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Events

• 1334 (692 years ago) The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.
• 1723 (303 years ago) Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz, BWV 136, in Leipzig on the eighth Sunday after Trinity.
• 1925 (101 years ago) Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.
• 1942 (84 years ago) World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia.
• 1981 (45 years ago) A Canadair CL-44 and Sukhoi Su-15 collide in mid-air near Yerevan, Armenia, killing four.
• 1982 (44 years ago) Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre.
• 1994 (32 years ago) Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.
• 1994 (32 years ago) The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.

Births

• 1811 (215 years ago) William Makepeace Thackeray, English author and poet (died 1863)
• 1853 (173 years ago) Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1928)
• 1918 (108 years ago) Nelson Mandela, South African lawyer and politician, 1st President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)
• 1921 (105 years ago) John Glenn, American colonel, astronaut, and politician (died 2016)
• 1950 (76 years ago) Richard Branson, English businessman, founded Virgin Group
• 1967 (59 years ago) Vin Diesel, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1980 (46 years ago) Kristen Bell, American actress
• 1982 (44 years ago) Priyanka Chopra, Indian actress, singer, and film producer

Deaths

• 1100 (926 years ago) Godfrey of Bouillon, Frankish knight (born 1016)
• 1566 (460 years ago) Bartolomé de las Casas, Spanish bishop and historian (born c.1484)
• 1610 (416 years ago) Caravaggio, Italian painter (born 1571)
• 1721 (305 years ago) Jean-Antoine Watteau, French painter (born 1684)
• 1817 (209 years ago) Jane Austen, English novelist (born 1775)
• 1872 (154 years ago) Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician, 26th President of Mexico (born 1806)
• 1982 (44 years ago) Roman Jakobson, Russian–American linguist and theorist (born 1896)
• 1990 (36 years ago) Yun Posun, South Korean politician, 2nd President of South Korea (born 1897)

All 362 events, births and deaths of July 18