July
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July 1
July 1st - Canada
Day, a national holiday in Canada, formerly known as Dominion Day, commemorating
the confederation of Upper and Lower Canada and some of the Maritime
Provinces into the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.
July 1, 1862 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the first
income tax bill, levying a 3% income tax on annual incomes of $600-$10,000
and a 5% tax on incomes over $10,000. Also on this day, the Bureau of
Internal Revenue was established by an Act of Congress.
July 1, 1863 - Beginning
of the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
July 1, 1893 - President Grover Cleveland underwent secret
cancer surgery aboard a yacht owned by his friend, Commodore E.C. Benedict.
The surgery was performed on a cancerous growth in his mouth. The entire
left side of his jaw was removed along with a small portion of his soft
palate. A second, smaller operation was performed on July 17th. Cleveland
was then fitted with a rubber prosthesis which he wore until his death
in 1908. The secrecy was intended to prevent panic among the public
during the economic depression of 1893.
July 2
July 2, 1776 - The
Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the following resolution,
originally introduced on June 7, by Richard
Henry Lee of Virginia: "Resolved, That these United Colonies
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they
are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all
political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is,
and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to
take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That
a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective
Colonies for their consideration and approbation."
July 2, 1788 - Congress
announced the United States
Constitution had been ratified by the required nine states and that
a committee had been appointed to make preparations for the new American
government.
July 2, 1881 - President James A. Garfield was shot and mortally
wounded as he entered a railway station in Washington, D.C. He died on
September 19th.
July 2, 1917 - A
race riot occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, resulting in an estimated
75 African Americans killed and hundreds injured. To protest the violence
against blacks, W.E.B. DuBois and
James Weldon Johnson later led a silent march down Fifth Avenue in New
York.
July 2, 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signed
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination on the
basis of race in public accommodations, publicly owned or operated facilities,
employment and union membership and in voter registration. The Act allowed
for cutoff of Federal funds in places where discrimination remained.
Birthday - The first
African American on the U.S. Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Nominated by President Johnson, he
began his 24-year career on the High Court in 1967.
July 3
July 3, 1775 - During
the American Revolution, George
Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
July 3, 1976 - The
raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda occurred as an Israeli commando unit
rescued 103 hostages on a hijacked Air France airliner. The jet had
been en route from Tel Aviv to Paris when it was hijacked by pro-Palestinian
guerrillas. Three hostages, seven hijackers and twenty Ugandan soldiers
were killed during the rescue.
July 3, 1988 - Iran
Air Flight 655 was destroyed while flying over the Persian Gulf after
the U.S. Navy Warship Vincennes fired two surface-to-air missiles,
killing all 290 passengers aboard. A subsequent U.S. military inquiry
cited stress related human failure for the mistaken identification of
the civilian airbus as an enemy F-14 fighter jet.
July 4
July 4, 1776 - The Declaration
of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress.
July 4, 1863- Vicksburg,
the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, surrendered
to General Grant and the Army of the West after a six week siege. With
the Union in control of the Mississippi, the Confederacy was effectively
split in two, cut off from its western allies.
July 4, 1882 - The
"Last Great Buffalo Hunt" began on Indian reservation lands
near Hettinger, North Dakota as 2,000 Teton Sioux Indians in full hunting
regalia killed about 5,000 buffalo. By this time, most of the estimated
60-75 million buffalo in America had been killed by white hunters
who usually took the hides and left the meat to rot. By 1883, the last of the free-ranging
buffalo were gone.
Birthday - Novelist
and short-story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His works included; The Scarlet
Letter, The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance.
Birthday - Song
writer Stephen Foster (1826-1864) was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania.
Among his nearly 200 songs were; Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, Swanee
River, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, and Beautiful Dreamer. He died in poverty at Bellevue Hospital in New York.
Birthday - Calvin
Coolidge (1872-1933) the 30th U.S. President was born in Plymouth,
Vermont. He became President on August 3, 1923, after the death of Warren
G. Harding. In 1924, Coolidge was elected President but did not run
for re-election in 1928.
July 5 Return
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July 5, 1775- The
Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition expressing hope
for a reconciliation with Britain. However, King
George III refused even to look at the petition and instead issued
a proclamation declaring the colonists to be in a state of open rebellion.
Birthday - Civil
War Admiral David Farragut (1801-1870) was born near Knoxville, Tennessee. He is best remembered
for his yelling "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" during
an attack on his fleet by the Confederates.
Birthday - Promoter
and showman P.T. Barnum (1810-1891) was born in Bethel, Connecticut.
