TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, JULY 12, the 193rd day of 2021. There are 172 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1984, Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale announced his choice of U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate; Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major-party ticket.
In 1812, United States forces led by Gen. William Hull entered Canada during the War of 1812 against Britain. (However, Hull retreated shortly thereafter to Detroit.)
In 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill authorizing the Army Medal of Honor.
In 1909, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing for a federal income tax, and submitted it to the states. (It was declared ratified in February 1913.)
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was flown by helicopter from the White House to a secret mountaintop location as part of a drill involving a mock nuclear attack on Washington.
In 1960, the Etch-A-Sketch Magic Screen drawing toy, invented by French electrician Andre Cassagnes, was first produced by the Ohio Art Co.
In 1962, The Rolling Stones played their first gig at The Marquee in London.
In 1965, the Beach Boys single “California Girls” was released by Capitol Records.
In 1967, rioting erupted in Newark, New Jersey, over the police beating of a Black taxi driver; 26 people were killed in the five days of violence that followed.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon signed a measure creating the Congressional Budget Office. Former White House aide John Ehrlichman and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg’s former psychiatrist.
In 1991, a Japanese professor (Hitoshi Igarashi) who had translated Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” was found stabbed to death nine days after the novel’s Italian translator was attacked in Milan.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton, visiting Germany, went to the eastern sector of Berlin, the first U.S. president to do so since Harry Truman.
In 2003, the USS Ronald Reagan, the first carrier named for a living president, was commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Singermusician Christine McVie is 78. Actor Denise Nicholas is 77. Singer-songwriter Butch Hancock is 76. Fitness guru Richard Simmons and singer Walter Egan are 73. Writer-producer Brian Grazer and actor Cheryl Ladd are 70. Gospel singer Ricky McKinnie is 69. Country singer Julie Miller, gospel singer Sandi Patty and actor Mel Harris are 65. Actor Buddy Foster is 64. Rock guitarist Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) is 59. Actor Judi Evans is 57. Rock singer Robin Wilson (Gin Blossoms) is 56. Actor Lisa Nicole Carson is 52. Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is 50. Country singer Shannon Lawson is 48. CBS newsman Jeff Glor is 46. Actors Anna Friel and Alsion Wright, R&B singer Tracie Spencer and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. are 45. Actor Steve Howey is 44. Actors Topher Grace and Michelle Rodriguez are 43. Actor Kristen Connolly is 41. Country singermusician Kimberly Perry (The Band Perry) is 38. Actors Matt Cook (TV: “Man With a Plan”) and Natalie Martinez are 37. Actor Bernard David Jones is 36. Actors Ta’Rhonda Jones and Melissa O’Neil, and golfer Inbee Park are 33. Actor Rachel Brosnahan is 31. Actor Erik Per Sullivan is 30. Olympic gold medal gymnast Jordyn Wieber is 26. Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai is 24.