Today in History
Today is Saturday, July 16, the 198th day of 2016. There are 168 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On July 16, 1969,
Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to
the surface of the moon. On this date: In 1790, a site along the
Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States
government; the area became Washington, D.C. In 1862, Flag Officer
David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States
Navy. In 1912, New York gambler Herman Rosenthal, set to testify before
a grand jury about police corruption, was gunned down by members of the
Lennox Avenue Gang. In 1935, the world's first parking meters were
installed in Oklahoma City. In 1945, the United States exploded its
first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico;
the same day, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis left Mare Island Naval
Shipyard in California on a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb
components to Tinian Island in the Marianas. In 1951, the novel "The
Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little,
Brown and Co. In 1964, as he accepted the Republican presidential
nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater declared that
"extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and that "moderation
in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. In 1970, Three Rivers Stadium,
home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates, officially
opened as the Pirates lost to the Cincinnati Reds 3-2. (The stadium was
demolished in 2001.) In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq.
In 1980, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan won the Republican
presidential nomination at the party's convention in Detroit. In 1981,
singer Harry Chapin was killed when his car was struck by a
tractor-trailer on New York's Long Island Expressway. In 1999, John F.
Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died
when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the
Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Ten years ago:
President George W. Bush and other Group of Eight world leaders meeting
in St. Petersburg, Russia, urged Israel to show "utmost restraint" and
blamed Hezbollah and Hamas for escalating violence in the Middle East.
Claiming election fraud had robbed him of Mexico's presidency, leftist
candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (ahn-DRAYS' mahn-WEHL' LOH'-pez
OH'-brah-dohr) led hundreds of thousands of marchers through the
capital. Five years ago: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez left his
country for Cuba to begin chemotherapy, vowing to win his fight against
cancer and calling for his political allies to stay united in his
absence. One year ago: A gunman unleashed a barrage of fire at a
recruiting center and another U.S. military site a few miles apart in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, killing four Marines and a sailor before he was
shot to death by police; authorities identified the gunman as
Kuwaiti-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, of Hixson, Tennessee. A
jury in Centennial, Colorado, convicted James Holmes of 165 counts of
murder, attempted murder and other charges in the 2012 Aurora movie
theater rampage that left 12 people dead. President Barack Obama
visited the medium-security El Reno Federal Correctional Institution
near Oklahoma City to press his case that the nation needed to
reconsider the way crime was controlled and prisoners were
rehabilitated. Today's Birthdays: Former Attorney General Dick
Thornburgh is 84. Soul singer Denise LaSalle is 82. Soul singer William
Bell is 77. International Tennis Hall of Famer Margaret Court is 74.
College Football Hall of Famer and football coach Jimmy Johnson is 73.
Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 68. Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 68. Rock
composer-musician Stewart Copeland is 64. Playwright Tony Kushner is
60. Dancer Michael Flatley is 58. Actress Phoebe Cates is 53. Actor
Paul Hipp is 53. Actor Daryl "Chill" Mitchell is 51. Actor-comedian
Will Ferrell is 49. Actor Jonathan Adams is 49. College and Pro
Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders is 48. Actress Rain Pryor is 47.
Actor Corey Feldman is 45. Rock musician Ed Kowalczyk (Live) is 45.
Rock singer Ryan McCombs (Drowning Pool) is 42. Actress Jayma Mays is
37. Actress AnnaLynne McCord is 29. Actor-singer James Maslow is 26.
Actor Mark Indelicato is 22. Pop singer-musician Luke Hemmings (5
Seconds of Summer) is 20. Thought for Today: "If sentiment doesn't
ultimately make fibbers of some people, their natural abominable
memories almost certainly will. J.D. Salinger (1919-2010).
