On July 21, 1588, the British fleet, led by Francis Drake, attacked the Spanish Armada in the English Channel.
In 1856 the Illinois Central Railroad began operating wood-burning trains on its lakefront line in Chicago.
In 1899 Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park.
In 1919 the Goodyear blimp Wing Foot Express caught fire 1,500 feet over the Loop and crashed into the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank, killing 13 people and injuring 28.
In 1920 violinist Isaac Stern was born in Kreminiecz, Russia.
In 1930 the Veterans Administration (now the Department of Veterans Affairs) was established.
In 1944 American forces landed on Guam in World War II. Also in 1944 the Democratic Party nominated Harry Truman for president at its convention in Chicago.
In 1949 the Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13.
In 1952 actor-comedian Robin Williams was born in Chicago.
In 1954 the Indochina armistice was signed in Geneva, whereby France evacuated North Vietnam and the communist Viet Minh pulled out of South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
In 1957 Althea Gibson won the women’s clay court singles championship, making her the first black player to capture a major U.S. tennis crown.
In 1973 France exploded a nuclear device on Mururua Atoll in the South Pacific despite worldwide protests.
In 1975 the Russian spacecraft Soyuz 19 landed safely, four days after an orbital rendezvous with the crew of the U.S. spacecraft Apollo. (Apollo and Soyuz spent 44 hours linked in space, where the astronauts performed five joint experiments and shared meals.)
In 1980 Walter Polovchak, 12, who said he did not want to go back to his former home in Ukraine when his family returned to the Soviet republic, was granted political asylum in Chicago.
In 1993 more rain set back cleanup and recovery efforts in parts of the Midwest as Transportation Secretary Federico Pena examined the disastrous effects of flooding along the Mississippi River in Keokuk, Iowa.
