July 22
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1992: Pablo Escobar escapes his own prison
On this day in 1992, Colombian drug smuggler Pablo Escobar escaped from a luxurious prison—that he had built. Known as La Catedral, the prison was part of a unique deal he had reached with the Colombian government. However, the arrangement unraveled when he killed two cartel members at La Catedral. Escobar disappeared as officials tried to move him to a military prison, and he eluded authorities until 1993, when his hideout was discovered and he died during the ensuing shootout.
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© RAUL ARBOLEDA—AFP/Getty Images; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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After falling from favor during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Deng Xiaoping returned to power on this day in 1977 after the Chinese Communist Party reinstated all his former high posts, including that of vice-premier. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about China.]
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The Bettmann Archive
Born this day in 1784, German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel made the first measurement of the distance of a star other than the Sun, and his work allowed the first accurate determination of interstellar distances.
Famous Birthdays
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© John Stillwell—WPA Pool/Getty Images
2013
Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, the first child of Prince William, duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, was born in London. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about English royalty.]
News Pictures/Shutterstock.com
2011
Terrorist attacks on Oslo and the island of Utøya in Norway resulted in the deaths of 77 people; Anders Behring Breivik later confessed to the attacks.
© Keith Corrigan/Alamy
1959
The sci-fi film Plan 9 from Outer Space—starring Bela Lugosi and directed by Ed Wood, considered by some as the most inept director in film history—was widely released in American theaters; described as the “worst movie ever made,” it became a cult classic. [Test your knowledge of cinema.]
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1933
American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world; he covered 15,596 miles (25,099 km) in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes. [Take our quiz about early aviation.]
UPI/Bettmann Archive
1923
American baseball player Walter Johnson became the first pitcher in the MLB to strike out 3,000 batters; his career record of 3,508 strikeouts stood until 1983. [Test your knowledge of baseball.]
AP
1923
Bob Dole—U.S. senator (1968–96), Republican congressional leader, and his party’s candidate for the presidency in 1996—was born in Russell, Kansas. [Take our quiz about the history of American politics.]
The Granger Collection, New York
1812
The duke of Wellington defeated “40,000 Frenchmen in 40 minutes” at Salamanca, Spain, during the Peninsular War. [Take our history of war quiz.]
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co., Ltd.
1456
Hungarian forces led by János Hunyadi, including an untrained army of peasants, won one of the most remarkable victories in the history of Turkish wars, resisting the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II’s siege of Belgrade. [How much do you know about the Ottoman Empire?]