THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

July 22

 

1793: Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific Ocean to become the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada.

1923: Born this day: U.S. presidential candidate, Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and wrestler The Fabulous Moolah (died 2007).

1934: Outlaw hero John Dillinger was gunned down by FBI agents in front of Chicago’s Biograph Cinema.

1942: The U.S. government ordered gasoline rationing for civilians to support the war effort.

1943: Born this day: U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and singer Bobby Sherman (“Julie Do Ya Love Me”).

1947: Born this day: actor Albert Brooks, and rock singer Don Henley.

1963: Born this day: actor Rob Estes, and folk singer Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls).

1964: Born this day: actors John Leguizamo and David Spade.
2016: Japan’s Funai Electric announce they will manufacture world’s last videocassette this month.
2019: NFL Dallas Cowboys named most valuable sports team in the world worth $5 billion, MLB New York Yankees 2nd at $4.6 billion, Real Madrid 3rd with $4.2 billion according to Forbes.

July 23

 

1829: William Austin Burt of Chicago patented the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.

1885: Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War general and 18th U.S. president, died in New York at age 63.

1904: The ice cream cone was invented at the World’s Fair in St. Louis.

1926: Fox Film bought the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.

1929: The Fascist government in Italy banned the use of non-Italian words.

1936: Born this day: L.A. Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale (died 1993), and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

1938: Born this day: Actor Ronny Cox (Deliverance, Beverly Hills Cop, RoboCop, Total Recall).

1961: Born this day: comedian André Ducharme; author and U.S. Air Force pilot Michael Durant; musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode); and actor Woody Harrelson (Cheers).

1962: Telstar relayed the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.

1983: Air Canada Flight 143, a Boeing 767-233, ran out of fuel and glided to a landing at Gimli airport, Manitoba.

1995: Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered. (It became visible to the naked eye nearly a year later.)
2018: First graphic novel to be nominated for a major literary prize is “Sabrina” by Nick Drnaso for Booker long list.
2019: BHP becomes the first mining company to tackle pollution, says it will invest $400 million to reduce emissions.

July 24

 

1847: Mormon leader Brigham Young peered out of his covered wagon across the broad, empty Salt Lake valley and declared, “This is the place,” thus ending a three-year journey by 148 Mormon pioneers into the West from Illinois.

1862: Martin Van Buren, eighth U.S. president (1837-1841), died in Kinderhook, N.Y., at age 79.

1911: Hiram Bingham III re-discovered Machu Picchu, “the Lost City of the Incas.”

1935: The Dust Bowl heat wave reached its peak, sending temperatures to 109 degrees F in Chicago and 104 degrees F in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

1936: Born this day: TV actors Ruth Buzzi (Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in), and Mark Goddard (Lost in Space).

1948: Marc Racicot, former Montana governor, former head of the Republican National Committee and one-time advisor to President George W. Bush, was born in Thompson Falls, Mont. His family moved to Libby, Mont., when he was age 4. He graduated from Libby High School in 1966.

1974: At the height of the Watergate scandal, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and ordered him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
2018: First bison born in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, in 140 years, after being reintroduced.
2019: Facebook agrees to pay $5 billion fine, largest ever for violating consumer privacy, to the US Federal Trade Commission.

 

July 25

 

1837: The first commercial use of an electric telegraph was successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone between Euston and Camden Town in London.

1861: The United States Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the Civil War was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

1866: Congress passed legislation authorizing the five-star rank of General of the Army. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant became the first to be promoted to this rank.

1894: Born this day: actor Walter Brennan (To Have and Have Not, How the West Was Won, Dukie!, The Real McCoys, died 1974), and Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the act which resulted in World War I (died 1918).

1920: The first trans-Atlantic two-way radio broadcast took place.

1946: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis staged their first show as a comedy team at Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1965: Bob Dylan ‘went electric’ as he plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music. His performance was booed by a large number of spectators.

1976: Viking 1 took the famous photo of the “Face on Mars.”

1978: Louise Brown, the world’s first “test tube baby,” was born.

2010: Wikileaks published classified documents about the war in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in U.S. military history.
2017: Sperm counts have halved in last 40 years says research published in “Human Reproduction Update” journal.
2018: Liquid lake found on Mars under its South Pole by European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter reported in “Science”.

 

July 26

 

1775: Benjamin Franklin became the first postmaster general.

1788: New York ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the 11th state.

1803: The Surrey Iron Railway, the world’s first public railway, opened in south London, England.

1887: The publication of the Unua Libro marked the founding of Esperanto, the most successful manmade language in existence. It is spoken by about two million people worldwide.

