TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, July 27, the 208th day of 2022.
Today’s highlight in history
On July 27, 1953, the Korean War armistice was signed, ending three years of fighting.
On this date
In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
In 1909, during the first official test of the U.S. Army’s first plane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Va., for one hour and 12 minutes.
In 1940, Billboard magazine published its first “music popularity chart” listing bestselling retail records. (In first place was “I’ll Never Smile Again” recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with featured vocalist Frank Sinatra.)
In 1960, Vice President Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of urban rioting, the same day Black militant H. Rap Brown told a news conference in Washington that violence was “as American as cherry pie.”
In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.
In 1980, on day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis, the deposed Shah of Iran died at age 60.
In 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from a department store in Hollywood, Fla., and was later murdered. (His father, John Walsh, became a well-known crime victims’ advocate.)
In 1996, terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, directly killing one person and injuring 111. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleaded guilty to the bombing, exonerating security guard Richard Jewell, who had been wrongly suspected.)
In 2015, the Boy Scouts of America ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.
One year ago: U.S. gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental well-being, saying she realized following a shaky vault that she wasn’t in the right headspace to compete. Actor Bob Odenkirk collapsed on the set of “Better Call Saul” in New Mexico; he later announced that he’d had a small heart attack.
Today’s birthdays
Producer Norman Lear is 100. Actor John Pleshette is 80. Actor Betty Thomas is 75. Figure skater Peggy Fleming is 74. Singer Maureen McGovern is 73. Actor Roxanne Hart is 68. Comedian-writer Carol Leifer is 66. Comedian Bill Engvall is 65. Actor Julian McMahon is 54. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is 52. Actor Maya Rudolph is 50. Singer Pete Yorn is 48. Former MLB All-Star Alex Rodriguez is 47. Actor Taylor Schilling is 38. Golfer Jordan Spieth is 29.