Today is Wednesday, July 19, the 200th day of 2017. There are 165 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight: On July 19, 1961, TWA became the first airline to begin showing in-flight movies on a regular basis as it presented a Peyton Place-style melodrama called “By Love Possessed,” starring Lana Turner, Jason Robards, George Hamilton and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., to first-class passengers on a flight from New York to Los Angeles.
On this date:
In 1553, King Henry VIII’s daughter Mary was proclaimed Queen of England after pretender Lady Jane Grey was deposed.
In 1848, a pioneering women’s rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, New York.
In 1903, the first Tour de France was won by Maurice Garin.
In 1941, Britain launched its “V for Victory” campaign during World War II.
In 1944, the Democratic national convention convened in Chicago with the nomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a certainty.
In 1952, the Summer Olympics opened in Helsinki, Finland.
In 1967, the movie “Up the Down Staircase,” an adaptation of the Bel Kaufman novel starring Sandy Dennis as an idealistic schoolteacher, opened in Los Angeles.
In 1979, the Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country.
In 1980, the Moscow Summer Olympics began, minus dozens of nations that were boycotting the games because of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
In 1989, 111 people were killed when United Air Lines Flight 232, a DC-10 that suffered the uncontained failure of its tail engine and the loss of hydraulic systems, crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa; 185 other people survived.
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush joined former presidents Ronald Reagan, Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon at ceremonies dedicating the Nixon Library and Birthplace (since redesignated the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum) in Yorba Linda, California.
In 1992, anti-Mafia prosecutor Paolo Borsellino was killed along with five members of his security detail in a car bombing in Palermo, Sicily.
Ten years ago: A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame, who was demanding money from Bush administration officials she blamed for leaking her agency identity. Taliban gunmen abducted 23 South Koreans who worked at an aid organization in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Two hostages were shot to death; the rest were later freed.) “Mad Men,” a cable TV series about a New York advertising agency, premiered on AMC.
Five years ago: A controversy pitting gay rights against religious freedom began as a cake shop owner in Lakewood, Colorado, refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple; the case has since reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear arguments. Omar Suleiman, 76, Egypt’s former spy chief, died in Cleveland, Ohio. Sylvia Woods, 86, founder of the famed soul food restaurant in New York’s Harlem district that carries her name, died in Mount Vernon, New York.
One year ago: Republicans meeting in Cleveland nominated Donald Trump as their presidential standard-bearer; in brief videotaped remarks, Trump thanked the delegates, saying: “This is a movement, but we have to go all the way.” Writer-director Garry Marshall, 81, whose deft touch with comedy and romance led to a string of TV hits that included “Happy Days” and “Laverne & Shirley” and the box-office successes “Pretty Woman” and “Runaway Bride,” died in Burbank, California.
Today’s birthdays: Actress Helen Gallagher is 91. Country singer Sue Thompson is 91. Singer Vikki Carr is 77. Blues singer-musician Little Freddie King is 77. Country singer-musician Commander Cody is 73. Actor George Dzundza is 72. Rock singer-musician Alan Gorrie (Average White Band) is 71. International Tennis Hall of Famer Ilie Nastase is 71. Rock musician Brian May is 70. Rock musician Bernie Leadon is 70 Actress Beverly Archer is 69. Movie director Abel Ferrara is 66. Actor Peter Barton is 61. Rock musician Kevin Haskins (Love and Rockets; Bauhaus) is 57. Movie director Atom Egoyan is 57. Actor Campbell Scott is 56. Actor Anthony Edwards is 55. Country singer Kelly Shiver is 54. Actress Clea Lewis is 52. Percusssionist Evelyn Glennie is 52. Country musician Jeremy Patterson is 47.Rock musician Jason McGerr (Death Cab for Cutie) is 43. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is 41. Actress Erin Cummings is 40. TV chef Marcela Valladolid is 39. Actor Jared Padalecki is 35. Actor Trai Byers is 34. Actor Steven Anthony Lawrence is 27.
Thought for today: “I want to live my life, not record it.” — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American first lady (1929-1994)
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