Today In History

Today is Tuesday, July 16, the 197th day of 2019. There are 168 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1969: Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.

ON THIS DATE

› 1790: A site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington, D.C.

› 1945: The United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico; the same day, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis left Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California on a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian Island in the Marianas.

› 1957: Marine Corps Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record by flying a Vought F8U Crusader jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.4 seconds.

› 1979: Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq.

› 1999: John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

› 2004: Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge in New York for lying about a stock sale.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is 87. Soul singer William Bell is 80. International Tennis Hall of Famer Margaret Court is 77. College Football Hall of Famer and football coach Jimmy Johnson is 76. Playwright Tony Kushner is 63. Actress Faye Grant is 62. Dancer Michael Flatley is 61. Actress Phoebe Cates is 56. Actor Paul Hipp is 56. Actor Daryl “Chill” Mitchell is

54. Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 52. Actor Jonathan Adams is 52. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders is

51. Actress Rain Pryor is

50. Actor Corey Feldman is 48. Rock musician Ed Kowalczyk (Live) is

48. Rock singer Ryan McCombs (Drowning Pool) is 45. Actress Jayma Mays is 40. Actress AnnaLynne McCord is

32. Actor-singer James Maslow is 29. Actor Mark Indelicato is 25. Pop singer-musician Luke Hemmings (5 Seconds of Summer) is 23.