July 10 in Military History

Lady Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen of England in a power struggle that leads to her deposition after only nine days, a dynastic conflict resolved by military force when Mary Tudor marches on London.

The besieged Confederate garrison at Port Hudson, Louisiana, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi, learns of Vicksburg's fall and prepares to surrender, completing Union control of the river.

The Scopes "Monkey Trial" begins in Tennessee, testing the teaching of evolution, a scientific principle that would later influence military understanding of biological warfare and human factors research.

The Luftwaffe launches its first major attacks against British shipping and coastal targets, beginning the Battle of Britain, the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces.

Operation Husky lands 160,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Sicily in the largest amphibious operation of the war to that point, opening the campaign to knock Italy out of World War II.

The largest amphibious operation of the war to date puts 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops ashore across ten landing beaches in Sicily, opening the Mediterranean campaign against Italy.

The first active communications satellite, Telstar 1, is launched, revolutionizing global military communications and beginning the space-based communications era.

AT&T's Telstar 1 communications satellite, launched on July 10, 1962, relays the first live transatlantic television signal, a breakthrough that reshaped military communications and intelligence collection.

The Bahamas becomes an independent nation after three centuries of British rule, reshaping Caribbean basin security arrangements at a moment of Cold War competition for regional influence.

French DGSE operatives sink the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor, New Zealand, the only known peacetime attack by one Western intelligence service against civilians in another allied country.