On This Day

July 20: Tisha B’Av ends at sunset (Judaism, 2010); Friends’ Day in Argentina and other Latin American countries; Independence Day in Colombia (1810)

• 1656 – Led by King Charles X Gustav, the armies of Sweden and Brandenburg defeated the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth near Warsaw.
• 1927 – Five-year-old Michael became King of Romania upon the death of his grandfather Ferdinand.
• 1944 – Adolf Hitler survived an assassination attempt by German Resistance member Claus von Stauffenberg, who hid a bomb inside a briefcase during a conference at the Wolfsschanze military headquarters in East Prussia.
• 1951 – Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated while visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
• 1969 – The Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (pictured) became the first men to walk on the moon six-and-a-half hours later.
• 2005 – The Civil Marriage Act received its Royal Assent, legalizing same-sex marriage in Canada