Today is Friday, July 3, the 185th day of 2020. There are 181 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 3, 1863, the three-day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ended in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops failed to breach Union positions during an assault known as Pickett’s Charge.
On this date:
In 1608, the city of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain.
In 1775, Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 1944, during World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk from the Germans.
In 1950, the first carrier strikes of the Korean War took place as the USS Valley Forge and the HMS Triumph sent fighter planes against North Korean targets.
In 1971, singer Jim Morrison of The Doors died in Paris at age 27.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan presided over a gala ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.
In 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iran Air jetliner over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
In 2003, the U.S. put a $25 million bounty on Saddam Hussein, and $15 million apiece for his two sons. (The $30 million reward for Odai and Qusai Hussein went to a tipster whose information led U.S. troops to their hideout, where the brothers were killed in a gunbattle.)
In 2005, a NASA space probe, Deep Impact, hit its comet target as planned in a mission to learn how the solar system formed.
Today’s Birthdays: Playwright Tom Stoppard is 83. Writer-producer Jay Tarses is 81. Actor Michael Cole (TV: “The Mod Squad”) is 80. Attorney Gloria Allred is 79. Folk singer Judith Durham (The Seekers) is 77. Actor Kurtwood Smith is 77. Country singer Johnny Lee is 74. Humorist Dave Barry is 73. Actress Betty Buckley is 73. Actress Jan Smithers is 71. Actor Bruce Altman is 65. Talk show host Montel Williams is 64. Country singer Aaron Tippin is 62. Rock musician Vince Clarke (Erasure) is 60. Actor Tom Cruise is 58. Actor Thomas Gibson is 58. Actress Hunter Tylo is 58. Actress Connie Nielsen is 56. Actress Yeardley Smith is 56. TV chef Sandra Lee is 54.
