TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, July 19, the 200th day of 2017. There are 165 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On July 19, 1961, TWA became the first airline to begin showing in-flight movies on a regular basis as it presented “By Love Possessed” to first-class passengers on a flight from New York to Los Angeles.
On this date
1553 — King Henry VIII’s daughter Mary was proclaimed Queen of England after pretender Lady Jane Grey was deposed. 1848 — A pioneering women’s rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, New York. 1903 — The first Tour de France was won by Maurice Garin. 1941 — Britain launched its “V for Victory” campaign during World War II. 1944 — The Democratic national convention convened in Chicago with the nomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a certainty. 1948 — Will Whittenburg, chairman of the Rome Military Manpower Committee, announced that the enlistment of 18-year-olds for one year’s service in the Army of the United States was authorized immediately. 1952 — The Summer Olympics opened in Helsinki, Finland. 1967 — The movie “Up the Down Staircase,” an adaptation of the Bel Kaufman novel starring Sandy Dennis as an idealistic schoolteacher, opened in Los Angeles. 1979 — The Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country. 1980 — The Moscow Summer Olympics began, minus dozens of nations that were boycotting the games because of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan. 1989 — A United Air Lines Flight 232, a DC-10 which suffered the uncontained failure of its tail engine and the loss of hydraulic systems, crashed killing 111 people while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa; 185 other people survived. 1990 — President George H.W. Bush joined former presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon at ceremonies dedicating the Nixon Library and Birthplace (since redesignated the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum) in Yorba Linda, California. 1992 — Anti-Mafia prosecutor Paolo Borsellino was killed along with five members of his security detail in a car bombing in Palermo, Sicily. 2007 — “Mad Men,” a cable TV series about a New York advertising agency, premiered on AMC.
Today’s Birthdays
Country singer Sue Thompson is 91. Blues singer-musician Little Freddie King is 77. Actor George Dzundza is 72. Rock musician Brian May is 70. Actress Beverly Archer is 69. Movie director Abel Ferrara is 66. Actor Peter Barton is 61. Angela Turner of Rome is 58. Rock musician Kevin Haskins (Love and Rockets; Bauhaus) is 57. Movie director Atom Egoyan is 57. Actor Campbell Scott is 56. Actor Anthony Edwards is 55. Country singer Kelly Shiver is 54. Actress Clea Lewis is 52. Percusssionist Evelyn Glennie is 52. Country musician Jeremy Patterson is 47. Classical singer Urs Buhler (Il Divo) is 46. Actor Andrew Kavovit is 46. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is 41. Actor Trai Byers is 34. Actor Steven Anthony Lawrence is 27. E’ Shawn Hines, son of Rashaeyla Douglas and Camaron Hines of Rome, is 1.