Today in 1588, the English navy of Elizabeth I defeated the Spanish Armada, the greatest naval force the world had ever seen. Its 130 ships had been dispatched by Philip II of Spain to overthrow Elizabeth and Protestantism, restore England to Catholicism, and rid the seas of English ships. But in the early hours of 29 July, the English, who were upwind of the Spanish, set alight eight fire ships, packed with gunpowder and brimstone, and directed them into the heart of the Armada (above). The Spanish ships scattered, and at the sea battle just east of Calais later in the day, many were sunk, run aground, or chased into the North Sea. Elizabeth was so grateful to the sailors who had saved her kingdom that she refused to pay them, and many of them died, destitute, diseased and starving, after landing.
Today in 1966, John Lennon’s remarks that the Beatles were ‘bigger than Jesus’ – which he made in a UK interview earlier in the year – were aired on a local US radio station out of Birmingham, Alabama. The radio audience was outraged and the show’s disc jockeys started destroying Beatles vinyl LPs on-air. This quickly escalated to bonfires, demonstrations and accusations of blasphemy, and only died down two weeks later when Lennon apologised for what he had said. Figures from the Billboard chart ultimately proved that Lennon was right, as far as No.1 hit singles go.
A couple of Pope Urbans came to an end today in 1099 and 1644. Pope Urban II, the inventor of the crusades, died today in 1099 while news was still on its way that the First Crusade had conquered Jerusalem. And Pope Urban VIII, whose lavish spending on war, the arts and nepotism more than doubled the papal debt and enraged the people of Rome, died today in 1644.
The English anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce died today in 1833. Seven days earlier, the Slavery Abolition Act passed its second reading in the House of Commons unopposed, giving Wilberforce the assurance that his work to abolish first the slave trade, and then slavery itself, which he had begun 46 years earlier, was on the brink of success. The Act, which finally passed a month later, emancipated 800,000 African slaves by 1840. It paid out £20 million in compensation to the former slave owners, but none to the slaves themselves.
The Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem was destroyed by the army of Babylon on this date in either 587 or 586 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed the city and carried off its people into exile in Babylon.
‘Nebuchadnezzar carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.’ Second Book of Chronicles
Iran changed its flag today in 1980, one year after the Iranian Revolution transformed the country from a monarchy into an Islamic republic. The centre of the flag has a tulip monogram, with letters that say, ‘There is no God but Allah’ – while the inner fringes of the red and green stripes have a stylised script which repeats the phrase, Allahu Akbar, ‘God is the greatest’.
Image: Rijksmuseum