Dialog New MediaVisit http://newsbusters.org/newsbusted to sign up for free!Soldiers to the Olympics: U.S. Army World Class Athlete ProgramThrough the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, or WCAP, based at Fort Carson, the Army provides financial support, comprehensive Soldier health support and competitive opportunities that help fulfill athletic and Olympic dreams.Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition.Florida Scott-MaxwellPromise yourself to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution. Anthony J. D'AngeloSee More