AP Highlight in History: On July 19, 1870, the Franco-Prussian war, which led to the unification of the German states, began.
On this date in:
1553
Fifteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey was deposed as queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, was proclaimed queen.
1848
A pioneer women's rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
1941
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory" campaign in Europe.
1943
Allied air forces raided Rome during World War II.
1969
Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
1979
The Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country.
1980
The Moscow Summer Olympics began; dozens of nations boycotted the games because of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
1984
Congresswoman Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York won the Democratic nomination for vice president at the party's convention in San Francisco. Read the original AP story
AP Photo/Richard Drew
1985
Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen to be the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. (She died in the Challenger explosion in 1986.)
1986
Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, married Edwin A. Schlossberg.
1989
A United Air Lines DC-10 crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa, killing 112 people; 184 survived.
1990
Baseball's all-time hits leader Pete Rose was sentenced in Cincinnati to five months in prison for tax evasion.
1993
President Bill Clinton announced the "don't ask, don't tell" policy which allows homosexuals to serve in the military, but only if they refrain from homosexual activity.
2005
President George W. Bush announced his choice of federal appeals court judge John Roberts to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. (Roberts ended up succeeding Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in September 2005).
2006
President George W. Bush issued his first presidential veto, rejecting a bill that could have multiplied federal money for embryonic stem cell research.
2007
Taliban gunmen abducted 23 South Koreans who worked at an aid organization in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Two hostages were fatally shot; the rest were later freed.)
