DAY IN HISTORY

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Today is the 191st day of 2020 and the 20th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1850, President Zachary Taylor died in office of a stomach-related illness at the age of 65.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing full citizenship and equal protection to African Americans.

In 1943, Allied forces launched an airborne and amphibious invasion of Sicily.

In 1981, the Nintendo

video game “Donkey Kong” was released.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), author; Matthew Lewis (1775-1818), author; Elias Howe (1819-1867), sewing machine inventor; Donald Rumsfeld (1932- ), former defense secretary; Brian Dennehy (1938-2020), actor; Richard Roundtree (1942- ), actor; Dean Koontz (1945- ), author; Chris Cooper (1951- ), actor; John Tesh (1952), composer/musician; Lindsey Graham (1955- ), politician; Tom Hanks (1956- ), actor; Courtney Love (1964- ), singersongwriter; Jack White

(1975- ), musician/singersongwriter.

TODAY’S FACT: In an attempt to inspire efforts and encourage enlistment, Gen. George Washington had the newly adopted Declaration of Independence read aloud to his troops in the Continental Army in New York City on this day in 1776.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1877, the inaugural Wimbledon tennis championship took place in London.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest.” — Ann Radcliffe, “The Mysteries of Udolpho”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 1,720 — height (in feet) of the wave surge that hit Lituya Bay in the Gulf of Alaska on this day in 1958. The “megatsunami,” the largest in recorded history, was caused by an 8.3-magnitude earthquake on the Fairweather Fault along the Alaskan coast.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (July 4) and last quarter moon (July 12).