His American Museum opened in 1842, exhibiting unusual acts such as
the Feejee Mermaid, Siamese Twins Chang and Eng, and General Tom Thumb.
In 1871, Barnum opened "The Greatest Show on Earth" in Brooklyn,
New York. He later merged with rival J.A. Bailey to form the Barnum
and Bailey Circus.
Birthday - Cecil
J. Rhodes (1853-1902) was born at Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire,
England. As a South African millionaire and politician, he was said
to have once controlled 90 percent of the world's diamond production. His will
established the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford University for young scholars
aged 18-25. Rhodesia was also named for him.
July 6
July 6, 1885 - Louis
Pasteur gave the first successful anti-rabies inoculation to a boy who
had been bitten by an infected dog.
Birthday - Revolutionary
War Naval Officer John
Paul Jones (1747-1792) was born in Kirkbean, Scotland. He is best
remembered for responding "I have not yet begun to fight!"
to British opponents seeking his surrender during a naval battle.
July 7
July 7, 1898 - President William McKinley signed a resolution
annexing Hawaii. In 1900, Congress made Hawaii an incorporated territory
of the U.S., which it remained until becoming a state in 1959.
Birthday - Baseball
pitcher Leroy R. (Satchel) Paige (1906-1982) was born in Mobile, Alabama.
Following a career in the Negro Leagues, he became, at age 42, the first
African American pitcher in the American League. He was inducted into
the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.
July 8
July 8, 1776 - The
first public reading of the Declaration
of Independence occurred as Colonel John Nixon read it to an assembled
crowd in Philadelphia.
July 8, 1943 - During
the Nazi occupation of France, Resistance leader Jean Moulin died following
his arrest and subsequent torture by the Gestapo. He had been sent by
the Allies into France in 1942 to unite the fledgling Underground movement.
In June of 1943, he was arrested in Lyon, tortured for eleven days but
betrayed no one. He died aboard a train while being transferred to a
concentration camp.
Birthday - Nelson
Rockefeller (1908-1979) was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. He served as
Governor of New York from 1958 to 1973. He became vice-president under
Gerald Ford in 1974, serving until January 20, 1977.
July 9
July 9, 1868 - The
14th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution was ratified. The Amendment defined U.S. citizenship and
prohibited individual States from abridging the rights of any American
citizen without due process and equal protection under the law. The
Amendment also barred individuals involved in rebellion against the
U.S. from holding public office.
July 10 Return
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July 10, 1943 -
The Allied invasion of Italy began with an attack on the island of Sicily.
The British entry into Syracuse was the first Allied success in Europe. General Dwight D. Eisenhower labeled
the invasion "the first page in the liberation of the European
Continent."
July 10, 1973 -
The Bahamas gained their independence after 250 years as a British Crown
Colony.
July 10, 1991 -
Boris Yeltsin took the oath of office, becoming the first popularly
elected president in Russia's thousand-year history.
Birthday - Theologian
and founder of Presbyterianism, John Calvin (1509-1564) was born in
Noyon, France.
Birthday - American
artist James Whistler (1834-1903) was born in Lowell, Mass. He is best
remembered for his portrait Whistler's
Mother.
Birthday - French
author Marcel Proust (1871-1922) was born near Paris. "Happiness,"
he wrote in The Past Recaptured, "is beneficial for the body but
it is grief that develops the powers of the mind."
Birthday - Tennis
player Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) was born in Richmond, Virginia. He won
a total of 33 titles including the U.S. men's singles championship and
U.S. Open in 1968 and the men's singles at Wimbledon in 1975. As a pioneering
African American athlete, he fought against racism and stereotyping
and was arrested numerous times while protesting. In 1992, he announced
he had likely contracted HIV through a transfusion during heart surgery.
He then began a $5 million fundraising effort on behalf of the Arthur
Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and campaigned for public awareness
regarding the dreaded disease. He died from pneumonia in New York, February
6, 1993.
July 11
Birthday - John
Quincy Adams (1767-1848) the 6th U.S. President, and son of the
2nd President, John
Adams, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. After serving just one term as President,
he served 17 years as a member of Congress. He died in 1848 while in
the House of Representatives in the same room in which he had taken
the presidential Oath of Office. He was the the first president whose father
had also been president.
July 12
July 12, 1943 -
During World War II, in the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history took
place outside the small village of Prohorovka, Russia. About nine hundred
Russian tanks attacked an equal number of German tanks fighting
at close range. When Hitler ordered a cease-fire, 300 German
tanks remained strewn over the battlefield.
