Wednesday, July 6

This Day In History

• 1483   England's King Richard III was crowned.
• 1535   Sir Thomas More was executed in England for treason.
• 1699   Pirate Captain William Kidd was captured in Boston, MA and deported back to England.
• 1777   British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolution.
• 1835   John Marshall, the fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, died at age 79.
• 1854   The first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Mich.
• 1885   French scientist Louis Pasteur successfully tested an anti-rabies vaccine on a boy bitten by an infected dog.
• 1905   John Walker’s fingerprints were the first ones to be exchanged by police officials in Europe and America. Law enforcement units in London and St. Louis, MO completed the exchange.
• 1917   Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks during World War I.
• 1923   The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
• 1928   The first all-talking movie feature, ''The Lights of New York,'' was previewed in New York.
• 1932   U.S. Postage rates went from two cents to three cents for first-class mail.
• 1933   Baseball's first All-Star game was held at Chicago's Comiskey Park. The American League beat the National League 4-2.
• 1944   Fire broke out in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn., killing 169 people.
• 1957   John Lennon met Paul McCartney at a church in Liverpool, England, following a performance by Lennon's band, the Quarrymen.
• 1989   The U.S. Army destroyed its last Pershing 1-A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas.
• 1997   The rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander onto the Martian landscape to begin inspecting soil and rocks.
• 1998   Protestants rioted in many parts of Northern Ireland after British authorities blocked an Orange Order march in Portadown.
• 1998   Singing cowboy star Roy Rogers died at age 86.
• 2001   Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleaded guilty to 15 criminal counts and agreed to give a full accounting of his spying activities for Moscow.
• 2003   Liberian leader Charles Taylor accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria.

Happy Birthday To

• 1747   John Paul Jones (American naval officer of the ship Bonhomme Richard, in battle against British frigate Serapis: “I have not yet begun to fight!”; died July 18, 1792)
• 1909   Andrei Gromyko (Russian leader: Soviet Foreign Minister; Soviet President; died July 3, 1989)
• 1918   Sebastian Cabot (actor: Family Affair)
• 1923   Nancy Reagan (Anne Robbins-Davis)
• 1924   Darrell Royal (College Football Hall of Famer: coach: Univ of Texas)
• 1925   Merv Griffin (singer: I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts [w/Freddy Martin’s Orchestra   1949]; TV host: The Merv Griffin Show; game show developer: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy; hotel owner)
• 1927   Janet Leigh (Jeanette Morrison Reames) (actress: Psycho)
• 1927   Pat Paulsen (comedian: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour)
• 1931   Della Reese (Delloreese Patricia Early) (singer; actress: Touched by an Angel)
• 1935   Dalai Lama (Lhamo Thondup) (14th Dalai Lama: Nobel Peace Prize winner: Tibetan spiritual leader)
• 1937   Ned Beatty (actor: Deliverance, Homicide, Hear My Song, Friendly Fire, The Guyana Tragedy, Superman, Rudy, The Toy, The Silver Streak, Radioland Murders, Network, Gray Lady Down)
• 1946   George W. (Walker) Bush (43rd President of the United States [2000- ]; married to Laura Welch Bush [twin daughters: Barbara and Jenna]; governor of Texas [1995-2000]; managing partner of Texas Rangers baseball club; son of 41st U.S. President [1989-1993] George [Herbert Walker] Bush)
• 1946   Sylvester Stallone (actor: Rocky series, Rambo series)
• 1952   Shelley Hack (actress)