July 27th

Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. It was the 3rd time London had hosted the multi-event international sports event. The ceremony was called Isles of Wonder and was directed by Danny Boyle.

Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who'd plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Lance Armstrong won his fifth straight Tour de France, tying Miguel Indurain's record.

A pipe bomb exploded at a public park during the Olympic games in Atlanta, killing one person and injuring more than 100.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

Coup in Uganda. Tito Lutwa Okello, an Ugandan military officer successfully staged a coup against president Milton Obote. He was ousted by current president Yoweri Museveni 6 months later.

The deposed Shah of Iran died in Egypt at age 60.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to recommend President Richard M. Nixon's impeachment on a charge that he had personally engaged in a "course of conduct" designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.

In the wake of urban rioting, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence.

Vice President Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

Austrian State Treaty came to force. The treaty re-established Austria as a democratic and sovereign country after World War II. It also ended the allied occupation of the country.

An armistice was signed ending the Korean War.

Bugs Bunny made his debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon 'A Wild Hare.'.

Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate insulin at the University of Toronto.

Vincent Van Gogh shoots himeslf. The famed painter, shot himself in the chest. He died of his wounds two days later.

After two failures, Cyrus W. Field succeeded in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.

Union general George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.

French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest. he was executed the following day.

Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the State Department.

The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution.

Battle of Killicrankie: Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeat royalist force under General MacKay.

Sir Walter Raleigh brings first tobacco to England from Virginia.