-On This Day

 On this day

• 1976 Tangshan Earthquake, 8.2 in magnitude kills over 240,000 Northern China in the largest loss of life from an earthquake in the 20th century

• 2005 The Provisional Irish Republican Army call an end to their thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland

• 1914 Austria-Hungary decides against mediation and declares war on Serbia - first declaration of war of WWI

Tangshan earthquake

Tangshan earthquake of 1976, also called Great Tangshan Earthquake, on July 28, 1976, with a magnitude of 7.5, which nearly razed the Chinese coal-mining and industrial city of Tangshan, located about 68 miles (110 km) east of Beijing. The death toll, thought to be one of the largest in recorded history, was officially reported as 242,000 persons, but it may have been as high as 655,000. At least 700,000 more people were injured.

The provisional Irish Republican

 In 1969, demanding British withdrawal from Northern Ireland but differing on tactics, the IRA split into two factions: officials and provisional. Officials sought independence through peace, while the provisional used violence to further its efforts, which resulted in an estimated 1,800 deaths, including more than 600 civilians. As the Provisional IRA and other paramilitary groups waged an increasingly violent campaign and the British Army retaliated, the period known as the "Troubles" roiled the region and beyond for nearly 30 years. 

Austria-Hungary War

In the final week of July 1914, after a decade of confrontation and near misses, mounting tensions between the two main European alliance blocs finally came to a head. Seizing on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as a pretext.