TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, JULY 14, the 195th day of 2017. There are 170 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1789, in an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.
In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.
In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.
In 1913, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., the 38th president of the United States, was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska.
In 1921, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in Dedham, Massachusetts, of murdering a shoe company paymaster and his guard. (Sacco and Vanzetti were executed six years later.)
In 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed.
In 1945, Italy formally declared war on Japan, its former Axis partner during World War II.
In 1958, the army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy.
In 1966, the city of Chicago awoke to the shocking news that eight student nurses had been brutally slain during the night in a South Side dormitory. Drifter Richard Speck was convicted of the mass killing and condemned to death, but had his sentence reduced to life in prison, where he died in 1991.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s convention in New York.
In 1980, the Republican national convention opened in Detroit, where nominee-apparent Ronald Reagan told a welcoming rally he and his supporters were determined to “make America great again.”
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Harry Dean Stanton is 91. Actress Nancy Olson is 89. Former football player and actor Rosey Grier is 85. Actor Vincent Pastore is 71. Music company executive Tommy Mottola is 69. Movie producer Scott Rudin is 59. Singerguitarist Kyle Gass and actress Jane Lynch are 57. Actor Jackie Earle Haley is 56. Actor Matthew Fox and rock singer-musician Tanya Donelly are 51. Actress Missy Gold is 47. Olympic gold medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati is 46. Rhythm-and-blues singer Tameka Cottle (Xscape), country singer Jamey Johnson and hip-hop musician taboo (Black Eyed Peas) are 42. Rock singer Dan Smith (Bastille) is 31. Actress Sara Canning (TV: “The Vampire Diaries”) and rock singer Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons) are 30.