July 1916 in History

Events in History

Five Miles of Mud Costs a Million Casualties

Jul 1 First day of the Battle of the Somme: the British Army suffers its worst day, losing 19,240 men (WWI)

Over the top: Thousands of British soldiers scrambled out of their trenches and were dead within minutes

Event of Interest

Jul 2 Lenin says Imperialism is caused by capitalism

Marxist Revolutionary and Soviet Leader Vladimir Lenin

Jul 2 Russian offensive in Armenia
Jul 6 2nd of 4 fatal Jersey Shore shark attacks occur at Spring Lake when Charles Bruder (27) bled to death, 5 days after the 1st
Jul 7 The New Zealand Labour party is formed
Jul 9 1st cargo submarine to cross Atlantic arrives in US from Germany
Jul 11 Battle of Verdun: Germany launches an offensive on Fort Souville in France but are defeated by artillery and machine gunners
Jul 11 US Congress passes Federal Aid Road Act
Jul 12 3rd and 4th of 4 fatal Jersey Shore shark attacks occurs at Matawan Creek when epileptic Lester Stilwell (11) is dragged into a creek and Watson Fisher (24), believing Silwell had a seizure, is bitten while retrieving the body and subsequently bleeds to death
Jul 12 Joseph Dunn (14) is attacked by a shark, suffering non-fatal wounds in New Jersey, the final episode in a spate of shark attacks along the Jersey coast where 4 people died over 12 days
Jul 14 13.2 inches (33.6 cm) rainfall at Effingham, South Carolina (state record until 1999)
Jul 15 22.22" (56.4 cm) of rain falls in Altapass NC (state record)

Event of Interest

Jul 15 Boeing Company (Pacific Aero) formed by William Boeing in Seattle, Washington

Jul 22 A bomb explodes during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco killing 10
Jul 25 Explosion at Lake Erie and Cleveland Waterworks
Jul 26 The US Protests the 'Blacklist' issued by the British forbidding trade with some 30 US firms
Jul 30 German saboteurs blow up a munitions plant on Black Tom Island, New Jersey

Birthdays in History

Jul 2 Barry Gray [Bernard Yaroslaw], American radio personality and interviewer (started call-in radio), born in Red Lion, New Jersey (d. 1996)
Jul 2 Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German Combat pilot and highest-decorated German soldier of WWII, born in Konradswaldau, German Empire (d. 1982)
Jul 4 Fernand Leduc, Canadian abstract expressionist painter (Les Automatistes), and teacher, born in Viauville, Montreal, Quebec (d. 2014)
Jul 4 Tokyo Rose [Iva Toguri D'Aquino], American-born Japanese propagandist (WWII), born in Los Angeles (d. 2006)
Jul 6 Unica Zürn, German writer and artist, born in Berlin (d. 1970)
Jul 7 Luc Peire, Flemish painter and graphic artist

Edward Heath (1916-2005)

Jul 9 British Prime Minister (Conservative: 1970-74), born in Broadstairs, England

Jul 11 Gough Whitlam, Australian politician (Prime Minister, 1972-1975), born in Kew, Melbourne (d. 2014)

Lyudmila Pavlichenko (1916-1974)

Jul 12 Soviet sniper during World War II known as 'Lady Death' - the most successful female sniper in history with 309 confirmed kills, born in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, Russian Empire

Jul 14 Natalia Ginzburg, Italian author (Family dictionary)
Jul 15 George Maduro, Dutch Antillian resistance fighter (Willemsorde/Madurodam), born in Willemstad, Curaçao (d. 1945)
Jul 16 Harold Locke, archdeacon of Loughborough
Jul 18 Isaäc Arend Diepenhorst, Dutch lawyer and Minister of Education, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 2004)
Jul 18 Kenneth Armitage, English sculptor, born in Leeds, England (d. 2002)
Jul 19 James D. Ramage, American Naval Aviator in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Cold War, born in Waterloo, Iowa (d. 2012)
Jul 21 Kirby Laing, English Construction head (John Laing & Son), born in Carlisle, England (d. 2009)
Jul 22 Hipolito Ocalia, Curacao landscape painter, born in Curaçao (d. 1984)
Jul 23 Ronald Ridout, English school textbook author (English Today), born in Farnham, Surrey (d. 1994)
Jul 24 John D. MacDonald, American novelist (Deep Blue Goodbye), born in Sharon, Pennsylvania (d. 1986)
Jul 25 Lucien Saulnier, Canadian politician, born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 1989)
Jul 27 Amha Selassie, Crown prince of Ethiopia and son of emperor Haile Selassi, born in Harar, Ethiopian Empire (d. 1997)
Jul 30 Robert van Spaendonck, Dutch resistance fighter, born in Tilburg, Netherlands (d. 1944)
Jul 31 Sibte Hassan, Pakistani activist, journalist and writer, born in Ambari Azamgarh Uttar Pradesh, India (d. 1986)

Weddings in History

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Jul 1 Dwight Eisenhower marries Mary `Mamie' Geneva Doud in Denver, Colorado

Deaths in History

Hetty Green (1834-1916)

Jul 3 American businesswoman and financier whose wealth and miserliness saw her known as the "Witch of Wall Street", dies of a stroke at 81

Jul 4 Alan Seeger, American war poet (b. 1888)
Jul 6 Odilon Redon [Bertrand-Jean Redon], French symbolist painter (b. 1840)
Jul 11 Rik Wouters, Belgian painter (Lady in Blue), and sculptor (The Nymph), dies of cancer at 33
Jul 15 Ilya Mechnikov, Russian zoologist and bacteriologist known as the "father of natural immunity" (Nobel 1908), dies of heart failure at 71
Jul 16 Victor Horsley, English physician and neuroscientist, dies while serving in Iraq in WWI at 59
Jul 18 Benjamin C. Truman, American journalist and author
Jul 22 James Whitcomb Riley, American author and poet (b. 1849)
Jul 23 William Ramsay, Scottish chemist who discovered noble gases (Nobel 1904), dies at 63
Jul 26 Sally Louisa Tompkins, American nurse and philanthrophist, only commissioned woman in US Confederate Army, dies at 82
Jul 27 Charles Fryatt, British capt of SS Brussels, executed by Germans, dies
Jul 30 Albert Neisser, German physician who discovered the bacteria that cause gonorrhea and leprosy, dies of septicemia at 61