1773Pope Clement XIV dissolves the Jesuits
The Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, had grown into one of the most powerful orders in the Catholic Church, running hundreds of schools and colleges and sending missionaries from Paraguay to China. Its influence at royal courts and its independence made it many enemies. In the 1750s and 1760s the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal, France and Spain and their empires, and the Bourbon kings then pressed the papacy to abolish the order altogether.
Pope Clement XIV, elected in 1769, held out for several years, fearing an open break with the Catholic monarchies if he refused. The brief Dominus ac Redemptor, dated 21 July 1773, finally dissolved the Society, which then had about 23,000 members. Its houses and schools were closed, and its superior general died in prison in Rome. Only in Russia, where Catherine the Great refused to publish the brief, did Jesuits carry on openly, and the order was restored by Pope Pius VII in 1814.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Boston College, Portal to Jesuit Studies: Dominus ac Redemptor (1773) ↗
1798Napoleon defeats the Mamluks at the Battle of the Pyramids
In the spring of 1798 General Napoleon Bonaparte sailed from France with around 30,000 men to seize Egypt, then ruled by Mamluk beys under the loose authority of the Ottoman sultan. France hoped to gain a rich colony and to threaten Britain’s route to India. The army landed near Alexandria on 1 July and marched south along the Nile towards Cairo through the summer heat.
On 21 July 1798, near the village of Embabeh on the west bank of the Nile, with the pyramids of Giza visible on the horizon, the French met the army of Murad Bey. Napoleon formed his infantry into great hollow squares, and the charges of the Mamluk horsemen broke against their volleys and bayonets. Thousands of Egyptian soldiers were killed or drowned for the loss of a few hundred French, and Cairo was occupied soon after. Less than two weeks later, Nelson destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir Bay, leaving the army stranded in Egypt.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Battle of the Pyramids ↗
1861The First Battle of Bull Run shatters hopes of a short war
Three months after the Civil War began at Fort Sumter, the Northern public was demanding an advance on the Confederate capital at Richmond. General Irvin McDowell led some 35,000 inexperienced Union troops out of Washington towards the railway junction at Manassas, Virginia, where Confederate forces under P. G. T. Beauregard were waiting behind a small stream called Bull Run. Congressmen and sightseers followed the army out to watch.
The armies met on the morning of 21 July 1861. The Union attack at first drove the Confederates back, but on Henry Hill a brigade under Thomas J. Jackson held firm, earning him the nickname ‘Stonewall’, and Confederate reinforcements arriving by train turned the battle. By late afternoon the Union army was falling back in confusion towards Washington. Nearly 900 men were killed and thousands wounded, captured or missing, and both sides realised the war would be long and bloody. The South calls it the First Battle of Manassas.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: National Park Service: The Battle of First Manassas (First Bull Run) ↗
1925John Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution
In March 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act, which made it a crime to teach in state schools any theory denying the Bible’s story of the creation of man. The American Civil Liberties Union offered to defend a teacher willing to test the law, and John T. Scopes, a young science teacher in the small town of Dayton, agreed to be charged. The case drew huge crowds and reporters to Dayton and was broadcast on radio.
The three-times presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan helped the prosecution, and Clarence Darrow, the most famous defence lawyer in the country, led the defence. The judge would not allow scientists to testify, so Darrow called Bryan himself to the stand as an expert on the Bible. On 21 July 1925 the jury took only minutes to find Scopes guilty, and he was fined $100. The conviction was overturned on a technicality in 1927, but the law stayed in force until 1967.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Scopes Trial ↗
1954The Geneva agreements end France’s war in Indochina
For eight years France had fought the communist-led Viet Minh of Ho Chi Minh for control of Vietnam. In May 1954 the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu fell after a long siege, and the war-weary French government looked for a way out. At Geneva, where the great powers were already meeting to discuss Korea, delegates from France, Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Laos and both Vietnamese governments turned to Indochina.
The ceasefire agreements were signed on 21 July 1954. Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel, with the Viet Minh in the north and the French-backed State of Vietnam in the south, and troops were given 300 days to move to their own side. The line was meant to be temporary, and a final declaration called for elections across Vietnam in 1956. The United States and South Vietnam did not sign it, the elections were never held, and the division led on to the Vietnam War.
Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Geneva Accords ↗
