TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Friday, July 10, the 192nd day of 2020. There are 174 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 10, 1940, during World War II, the Battle of Britain began as the Luftwaffe started attacking southern England. (The Royal Air Force was ultimately victorious.) On this date: In 1908, William Jennings Bryan was nominated for president by the Democratic national convention in Denver.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles (vehrSY’) to the Senate and urged its ratification. (However, the Senate rejected it.)

In 1925, jury selection took place in Dayton, Tennessee, in the trial of John T. Scopes, charged with violating the law by teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (Scopes was convicted and fined, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality.)

In 1951, armistice talks aimed at ending the Korean War began at Kaesong.

In 1973, the Bahamas became fully independent after three centuries of British colonial rule. John Paul Getty III, the teenage grandson of the oil tycoon, was abducted in Rome by kidnappers who cut off his ear when his family was slow to meet their ransom demands; Getty was released in December 1973 for nearly $3 million.

In 1991, Boris N. Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic. President George H.W. Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa.

In 1992, a New York jury found Pan Am guilty of willful misconduct and responsible for allowing a terrorist bomb to destroy Flight 103 in 1988, killing 270 people, opening the way for civil lawsuits.

In 1999, the United States women’s soccer team won the World Cup, beating China 5-4 on penalty kicks after 120 minutes of scoreless play at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

In 2002, The House approved, 310-113, a measure to allow airline pilots to carry guns in the cockpit to defend their planes against terrorists (President George W. Bush later signed the measure into law).

In 2004, President George W. Bush said in his weekly radio address that legalizing gay marriage would redefine the most fundamental institution of civilization, and that a constitutional amendment was needed to protect traditional marriage.