Thursday, July 28

This Day In History

• 1540   King Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed. The same day, Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
• 1750   Composer Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig, Germany, at age 65.
• 1794   Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine.
• 1821   Peru declared its independence from Spain.
• 1866   Although its use was not required, the metric system was legalized by the U.S. Congress for the standardization of weights and measures throughout the United States. And we still don’t have it figured out. How many yards in a meter or quarts in a litre?
• 1868   The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing due process and the equal protection of the laws to former slaves, was declared in effect.
• 1896   The city of Miami, Fla., was incorporated.
• 1929   Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, first lady from 1961 to 1963, was born in Southampton, N.Y.
• 1932   Federal troops forcibly dispersed the so-called ''Bonus Army'' of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand money they weren't scheduled to receive until 1945.
• 1945   A U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York City's Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
• 1951   The Walt Disney film "Alice in Wonderland" was released by RKO pictures.
• 1959   In preparation for statehood, Hawaiians voted to send the first Chinese-American, Hiram L. Fong, to the Senate and the first Japanese-American, Daniel K. Inouye, to the House of Representatives.
• 1965   President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
• 1976   An earthquake devastated northern China, killing at least 242,000 people.
• 1995   A jury in Union, S.C., rejected the death penalty for Susan Smith, sentencing her instead to life in prison for drowning her two young sons.
• 1998   Bell Atlantic and GTE announced a $52 billion merger that created Verizon.
• 1998   Monica Lewinsky was given blanket immunity from prosecution in exchange for grand jury testimony in the investigation of her relationship with President Bill Clinton.
• 2002   Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pa., were rescued after 77 hours underground.
• 2002   Speaking publicly on the church abuse scandal for the first time, Pope John Paul II told young Catholics in Toronto that sexual abuse of children by priests ''fills us all with a deep sense of sadness and shame.''
• 2002   Cycling champion Lance Armstrong won his fourth straight Tour de France.

Happy Birthday To

• 1866   Beatrix (Helen) Potter (children’s stories author: Peter Rabbit books; died Dec 22, 1943)
• 1929   Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (First Lady: wife of 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy; wife of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; editor: Doubleday Publishing; died May 19, 1994)
• 1948   Sally (Ann) Struthers (Emmy Award-winning actress: All in the Family [1971-72, 1978]; Five Easy Pieces, The Odd Couple; promoter of the Christian Children’s Fund)