July 10: Starting of the Battle of Britain in World War II

Today is Wednesday, July 10, the 192nd day of the yr 2024. There are 174 days left within the yr.

Today’s highlight of the story:

On July 10, 1940, the Battle of Britain began in World War II when the German Luftwaffe launched attacks on southern England. (The Royal Air Force was ultimately victorious.)

Also on this date:

In 1509, the theologian John Calvin, a key figure within the Protestant Reformation, was born in Noyon in Picardy, France.

In 1890, Wyoming was admitted because the forty fourth U.S. state.

In 1925, jury selection took place in Dayton, Tennessee, within the trial of John T. Scopes, who was accused of breaking the law by teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. (Scopes was convicted and fined, but the decision was overturned on a technicality.)

In 1929, the dimensions of American paper money was reduced when the federal government began issuing banknotes that were about 25 percent smaller.

In 1951, armistice negotiations to finish the Korean War began in Kaesong.

In 1962, NASA launched the primary lively communications satellite, Telstar 1.

In 1985, the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior was sunk with explosives by French secret service agents in Auckland, New Zealand; one activist was killed.

In 1991, Boris N. Yeltsin took the oath of office as the primary elected President of the Russian Republic.

In 1991, President George HW Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa.

In 2002, the House of Representatives passed a measure by a vote of 310 to 113 allowing pilots to hold weapons within the cockpit to defend their aircraft against terrorists (President George W. Bush later signed the bill).

In 2015, South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its place of honor within the Statehouse after greater than 50 years.

Today's birthdays:

  • Singer Mavis Staples is 85.
  • Actor Robert Pine is 83.
  • Virginia Wade, member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, is 79.
  • Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 77.
  • Baseball Hall of Famer Andre Dawson is 70.
  • Rock singer Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) is 70.
  • Banjo player Bela Fleck is 66.
  • Actress Fiona Shaw is 66.
  • Singer/actor Jacky Cheung is 63.
  • Actor Alec Mapa is 59.
  • Country singer Gary LeVox (leh-VOH') (Rascal Flatts) is 54.
  • Actress Sofia Vergara is 52.
  • Actor Adrian Grenier (grehn-YAY') is 48.
  • Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (CHOO'-ih-tehl EHJ'-ee-oh-for) is 47.
  • Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas is 44.
  • Singer and actress Jessica Simpson is 44.
  • Actress Emily Skeggs is 34.
  • Pop singer Perrie Edwards (Little Mix) is 31.
  • Actress Isabela Merced is 23.

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