Today In History
Today is Friday, July 27, the 208th day of 2018. There are 157 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1866: Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe (a previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeks’ use).
ON THIS DATE
› 1789: President George Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State.
› 1909: During the first official test of the U.S. Army’s first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Va., for one hour and 12 minutes.
› 1921: Canadian researcher Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, succeeded in isolating the hormone insulin at the University of Toronto.
› 1953: The Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting.
› 1996: Terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, directly killing one person and injuring 111. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleaded guilty to the bombing, exonerating security guard Richard Jewell, who had been wrongly suspected.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
TV producer Norman Lear is 96. Sportscaster Irv Cross is 79. Actor John Pleshette is 76. Actress-director Betty Thomas is 71. Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming is 70. Singer Maureen McGovern is
69. Actress Janet Eilber is 67. Rock musician Tris Imboden (Chicago) is 67. Actress Roxanne Hart is 64. Country musician Duncan Cameron is 62. Comedian-actress-writer Carol Leifer is 62. Comedian Bill Engvall is 61. Jazz singer Karrin Allyson is 56. Country singer Stacy Dean Campbell is
51. Rock singer Juliana Hatfield is 51. Actor Julian McMahon is 50. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is 48. Comedian Maya Rudolph is 46. Rock musician Abe Cunningham is
45. Former MLB All-Star Alex Rodriguez is 43. Actor Seamus Dever is
42. Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 41. Actress/ comedian Heidi Gardner is 35. Actor Blair Redford is 35. Singer Cheyenne Kimball is 28. Golfer Jordan Spieth is 25. Actress Alyvia Alyn Lind is 11.