TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2016

Terror struck Bastille Day celebrations in the French Riviera city of Nice as a large truck plowed into a festive crowd, killing 86 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State extremists; the driver was shot dead by police.

1789

In an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

1798

Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.

1865

the Matterhorn, straddling Italy and Switzerland, was summited as a seven-member rope party led by British climber Edward Whymper reached the peak.

1914

Scientist Robert H. Goddard received a U.S. patent for a liquid-fueled rocket apparatus.

1921

Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in Dedham, Massachusetts, of murdering a shoe company paymaster and his guard.

1933

All German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed.

1980

The Republican national convention opened in Detroit, where nominee-apparent Ronald Reagan told a welcoming rally he and his supporters were determined to “make America great again.”

2004

The Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage..

2009

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff arrived at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to begin serving a 150-year sentence for his massive Ponzi scheme.

2013

Thousands of demonstrators across the country protested a Florida jury’s decision the day before to clear George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

2014

The Church of England voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing women to become bishops.