TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

July 7, 1865

Four people were hanged in Washington, D.C. for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln: Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the federal government. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1846

U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.

1919

The first Transcontinental Motor Convoy, in which a U.S. Army convoy of motorized vehicles crossed the United States, departed Washington, D.C.

1937

The Second Sino-Japanese War erupted into full-scale conflict as Imperial Japanese forces attacked the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing.

1946

Italian-born Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized as the first American saint by Pope Pius XII. Jimmy Carter, 21, married Rosalynn Smith, 18, in Plains, Georgia.

1948

Six female U.S. Navy reservists became the first women to be sworn in to the regular Navy.

1954

Elvis Presley made his radio debut as Memphis, Tennessee, station WHBQ played his first recording for Sun Records, “That’s All Right.”

1969

Canada’s House of Commons gave final approval to the Official Languages Act, making French equal to English throughout the national government.