Today in History

1148 Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade

1534 Jacques Cartier lands in Canada, claims it for France

1567 Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate; her 1-year-old son becomes King James VI of Scots

1758 George Washington elected to Virginia House of Burgesses representing Frederick County

1824 Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper publishes results of 1st public opinion poll, with a clear lead for Andrew Jackson

1832 Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by Wyoming’s South Pass

1847 Brigham Young and his Mormon followers arrive at Salt Lake City, Utah

1866 Tennessee becomes 1st Confederate state readmitted to Union

1905 Tsar Nicholas II (Russia) and Emperor Wilhelm II (Germany) sign the Björkö Treaty, whereby each country agrees to come to the other’s defense if attacked by European powers

1911 American explorer Hiram Bingham discovers Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas

1917 Trial of Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari begins in Paris for allegedly spying for Germany and thus causing the deaths of 50,000 soldiers

1943 Operation Gomorrah: RAF begins bombing Hamburg (till 3rd August), creating a firestorm and killing 42,600 people

1959 US Vice President Richard Nixon argues with Nikita Khrushchev, known as “Kitchen Debate”

1967 First modern hospice St Christopher’s founded by Dr. Cicely Saunders in London, England, beginning of modern palliative care and the hospice movement

1969 Apollo 11 returns to Earth

1974 Supreme Court unanimously rules Nixon must turn over Watergate tapes

1978 Billy Martin resigns as Yankee manager after “one is a born liar the other a convicted one” comment about Steinbrenner and Jackson

2015 US President Barack Obama begins an historic 2 day visit to Kenya

2017 Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner says he did not collude with Russia after meeting with Senate investigators

2019 Global warming is the fastest in 2,000 years and scientific consensus that humans are the cause is at 99%, according to three major reports published in journals “Nature” and “Nature Geoscience”

2019 New UK PM Boris Johnson drastically reshapes cabinet in his first day in office, appointing Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary, Priti Patel as Home Secretary and Sajid Javid as Chancellor

2019 Special counsel Robert Mueller reports to the US Senate that President Trump was not exonerated of obstruction of justice and that Russia interfered in US election to benefit Trump

2019 Facebook agrees to pay $5 billion fine, largest ever for violating consumer privacy, to the US Federal Trade Commission

Movies & TV

1952 “High Noon”, American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Gary Cooper and Thomas Mitchell, is released

1974 “Death Wish”, based on the novel by Brian Garfield, directed by Michael Winner and starring Charles Bronson is released in the US

1998 “Saving Private Ryan”, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks, Edward Burns and Matt Damon, is released (Academy Awards Best Director 1999)

Music

1942 Irving Berlin’s musical “This is the Army” premieres in NYC

1965 Bob Dylan releases “Like a Rolling Stone”

1982 Single “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor from “Rocky III” soundtrack starts 6-week run at No. 1 on US charts (Grammy for Best Rock Performance)

1984 “Careless Whisper” single released by George Michael (Billboard Song of the Year 1985)

Sports

1958 Ted Williams is fined $250 for spitting at Boston fans again

1961 Edwin Newman becomes news anchor of Today Show

1983 Pine Tar Game: George Brett’s HR disallowed against Yanks (overturned)

2005 92nd Tour de France: no winner; Lance Armstrong retires after winning a record seventh consecutive victory but disqualified in 2012 for doping

2019 19-year-old Hungarian swimmer Kristóf Milák breaks Michael Phelps’ 10 year old 200m butterfly world record at the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea; swims 1:50.73, 0.78s faster than Phelps

Birthdays

1783 Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan political and military leader (freed 6 Latin American republics from Spanish rule), born in Caracas (d. 1830)

1802 Alexandre Dumas, French author (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo), born in Aisne, France (d. 1870)

1897 Amelia Earhart, American aviator (1st woman to fly solo across the Atlantic), born in Atchison, Kansas (d. 1939)

1900 Zelda Fitzgerald, American writer (This Side of Paradise) and wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, born in Montgomery, Alabama (d. 1948)

1920 Bella Abzug “Battling Bella”, American politician, feminist and activist (Rep-D-NY, 1970-74), born in New York City (d. 1998)

1936 Ruth Buzzi, Westerly RI, comedienne (Laugh-In, Margie-That Girl)

1948 Marvin the Martian, Warner Bros. cartoon character created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series), first debuts in “Haredevil Hare”

1949 Michael Richards, American comedian (Fridays, Kramer-Seinfeld), born in Los Angeles, California

1951 Lynda Carter, American actress (Wonder Woman, Sky High) and Miss USA (1973), born in Phoenix, Arizona

1953 Claire McCaskill, American politician, junior senator from Missouri

1957 Pam Tillis, American country singer (Melancholy Child), born in Plant City, Florida

1963 Karl Malone, American Basketball Hall of Fame forward (Utah Jazz, Olympic

1964 Barry Bonds, American baseball left fielder (MLB home-run record [762], 7 x NL MVP), born in Riverside, California

1968 Kristin Chenoweth, American singer and actress

1969 Jennifer Lopez, actress and pop singer (Selena), born in The Bronx, New York

1981 Summer Glau, American actress

1982 Anna Paquin, Canadian-born New Zealand Oscar-winning actress (The Piano, True Blood), born in Winnipeg, Manitoba

1989 Carley Ann McCord, American sports reporter (Cox Sports TV; in-game host New Orleans Pelicans, New Orleans Saints), born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (d. 2019)

1998 Bindi Irwin, Australian TV personality, conservationist; daughter of Steve Irwin, born in Buderim, Australia