July 24
1148. Louis VII, King of France, leading the armies of the Second Crusade, begins the Siege of Damascus. Intending on besieging from the west of the city, where food supplies were more plentiful, the Crusaders quickly move to the eastern side of the city, which is less well defended. Muslim armies move to block a return to the prior position, and the Crusaders soon realize they have made a grave (no pun intended) error. Soon thereafter they lift the siege and begin marching across Anatolia, during hte course of which much of their army is destroyed. Accusations of betrayal between the various Crusader states (internally) and between the Crusader states as a group and the Christian Byzantine Empire cause serious consequences across the next several centuries. Indeed, other than the incidental but still significant victory of armies gathering to conduct the Second Crusade kicking the Muslims out of Lisbon on the way, the entire Second Crusade was an abject failure.
1701. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, later to be known as Detroit, Michigan.
1911. Hiram Bingham III rediscovers Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas.
1935. The "Dust Bowl" heat wave during the Great Depression hits its peak, with temperatures of 109 degrees recorded in Chicago and 104 in Milwaukee.
1943. Operation Gamorrah begins, targetting Hamburg. A critical military-commercial city, Hamburg was a large port city with shipyards, U-Boat pens, oil refineries and, amusingly, teh world's oldest manufactery of dynamite, built by the inventor of dynamite himself, Alfred Nobel (Nobel peace prize anyone?). As such, Hamburg was repeatedly targetted by Allied bombing. On this date, 1943, Operation Gamorrah began, lasting 8 days and 7 nights. The operation entailed continues bombing with British and Canadian sorties being flown by night, and American attacks by day. Several attacks involved sorties of over 700 bombers.
On July 27th, the unusually hot, dry weather contribued to the effects of the 739 bombers that attacked the city, creating a "firestorm" a huge tornadic inferno of fire with winds of up to 150 mph and 1,500 degrees fahrenheit reaching altitudes of 1,000 feet and absolutely incinerating eight square miles of the city. Even the asphalt streets burst into flame, and the oil, gasoline and other chemical spilling into the bay caused the surface of the ocean itself to erupt. Those seeking shelter in bomb and fallout shelters suffocated as the immense fires consumed all oxygen above. In all, the week's effort destroyed approximately 280,000 buildings, including 250,000 residences, killed 50,000 people, and rendered approximately one million homeless.
1983. The "Pine Tar Incident."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrFzGbM_g4Y
1990. Iraqi forces start massing on the border with Kuwait.