Today in history

On July 14, 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed.

In 1789, in an event symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.

In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias “Billy the Kid,” was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.

In 1914, scientist Robert H. Goddard received a U.S. patent for a liquid-fueled rocket apparatus.

In 1945, Italy formally declared war on Japan, its former Axis partner during World War II.

In 1964, in a speech to the Republican national convention in San Francisco, New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller was booed by supporters of Barry Goldwater as he called on the GOP to denounce political extremists.

In 1966, the city of Chicago awoke to the shocking news that eight student nurses had been brutally slain during the night in a South Side dormitory. Drifter Richard Speck was convicted of the mass killing and condemned to death, but had his sentence reduced to life in prison, where he died in 1991.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s convention in New York.

In 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.”

In 1999, race-based school busing in Boston came to an end after 25 years.

In 2004, the Senate scuttled a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. (Forty-eight senators voted to advance the measure — 12 short of the 60 needed — and 50 voted to block it).

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore oil drilling which had stood since his father was president.

Five years ago: 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. German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a TV interview, called for tougher European and global rules on data protection amid fallout from recent revelations about U.S. surveillance programs.

One year ago: A Russian-American lobbyist said he attended a June 2016 meeting with President Donald Trump’s son that was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican campaign.