On This Day

• 2016 Terrorist Attack in Nice, France Kills 85 and Injures More than 300 People

  The attack took place during Bastille Day Celebrations, when a 19-tonne truck was driven into the crowd. The attacker was eventually shot by the police.

• 1965 Mars flyby of Mariner 4

  The American spacecraft became the first to take pictures of another planet and send them back to Earth.

• 1958 Coup in Iraq

  Abd al-Karim Qasim, a brigadier in the Iraqi Army staged a military coup in Iraq, overthrowing the Hashemite monarchy. The Iraqi King Faisal II, the Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said were assassinated during the coup. Qasim took over the position of Prime Minister, which he held until 1963. The coup also led to the dissolution of the Arab Federation of Jordan and Iraq.

• 1957 First female parliamentarian in the Arab world is elected to office

  Egyptian Rawya Ateya became the first woman to be elected to the National Assembly.

• 1789 Storming of the Bastille

  Bastille, a prison housing only 7 prisoners at the time, was stormed by a crowd calling for the closure of the prison. The storming became the central event of the French Revolution.