TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, JULY 8, the 189th day of 2019. There are 176 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1947, a New Mexico newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, quoted officials at Roswell Army Air Field as saying they had recovered a “flying saucer” that crashed onto a ranch; officials then said it was a weather balloon. To this day, some people believe what fell to Earth was an alien spaceship carrying extra-terrestrial beings.
In 1776, Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, outside the State House, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia.
In 1911, cowgirl “Two-Gun Nan” Aspinwall became the first woman to make a solo trip by horse across the United States, arriving in New York 10 months after departing San Francisco.
In 1947, demolition work began in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations.
In 1950, President Harry S. Truman named Gen. Douglas MacArthur commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. Truman sacked MacArthur for insubordination nine months later.
In 1965, Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-6B, crashed in British Columbia after the tail separated from the fuselage; all 52 people on board were killed in what authorities said was the result of an apparent bombing.
In 1972, the Nixon administration announced a deal to sell $750 million in grain to the Soviet Union. However, the Soviets were also engaged in secretly buying subsidized American grain, resulting in what critics dubbed “The Great Grain Robbery.”
In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford announced he would seek a second term of office.
In 1986, Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, widely regarded as father of the nuclear navy, died in Arlington, Virginia.
In 1994, Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.
In 2000, Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 (3) for her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first black female champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1957-58.
In 2011, former first lady Betty Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 93. Atlantis thundered into orbit on a cargo run that would close out the threedecade U.S. space shuttle program.
In 2017, at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, world powers lined up against President Donald Trump on climate change, reaffirming their support for international efforts to fight global warming. On trade, the U.S. and international partners endorsed open markets, while acknowledging that countries had a right to put up barriers to block unfair practices. After their first face-to-face meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he thought Trump believed his denials of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential vote.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Singer Steve Lawrence is 84. Actor Jeffrey Tambor and rock musician Jaimoe Johanson are 75. Ballerina Cynthia Gregory is 73. Actress Kim Darby is 72. Actress Jonelle Allen and children’s performer Raffi are 71. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is 70. Actress Anjelica Huston is 68. Writer Anna Quindlen is 67. Actor Kevin Bacon is 61. Actor Robert Knepper is 60. Rock musician Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode), country singer Toby Keith and rock musician Graham Jones (Haircut 100) are 58. Rock singer Joan Osborne and writer-producer Rob Burnett are 57. Actor Rocky Carroll is 56. Actors Corey Parker and Lee Tergesen are 54. Actor Michael B. Silver is 52. Actors Billy Crudup and Michael Weatherly are 51. Singer Beck and country singer Drew Womack (Sons of the Desert) are 49. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and actress Kathleen Robertson are 46. Christian rock musician Stephen Mason (Jars of Clay) is 44. Actor Milo Ventimiglia and rock musician Tavis Werts are 42. Singer Ben Jelen is 40. Actor Lance Gross is 38. Actress Sophia Bush is 37. Rock musician Jamie Cook (Arctic Monkeys) is 34. Actor Jake McDorman is 33. Actress Maya Hawke and actor Jaden Smith are 21.