On this date
In 1889,
William Gray of Hartford, Conn., received a patent for a coinoperated telephone.
In 1960,
the first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1.
In 1989,
searchers in Ethiopia found the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 14 other people — there were no survivors.
In 2003,
Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.
In 2008,
a man barged into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters in Little Rock and opened fire, killing state party chairman Bill Gwatney before speeding off in a pickup. (Police later shot and killed the gunman, Timothy Dale Johnson.)
In 2008,
Michael Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals.
In 2017,
in a statement, the White House said President Donald Trump “very strongly” condemns individual hate groups such as “white supremacists, KKK and neo-Nazis”; the statement followed criticism of Trump for blaming the previous day’s deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on “many sides.” Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the country.
Ten years ago:
The Philadelphia Eagles signed Michael Vick to a one-year deal, prompting criticism from animal rights activists over his role in a dogfighting ring.
Five years ago:
Six people were killed when leftover ordnance believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up in the Gaza Strip.
One year ago:
A lawyer for FBI agent Peter Strzok, who had been removed from the Russia investigation over anti-Trump text messages, said Strzok had been fired by the FBI. (Strzok filed a lawsuit last week challenging his firing.)