Today in History

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Today is Thursday, July 6, the 187th day of 2023. There are 178 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 6, 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.

On this date:

In 1483, England’s King Richard III was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga (ty-kahndur-oh’-gah).

In 1854, the first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Michigan. In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.

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 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a “secret annex” in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.

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 1988, 167North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.

In 2015, Pope Francis received a hero’s welcome in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, as he celebrated the first public Mass of his South American tour. In 2016, Philando Castile, a Black elementary school cafeteria worker, was killed during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights by Officer Jeronimo Yanez. (Yanez was later acquitted on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.)

In 2020, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization; President Donald Trump had criticized the WHO’S response to the coronavirus pandemic. (The pullout was later halted by President Joe Biden’s administration.)

Ten years ago: A runaway train carrying crude oil derailed in eastern Quebec, igniting fires and explosions that destroyed much of the town of Lac-megantic and killed 47 people. An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport; of the 307people on board Flight 214, three Chinese teens were killed. A solar-powered aircraft, the Solar Impulse, completed the final leg of a history-making cross-country flight, gliding to a smooth stop at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Marion Bartoli won her first major title, defeating Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-4in the Wimbledon final. Jimmie Johnson became the first driver in 31years to sweep Daytona International Speedway.

Five years ago: The United States and China imposed tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s goods in what Beijing called the “biggest trade war in economic history.” Japan’s Justice Ministry confirmed that six followers of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult had been hanged along with its leader, Shoko Asahara; they had been convicted of crimes including a 1995sarin gas attack that killed 13people and sickened thousands of others on the Tokyo subway system. A former Thai navy SEAL died while diving in flooded cave passageways to deliver supplies to 12schoolboys and their soccer coach who’d been trapped for nearly two weeks.

One year ago: Authorities said a man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade confessed to police that he unleashed a hail of bullets from a rooftop in suburban Chicago and then fled to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated shooting up an event there. The gunman instead turned back to Illinois, where he was arrested. A police officer armed with a rifle watched the gunman in the Uvalde elementary school massacre walk toward the campus but did not fire while waiting for permission from a supervisor to shoot, according to a newly released sweeping critique of the tactical response to the tragedy six weeks earlier. Today’s Birthdays: The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is

88. Singer Gene Chandler is 83. Country singer Jeannie Seely is 83. Actor Burt Ward is 78. Former President George W. Bush is 77. Actor-director Sylvester Stallone is 77. Actor Fred Dryer is 77. Actor Shelley Hack is 76. Actor Nathalie Baye is 75. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 72. Actor Allyce Beasley is 72. Rock musician John Bazz (The Blasters) is 71. Actor Grant Goodeve is

71. Retired MLB All-star Willie Randolph is 69. Jazz musician Rick Braun is 68. Actor Casey Sander is 68. Country musician John Jorgenson is 67. Former first daughter Susan Ford Bales is 66. Hockey player and coach Ron Duguay (doo-gay’) is 66. Actor-writer Jennifer Saunders is

65. Rock musician John Keeble (Spandau Ballet) is 64. Actor Pip Torrens is 63. Actor Brian Posehn is 57. Actor Robb Derringer is

56. Political reporter/moderator John Dickerson is 55. Actor Brian Van Holt is 54. Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-tang Clan) is 53. TV host Josh Elliott is 52. Rapper 50Cent is 48. Actors Tia and Tamera Mowry (MOHR’-EE) are

45. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 44. Actor Eva (Eh’-vuh) Green is 43. Actor Gregory Smith is 40. Rock musician Chris “Woody” Wood (Bastille) is 38. Rock singer Kate Nash is 36. Actor Jeremy Suarez is 33. San Diego Padres infielder Manny Machado is 31. NBA star Zion Williamson is 23.

Friday, July 7, 2023

Today is Friday, July 7, the 188th day of 2023. There are 177 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On July 7, 1976, the United States Military Academy at West Point included female cadets for the first time as 119women joined the Class of 1980.

On this date:

In 1846, U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.

In 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C. for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln: Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the federal government.

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii.

In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam). In 1946, Jimmy Carter, 21, married Rosalynn (Roh’-zuh-lihn) Smith, 18, in Plains, Georgia. In 1948, six female U.S. Navy reservists became the first women to be sworn in to the regular Navy.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1990, the first “Three Tenors” concert took place as opera stars Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras performed amid the brick ruins of Rome’s Baths of Caracalla on the eve of the World Cup championship.

In 2005, terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II.

In 2010, Los Angeles police charged Lonnie Franklin Jr. in the city’s “Grim Sleeper” serial killings. (Franklin, who was sentenced to death for the killings of nine women and a teenage girl, died in prison in March 2020 at the age of 67.)

In 2016, Micah Johnson, a Black Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, opened fire on Dallas police, killing five officers in an act of vengeance for the fatal police shootings of Black men; the attack ended with Johnson being killed by a bomb delivered by a police robot.

Ten years ago: A de Havilland Dhc-3otter air taxi crashed after taking off from Soldotna, Alaska, killing all 10 people on board. Andy Murray became the first British man in 77years to win the Wimbledon title, beating Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

Five years ago: After two days of talks in North Korea’s capital, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had commitments for new discussions on denuclearization, but North Korea said Pompeo’s visit had been “regrettable” and that the United States was making “gangster-like” demands. High electricity demand amid a California heat wave left tens of thousands without power in Los Angeles.

