TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1810 Phineas Taylor Barnum, the circus showman known as “P.T.,” was born in Bethel, Conn.

In 1811 Venezuela became the first South American country to declare independence from Spain.

In 1830 the French occupied the northern African city of Algiers.

In 1853 Cecil Rhodes, financier and empire builder of British South Africa, was born in Bishop’s Stortford, England.

In 1865 William Booth founded the Salvation Army in London.

In 1911 Georges Pompidou, who would become France’s premier (1962-1968) and then president (1969-1974), was born in Mountboudif, France.

In 1935 President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act, which provided for a National Labor Relations Board, and authorized labor to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining.

In 1940, during World War II, the Vichy government in France broke off relations with Britain.

In 1946 the bikini bathing suit made its debut at a fashion show in Paris.

In 1947 Larry Doby became the second black player in modern major league baseball and the first in the American League when he signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians.

In 1948 Britain’s National Health Service Act took effect, providing government-funded medical and dental care.

In 1954 Elvis Presley’s first commercial recording session took place at Sun Records in Memphis. The result was “That’s All Right (Mama).”

In 1969 Walter Gropius, the German architect who founded the Bauhaus school of design, died in Boston; he was 86.

In 1975 Arthur Ashe defeated Jimmy Connors to become the first black tennis player to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title. Also in 1975 the Cape Verde Islands officially became independent after 515 years under Portuguese rule.

In 1989 former National Security Council aide Oliver North was fined $150,000 and given a suspended prison term for his role in the Iran-contra affair. (His conviction later were overturned.)

In 1991 a worldwide financial scandal erupted as regulators in eight countries shut down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, charging it with fraud, drug money laundering and illegal infiltration into the U.S. banking system.

In 1995 more than 100 Grateful Dead fans were injured when a deck on which they were gathered collapsed at a campground near Wentzville, Mo.

In 1997, for the first time in human history, a mechanism produced on earth roamed the surface of Mars when a robot rover began creeping away from its mothership, the U.S.launched Pathfinder, which had landed on the planet the previous day. Also in 1997 Martina Hingis, 16, defeated Jana Novotna for the women’s crown at Wimbledon, making her the British tennis tournament’s youngest singles champion of this century.

In 1998 British security forces in Northern Ireland blocked a group of Protestants from parading through the main Catholic neighborhood of Portadown.

In 2000, at the United Nations, President Bill Clinton signed an international agreement to ban the forcible recruitment of youths as soldiers in armed conflict, and a companion accord to protect children from being forced into slavery, prostitution and pornography. Also in 2000 the UN Security Council imposed a diamond ban on Sierra Leone’s rebels in a bid to strangle their ability to finance a civil war.

In 2001 President George W. Bush named veteran prosecutor Robert Mueller to head the FBI.

In 2002 Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox slugger who was the last major leaguer to bat more than .400 for a season (.406 in 1941), died in Inverness, Fla.; he was 83.

In 2005 retired Vice Adm. James Stockdale, a war hero who was Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential running mate, died in Coronado, Calif.; he was 81.

In 2007, in a setback to President George W. Bush’s war strategy, GOP stalwart Sen. Pete Domenici said he wanted to see an end to combat operations and U.S. troops heading home from Iraq by spring 2008. Also in

2007 French opera great Regine Crespin died in Paris at age 80.

In 2011 a jury in Orlando, Fla., found Casey Anthony, 25, not guilty of murder, manslaughter and child abuse in the 2008 disappearance and death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

In 2015 the U.S. women’s national soccer team defeated Japan 5-2 to win its third World Cup. Also In 2015 the surviving members of the Grateful Dead played for the last time under that band name with a at Chicago’s Soldier Field.