Dam bursts in northern Italy
1985 - A dam burst in northern Italy, sweeping away three hotels and between 10 and 20 homes. Civil Protection Minister Giuseppe Zamberletti said 150 bodies had been recovered and many people are still unaccounted for after water and mud engulfed the hamlet of Stava in the Dolomite mountains. The Civil Protection Ministry in Rome said the three hotels — the Erika, the Stava and the Miramonti — were completely destroyed. A fourth, the Dolomiti, was partly damaged. Rescue workers digging through tonnes of thick muck for victims buried by the collapse of a rain-weakened mining dam. The catastrophic strike in the Stava Valley, leading into the Fleims River Valley, in the Dolomite mountain area of northern Italy’s Alps region, was filled with tourists.
July 19
1610 - Vasily Shuysky, czar of Russia, is deposed after the Swedish army is defeated by Polish invaders.
1864 - Nanking, the capital of the Taiping rebellion in China, falls to government troops who proceed to slaughter 100,000 people.
1870 - France declares war on Prussia, opening Franco-Prussian War.
1877 - In the first Wimbledon Tennis Championship men’s final, Spencer W. Gore beats W.C. Marshall.
1900 - The first line of the Paris Metro opens for operation.
1939 - American physician Roy P. Scholz of St. Louis, Missouri, becomes first surgeon to use fiberglass sutures.
1980 - Former Turkish prime minister Nihat Erim is assassinated in Istanbul.
1991 - Kurds protesting Iraqi rule fight government soldiers in first major clashes since withdrawal of allied forces.
1994 - An emotional farewell to North Korean leader Kim-Il-sung.
1998 - Saeed Al Tayer and Felix Serralles escape with serious injuries after their powerboat 5 exploded and burst into flames within sight of the finish line at the Norwegian Grand Prix in Arendal.
2001 - British politician and best-selling novelist Jeffrey Archer is jailed for four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
2004 - Iraq appoints 43 new ambassadors in its first move to re-engage with the world after regaining sovereignty from the US.
2008 - Pope Benedict XVI apologises for the first time for years of abuse of minors by the Catholic clergy.
2012 - Former Egyptian vice-president Omar Sulaiman dies in a hospital in America at the age of 77.
