TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, July 14, the 196th day of 2020. There are 170 days left in the year.
ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
On July 14, 2016, terror struck Bastille Day celebrations in the French Riviera city of Nice (nees) as a large truck plowed into a festive crowd, killing 86 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State extremists; the driver was shot dead by police.
1798 — Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.
1865 — The Matterhorn, straddling Italy and Switzerland, was summited as a seven-member rope party led by British climber Edward Whymper reached the peak. (Four members of the party fell to their deaths during their descent; Whymper and two guides survived.)
1914 — Scientist Robert H. Goddard received a US patent for a liquid-fueled rocket apparatus.
1921 — Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted in Dedham, Massachusetts, of murdering a shoe company paymaster and his guard. (Sacco and Vanzetti were executed six years later.)
1933 — All German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed.
1960 — British researcher Jane Goodall arrived at the Gombe Stream Reserve in the Tanganyika Territory (in present-day Tanzania) to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild.
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.”
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).
2009 — Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff arrived at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina to begin serving a 150-year sentence for his massive Ponzi scheme. 2013 — 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.
2014 — The Church of England voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing women to become bishops.
Ten years ago — An Iranian nuclear scientist who had disappeared a year earlier headed back to
Tehran, telling Iranian state media that he had been abducted by CIA agents. (The US said Shahram Amiri was a willing defector who had changed his mind.)
Five years ago — World powers and Iran struck a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. President Barack Obama laid out an expansive vision for fixing America’s criminal justice system in a speech to the NAACP’s annual convention in Philadelphia. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft got humanity’s first up-close look at Pluto, sending word of its triumphant flyby across 3 billion miles to scientists waiting breathlessly back home. Mike Trout became the first player in 38 years to lead off the All-Star Game with a home run, and the American League beat the National League 6-3.
One year ago — Injecting race into his criticism of liberal Democrats, President Donald Trump tweeted that four congresswomen of color should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from; all of the women were American citizens, and three were born in the US Novak Djokovic won his fifth Wimbledon title, and his second in a row, beating Roger Federer in a fifth-set tiebreaker. Former boxer Pernell Whitaker, a four-division champion, died at the age of 55 after being hit by a car in Virginia.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Actress Nancy Olson is
92. Former football player and actor Rosey Grier is
88. Actor Vincent Pastore is
74. Music company executive Tommy Mottola is 72. Rock musician Chris Cross (Ultravox) is 68. Actor Jerry Houser is 68. Actor-director Eric Laneuville is 68. Actor Stan Shaw is 68. Movie producer Scott Rudin is 62. Singer-guitarist Kyle Gass is
60. Country musician Ray Herndon (McBride and the Ride) is 60. Actress Jane Lynch is 60. Actor Jackie Earle Haley is 59. Actor Matthew Fox is 54. Rock musician Ellen Reid (Crash Test Dummies) is 54. Rock singer-musician Tanya Donelly is 54. Former child actress Missy Gold is 50. Olympic gold medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati is
49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Tameka Cottle (Xscape) is 45. Country singer Jamey Johnson is 45. Hip-hop musician “taboo” (Black Eyed Peas) is 45. Actor Scott Porter is 41. Actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge is 35. Rock singer Dan Smith (Bastille) is 34. Actress Sara Canning (TV: “The Vampire Diaries”) is 33. Rock singer Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons) is 33.