TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, July 6, the 187th day of 2015. There are 178 days lef t in the year.

In 1415, Czech church reformer Jan Hus, condemned for heresy, was burned at the stake in Konstanz in present-day Germany.

In 1535, Sir Thomas More was executed in England for high trea son.

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured For t Ticonderoga.

In 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba from the 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 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. Nicaragua became the first nation to ratify the United Nations Charter.

In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title as she defeated fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2.

In 1964, the movie “A Hard Day’s Night,” starring The Beatles, had it s world premiere in London. The British colony Nyasaland became the independent country of Malawi.

In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform. Medical waste and other debris began washing up on New York City-area seashores, forcing the closing of several popular beaches.

In 1994, 14 firefighters were killed while bat tling a several-days-old blaze on Storm King Mountain in Colorado.