1895: Born this day: actress Gracie Allen (“Burns and Allen,” died 1964), and English giant Jane Bunford (height 7 feet 11inches, died 1922).
1903: Horatio Nelson and Sewell Crocker completed the first automobile trip across the United States. The journey from San Francisco to New York took 63½ days in a 1903 Winton.
1908: The Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation) opened.
1922: Born this day: director Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther, died 2010);  country-western music producer Jim Foglesong (died 2013); and actor Jason Robards (Once Upon a Time in the West, died 2000).
1923: Born this day: author/illustrator Jan Berenstain (Berenstain Bears, died 2005); actor Biff Elliot (I, the Jury, died 2012); Major League Baseball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm (died 2002).
1936: Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy intervened in the Spanish Civil War.
1940: Born this day: singer Dobie Gray (“The In Crowd,” “Drift Away,” died 2011), and Ted Kennedy’s mistress Mary Jo Kopechne (drowned 1969).
1941: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina (now Vietnam), President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States. Born this day: singers Bobby Hebb (“Sunny,” died 2010), Darlene Love (“He’s a Rebel”), and Brenton Wood (“The Oogum Boogum Song,” “Gimme Little Sign”).
1943: Born this day: director Peter Hyams (Outland, Capricorn One); and singer Mick Jagger.
1944: The Soviet Army entered Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, capturing it from the Nazis. (Only 300 Jews survived out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to Nazi occupation.) The first German V-2 rocket hit the United Kingdom.
1946: Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport.
1947: President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the U.S. National Security Council. President Truman signed Executive Order 9981 desegregating the U.S. military.
1951: Walt Disney’s 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premiered in London, England.
1956: Born this day: figure skater Dorothy Hamill; and wrestler Tommy “Wildfire” Rich.
1959: Born this day: author Rick Bragg (The Prince of Frogtown); actor Tom McGowan (Everybody Loves Raymond); and actor Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty).
1963: Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral.
1964: Born this day: actors Danny Woodburn (Seinfeld), and Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality).
1977: The National Assembly of Quebec imposed the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
1989: A federal grand jury indicted Cornell University student Robert T. Morris Jr. for releasing the ‘Morris worm.’ He became the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
2017: 3 live king cobras reported found inside potato chip cans by customs officials in Los Angeles.
2018: Observation of a black hole by The Very Large Telescope in Chile proves Albert Einstein‘s prediction of “gravitational redshift”, published in “Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics”.

 

July 27

 

1789: The first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, was established. (It was later renamed the Department of State.)

1866: The first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully laid, from Valentia Island, Ireland, to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland.

1916: Born this day: saxophonist Skippy Williams (Duke Ellington orchestra, died 1994), and actor Keenan Wynn (Dr. Strangelove, died 1986).

1921: Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting proved that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar.

1929: The Geneva Convention of 1929, dealing with treatment of prisoners-of-war, was signed by 53 nations.

1940: The animated short A Wild Hare was released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny.

1944: Born this day: English actor Tony Capstick (Last of the Summer Wine, died 2003), and singer Bobbie Gentry (Ode to Billy Joe).

1948: Born this day: Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming, and actress Betty Thomas (Hill Street Blues).

1949: Born this day: singer Maureen McGovern (“The Morning After”), and child actress Susan Gordon (The Twilight Zone, My Three Sons, The Donna Reed Show, died 2011).

1953: Fighting in the Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice agreement.

1973: Roger Lee Durham, 27, singer and percussionist with America R&B band Bloodstone, died of injuries after falling off a horse, joining The 27 Club.

1974: At the height of the Watergate scandal, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon.

1981: Six-year-old Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh, was kidnapped in Hollywood, Fla., and found murdered two weeks later. (John Walsh became an advocate for victims and created the TV program America’s Most Wanted as a result of the crime.)

2016: Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated to run for president by a major political party, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pa.
2017: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly becomes world’s richest man at $91.4bn overtaking Bill Gates for half a day.

2019: American swimmer Caleb Dressel wins 3 gold medals in one day at the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea; 50m freestyle, 100m butterfly and mixed 4×100m freestyle relay (WR 3:19.40).

 

July 28

 

1750: Johan Sebastian Bach died at age 65.

1866: At the age of 18, sculptor Vinnie Ream became the first and youngest female artist to receive a commission from the U.S. government for a statue (of Abraham Lincoln, now displayed in the U.S. Capitol rotunda).

1896: The city of Miami, Florida, was incorporated.

1935: The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress had its inaugural flight.

1953: Insta-Burger King, the predecessor to Burger King, opened in Jacksonville, Fla.
2018: Longest “blood moon” eclipse of the 21st century, lasting 1 hour 43 minutes.
2019: First Fortnite World Cup won by US teenager Kyle Giersdorf with largest ever e-sports prize of $3 million at Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York.