July 12, 1994 -
Germany's Constitutional Court ended the ban on sending German troops
to fight outside the country. The ban had been in effect since the end
of World War II. The ruling allowed German troops to join in United
Nations and NATO peace-keeping missions. On July 14, German military
units marched in Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, the first appearance
of German troops there since World War II.
Birthday -
British pottery designer Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was born in Burslem, Staffordshire,
England.
Birthday - American
philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born in Concord, Massachusetts.
At Walden Pond he wrote, "I
frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep
an appointment with a beech tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance
among the pines."
July 13
July 13, 1787 - Congress enacted the Northwest
Ordinance establishing formal procedures
for transforming territories into states. It provided for the eventual
establishment of three to five states in the area north of the Ohio
River, to be considered equal with the original 13. The Ordinance included
a Bill of Rights that guaranteed freedom of religion, the right to trial
by jury, public education and a ban on slavery in the Northwest.
July 14
July 14, 1789 -
The fall of the Bastille occurred at the beginning of the French Revolution.
July 14, 1791 -
In England, the Birmingham riot occurred on the second anniversary of
the fall of the Bastille. Mob rule lasted for three days, targeting
controversial scientist and theologian Joseph Priestly's home and laboratory
as well as the homes of his friends. Priestly, who had expressed support
for the American and French revolutions, fled to London with his family
and later moved to America.
Birthday - American
folk singer and social activist Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was born in
Okemah, Oklahoma. Best known for This Land Is Your Land, Union Maid, and Hard Traveling.
Birthday - Gerald
R. Ford, the 38th U.S. President was born in Omaha, Nebraska, July
14, 1913 (as Leslie King). In 1973, he was appointed vice president
following the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew. He became president on
August 9, 1974, following the resignation of Richard
M. Nixon. He was the first non-elected vice president and non-elected
president of the U.S.
July 15 Return to
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July 15, 1918 -
During the Battle of the Marne in World War I, German General Erich
Ludendorff launched Germany's fifth, and last, offensive to break through
the Chateau-Thierry salient. However, the Germans were stopped by American,
British and Italian divisions. On July 18, General Foch, Commander-in-Chief
of the Allied troops, launched a massive counter-offensive. The Germans
began a retreat lasting four months until they requested an armistice in November.
Birthday - Dutch
painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was born in Leiden, Holland. Best known
for The Night Watch and many portraits and self
portraits.
Birthday - The first
American saint, Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) was born in Lombardy,
Italy. She was the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus and established Catholic schools, orphanages, convents and
hospitals. She was canonized, July 7, 1946, by Pope Pius XII.
July 16
July 16, 1769 -
San Diego was founded as the mission San Diego de Alcala by Father Junipero
Serra.
July 16, 1945 -
The experimental Atomic bomb "Fat Boy" was set off at 5:30
a.m. in the desert of New Mexico desert, creating a mushroom cloud rising 41,000
ft. The bomb emitted heat three times the temperature of the interior
of the sun and wiped out all plant and animal life within a mile.
July 16, 1969 -
The Apollo 11 Lunar
landing mission began with a liftoff from Kennedy Space Center at
9:37 a.m.
July 16, 1999 -
A small plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. took off at 8:38 p.m. from
Fairfield, New Jersey, heading toward Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren were passengers
on the 200 mile trip. The plane was expected to arrive about 10 p.m.
but disappeared off radar at 9:40 p.m. Five days later, July 21, following
an extensive search, the bodies were recovered from the plane wreckage
in 116 feet of water roughly 7 miles off Martha's Vineyard. The next
day, following an autopsy, the cremated remains of John F. Kennedy,
38, his wife Carolyn, 33, and her sister Lauren, 34, were scattered
at sea from a U.S. Navy ship, with family members present, not far from
where the plane had crashed.
Birthday -
British portrait painter Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) was born in Plympton, Devon,
England.
Birthday - Christian
Science founder Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was born near Concord, New
Hampshire.
Birthday - African
American journalist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)
was born to slaves at Holly Springs, Missouri. Following the Civil War, as
lynchings became prevalent, Wells traveled extensively, founding anti-lynching
societies and black women's clubs.
Birthday - Norwegian
explorer Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) was born near Oslo. He was the first
to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean via the Northwest Passage.
He discovered the South Pole in 1911 and flew over the North Pole in
a dirigible in 1926. In June 1928, he flew from Norway to rescue
survivors of an Italian Arctic expedition, but his plane vanished.
July 17
July 17, 1918 -
In the Russian town of Ekaterinburg in Siberia, former Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra,
and their five children were brutally murdered by Bolsheviks.
July 17, 1996 - TWA Flight 800 departed Kennedy International Airport in New York
bound for Paris but exploded in mid-air 12 minutes after takeoff, apparently the result of a mechanical failure. The Boeing 747 jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island about 8:45
p.m. All 212 passengers and 17 crew members on board
were killed.
