July 13
Prussian Minister President (and future German chancellor) Otto von Bismarck published an infamous communique known as the Ems Dispatch on July 13, 1870.
The message was a deliberately inflammatory account of a meeting between Prussian King Wilhelm I and French Ambassador Count Vincent Benedetti amid growing tensions between the two European powers.
Designed to imply to the French people that their ambassador had been insulted by Wilhelm, and to give Prussians the idea that their king had been insulted by the ambassador, the press release had its intended effect.
Bismarck predicted the message would "would have the effect of a red rag on the French bull".
Two days later, France's army had mobilised, and war was officially declared on July 19.
The dispatch was little over 100 words. It read:
After the news of the renunciation of the Prince von Hohenzollern had been communicated to the Imperial French government by the Royal Spanish government, the French Ambassador in Ems made a further demand on His Majesty the King that he should authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His Majesty the King undertook for all time never again to give his assent should the Hohenzollerns once more take up their candidature.
His Majesty the King thereupon refused to receive the Ambassador again and had the latter informed by the Adjutant of the day that His Majesty had no further communication to make to the Ambassador.
The ensuing Franco-Prussian War was a disaster for France.
Prussia invaded in the north-east, quickly reaching Paris and besieging the capital for four months before it fell on January 28, 1871.
The final days of the war were marked by the official proclamation of the German Empire on January 18 at Versailles.
Bootlegger Melvin Fisher hijacks an American Airlines 727 flight from Oklahoma City to Dallas and its 51 passengers and six crew on July 13, 1972.
Fisher demanded $500,000 in ransom and a parachute, but was only given $200,000 by the airline.
Satisfied, he told the pilot to fly around Oklahoma City for about two hours, but he never jumped out of the plane to freedom, even though the rear stairway was made ready at one point.
Instead, he surrendered, and was eventually sentenced to life in prison.
Fisher's wasn't the only hijacking that day – Michael Green and Lulseged Tesfa took a National Airlines flight from Philadelphia to New York.
That one was also ultimately unsuccessful after the pilot and later co-pilot jumped out of the cockpit.
The duo surrendered, were arrested, and both handed long jail sentences.
July 12
Thousands of people stormed an iconic Chicago baseball ground on July 12, 1979, in the infamous 'Disco Demolition Night'.
In a publicity stunt that descended into chaos, local DJ Steve Dahl detonated a dumpster filled with disco records between games at Comiskey Park, home of the famous White Sox baseball club.
It resulted in about 5000 fans storming the field, with the unfolding riot shown on live television.
The rampaging mob tore up the grass, staring bonfires with the smashed vinyl and stealing the bases, until they were dispersed by riot police.
Dahl later said disco music had been in decline in the lead-up to his notorious event.
But critics compared the 'Disco Demolition Night' to the Nazi-inspired book burnings in 1930s Germany.
Renowned Australian military surgeon Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop, was born in VIctoria on July 12, 1907.
He went on to serve in the Australian army in World War II, where like thousands others he found himself a prisoner of the Japanese. Working under appalling conditions and under harsh captors, he saved countless lives as the prisoners of war were forced to build the infamous Burma railway.
Nonetheless, after the war, Dunlop forgave his captors and worked hard to promote relations between Australia and Asia. He died aged 85 in 1993.
Former US secretary of the treasury Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804, after being shot in a pistol duel by Vice President Aaron Burr.
The two men had long been political rivals, but the immediate cause of the duel was disparaging remarks Hamilton had allegedly made about Burr at a dinner.
The first victim of infamous Moors Murderers Ian Duncan Brady and Myra Hindley was killed in northern England on July 12, 1963.
Brady and Hindley lured 16-year-old Pauline Reade off the street and murdered her before burying her body on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester.
In May 1966, Brady and Hindley were sentenced to life imprisonment for killing five children in the so-called Moors Murders.
On July 12, 1906, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was pardoned of treason after being wrongly convicted for being a foreign spy.
The two trials and subsequent jailing of Jewish-born Dreyfus bitterly divided France.
An investigation revealed he had been set up by a fellow army officer who had been supplying classified military papers to Germany.
July 11
Investigators discovered Guzman slipped through a hole in his cell's shower, climbed on a motorcycle mounted on rails, and sped through the tunnel to freedom.
Following a massive manhunt, he was recaptured a year later. In 2019, he was sentenced to life behind bars in the United States for a drug conspiracy that spread murder and mayhem for more than two decades.
Large chunks of debris from a NASA space station dropped to Earth near a town in Western Australia on July 11, 1979, thrusting the community onto the world stage.
A 90-tonne object was spotted falling from the sky by people across the WA Great Southern region. It turned out to be an oxygen tank, made with metal and glass, from the unmanned Skylab space station as it burned up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.
Despite the presence of United Nations peacekeepers, Serb troops began a roundup of Bosnian Muslim residents in the city of Srebrenica in the former Yugoslavia on July 11, 1995.
The town had been declared a "safe haven" by the UN but its outgunned soldiers watched on as Serb troops took about 8000 men and boys from the compound for execution and raped the women and girls.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, considered one of the modern literary classics, was first published on July 11, 1960.
The book by Harper Lee about racial injustice in America's Deep South was the basis of a famous film, starring Gregory Peck, left, and Brock Peters.
On, July 11, 1999, music star Ricky Martin became the first Puerto Rican artist to top the UK pop chart with Livin' La Vida Loca.
The song, which dominated global airwaves, hit top spot in 20 countries, including Australia.
July 10
On July 10, 2018, rescuers in northern Thailand pulled free the final member from a group of school students who had been trapped in a deep cave for two weeks.
The regional government confirmed all 13 players from a youth football team were freed from the Tham Luang caves in Chiang Rai.
The youngsters and their coach went in to explore before rain-fed floodwaters pushed them deep inside the dark complex.
Their rescue was hailed as nothing short of a miracle.
The rescue operation was initially led only by Thailand's navy SEALs but the task proved extremely difficult resulting in the death of a rescuer.
Thai authorities turned to international rescuers and cave explorers, and crucially, cave diving experts who located the boys and coach before bringing them out
Lady Jane Grey the 15-year-old great-granddaughter of English King Henry VII, became queen on July 10, 1553, as Protestant nobles sought to hold onto power.
Her reign lasted only nine days before she was overthrown and jailed by supporters of Princess Mary.
The following year Lady Grey was executed.
The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was blown up in Auckland Harbour in New Zealand on July 10, 1985, killing photographer, Fernando Pereira.
Police later arrested and charged two French secret service agents - Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur -over the bombing.
A landmark American legal case, known as the 'Scopes Monkey Trial' began on July 10, 1925.
The entire United States was absorbed by the trail of Tennessee, high school teacher, John T. Scopes, who was charged with violating state law by teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Proceedings helped to bring the scientific evidence for evolution into public light, while also stoking a national debate over the theory of evolution that continues to this day.
The last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the production line on July 10, 2019, the first model of which was made in 1938.
The iconic car became a best seller for the German motor company and a symbol of the 1960s, but the Beetle had it origins under the Nazi dictatorship.
Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, decided his people needed a cheap, mass produced car and directed Volkswagen to build one.