Today is Saturday, July 11, the 192nd day of 2015. There are 173 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight:
On July 11, 2010, police in the Bahamas arrested Colton Harris-Moore, 19, the American fugitive known as the “Barefoot Bandit.”
On this date:
In 1767, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts.
In 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by a congressional act that also created the U.S. Marine Band.
In 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a pistol duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.
In 1864, Confederate forces led by Lt. Gen. Jubal Early began an abortive invasion of Washington D.C., turning back the next day.
In 1915, the Chicago Sunday Tribune ran an article titled, “Blues Is Jazz and Jazz Is Blues.” (It’s believed to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, uses of the word “jazz” as a musical term by a newspaper.)
In 1922, the Hollywood Bowl officially opened with a program called “Symphonies Under the Stars” with Alfred Hertz conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In 1937, American composer and pianist George Gershwin died at a Los Angeles hospital of a brain tumor; he was 38.
In 1952, the Republican National Convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president.
In 1960, the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee was first published by J.B. Lippincott and Co.
In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.
In 1989, actor and director Laurence Olivier died in Steyning, West Sussex, England, at age 82.
In 1995, the U.N.-designated “safe haven” of Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina fell to Bosnian Serb forces, who then carried out the killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The United States normalized relations with Vietnam.
Ten years ago: A top al-Qaida lieutenant and three other terror suspects escaped from a U.S. military jail in Afghanistan. (The identity of Omar al-Farouq wasn’t acknowledged by the U.S. until November 2005; he was shot and killed by British forces in Basra, Iraq, in October 2006.)
Five years ago: Over the din of vuvuzela horns in Johannesburg, South Africa, Spain won soccer’s World Cup after an exhausting 1-0 victory in extra time over the Netherlands. The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founder of Southern California’s Crystal Cathedral megachurch, announced he would retire after 55 years in the pulpit. Paula Creamer won her first major tournament, shooting a final-round 2-under 69 for a 3-under 281 at the U.S. Women’s Open in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.
One year ago: House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said that President Barack Obama’s $3.7 billion emergency request to deal with tens of thousands of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border was too big to get through the House, as a growing number of Democrats rejected policy changes Republicans were demanding as their price for approving any money. Tommy Ramone, 65, a co-founder of the seminal punk band the Ramones and the last surviving member of the original group, died in New York.
Today’s birthdays:
Actor Tab Hunter is 84. Actress Susan Seaforth Hayes is 72. Singer Jeff Hanna (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 69. Ventriloquist-actor Jay Johnson is 66. Actor Bruce McGill is 65. Singer Bonnie Pointer is 65. Actor Stephen Lang is 63. Actress Mindy Sterling is 62. Boxer Leon Spinks is 62. Actress Sela Ward is 59. Reggae singer Michael Rose (Black Uhuru) is 58. Singer Peter Murphy is 58. Actor Mark Lester is 57. Jazz musician Kirk Whalum is 57. Singer Suzanne Vega is 56. Rock guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is 56. Actress Lisa Rinna is 52. Rock musician Scott Shriner (Weezer) is 50. Actress Debbe Dunning is 49. Actor Gred Grunberg is 49. Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin is 48. Actor Justin Chambers is 45. Actress Leisha Hailey is 44. Actor Michael Rosenbaum is 43. Pop-rock singer Andrew Bird is 42. Country singer Scotty Emerick is 42. Rapper Lil’ Kim is 40. Rock singer Ben Gibbard is 39. Rapper Lil’ Zane is 33. Pop-jazz singer-musician Peter Cincotti is 32. Actress Serinda Swan is 31. Actor Robert Adamson is 30. Actor David Henrie is 26. Actor Connor Paolo is 25. Tennis player Caroline Wozniacki is 25.
Thought for Today: “Life is a lot like jazz — it’s best when you improvise.”— George Gershwin (1898-1937)
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