Today’s highlight in history
On July 18, 1817, English novelist Jane Austen died in Winchester at age 41.
On this date
In 1932, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.
In 1944, American forces in France captured the Normandy town of Saint-Lô.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Presidential Succession Act which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.
In 1969, Sen. Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy (D-Mass.) left a party on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard with Mary Jo Kopechne, 28; some time later, Kennedy’s car went off a bridge into the water. Kennedy was able to escape, but Kopechne drowned.
In 1976, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, competing at the Montreal Olympics, received the first-ever perfect score of 10 with her routine on uneven parallel bars. (Comaneci would go on to receive six more 10s in Montreal.)
In 1984, gunman James Huberty opened fire at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.
In 1994, Tutsi rebels declared an end to Rwanda’s 14-week-old civil war.
Ten years ago: Senate Republicans rejected legislation to force the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.
Five years ago: Rebels penetrated the heart of Syria’s power elite, detonating a bomb inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus that killed three leaders of the regime, including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law and the defense minister.
One year ago: President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to retired Lt. Col. Charles Kettles, a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War credited with helping rescue more than 40 American soldiers under heavy fire.