Today is Tuesday, July 7, the 189th day of 2020. There are 177 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 7, 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C. for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln: Lewis Powell (aka Lewis Payne), David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the federal government.
On this date:
In 1846, U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.
In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii.
In 1948, six female U.S. Navy reservists became the first women to be sworn in to the regular Navy.
In 1954, Elvis Presley made his radio debut as Memphis, Tennessee, station WHBQ played his first recording for Sun Records, “That’s All Right.”
In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford and the first lady hosted a White House dinner for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The United States Military Academy at West Point included female cadets for the first time as 119 women joined the Class of 1980.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2005, terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II.
In 2009, some 20,000 people gathered inside Staples Center in Los Angeles for a memorial service honoring the late Michael Jackson, who was tearfully described by his 11-year-old daughter, Paris-Michael, as “the best father you could ever imagine.”
Today’s Birthdays: Musician-conductor Doc Severinsen is 93. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough is 87. Rock star Ringo Starr is 80. Comedian Bill Oddie is 79. Singer-musician Warren Entner (The Grass Roots) is 77. Actor Joe Spano is 74. Pop singer David Hodo (The Village People) is 73. Country singer Linda Williams is 73. Actress Shelley Duvall is 71. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 57. Actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan is 54. Rhythm-and-blues musician Ricky Kinchen (Mint Condition) is 54. Actress Amy Carlson is 52.
