TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, JULY 14, the 196th day of 2020. There are 170 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2016, terror struck Bastille Day celebrations in the French Riviera city of Nice as a large truck plowed into a festive crowd, killing 86 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State extremists; the driver was shot dead by police.
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 1865, the Matterhorn, straddling Italy and Switzerland, was summited as a seven-member rope party led by British climber Edward Whymper reached the peak. (Four members of the party fell to their deaths during their descent; Whymper and two guides survived.)
In 1914, scientist Robert H. Goddard received a U.S. patent for a liquid-fueled rocket apparatus.
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 1960, British researcher Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in the Tanganyika Territory (in present-day Tanzania) to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild.
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.”
In 2004, the Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. (Forty-eight senators voted to advance the measure — 12 short of the 60 needed — and 50 voted to block it).
In 2009, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff arrived at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to begin serving a 150-year sentence for his massive Ponzi scheme.
In 2013, thousands of demonstrators across the country protested a Florida jury’s decision the day before to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
In 2014, the Church of England voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing women to become bishops.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Nancy Olson is 92. Former football player and actor Rosey Grier is 88. Actor Vincent Pastore is 74. Music company executive Tommy Mottola is 72. Rock musician Chris Cross (Ultravox), actors Jerry Houser and Stan Shaw, and actordirector Eric Laneuville are 68. Movie producer Scott Rudin is 62. Singerguitarist Kyle Gass, country musician Ray Herndon (McBride and the Ride) and actress Jane Lynch are 60. Actor Jackie Earle Haley is 59. Actor Matthew Fox, rock musician Ellen Reid (Crash Test Dummies) and rock singer-musician Tanya Donelly are 54. Former child actress Missy Gold is 50. Olympic gold medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati is 49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Tameka Cottle (Xscape), country singer Jamey Johnson and hip-hop musician “taboo” (Black Eyed Peas) are 45. Actor Scott Porter is 41. Actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge is 35. Rock singer Dan Smith (Bastille) is 34. Actress Sara Canning (TV: “The Vampire Diaries”) and rock singer Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons) are 33.