This day in history

On 24 July, 1959, in front of a replica of a suburban American kitchen, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev engage in an impromptu debate about the merits and disadvantages of capitalism and communism.

Nixon had travelled to Moscow to open the U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Sokolniki Park, organised as a goodwill gesture by the USSR. The televised Kitchen Debate helped solidify Nixon's reputation as a tough and capable U.S. leader. 

American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins a record breaking seventh consecutive Tour de France title.

Conservative Peer and novelist Jeffrey Archer is awarded record damages by the High Court in a libel case against the Daily Star newspaper after it claimed Archer had paid to have sex with a prostitute.

The United States Supreme Court orders President Nixon to hand over tape recordings of White House conversations about the Watergate affair.

Apollo 11 returns safely from the Moon to Earth.

British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night as Operation Gomorrah begins.

The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire is settled with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate the thrown.