Today in History July 18

Reuters

1936 - The Spanish Civil War began with a revolt at Melilla in what was then Spanish Morocco.

1969 - U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy's car went off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.

1994 - A bomb at a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires killed 96 people.

1998 - South African President Nelson Mandela celebrated his 80th birthday by marrying Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel.

2003 - Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant admits adultery at news conference in response to news that he faces charges for raping a 19-year-old in Colorado.

2003 - The body was found of David Kelly, a British Defence Ministry weapons scientist who was subsequently confirmed as the source for a BBC report that the government had exaggerated intelligence reports to justify war in Iraq.

2005 - Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. military operations in the Vietnam War, died aged 91.

2009 - Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus attempt to make the world's largest tray of "knafeh", a sweetened goat cheese pastry.

2012 - Explosion at Bulgaria's Burgas airport kills six people.

2013 - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.

2016 - Melania Trump delivers speech at Republican National Convention which was widely criticised for its similarity to Michelle Obama's 2008 speech.