On July 30, 1945,

during World War II, the Portland class heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered components for the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; only 316 out of some 1,200 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters.

In 1792,

the French national anthem "La Marseillaise" (lah mar-seh-YEHZ'), by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris by troops arriving from Marseille.

In 1864,

during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va., by exploding a gunpowder-filled mine under Confederate defense lines; the attack failed.