Today is Wednesday, July 24, the 206th day of 2024. There are 160 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts — two of whom had been the first humans to set foot on the moon — splashed down safely in the Pacific.
Also on this date:
In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate her throne to her one-year-old son James.
In 1847, Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.
In 1866, Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.
In 1915, the SS Eastland, a passenger ship carrying more than 2,500 people, rolled onto its side while docked at the Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River. An estimated 844 people died in the disaster.
In 1932, the “Bonus Army,” a group of thousands of WWI veterans and their supporters who gathered in Washington D.C. to protest the US government’s refusal to redeem cash bonus certificates given to the veterans for their service, clashed with D.C. police; two protesting veterans were shot and killed.
In 1959, during a visit to Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in his famous “Kitchen Debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.
In 1975, an Apollo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which included the first docking with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union.
In 2010, a stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans left 21 people dead and more than 500 injured at the famed Love Parade festival in western Germany.
In 2013, a high-speed train crash outside Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain killed 79 people.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 88.
- Actor Dan Hedaya is 84.
- Actor Chris Sarandon is 82.
- Actor Robert Hays is 77.
- Actor Michael Richards is 75.
- Actor Lynda Carter is 73.
- Movie director Gus Van Sant is 72.
- Former Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is 71.
- Country singer Pam Tillis is 67.
- Basketball Hall of Famer Karl Malone is 61.
- Retired MLB All-Star Barry Bonds is 60.
- Actor Kadeem Hardison is 59.
- Actor-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 56.
- Actor Laura Leighton is 56.
- Actor-singer Jennifer Lopez is 55.
- Director Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) is 53.
- Actor Eric Szmanda is 49.
- Actor Rose Byrne is 45.
- Country singer Jerrod Niemann is 45.
- Actor Elisabeth Moss is 42.
- Actor Anna Paquin is 42.
- Former NHL center Patrice Bergeron is 39.
- Actor Mara Wilson is 37.
- TV personality Bindi Irwin is 26.
