Today in History

1838 Apprenticeship system abolished in most of the British Empire. Former slaves no longer indentured to former owners.

1840 Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated

1842 Rotherhithe Tunnel under the Thames opens

1842 Lombard Street Riot erupts

1855 Castle Clinton in NYC opens as 1st US receiving station for immigrants

1861 Brazil recognizes Confederacy

1863 Battle of Little Rock, Arkansas; start of Chattanooga campaign

1863 Cavalry action near Brandy Station-End of Gettysburg Campaign

1867 Blacks vote for 1st time in a US state election in the South (Tennessee)

1869 1st voyage down Colorado River

1870 Irish Land Act gives rights to tenants of landlords in Ireland

1876 Colorado becomes 38th state of the Union

1881 US Quarantine Station authorized for Angel Island, San Francisco Bay

1883 Amsterdam’s Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky gets electric lights

1883 Inland postal service begins in Great Britain

1886 Great Britain annexes Kermadec-Island near New Zealand

1888 The roof of Seville’s cathedral collapses after an earthquake

1926 Failed assassination on General Primo de Rivera in Barcelona

1932 George Washington quarter goes into circulation

1943 Race riot in Harlem, NYC

Movies & TV

1927 Earliest date for a film to be considered for the Academy Awards

1934 2nd Venice Film Festival opens

1953 KOBI TV channel 5 in Medford, Oregon (NBC) begins broadcasting

1954 WKBT TV channel 8 in La Crosse, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting

1955 WILL TV channel 12 in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (PBS) begins broadcasting

1956 KRCR TV channel 7 in Redding-Chico, California (ABC) begins broadcasting

1959 WAAY TV channel 31 in Huntsville, AL (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting

1963 WQAD TV channel 8 in Moline, Illinois (ABC) begins broadcasting

1967 WBRA TV channel 15 in Roanoke, VA (PBS) begins broadcasting

1968 WXIX TV channel 19 in Cincinnati-Newport, OH (IND) begins broadcasting

1970 KTSD TV channel 10 in Pierre, SD (PBS) begins broadcasting

1970 2nd San Diego Comic-Con International opens at U.S. Grant Hotel

1971 CBS presents Masterpiece Theatre’s 6 Wives of Henry VIII

1979 12th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at U.S. Grant Hotel

1981 MTV premieres at 12:01 AM

1985 18th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Hotel San Diego

Music

1960 Aretha Franklins 1st recording session

1963 Beatles Book is sold out on its 1st day of sale

1964 Beatles’ single “A Hard Day’s Night” goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks

1969 110,000 attend Atlantic City Pop Festival

1971 George Harrison’s concert for Bangladesh takes place in NYC

Sports

1906 Brooklyn Superbas MLB pitcher Harry McIntire no-hits Pittsburgh for 10 2/3 innings but loses in 13th, 1-0 on an unearned run

1918 Pittsburgh and Boston Braves play a MLB record 20 scoreless innings before Pirates win, 2-0 in 21

1928 Babe Ruth hits home run #42 in the Yankees 12-1 win v St. Louis Browns, takes him 4 weeks ahead of his 1927 pace

1933 NY’s future Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell sets MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings at 45 1/3 as Giants lose 3-1 v Boston Braves

1934 US Amateur Golf Championship format is changed to a 6-day event with no 36-hole stroke-play qualifying, and 36-hole matches for semi-finals and final

ts outfielder Mel Ott hits historic 500th MLB home run off Braves Johnny Hutchings, joins Babe Ruth & Jimmy Foxx as only players to reach milestone

1953 Boston Red Sox pitcher Ben Flowers sets then MLB record of 8 consecutive games in relief

1954 Tour de France: Louison Bobet of France wins by 15’ 49” from Ferdinand Kübler, for the second of his 3 consecutive wins

1957 Gil Hodges hits his 13th MLB career grand slam, a NL record and the last ever by a Brooklyn Dodgers player

1957 Ex MLB outfielder Glen Gorbous throws a regulation baseball a record 136m (445’ 10”) in a game promotion

1961 Australian cricket captain Richie Benaud takes 6 for 70 in England’s 2nd innings for a 54 run 4th Test win at Old Trafford

1963 Arthur Ashe becomes first African-American tennis player to be named in the US Davis Cup team

1973 MLB All Star catchers Thurman Munson of the NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox’ Carlton Fisk brawl at home plate Fenway Park; Red Sox win, 3-2

1976 Seattle Seahawks take the field for the first time in pre-season game v SF 49ers at the newly constructed Kingdome in Seattle

1976 Reigning world F1 champion Niki Lauda of Austria suffers a near fatal crash during the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim

1977 San Francisco Giants 1st baseman Willie McCovey hits NL record 18th MLB career grand slam

1978 Atlanta Braves trounce Cincinnati Reds, 16-4 and halt Pete Rose’s NL record hitting streak at 44 games

1980 Gerd Wessig of East Germany becomes the first male to set a high jump world record at the Olympics (2.36m [7’ 9”] Moscow)

1982 American Greg Louganis becomes 1st diver to score 700 (752.67) in 11 dives in winning 3m springboard gold, World Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador

1982 East German swimmer Petra Schneider breaks her own 400m medley world record by 0:19 (4:36.10) at the World Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador

1982 After the first 13 runnings of the midsummer classic, Darryl Waltrip becomes the first driver the win the Talladega 500 twice

Birthdays

1770 William Clark, American explorer, soldier, Indian agent and territorial governor who led the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06 and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States, born in Ladysmith, Virginia (d. 1838)

1779 Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, poet and composer of the lyrics to “Star-Spangled Banner”, born in Carroll County, Maryland (d. 1843)

1819 Herman Melville, American author (Moby Dick, Billy Budd), born in NYC,

1965 J. K. Rowling, English writer (Harry Potter novels), born in Yate, Gloucestershire