One year ago: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation after droves of top government officials quit over the latest scandal to engulf him, marking an end to three tumultuous years in which he tried to bluster his way through one ethical lapse after another. A federal judge sentenced Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, telling the former Minneapolis police officer that what he did was “simply wrong” and “offensive.” James Caan, the curly-haired tough guy known to movie fans as the hotheaded Sonny Corleone of “The Godfather” and to television audiences as the dying football player in the classic weeper “Brian’s Song,” died at age 82. Today’s Birthdays: Musicianconductor Doc Severinsen is

96. Rock star Ringo Starr is

83. Comedian Bill Oddie is 82. Singer-guitarist Warren Entner of the Grass Roots is 80. Actor Joe Spano is 77. Pop singer David Hodo (The Village People) is 76. Country singer Linda Williams is 76. Actor Shelley Duvall is 74. Actor Roz Ryan is 72. Actor Billy Campbell is 64. Rock musician Mark White (Spin Doctors) is 61. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 60. Actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan is 57. R&B musician Ricky Kinchen (Mint Condition) is 57. Actor Amy Carlson is 55. Actor Jorja Fox is 55. Actor Cree Summer is 54. Actor Robin Weigert is 54. Actor Kirsten Vangsness is

51. Actor Troy Garity is 50. Actor Berenice Bejo (Beh’-ruh-nees Bay’-hoh) is 47. Actor Hamish Linklater is 47. Olympic silver and bronze medal figure skater Michelle Kwan is 43. Rapper Cassidy is 41. Country singer Gabbie Nolen is 41. Actor Ross Malinger is 39. Actor-comedian Luke Null (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 33. Pop singer Ally Hernandez (Fifth Harmony) (TV: “The X Factor”) is

30. Pop musician Ashton Irwin (5 Seconds to Summer) is 29. Country singer Maddie Font (Maddie and Tae) is 28.

Saturday, July 8, 2023 Today is Saturday, July 8, the 189th day of 2023. There are 176 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 8, 1972, the Nixon administration announced a deal to sell $750million in grain to the Soviet Union. (However, the Soviets were also engaged in secretly buying subsidized American grain, resulting in what critics dubbed “The Great Grain Robbery.”)

On this date:

In 1776, Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, outside the State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. In 1853, an expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Yedo Bay, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese.

In 1907, Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first “Follies,” on the roof of the New York Theater.

In 1947, a New Mexico newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, quoted officials at Roswell Army Air Field as saying they had recovered a “flying saucer” that crashed onto a ranch; officials then said it was actually a weather balloon.

In 1950, President Harry S. Truman named Gen. Douglas Macarthur commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. (Truman would fire Macarthur for insubordination nine months later.)

In 1967, Academy Award-winning “Gone With the Wind” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” actor Vivien Leigh died in London at age 53.

In 1989, Carlos Saul Menem was inaugurated as president of Argentina in the country’s first transfer of power from one democratically elected civilian leader to another in six decades.

In 1994, Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.

In 2000, Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport for her first Grand Slam title, becoming the first Black female champion at Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1958.

In 2010, the largest spy swap between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War unfolded as 10 people accused of spying in suburban America pleaded guilty to conspiracy and were ordered deported to Russia in exchange for the release of four prisoners accused of spying for the West. In 2011, former first lady Betty Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 93.

In 2016, on the first day of a twoday summit in Warsaw, NATO leaders geared up for a long-term standoff with Russia, ordering multinational troops to Poland and the three Baltic states as Moscow moved forward with its own plans to station two new divisions along its western borders. Ten years ago: Breaking their public silence, three women who’d been held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade issued a Youtube video; in it, Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus and Michelle Knight thanked the public for the encouragement and financial support allowing them to restart their lives.

Five years ago: A woman who was poisoned in southwest England died, eight days after she may have touched a contaminated item containing the same type of military-grade nerve agent used to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter in the area in March. Divers rescued four of the 12 boys who’d been trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand with their soccer coach for more than two weeks. (The remaining eight boys and their coach were rescued over the next two days.) Actor and singer Tab Hunter died at the age of 86. One year ago: Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech — an attack that stunned a nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere. The 67-year-old Abe was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to protect access to abortion, delivering impassioned remarks condemning the Supreme Court decision that ended that constitutional right. Larry Storch, the rubber-faced comic whose long career in theater, movies and television was capped by his “F Troop” role as zany Cpl. Agarn, died at age 99. Today’s Birthdays: Singer Steve Lawrence is 88. Actor Jeffrey Tambor is 79. Rock musician Jaimoe Johanson is 78. Ballerina Cynthia Gregory is 76. Actor Kim Darby is 76. Actor Jonelle Allen is 75. Children’s performer Raffi is 75. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is 74. Actor Anjelica Huston is 72. Writer Anna Quindlen is

71. Actor Kevin Bacon is 65. Actor Robert Knepper is 64. Country singer Toby Keith is 62. Rock singer Joan Osborne is 61. Writer-producer Rob Burnett is

61. Actor Rocky Carroll is 60. Actor Corey Parker is 58. Actor Lee Tergesen is 58. Actor Michael B. Silver is 56. Actor Billy Crudup is

55. Actor Michael Weatherly is

55. Singer Beck is 53. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is 50. Actor Kathleen Robertson is 50. Christian rock musician Stephen Mason (Jars of Clay) is 48. Actor Milo Ventimiglia (Mee’-loh vehntih-meel’-yuh) is 46. Singer Ben Jelen (YEL’-IN) is 44. Actor Lance Gross is 42. Actor Sophia Bush is 41.