Tuesday, July 24 1704- British forces occupied Spain's Gibraltar. 1712 - The French defeated the Allied British-Dutch forces at Denain, France, in the war of the Spanish Succession. 1799 - Napoleon gained his last victory during his occupation of Egypt, defeating the Turks at the battle of Aboukir. 1824 - The results of the world's first public opinion poll were published in Delaware, on voting intentions for the next U.S. presidential election. 1862 - Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States, died. 1883 - Matthew Webb, first man to swim the English Channel (in 1875) drowned while attempting to swim the rapids above Niagara Falls. 1923 - The treaty of Lausanne was signed between Turkey and the Allied powers. Turkey gave up all claims to non-Turkish territories lost in World War I. 1943 - In World War II, Operation Gomorrah, the concentrated heavy bombing of Hamburg by the Allies, began. 1967 - President de Gaulle, visiting Montreal, made a speech which ended "Vive le Quebec Libre!"; he was promptly rebuked by Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson and forced to cut short his visit. 1969 - Gerald Brook was released to Britain by the Soviet Union in exchange for spies Peter and Helen Kroger. 1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered president Nixon to surrender 64 White House tape recordings to the Washington District Court conducting the Watergate proceedings. 1981 - Floods killed over 700 people in Szechuan Province in China; 1.5 million were left homeless. 1990 - U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf were placed on alert after Iraq massed nearly 30,000 troops near its border with Kuwait. 1993 - Russia's Central Bank announced a drastic reform of the monetary system, saying all banknotes issued up to the end of 1992 would be withdrawn from circulation. 1995 - A suicide bomber blew up an Israeli bus in Tel Aviv, killing six people and wounding 32. 1996 - In Sri Lanka 57 people were killed and more than 500 were injured when a bomb ripped through a packed commuter train in a Colombo suburb. 1997 - Charles Taylor was declared Liberia's new president following elections on July 19. 2000 - The Hizbul Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistan Kashmir militant group, unilaterally declared a three-month ceasefire and said it was prepared to talk with the Indian government.