On this day - 25 July 1946 – Operation Crossroads: an atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll.
Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.
The Crossroads tests were the first of many nuclear tests held in the Marshall Islands, and the first to be publicly announced beforehand and observed by an invited audience, including a large press corps. They were conducted by Joint Army/Navy Task Force One, headed by Vice Admiral William H. P. Blandy rather than by the Manhattan Project, which had developed nuclear weapons during World War II. A fleet of 95 target ships was assembled in Bikini Lagoon and hit with two detonations of Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons of the kind dropped on Nagasaki, each with a yield of 23 kilotons of TNT
The modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard in 1946. He named it after Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, the site of an atomic bomb test on July 1, 1946. Réard hoped that the burst of excitement it caused would be as explosive as an atomic bomb.
Harchand Singh Longowal (2 January 1932 − 20 August 1985) was the President of the Akali Dal during the Punjab insurgency of the 1980s. He was known affectionately as "Sant Ji". He had signed the Punjab accord, also known as the Rajiv-Longowal Accord along with Rajiv Gandhi on 24 July 1985. The government got its way and accepted only few demands of Akali Dal who in turn agreed to withdraw their agitation. Less than a month after signing the Punjab accord, Longowal was assassinated by the Sikh groups who felt let down by the accord and opposed it.
Less than a month after signing the Punjab accord, Longowal was assassinated by the Sikh militants opposed to the accord.Longowal was shot and killed on 20 August 1985 near the gurdwara in village Sherpur, 90 km from Patiala in Punjab.Assassin Halwinder Singh fired bullets from a point blank range at Longowal. The bullets had pierced his abdomen causing his death.His cremation took place on 21 August.
24 July 1783 – Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan commander was born (d. 1830)
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte-Andrade y Blanco(24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830), generally known as Simón Bolívar and also colloquially as El Libertador,or the Liberator, was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to independence from the Spanish Empire.
Tiptur Ramaraju Narasimharaju (24 July 1923 – 11 July 1979) was a very popular Kannada actor specialised in roles that required ample comic timing. He was the comedy stalwart of the Kannada film industry. He acted in more than 250 Kannada films between 1954 and 1979. He was also referred to as Hasya Chakravarti.
Alexandre Dumas born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870),also known as Alexandre Dumas père (French for 'father'), was a French writer of partial Afro-Haitian descent. His works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. His novels have been adapted since the early twentieth century into nearly 200 films.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC),is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the second largest political party in the world after India's Bharatiya Janata Party. The CPC is the sole governing party within mainland China, permitting only eight other, subordinated parties to co-exist, those making up the United Front. It was founded in 1921 on the 23 July, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The party grew quickly, and by 1949 it had driven the Kuomintang (KMT)'s Nationalist Government from mainland China to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. It also controls the country's armed forces, the People's Liberation Army.
Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honor of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Since 1950, it is celebrated on 1 June in most Communist and post-Communist countries.World Children's Day is celebrated on 20 November to commemorate the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959.
In Indonesia, Children's Day is celebrated on 23 July. It was established as a holiday in 1984.
Chandra Shekhar Azad (sometimes also spelled Chandrasekhar; 23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931), popularly known as by his self-taken name Azad ("The Free"), was an Indian revolutionary who reorganised commaneer in chief of the Hindustan Republican Association under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA) after the death of its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil, and three other prominent party leaders, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan. He often used the pseudonym "Balraj" when signing pamphlets issued as the commander in chief of the HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republic Army).
Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) is a comet that was perhaps the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.
Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered Comet Hale–Bopp separately on July 23, 1995, before it became visible to the naked eye. It is difficult to predict the maximum brightness of new comets with any degree of certainty, but Hale–Bopp met or exceeded most predictions when it passed perihelion on April 1, 1997. It was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the Great Comet of 1811, the previous record holder. Accordingly, Hale–Bopp was dubbed the great comet of 1997.
Sobhuza II, KBE (Swazi also known as Nkhotfotjeni, 22 July 1899 – 21 August 1982) was the Paramount Chief and later King of Swaziland for 82 years and 254 days, the longest verifiable reign of any monarch in recorded history. Sobhuza was born on 22 July 1899 at Zombodze Royal Residence, the son of Inkhosikati Lomawa Ndwandwe and King Ngwane V. When he was only four months old, his father died suddenly while dancing incwala. Sobhuza was chosen king soon after that and his grandmother Labotsibeni and his uncle Prince Malunge led the Swazi nation until his maturity in 1921. Sobhuza led Swaziland through independence until his death in 1982. He was succeeded by Mswati III, his young son with Inkhosikati Ntfombi Tfwala, who was crowned in 1986.
