TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, JULY 19, the 200th day of 2018. There are 165 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1980, the Moscow Summer Olympics began, minus dozens of nations that were boycotting the games because of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
In 1553, King Henry VIII’s daughter Mary was proclaimed Queen of England after pretender Lady Jane Grey was deposed.
In 1812, during the War of 1812, the First Battle of Sackets Harbor in Lake Ontario resulted in an American victory as U.S. naval forces repelled a British attack.
In 1848, a pioneering women’s rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
In 1903, the first Tour de France was won by Maurice Garin.
In 1943, allied air forces raided Rome during World War II.
In 1944, the Democratic national convention convened in Chicago with the nomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a certainty.
In 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.
In 1979, the Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country.
In 1989, 111 people were killed when United Air Lines Flight 232, a DC-10 which suffered the uncontained failure of its tail engine and the loss of hydraulic systems, crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa; 185 other people survived.
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush joined former presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon at ceremonies dedicating the Nixon Library and Birthplace, since redesignated the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, in Yorba Linda, Calif.
In 1992, anti-Mafia prosecutor Paolo Borsellino was killed along with five members of his security detail in a car bombing in Palermo, Sicily.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced a policy allowing homosexuals to serve in the military under a compromise dubbed “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue.”
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Helen Gallagher and country singer Sue Thompson are 92. Singer Vikki Carr and blues singer-musician Little Freddie King are 78. Country singer-musician Commander Cody is 74. Actor George Dzundza is 73. Rock singer-musician Alan Gorrie (Average White Band) and International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Ilie Nastase are 72. Rock musicians Brian May and Bernie Leadon are 71. Actress Beverly Archer is 70. Movie director Abel Ferrara is 67. Actor Peter Barton is 62. Rock musician Kevin Haskins (Love and Rockets; Bauhaus) and movie director Atom Egoyan are 58. Actor Campbell Scott is 57. Actor Anthony Edwards is 56. Country singer Kelly Shiver is 55. Actress Clea Lewis and percussionist Evelyn Glennie are 53. Country musician Jeremy Patterson is 48. Classical singer Urs Buhler (Il Divo) and actor Andrew Kavovit are 47. Rock musician Jason McGerr (Death Cab for Cutie) is 44. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is 42. Actress Erin Cummings is 41. TV chef Marcela Valladolid is 40. Actor Chris Sullivan (“This is Us”) is 38. Actor Jared Padalecki is 36. Actor Trai Byers is 35. Actress Kaitlin Doubleday (“Nashville”) is 34. Actor/ comedian Dustin Ybarra is 32. Actor Steven Anthony Lawrence is 28.