Today in history
Today is Wednesday, July 5, the 186th day of 2017. There are 179 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On July 5, 1947, Larry Doby made his debut with the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black player in the American League three months after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the National League. In the game against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park, Doby, pinch-hitting for Bryan Stephens, struck out in his first at-bat during the seventh inning; Chicago won 6-5.
On this date
In 1687, Isaac Newton first published his Principia Mathematica, a three-volume work setting out his mathematical principles of natural philosophy.
In 1811, Venezuela became the first South American country to declare independence from Spain. In 1865, the Secret Service Division of the U.S. Treasury Department was founded in Washington, D.C. with the mission of suppressing counterfeit currency. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act. In 1940, during World War II, Britain and the Vichy government in France broke off diplomatic relations.
In 1946, the bikini, created by Louis Reard (ray-AHRD’), was modeled by Micheline Bernardini during a poolside fashion show in Paris.
In 1954, Elvis Presley’s first commercial recording session took place at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee; the song he recorded was “That’s All Right.” In 1962, independence took effect in Algeria; the same day, civilians of European descent, mostly French, came under attack by extremists in the port city of Oran. In 1977, Pakistan’s army, led by General Mohammad Zia ulHaq, seized power from President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (ZUL’-fih-kahr ah-LEE’ BOO’toh). (Bhutto was executed in 1979.) In 1984, the Supreme Court weakened the 70-yearold “exclusionary rule,” deciding that evidence seized in good faith with defective court warrants could be used against defendants in criminal trials.
In 1991, a worldwide financial scandal erupted as regulators in eight countries shut down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Actress Mildred Dunnock died in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, at age 90. In 2011, a jury in Orlando, Florida, found Casey Anthony, 25, not guilty of murder, manslaughter and child abuse in the 2008 disappearance and death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Ten years ago: In a setback for President George W. Bush, GOP stalwart Sen. Pete Domenici (doh-MEN’-ih-chee) withdrew his support for the president’s Iraq war policy and embraced a proposal to bring home most troops by March 2008. French opera soprano Regine Crespin died in Paris at age 80.
Five years ago: Trucks carrying NATO supplies rolled into Afghanistan for the first time in more than seven months, ending a painful chapter in U.S.-Pakistan relations that saw the border closed until Washington apologized for an airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla was convicted and sentenced to 50 years for a systematic program to steal babies from prisoners who were kidnapped, tortured and killed during the military junta’s so-called “dirty war” on leftist dissidents. (Videla died in prison in May 2013.) Jockey Jorge Herrera, 33, died after falling from his horse during a race at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in California.