THURSDAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, July 6, the 187th day of 2017. There are 178 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On July 6, 1957, the Harry S. Truman Library, the nation’s first presidential library, was dedicated in Independence, Missouri.

On this date:

In 1535, Sir Thomas More was executed in England for high treason.

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.

In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-yearold Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.

In 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba from the Ottoman Turks.

In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a “secret annex” in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.

In 1967, war erupted as Nigeria sent troops into the secessionist state of Biafra. (The Biafran War lasted 2 1/2 years and resulted in a Nigerian victory.)

In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosion sand fires destroyed a drilling platform.

In 1997, the rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander onto the Martian landscape to begin inspecting the soil and rocks of the red planet.

Ten years ago: A man on a balcony over the New YorkNew York casino floor in Las Vegas opened fire on the gamblers below, wounding four people before he was tackled by off-duty military reservists.

Five years ago: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hailed an accelerating wave of defections in President Bashar Assad’s inner circle.

One year ago: President Barack Obama scrapped plans to cut American forces in Afghanistan by half before leaving office.

Today’s Birthdays: The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 82. Actor Burt Ward is 72. Former President George W. Bush is 71. Actordirector Sylvester Stallone is 71. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 66. Rapper 50Centis 42. Actresses Tia and Tamera Mowry is 39. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 38. Actress Eva Green is 37.

Thought for Today: “Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” — Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (born this date in 1907, died 1954).