Today In 1980 the Summer Olympics in Moscow begin. Some Western countries, including the United States and West Germany, boycott the event; in 1996 the Summer Olympics in Atlanta begin, with Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame.

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

July 19 is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 165 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

64 – The Great Fire of Rome starts.

484 – Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern Emperor at Tarsus in modern-day Turkey.

711 – Ummayad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete - Ummayad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King Roderic.

1333 – Wars of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Halidon Hill ends in an English victory.

1545 – The Tudor battleship Mary Rose sinks.

1553 – In England, Lady Jane Grey is replaced as queen by Mary I of England, having been queen for only a few days.

1572 – Wanli Emperor takes control in China, becoming the 13th Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines - The Spanish Armada is seen in the English Channel.

1692 – In the Salem Witch Trials, five women are hanged for witchcraft.

1701 – Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding large territory north of the Ohio River to England.

1702 – Great Northern War: A larger Polish-Saxon Army of Augustus III the Strong, operating from a better defensive position, is defeated by a Swedish Army half its size under the command of Charles XII of Sweden, in the Battle of Klissow.

1821 – George IV of the United Kingdom is crowned king.

1832 – The British Medical Association is founded by Charles Hastings.

1843 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's steamship, the SS Great Britain is launched.

1848 – A Women's rights convention begins in Seneca Falls, New York.

1864 – Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking - Qing Dynasty defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.

1900 – The first line of the Paris Metro opens.

1903 – Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.

1908 – The Dutch football club Feyenoord of Rotterdam is founded.

1912 – A meteorite estimated to weigh 190 kilograms explodes over Holbrook, Arizona, causing around 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the village.

1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles - British and Australian troops attack German trenches.

1920 – Antonio Joaquim Granjo becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.

1936 – The Sieges of Oviedo and Gijon begin shortly after the start of the Spanish Civil War.

1941 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launches the V for Victory campaign.

1943 – World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft.

1947 – Several leading Burmese politicians, including Bogyoko Aung San, are executed by Galon U Saw.

1950 – West Germany and the Saarland join the European Council.

1952 – The Summer Olympics in Helsinki begin.

1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte.

1965 – The Mont Blanc road tunnel is opened.

1971 – The South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City opens.

1976 – The Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.

1979 – The Sandinistas take official control of the government in Nicaragua.

1979 – Two oil tankers collide near Trinidad and Tobago, causing an oil spill, and killing 29 seamen in the fire resulting from the collision.

1980 – The Summer Olympics in Moscow begin. Some Western countries, including the United States and West Germany, boycott the event.

1981 – French President Francois Mitterrand privately reveals to US President Ronald Reagan documents showing the Soviets had been stealing American technological research and development.

1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses in Italy, killing 268 people.

1987 – In Portugal, the Social Democrats under Anibal Cavaco Silva become the first political party during the Third Republic to form an overall majority in parliament.

1989 – A United Airlines airplane crashes in Sioux City, Iowa, and bursts into flames, killing 112 out of the 296 people on board.

1992 – Anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino and two police officers are killed by a car-bomb attack in Palermo, Sicily.

1996 – Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is forced out of office. Wanted on war crimes charges, he goes into hiding until his arrest in 2008.

1996 – The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta begin, with Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame.

1997 – The Provisional IRA resumes a ceasefire during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

2002 – In Scotland, the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is created.

2003 – The first successful tongue transplant is carried out in Vienna.

2007 – Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman to be chosen to become President of India.

2018 – Israel's Knesset passes a law defining the country as a Jewish Nation State.

2018 – A duck boat capsizes on Table Rock Lake in Southwestern Missouri, United States, killing 17 people (out of 31 on board), including 9 from the same family.

2019 – Iran seizes two British oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.