Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 12, 1909, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing for a federal income tax, and submitted it to the states. (It was declared ratified in February 1913.)
On this date:
In 1543, England’s King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.
In 1812, United States forces led by Gen. William Hull entered Canada during the War of 1812 against Britain. (However, Hull retreated shortly thereafter to Detroit.)
In 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill authorizing the Army Medal of Honor.
In 1908, comedian Milton Berle was born Mendel Berlinger in New York City.
In 1965, the Beach Boys single “California Girls” was released by Capitol Records.
In 1967, rioting erupted in Newark, New Jersey, over the police beating of a Black taxi driver; 26 people were killed in the five days of violence that followed.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon signed a measure creating the Congressional Budget Office. Former White House aide John Ehrlichman and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg’s former psychiatrist.
In 1976, 1st “Family Feud” game show debuts on ABC hosted by Richard Dawson.
In 1984, Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale announced his choice of U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running-mate; Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major-party ticket.
In 1991, a Japanese professor (Hitoshi Igarashi) who had translated Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” was found stabbed to death, nine days after the novel’s Italian translator was attacked in Milan.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton, visiting Germany, went to the eastern sector of Berlin, the first U.S. president to do so since Harry Truman.
In 2003, the USS Ronald Reagan, the first carrier named for a living president, was commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia.
In 2016, with hugs and handshakes, Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton for president during an appearance in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Ten years ago: Vice President Joe Biden rallied support for President Barack Obama at the NAACP’s convention in Houston, declaring that Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s election-year agenda would hurt — not help — working families in the black community. A scathing report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh said the late Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials had buried child sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade earlier to avoid bad publicity.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, Christopher Wray, told a Senate panel that he did not believe that a special counsel investigation into possible Russian ties between Russia and the Trump campaign was a “witch hunt,” as Trump had characterized it. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was found guilty of corruption and money laundering and sentenced to almost 10 years in prison.
One year ago: New COVID-19 cases per day in the U.S. were more than twice as high as just three weeks earlier, jumping to an average of about 23,600; the increase was driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings. Fire swept through a coronavirus ward at a hospital in southern Iraq, killing more than 90 people; it was the second catastrophic fire in less than three months to kill hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Iraq. Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards died at 93; the Democrat had served four terms as governor and dominated the state’s politics for decades, but also spent eight years in federal prison for taking payoffs to help steer riverboat casino licenses to his cronies.
Today’s Birthdays: Singer-musician Christine McVie is 79. Actor Denise Nicholas is 78. Singer-songwriter Butch Hancock is 77. Fitness guru Richard Simmons is 74. Singer Walter Egan is 74. Writer-producer Brian Grazer is 71. Actor Cheryl Ladd is 71. Gospel singer Ricky McKinnie is 70. Country singer Julie Miller is 66. Gospel singer Sandi Patty is 66. Actor Mel Harris is 66. Actor Buddy Foster is 65. Rock guitarist Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) is 60. Actor Judi Evans is 58.
Rock singer Robin Wilson (Gin Blossoms) is 57. Actor Lisa Nicole Carson is 53. Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is 51. Country singer Shannon Lawson is 49. CBS newsman Jeff Glor is 47. Actor Anna Friel is 46. R&B singer Tracie Spencer is 46. Actor Alison Wright is 46. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., is 46. Actor Steve Howey is 45. Actor Topher Grace is 44. Actor Michelle Rodriguez is 44. Actor Kristen Connolly is 42. Country singer-musician Kimberly Perry (The Band Perry) is 39. Actor Matt Cook (TV: “Man With a Plan”) is 38. Actor Natalie Martinez is 38. Actor Bernard David Jones is 37. Actor Ta’Rhonda Jones is 34. Golfer Inbee Park is 34. Actor Melissa O’Neil is 34. Actor Rachel Brosnahan is 32. Actor Erik Per Sullivan is 31. Olympic gold medal gymnast Jordyn Wieber is 27. Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai is 25.
