Today in History
Today is Friday, July 28, the 209th day of 2023. There are 156 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On July 28, 1914, World War I began as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
On this date:
In 1609, the English ship Sea Venture, commanded by Adm. Sir George Somers, ran ashore on Bermuda, where the passengers and crew founded a colony.
In 1932, federal troops forcibly dispersed the so-called “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington to demand payments they weren’t scheduled to receive until 1945.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the end of coffee rationing, which had limited people to one pound of coffee every five weeks since it began in Nov. 1942.
In 1945, A U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York’s Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
In 1973, 600,000 attend the “Summer Jam” rock festival featuring The Grateful Dead, The Band, and The Allman Brothers Band, at Watkins Glen, New York; at the time the largest ever audience at a pop festival.
In 1976, an earthquake devastated northern China, killing at least 242,000 people, according to an official estimate.
In 1984, the Los Angeles Summer Olympics opened.
In 1995, a jury in Union, South Carolina, rejected the death penalty for Susan Smith, sentencing her to life in prison for drowning her two young sons (Smith will be eligible for parole in 2024).
In 2015, it was announced that Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Naval intelligence analyst who had spent nearly three decades in prison for spying for Israel, had been granted parole.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Philadelphia, where she cast herself as a unifier for divided times as well as an experienced leader steeled for a volatile world while aggressively challenging Republican Donald Trump’s ability to lead.
In 2019, a gunman opened fire at a popular garlic festival in Gilroy, California, killing three people, including a six-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, and wounding 17 others before taking his own life.
In 2020, President Donald Trump issued a stout defense of the disproved use of a malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat COVID-19, hours after social media companies took down videos shared by Trump, his son and others promoting its use.
Ten years ago: Pope Francis’ historic trip to his home continent of South America ended after a marathon week in Brazil. In southern Italy, 39 people were killed when a tour bus plunged into a ravine. An armed thief stole a $136 million diamond collection from a jewelry show at the Carlton International Hotel in Cannes, France. Actress and singer Eileen Brennan died in Burbank, California at age 80.
Five years ago: Pope Francis accepted the resignation of U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the emeritus archbishop of Washington, D.C., following allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy. A magnitude-6.4 earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia destroyed homes, killed at least 16 people and injured dozens more.
One year ago: President Biden declared his support for the “historic” inflation-fighting agreement struck by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and holdout Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, an expansive health care and climate change package that had eluded the White House and seemed all but lost. Biden said the bill will be a “godsend” for American families. Rescue workers plucked people off rooftops amid fast-rising water in central Appalachia, where torrential rains unleashed devastating flooding that caused at least three deaths in Kentucky. Beloved British actor Bernard Cribbins died at the age of 93.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Darryl Hickman is 92. Musical conductor Riccardo Muti is 82. Former Senator and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley is 80. “Garfield” creator Jim Davis is 78.
Singer Jonathan Edwards is 77. Actor Linda Kelsey is 77. TV producer Dick Ebersol is 76. Actor Sally Struthers is 76. Rock musician Simon Kirke (Bad Company) is 74. Rock musician Steve Morse (Deep Purple) is 69. Former CBS anchorman Scott Pelley is 66. Actor Michael Hayden is 60. Actor Lori Loughlin is 59. Jazz musician-producer Delfeayo Marsalis is 58. Former hockey player Garth Snow is 54. Actor Elizabeth Berkley is 51. Singer Afroman is 49. Rock singer Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach) is 47. Actor John David Washington is 39. Actor Jon Michael Hill is 38. Actor Dustin Milligan is 38. Actor Nolan Gerard Funk is 37. Rapper Soulja Boy is 33. Pop/rock singer Cher Lloyd (TV: “The X Factor”) is 30. Golfer Nelly Korda is 25.