Birthday - Puerto
Rican patriot Luis Munoz-Rivera (1859-1916) was born
in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. He worked tirelessly to attain self-government
for his homeland.
July 18
July 18, 1947 -
President Harry Truman signed
an Executive Order determining the line of succession if the president
becomes incapacitated or dies in office. Following the vice president,
the speaker of the house and president of the Senate are next in succession.
This became the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on February 10, 1967.
Birthday - American
politician Samuel Hayakawa (1906-1992) was born in Vancouver, British
Columbia. He is remembered as the college president who climbed atop a sound
truck at San Francisco State College in 1968 during student protests,
then disconnected the wires thus silencing the demonstrators. This made
him popular among conservatives including California Gov. Ronald Reagan.
Hayakawa became a Republican and was elected in 1976 to the U.S. Senate,
serving just one term. In 1986, he led the successful California initiative
to declare English the state's official language.
Birthday - Nelson
Mandela was born the son of a Tembu tribal chieftain on July 18, 1918,
at Qunu, near Umtata, in South Africa. He became a lawyer, joined the
African National Congress (ANC) in 1944, eventually becoming deputy
national president in 1952. In 1964, he was convicted for sabotage as
a result of his participation in the struggle against apartheid. He
spent the next 28 years in jail, but remained a symbol of hope to South
Africa's non-white majority. Released in 1990, he was elected was elected
President of South Africa in 1994 in the first election in which all
races participated.
July 19
July 19-20, 1848 - A women's rights convention was held at Seneca Falls, New York. Topics
discussed included voting rights, property rights and divorce. The convention
marked the beginning of an organized women's rights movement in the
U.S.
July 19, 1863 -
During the American Civil War, Union
troops made a second attempt to capture Fort Wagner near Charleston,
South Carolina. The attack was led by the 54th Massachusetts Colored
Infantry, commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who was killed along
with half of the 600 men in the regiment. This battle marked the first
use of black Union troops in the war.
Birthday - French
impressionist painter Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was born in Paris. Best
known for his paintings of dancers in motion.
July 20 Return to
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July 20, 1715 -
The Riot Act took effect in Britain. If a dozen or more persons were
disturbing the peace, an authority was required to command silence and
read the following, "Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth
all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and
peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business,
upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George,
for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the king."
Any persons who failed to obey within one hour were to be arrested.
July 20, 1954 -
An agreement was signed in Geneva, Switzerland, ending hostilities between
French forces in Vietnam and the People's Army of Vietnam.
July 20, 1969 - A global audience watched on television as Apollo
11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took
his first step onto the moon. As he stepped onto the moon's surface
he proclaimed, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind" - inadvertently omitting an "a" before "man"
and slightly changing the meaning.
Birthday - Explorer
Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand, July 20, 1919. In
1953, he became first to ascend Mount Everest, the highest mountain
in the world at 29,023 ft.
July 21
July 21, 1898 -
Guam was ceded to the United States by Spain.
Birthday - Ernest
Hemingway (1899-1961) was born in Oak Park, Illinois. His works included; The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954, he wrote little afterward,
became ill and shot himself to death on July 2, 1961.
Birthday - University
professor and author Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was born in Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada. Best known for stating, "The medium is the message,"
regarding modern mass communication.
July 22
July 22, 1934 -
Bank robber John Dillinger (1902-1934) was shot and killed by FBI agents
as he left Chicago's Biograph Movie Theater after watching the film Manhattan Melodrama starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy. Dillinger
was the first criminal labeled by the FBI as "Public Enemy No.
1." After spending nine years (1924-1933) in prison, Dillinger went on a deadly crime spree, traveling through the states of Indiana,
Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. He was reportedly betrayed
by the "Lady in Red."
July 23
July 23, 1952 -
Egyptian army officers launched a revolution changing Egypt from a monarchy
to a republic.
July 24
July 24, 1943 -
During World War II in
Europe, the Royal Air Force conducted Operation Gomorrah, raiding
Hamburg, while tossing bales of aluminum foil strips overboard to cause
German radar screens to see a blizzard of false echoes. As a result,
only twelve of 791 Allied bombers involved were shot down.
July 24, 1945 -
At the conclusion of the Potsdam
Conference in Germany, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and China's representatives
issued a demand for unconditional Japanese surrender. The Japanese,
unaware the demand was backed up by an Atomic bomb, rejected the Potsdam
Declaration on July 26.
Birthday - "The
Liberator" Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) was born in Caracas, Venezuela.
