TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, JULY 6, the 187th day of 2021. There are 178 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1854, the first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Michigan.
In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.
In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-yearold Joseph Meister who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.
In 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba from the Ottoman Turks.
In 1933, the first All-Star baseball game was played at Chicago’s Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.
In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a “secret annex” in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.
In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.
In 1957, the Harry S. Truman Library, the nation’s first presidential library, was dedicated in Independence, Missouri.
In 1971, jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong died in New York at age 69.
In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.
In 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity (Miller was jailed for 85 days before agreeing to testify).
In 2015, Pope Francis received a hero’s welcome in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, as he celebrated the first public Mass of his South American tour.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 86. Singer Gene Chandler and country singer Jeannie Seely are 81. Actor Burt Ward is 76. Former President George W. Bush, actor-director Sylvester Stallone and actor Fred Dryer are 75. Actor Shelley Hack is 74. Actor Nathalie Baye is 73. Actors Geoffrey Rush and Allyce Beasley are 70. Rock musician John Bazz (The Blasters) and actor Grant Goodeve are 69. Country singer Nanci Griffith is 68. Retired MLB All-Star Willie Randolph is 67. Jazz musician Rick Braun and actor Casey Sander are 66. Country musician John Jorgenson is 65. Former first daughter Susan Ford Bales, and hockey player and coach Ron Duguay are 64. Actor-writer Jennifer Saunders is 63. Rock musician John Keeble (Spandau Ballet) is 62. Actor Pip Torrens is 61. Actor Brian Posehn is 55. Actor Robb Derringer is 54. Political reporter/moderator John Dickerson is 53. Actor Brian Van Holt is 52. Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan) is 51. TV host Josh Elliott is 50. Rapper 50 Cent is 46. Actors Tia and Tamera Mowry are 43. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 42. Actor Eva Green is 41. Actor Gregory Smith is 38. Rock musician Chris “Woody” Wood (Bastille) is 36. Rock singer Kate Nash is 34. Actor Jeremy Suarez is 31. San Diego Padres infielder Manny Machado is 29. NBA star Zion Williamson is 21.