Today is Monday, July 15th, the 197th day of 2024. There are 169 days left this year.
Today’s History Highlights:
On July 15, 1799, during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, the Rosetta Stone, which held the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian writing, was discovered at Fort Julian in the Nile Delta.
This day too:
In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished after more than 350 years of existence.
In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be rejoined the Union.
In 1913, Georgia Democrat Augustus Bacon became the first person elected to the United States Senate under the provisions of the then-ratified Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided for the popular election of senators.
In 1916, the Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products, was founded in Seattle.
In 1975, two Soviet cosmonauts launched in a Soyuz spacecraft on a mission to reconnect the two craft in orbit, just hours after which three American astronauts launched in an Apollo spacecraft.
In 1976, 26 elementary school students and their bus driver were kidnapped by three armed men near Chowchilla, California, and held captive in an underground dungeon, beginning a 36-hour ordeal (the 26 kidnapped escaped unharmed and the kidnappers were arrested).
In 1996, MSNBC, a 24-hour news network, debuted on cable television and the Internet.
In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, was shot and killed outside his Miami Beach home, and the suspect, Andrew Philip Cunanan, 27, was found dead by suicide eight days later. (Investigators believe Cunanan had killed four more people before Versace during riots across the US that began in March of the previous year.)
In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to two felony counts in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, in exchange for avoiding a life sentence.
In 2006, Twitter (now known as X) was launched to the public.
In 2019, self-described white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced to life plus 419 years in prison for intentionally driving his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring dozens.
In 2020, George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four officers charged with involvement in his death, alleging that the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism, and impunity to flourish within the police force. (The city agreed to pay $27 million to settle the lawsuit in March 2021.)
Today’s birthdays: Actor Patrick Wayne is 85. R&B singer Millie Jackson is 80. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 78. Author Richard Russo is 75. Musician Trevon Horn is 75. Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington is 74. Former professional wrestler and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura is 73. Actor Terry O’Quinn (TV’s Lost) is 72. Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 72. Rock musician Joe Satriani is 68. Model Kim Alexis is 64. Actor Willie Ames is 64. Actor and director Forest Whitaker is 63. Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 61. Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 58. TV personality Adam Savage (TV’s Mythbusters) is 57. Actor and comedian Eddie Griffin is 56. Actor and screenwriter Jim Rash (TV’s Community) is 52. Actor Scott Foley is 52. Actor Brian Austin Green is 51. Singer Buju Banton is 51. Actress Diane Kruger is 48. Actress Lana Parilla is 47. Actor Travis Fimmel is 45. Actor and singer Tristan “Mac” Wilds is 35. NBA point guard Damian Lillard is 34. Actor Ian Armitage (TV’s Young Sheldon) is 16.
