TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, JULY 6, the 187th day of 2017. There are 178 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY: On this date in 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title as she defeated fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. Sixteen-year-old John Lennon first met 15-year-old Paul McCartney when Lennon’s band, the Quarrymen skiffle group, performed a gig at St. Peter’s Church in Woolton, Liverpool.
In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.
In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-yearold Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.
In 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba from the Ottoman Turks.
In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a “secret annex” in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.
In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn.
In 1964, the movie “A Hard Day’s
Night,” starring The Beatles, had its world premiere in London.
In 1971, jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong died in New York at age 69.
In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.
In 1997, the rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander onto the Martian landscape to begin inspecting the soil and rocks of the red planet.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Singer-actress Della Reese is 86. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 82. Actor Ned Beatty is 80. Singer Gene Chandler and country singer Jeannie Seely are 77. Actor Burt Ward is 72. Former President George W. Bush, actor-director Sylvester Stallone and actor Fred Dryer are 71. Actor Geoffrey Rush and actress Allyce Beasley are 66. Rock musician John Bazz (The Blasters) and actor Grant Goodeve are 65. Country singer Nanci Griffith is 64. Retired MLB All-Star Willie Randolph is 63. Actress-writer Jennifer Saunders is 59. Rock musician John Keeble (Spandau Ballet) is 58. Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan) is 47. TV host Josh Elliott is 46. Rapper 50 Cent is 42. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 38. Actress Eva Green is 37. Rock musician Chris “Woody” Wood (Bastille) is 32. Actor Jeremy Suarez is 27.