Today in History

1099 First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on

1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama departs on his first voyage, becoming the 1st European to reach India by sea

1663 King Charles II of England grants a charter to Rhode Island

1680 The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant at Cambridge, Massachusetts

1776 Colonel John Nixon gives the 1st public reading of the Declaration of Independence to an assemblage of citizens in Philadelphia

1777 Independent Vermont introduces a new constitution, prohibiting slavery

1800 Dr Benjamin Waterhouse gives 1st cowpox vaccination in the US to his son to prevent smallpox

1835 Liberty Bell cracks (again)

1853 Commodore Matthew C. Perry sails his frigate Susquehanna into Tokyo Bay, opening Japan to Western influence and trade

1889 Wall Street Journal begins publishing

1898 US battle fleet under Admiral George Dewey occupies Isla Grande at Manila

1907 Florenz Ziegfeld staged 1st `Follies’ on NY Theater roof

1913 Alfred Carlton Gilbert’s patent for the Erector Set is issued, it becomes one of the most popular toys of all time

1923 Warren G. Harding becomes 1st sitting US President to visit Alaska (Metlakahtla)

1932 Depression low point of Dow Jones Industrial Average, 41.22

1947 Reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico

1948 500th anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated in Moscow

1950 General Douglas MacArthur named commander-in-chief of UN forces in Korea

1969 US troop withdrawal begins in Vietnam

1975 US President Gerald Ford announced he’ll seek Republican presidential nomination

1979 Voyager 2 takes 1st ever photo of Jupiter’s satellite Adrastea (J14)

1981 Senate confirms Sandra Day O’Conner to Supreme Court (99-0)

1990 12:34:56 on 7/8/90 (1234567890)

1994 Preliminary trial rules there is enough evidence to try O.J. Simpson

1999 “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” the 3rd book of the series by J. K. Rowling is published by Bloomsbury in the UK

2008 American businessman T. Boone Pickens announces his “Pickens Plan”, an energy policy that moves away from imported oil

2015 The New York Stock Exchange stops trading for nearly four hours due to a technical error

2019 US financier Jeffrey Epstein indicted on further charges of sex trafficking of minors

Movies & TV

2010 “Inception”, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, premieres in London

Music

1988 Stevie Wonder announces he will run for mayor of Detroit in 1992

1996 British girls group the Spice Girls release their debut single “Wannabe” in the UK

Sports

1889 John L Sullivan KOs Jake Kilrain in 75 rounds (last bare-knuckle bout)

1928 Phillies set record of errorless 25 inning doubleheader

1946 Baseball grants $5,000 minimum salary

1973 NY Mets are 12½ games back in NL and go on to win pennant

1982 Billy Martin records his 1,000th career win as a manager

1991 Major league umpire Steve Palermo and former NFL defensive lineman Terence Mann shot trying to help 2 waitresses from being robbed

2000 Wimbledon Women’s Tennis: Venus Williams wins her first career Grand Slam singles title; beats fellow American Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6

Birthdays

1839 John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and founder of Standard Oil, born in Richford, New York (d. 1937)

1908 Nelson Rockefeller, American politician (Vice President: 1974-1977; Governor of New York (R), 1959-73), born in Bar Harbor, Maine (d. 1979)

1958 Kevin Bacon, actor (Diner, Footloose, She’s Having a Baby), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1961 Toby Keith, American country singer and actor (Boomtown, Blue Moon), born in Clinton, Oklahoma

1992 Taylor Mayne Pearl Brooks, daughter of country singer Garth Brooks