Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani—the first woman and first Iranian to be awarded a Fields Medal, cited for “her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces”—died at age 40. 2017.
In France’s third major terrorist attack in 18 months, a man drove a truck through a crowd of revelers celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing more than 80 people and injuring hundreds. 2016.
American baseball great Hank Aaron hit his 500th career home run. 1968.
British ethologist Jane Goodall first arrived at what became Gombe Stream National Park inTanzania; there she conducted her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees. 1960.
Bastille stormed by Paris mob
On this day in 1789, a mob advanced on the Bastille in Paris, demanding the arms and munitions stored there, but, when the guards resisted, the crowd captured the prison, an act that symbolized the end of the ancien régime. 1789.
