Today is Monday, July 24th, the 205th day of 2023. There are 160 days left in the year.
On July 24, 1915, the passenger ship SS Eastland, carrying more than 2,500 people, overturned while moored at Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River. An estimated 844 people died in the disaster.
In 1847, Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in what is now Utah.
In 1866, Tennessee became the first state to be admitted to the United States after the Civil War.
In 1911, Hiram Bingham III, a professor of history at Yale University, discovered Machu Picchu, the “Lost City of the Incas” in Peru.
In 1937, Alabama dropped charges against four of the nine black youths charged with raping two white women in the “Scottsboro case.”
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In 1959, during a visit to Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in the famous “kitchen debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
In 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts (two of whom were the first humans to walk on the Moon) landed safely in the Pacific Ocean.
In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon must turn over the subpoenaed White House tapes to the Watergate Special Counsel.
In 1975, the Apollo spacecraft landed in the Pacific Ocean, completing a mission that included the first docking with a Soviet Soyuz capsule.
In 1998, Saving Private Ryan was released, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg.
In 2010, 21 people died and more than 500 were injured when a jam broke out in tunnels packed with techno music fans at the famous Love Parade festival in western Germany.
In 2016, Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 2019, Robert Mueller, in congressional testimony that same day, dismissed President Donald Trump’s claim of “total innocence” in Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference in 2016.
10 years ago: The House narrowly rejected a challenge to the National Security Agency’s covert collection of phone records of hundreds of millions of Americans. Seventy-nine people were killed in a high-speed train accident outside of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. Pope Francis made an emotional appeal to Roman Catholics to avoid materialism at the first public Mass of his first overseas visit as Pope in Aparecida, Brazil. The name of his son, born to Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, has been announced as George Alexander Louis. Virginia Johnson, half of the Masters and Johnson team of prominent sex researchers, has died in St. Louis at the age of 88.
5 years ago: The Trump administration has announced a $12 billion emergency relief package for farmers hit by trade tensions with China and other countries. Brian Kemp, a self-described “politically incorrect conservative” backed by President Donald Trump, has won the Republican gubernatorial runoff in Georgia. He would defeat Democrat Stacey Abrams in the general election. A federal judge in New York has ordered the release of Ecuadorian immigrant Pablo Villavicencio, who was detained for deportation after delivering pizza to a US military facility in Brooklyn. After the immigrant married an American and had two girls, he applied to stay in the country. Ivanka Trump has announced the closure of her own fashion line that has been the target of her boycott and raised her conflict of interest concerns.
1 year ago: Pope Francis has embarked on a visit to Canada to apologize to indigenous peoples for mistreatment by missionaries in boarding schools, an important step in the Catholic Church’s effort to reconcile with indigenous communities and help them recover from generational trauma. Francis flew from Rome to Edmonton, Alberta, where a welcoming party was attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Inuk Mary May Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous governor. A top U.S. military chief said China’s military had become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years as the United States began a trip to the Indo-Pacific, which it sought to strengthen ties in response to China.
Today’s Birthday: Political cartoonist Pat Oliphant, 88, Comedian Ruth Buzzy, 87, Actor Mark Goddard, 87, Actor Dan Hedaya, 83, Actor Chris Sarandon, 81, Comedian Gallagher, 77, Actor Robert Hayes, 76, Former Republican National Committee Chairman Mark Lasicotte, 75, Actor Michael Richards, 74, Actor Lynda Carter, 72, Film director Gus Van Sant, 71. . Former Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) is 70 years old. Country singer Pam Tillis is 66 years old. Actor Paul Ben Victor is 61 years old. Basketball Hall of Famer Karl Malone is 60 years old. Retired MLB All-Star Barry Bonds is 59 years old. Actor Kadeem Hardison is 58 years old. Actor and singer Kristin Chenoweth is 55 years old. Actor Laura Leighton is 55 years old. Actor John is 55 years old. P. Navin Jr. is 55, actor-singer Jennifer Lopez is 54, basketball player-turned-actor Rick Fox is 54, director Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) is 52, actor Jamie Denbo (Orange is the New Black) is 50, actor Eric Schmanda is 48, actor Rose Byrne is 44, and country singer Jerrod Niemann is 44. Summer Glau is 42 years old. Actor Sean McKinney is 42 years old. Actor Elisabeth Moss is 41 years old. Actor Anna Paquin is 41 years old. Actor Sarah Green is 39 years old. NHL center Patrice Bergeron is 38 years old. Actor Megan Park is 37 years old. Actor Mara Wilson is 36 years old. Actor Sarah Steele is 35 years old. Rock singer Jay McGuinness (The Wanted) is 33 years old. Actor Emily Bett Rickards is 33 years old. 32. Actor Lucas Adams is 30 years old. TV personality Bindi Irwin is 25 years old.
