Today in history
Today is Sunday, July 22, the 203rd day of 2018. There are 162 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik (AHN’-durs BRAY’vihk), a self-described “militant nationalist,” massacred 69 people at a Norwegian island youth retreat after detonating a bomb in nearby Oslo that killed eight others in the nation’s worst violence since World War II. On this date: In 1587, an English colony fated to vanish under mysterious circumstances was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln presented to his Cabinet a preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 1916, 10 people were killed when a suitcase bomb went off during San Francisco’s Preparedness Day parade.
In 1934, bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater, where he had just seen the Clark Gable movie “Manhattan Melodrama.”
In 1937, the U.S. Senate rejected President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.
In 1942, the Nazis began transporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. Gasoline rationing involving the use of coupons began along the Atlantic seaboard.
In 1946, the militant Zionist group Irgun blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people.
In 1963, Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson in the first round of their rematch in Las Vegas to retain the world heavyweight title.
In 1975, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore the American citizenship of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
In 1991, police in Milwaukee arrested Jeffrey Dahmer, who later confessed to murdering 17 men and boys (Dahmer ended up being beaten to death by a fellow prison inmate).
In 1992, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison near Medellin (meh-deh-YEEN’). (He was slain by security forces in December 1993.)
Ten years ago: Tropical Storm Dolly spun into a hurricane as it headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border. European Union foreign ministers agreed to toughen sanctions against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to pressure him to share power with the opposition. Actress Estelle Getty died in Los Angeles at age 84.
Five years ago: Frenzied crowds of Roman Catholics in Rio de Janeiro mobbed the car carrying Pope Francis as he returned to his home continent for the first time as pontiff, embarking on a seven-day visit. The Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, gave birth to a son, Prince George, who became third in line to the British throne after Prince Charles and Prince William. 2011 National League MVP Ryan Braun was suspended without pay for the rest of the season and the postseason, the start of sanctions involving players reportedly tied to a Florida clinic accused of distributing performanceenhancing drugs.
One year ago: Israel’s military fortified its troops in the West Bank and placed forces on high alert, a day after a Palestinian stabbed to death three members of an Israeli family. Violence resumed near the epicenter of the current crisis after hundreds of Muslim worshippers held evening prayers outside a Jerusalem holy site where Israel had imposed security measures following a deadly attack.