TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Friday, July 29, the 211th day of 2016. There are 155 days left in the year.
On this date
1588 — The English attacked the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines, resulting in an English victory. 1890 — Artist Vincent van Gogh, 37, died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auverssur-Oise, France. 1900 — Italian King Humbert I was assassinated by an anarchist; he was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III. 1914 — Transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. became operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco. 1958 — President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA. 1967 — An accidental rocket launch aboard the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen. 1975 — President Gerald R. Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland. 1994 — Abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton’s bodyguard James H. Barrett outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Florida. (Hill was executed in September 2003.)
Thought for today ‘Man must rise above the Earth — to the top of the atmosphere and beyond — for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.’ Socrates Greek philosopher (469 B.C.-399 B.C.)
Today’s Birthdays
Actor Robert Fuller is 83. Actress Roz Kelly is 74. Documentary maker Ken Burns is 63. Rock singermusician Geddy Lee (Rush) is 63. Rock singer Patti Scialfa (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band) is 63. Country singer Martina McBride is 50. Actor Wil Whea- ton is 44. Actor Stephen Dorff is 43. Hip-hop DJ/music producer Danger Mouse is 39. Actor Matt Prokop is 26. Ruby Joyce Deaton, daughter of Hannah and Jeremy Deaton of Cedar Bluff, Alabama, is 2.