Today is Tuesday, July 21, the 203rd day of 2020. There are 163 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 21, 1925, the so-called “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (The conviction was later overturned on a technicality.)
On this date:
In 1861, during the Civil War, the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.
In 1944, American forces landed on Guam during World War II, capturing it from the Japanese some three weeks later. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be vice president.
In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the ascent stage of the lunar module for docking with the command module.
In 1990, a benefit concert took place in Germany at the site of the fallen Berlin Wall; the concert, which drew some 200,000 people, was headlined by Roger Waters, a founder of Pink Floyd. (The concert ended with the collapse of a mock Berlin Wall made of styrofoam.)
In 1998, astronaut Alan Shepard died in Monterey, California, at age 74; actor Robert Young died in Westlake Village, California, at age 91.
In 1999, Navy divers found and recovered the bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, in the wreckage of Kennedy’s plane in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard.
In 2009, prosecutors in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dropped a disorderly conduct charge against prominent Black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested by a white officer at his home near Harvard University after a report of a break-in.
In 2011, the 30-year-old space shuttle program ended as Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after the 135th shuttle flight.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Norman Jewison is 94. Actor Leigh Lawson is 77. Singer Yusuf Islam (also known as Cat Stevens) is 72. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau is 72. Actor Jamey Sheridan is 69. Rock singer-musician Eric Bazilian (The Hooters) is 67. Comedian Jon Lovitz is 63. Actor Lance Guest is 60. Actor Matt Mulhern is 60. Comedian Greg Behrendt is 57. Rock musician Koen Lieckens (K’s Choice) is 54. Soccer player Brandi Chastain is 52. Rock singer Emerson Hart is 51. Rock-soul singer Michael Fitzpatrick (Fitz and the Tantrums) is 50. Actress Alysia Reiner is 50. Country singer Paul Brandt is 48. Christian rock musician Korey Cooper (Skillet) is 48. Actress Ali Landry is 47.
