Today in History
Today is Thursday, July 6, the 187th day of 2023. There are 178 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 6, 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.
On this date:
In 1483, England’s King Richard III was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga (ty-kahn-dur-OH’-gah).
In 1854, the first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Michigan.
In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.
In 1933, the first All-Star baseball game was played at Chicago’s Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.
In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a “secret annex” in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.
In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first Black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title as she defeated fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2.
In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.
In 2015, Pope Francis received a hero’s welcome in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, as he celebrated the first public Mass of his South American tour.
In 2016, Philando Castile, a Black elementary school cafeteria worker, was killed during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights by Officer Jeronimo Yanez. (Yanez was later acquitted on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.)
In 2020, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization; President Donald Trump had criticized the WHO’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. (The pullout was later halted by President Joe Biden’s administration.)
Ten years ago: A runaway train carrying crude oil derailed in eastern Quebec, igniting fires and explosions that destroyed much of the town of Lac-Megantic and killed 47 people. An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport; of the 307 people on board Flight 214, three Chinese teens were killed. A solar-powered aircraft, the Solar Impulse, completed the final leg of a history-making cross-country flight, gliding to a smooth stop at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Marion Bartoli won her first major title, defeating Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final. Jimmie Johnson became the first driver in 31 years to sweep Daytona International Speedway.
Five years ago: The United States and China imposed tariffs on billions of dollars of each other’s goods in what Beijing called the “biggest trade war in economic history.” Japan’s Justice Ministry confirmed that six followers of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult had been hanged along with its leader, Shoko Asahara; they had been convicted of crimes including a 1995 sarin gas attack that killed 13 people and sickened thousands of others on the Tokyo subway system. A former Thai navy SEAL died while diving in flooded cave passageways to deliver supplies to 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach who’d been trapped for nearly two weeks.
One year ago: Authorities said a man charged with killing seven people at an Independence Day parade confessed to police that he unleashed a hail of bullets from a rooftop in suburban Chicago and then fled to the Madison, Wisconsin, area, where he contemplated shooting up an event there. The gunman instead turned back to Illinois, where he was arrested. A police officer armed with a rifle watched the gunman in the Uvalde elementary school massacre walk toward the campus but did not fire while waiting for permission from a supervisor to shoot, according to a newly released sweeping critique of the tactical response to the tragedy six weeks earlier.
Today’s Birthdays: The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 88. Singer Gene Chandler is 83. Country singer Jeannie Seely is 83. Actor Burt Ward is 78. Former President George W. Bush is 77. Actor-director Sylvester Stallone is 77. Actor Fred Dryer is 77. Actor Shelley Hack is 76. Actor Nathalie Baye is 75. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 72. Actor Allyce Beasley is 72. Rock musician John Bazz (The Blasters) is 71. Actor Grant Goodeve is 71. Retired MLB All-Star Willie Randolph is 69. Jazz musician Rick Braun is 68. Actor Casey Sander is 68. Country musician John Jorgenson is 67. Former first daughter Susan Ford Bales is 66. Hockey player and coach Ron Duguay (doo-GAY’) is 66. Actor-writer Jennifer Saunders is 65. Rock musician John Keeble (Spandau Ballet) is 64. Actor Pip Torrens is 63. Actor Brian Posehn is 57. Actor Robb Derringer is 56. Political reporter/moderator John Dickerson is 55. Actor Brian Van Holt is 54. Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan) is 53. TV host Josh Elliott is 52. Rapper 50 Cent is 48. Actors Tia and Tamera Mowry (MOHR’-ee) are 45. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 44. Actor Eva (EH’-vuh) Green is 43. Actor Gregory Smith is 40. Rock musician Chris “Woody” Wood (Bastille) is 38. Rock singer Kate Nash is 36. Actor Jeremy Suarez is 33. San Diego Padres infielder Manny Machado is 31. NBA star Zion Williamson is 23.
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