The more things change, the more they stay the same

“Plus ca change.” With devastating news of one kind or another occurring on an almost daily basis, it is both comforting (we have lived through this before) and consternating (when will we ever learn?) to look at past events.

So I did a little research on what has occurred on only one day, this very day, July 24, in the past. You may notice that history does indeed repeat itself.

• Brigham Young and his Mormon followers arrive at Salt Lake City.

• First time federal troops are used to combat strikers.

• 1900: Race riots in New Orleans; two white policemen are killed.

• 1911: Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, lost city of the Incas.

• 1915: U.S. steamer Eastland overturns in the Chicago River, drowning 850 passengers.

• 1919: Race riot in Washington — 16 killed and 100 wounded.

• 1925: John Scopes found guilty of teaching evolution in the “Scopes monkey trial.”

• 1929: President Herbert Hoover proclaims Kellog-Briand Pact, which renounces war.

• 1939: Major crop losses due to drought in Northeastern U.S.

• 1941: Nazis kill entire population of Grodz, Lithuania.

• 1942: Irving Berlin musical “This is the Army” premiers in New York City.

• 1943: Britain and the U.S. work together on non-stop bombing raids on Hamburg, Germany.

• 1959: Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev have a debate in the middle of a model kitchen set up for the American National Exhibition in Moscow.

• 1967: Charles de Gaulle says, “Vive le Quebec libre” — “Long live free Quebec,” angering Britons.

• 1969: Apollo 11 safely returns to Earth, fulfilling the dream of President John F. Kennedy.

• 1974: Supreme Court unanimously rules Nixon must turn over Watergate tapes.

• 1985: Sinking of the ship the Rainbow Warrior by French secret service agents.

• 2005: The 92nd Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, retires after winning a record seventh consecutive victory, but later is disqualified for doping.

• 2007: The eight presidential candidates for the Democratic party in the 2008 election held their first debate. Among them were Senators Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

• 2008: At South Mountain Community College in Arizona, a gunman wounded 3 people.

• 2011: Mexican authorities arrest over 1,000 in a crackdown on human trafficking.

• 2014: Air Algeria flight with 110 people aboard loses contact with air traffic controller. The wreckage is later found in Mali.

• 2015: President Obama begins an historic two-day visit to Kenya.

There were many famous people born on this day. To mention only a few: Simon Bolivar, Alexandre Dumas, Amelia Earhart, Bella Abzug, Claire McCaskill, William Gillette and Jennifer Lopez.

I’ll leave you with the wise words of Edmund Burke, “Those who don’t know history are condemned to repeat it.”