He is known as the George Washington of South America for his efforts
to liberate six nations: Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru,
and Bolivia from the rule of Spain.
Birthday - French
playwright and novelist Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) was born in Villers-Cotterets,
France. His works included The Count of Monte Cristo and The
Three Musketeers.
Birthday - American
pilot Amelia Earhart (1898-1937) was born in Atchison, Kansas. She became
the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and to fly solo from
Hawaii to California. She perished during a flight from New Guinea to
Howland Island over the Pacific Ocean on July 3, 1937.
July 25 Return to
Top of Page
July 25, 1898 -
During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico, which
was then a Spanish colony. In 1917, Puerto Ricans became American citizens
and Puerto Rico became an unincorporated territory of the U.S. Partial
self-government was granted in 1947 allowing citizens to elect their
own governor. In 1951, Puerto Ricans wrote their own constitution and
elected a non-voting commissioner to represent them in Washington.
July 25, 1909 -
The world's first international overseas airplane flight was achieved
by Louis Bleriot in a small monoplane. After asking, "Where is
England?" he took off from France and landed in England near Dover,
where he was greeted by British police.
July 25, 1943 -
Mussolini was deposed just two weeks after the Allied attack on Sicily.
The Fascist Grand Council met for the first time since December of 1939
then took a confidence vote resulting in Mussolini being ousted from
office and placed under arrest. King Victor Emmanuel of Italy then ordered
Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.
July 25, 1956 -
The Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria sank after colliding with
the Swedish liner Stockholm on its way to New York. Nearby ships
came to the rescue, saving 1,634 people, including the captain and the
crew, before the ship went down.
July 26
July 26, 1944 -
The U.S. Army began desegregating its training camp facilities. Black
platoons were then assigned to white companies in a first step toward
battlefield integration. However, the official order integrating the
armed forces didn't come until July 26, 1948, signed by President Harry
Truman.
July 26, 1945 - The U.S. Cruiser Indianapolis arrived at Tinian Island in the Marianas
with an unassembled Atomic bomb, met by scientists ready to complete
the assembly.
July 26, 1953 -
The beginning of Fidel Castro's revolutionary "26th of July Movement."
In 1959, Castro led the rebellion that drove out dictator Fulgencio
Batista. Although he once declared that Cuba would never again be ruled
by a dictator, Castro's government became a Communist dictatorship.
Birthday - Irish
playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin, Ireland.
July 27
July 27, 1953 -
The Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice by U.S. and North
Korean delegates at Panmunjom, Korea. The war had lasted just over three
years.
July 28
July 28, 1932 - The Bonus March eviction in Washington, D.C., occurred as U.S. Army troops
under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower
and Major George S. Patton, attacked and burned
the encampments of unemployed World War I veterans. About 15,000
veterans had marched on Washington, demanding payment of a war bonus
they had been promised. After two months' encampment in Washington's
Anacostia Flats, forced eviction of the bonus marchers by the U.S. Army
was ordered by President Herbert Hoover.
July 28, 1943 -
During World War II, a firestorm killed 42,000 civilians in Hamburg,
Germany. The firestorm occurred after 2,326 tons of bombs and incendiaries
were dropped by the Allies.
Birthday - Jackie
Kennedy (1929-1994) was born in Southampton, New York (as Jacqueline
Lee Bouvier). She was married to John
Fitzgerald Kennedy and after his death later married Greek shipping
magnate Aristotle Onassis.
July 29
Birthday - Benito
Mussolini (1883-1945) was born in Dovia, Italy. He ruled Italy from
1922-1943, first as prime minister and then as "Il Duce,"
the absolute dictator.
July 30
July 30, 1975 -
Former Teamsters Union leader James Hoffa was last seen outside a restaurant
near Detroit, Michigan. His 13-year federal prison sentence had been
commuted by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971. On December 8, 1982,
seven years after his disappearance, an Oakland County judge declared
Hoffa officially dead.
Birthday - Automotive
pioneer Henry Ford (1863-1947)
was born in Dearborn Township, Michigan. He developed an assembly-line
production system and introduced a $5-a-day wage for automotive workers.
"History is bunk," he once said.
July 31
July 31, 1776 -
During the American
Revolution, Francis Salvador became the first Jew to die in the
conflict. He had also been the first Jew elected to office in Colonial
America, voted a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress in
January 1775.
July 31, 1790 -
The U.S. Patent Office first opened its doors. The first U.S. patent
was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a new method of making pearlash
and potash. The patent was signed by George
Washington and Thomas
Jefferson.
(Photo and picture credits:
Library of Congress and U.S. National Archives)
