Today is Monday, July 15, the 197th day of the 12 months 2024. There are 169 days left within the 12 months.
Today’s highlight of the story:
On July 15, 1799, during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, the Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian writing, was present in Fort Julien within the Nile Delta.
Also on this date:
In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished, greater than 350 years after its founding.
In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.
In 1913, Democrat Augustus Bacon of Georgia became the primary person elected to the U.S. Senate under the provisions of the recently ratified seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides for the favored election of senators.
In 1916, the Boeing Company, originally referred to as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.
In 1975, three American astronauts launched aboard an Apollo spacecraft just hours after two Soviet cosmonauts launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on a mission that involved linking the 2 ships in orbit.
In 1976, 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver began a 36-hour kidnapping ordeal once they were abducted by three armed men near Chowchilla, California, and locked in an underground cell. (The prisoners escaped unharmed; the abductors were caught.)
In 1996, MSNBC, a 24-hour news channel, made its debut on cable television and the Internet.
In 1997, 50-year-old clothier Gianni Versace was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home. Eight days later, the suspected shooter, Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NAN'-an), 27, was found dead. It was a suicide. (Investigators imagine Cunanan killed 4 other people before Versace in a nationwide shooting spree that began the previous March.)
In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who had fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to 2 counts of felony murder in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and was spared a life sentence through a plea deal.
In 2006, Twitter (now referred to as X) was introduced to the general public.
In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. sentenced to life imprisonment plus 419 years for the death of 1 person and the injury of dozens more when he intentionally drove his automotive right into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In 2020, George Floyd's family filed a lawsuit against town of Minneapolis and the 4 cops charged in his death, claiming that the officers violated Floyd's rights once they restrained him and that town allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. (The city agreed to pay $27 million to settle the lawsuit in March 2021.)
Today's birthdays:
- Actor Patrick Wayne is 85.
- R&B singer Millie Jackson is 80.
- Singer Linda Ronstadt is 78.
- Author Richard Russo is 75.
- The musician Trevon Horn is 75.
- Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post, is 74.
- Former skilled wrestler and governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura is 73.
- Actor Terry O'Quinn (TV: “Lost”) is 72.
- Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 72.
- Rock musician Joe Satriani is 68.
- Model Kim Alexis is 64.
- Actor Willie Aames is 64.
- Actor and director Forest Whitaker is 63.
- Actress Brigitte Nielsen is 61.
- Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 58.
- Television star Adam Savage (TV “MythBusters”) is 57.
- Actor and comedian Eddie Griffin is 56.
- Actor and screenwriter Jim Rash (TV: “Community”) is 52.
- Actor Scott Foley is 52.
- Actor Brian Austin Green is 51.
- Singer Buju Banton is 51.
- Actress Diane Kruger is 48.
- Actress Lana Parrilla (LAH'-nuh pa-REE'-uh) is 47.
- Actor Travis Fimmel is 45.
- Actor and singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds is 35.
- NBA point guard Damian Lillard is 34.
- Actor Iain Armitage (TV: “Young Sheldon”) is 16.
Originally published:
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