On This Day: Friday July 22, 2005 This is the 203rd day of the year, with 162 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: Mendel Botanist Gregor Mendel was born in Austria and his pioneering work in genetics became the basis for the modern science of genetics and heredity. Around 1856, Mendel began experiments in a small monastery garden, crossing different varieties of the garden pea. However, the importance of Mendel's work was not recognized until many years after his death (1884). In 1900, his papers were discovered and his theories confirmed and extended by European botanists. Holidays Feast day of St. Mary Magdalen, St. Joseph of Palestine, St. Philip Evans, St. Vandrille or Wandregesilus, and St. John Lloyd. Events 1587 - A second English colony, also ill-fated, was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. 1793 - Sir Alexander Mackenzie arrived at Canada's Pacific coast. 1796 - Cleveland, Ohio, was founded by General Moses Cleveland. 1894 - The first automobile race took place between Paris and Rouen, France. 1933 - American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes. 1934 - Notorious criminal John Dillinger, America's "Public Enemy No. 1," was shot and killed outside a Chicago theater by federal agents. 1943 - American forces led by General George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily. 1944 - The Bretton Woods Conference, (in New Hampshire), created the International Monetary Fund. 2003 - Saddam Hussein's sons Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein were killed when American forces stormed a villa in Mosul, Iraq. Births 1784 - Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, German astronomer and mathematician. 1822 - Gregor Mendel, Austrian monk and botanist. 1881 - Margery Williams Bianco, British-born American author. 1890 - Rose Kennedy, mother of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy. 1893 - Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist. 1898 - Stephen Vincent Benet, American author, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. 1899 - Alexander Calder, American sculptor. 1908 - Amy Vanderbilt, American journalist and authority on etiquette. Deaths 1934 - John Dillinger, American bank robber. 1976 - Mortimer Wheeler, British archaeologist.