On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on July 20:
1304 Francesco Petrarch Italy, poet (Italia Mia)
1519 Innocent IX 230th Roman Catholic pope (1591)
1785 Mahmud II Ottoman sultan, Westernizer, reformer
1824 Alexander Schimmelfennig, Prussia, Brig General (Union volunteers)
1890 Theda Bara actress/vamp (Under Two Flags, Cleopatra) (or 0729)
1890 Verna Felton Salinas Calif, actress (Hilda-December Bride)
1919 Sir Edmund Hillary one of 1st 2 men to scale Mt Everest (namesake of the EX firstlady)
1920 Elliot L Richardson Attorney General (1973)/Sec of Defense (1973)
1924 Thomas Berger US, novelist (Vital Parts, Little Big Man)
1933 Nelson Doubleday publisher (Doubleday)/owner (NY Mets)
1938 Diana Rigg Doncaster England, actress (Emma Peel-Avengers)
1938 Jo Ann Campbell Jacksonville Fla, Lawrence Welk's champagne lady
1938 Natalie Wood [Natasha Gurdin], SF, (Gypsy, Rebel Without a Cause)
1939 Judy Chicago [Cohen], Chicago, artist (The Dinner Party)
1940 Tony Oliva ball player, batting champ (AL Rookie of Year 1964)
1941 Vladimir A Lyakhov cosmonaut (Soyuz 32, T-9)
1943 John Lodge bassist (Moody Blues)
1947 Carlos Santana Mexico, musician (Santana-Black Magic Woman)
1957 Donna Dixon Va, actress, Mrs Dan Ackwoyd (Couch Trip, Bossom Buddies)
Deaths which occurred on July 20:
1609 Federico Zuccari Italian Mannerist painter, dies (birth date unknown)
1031 Robert II de Vrome, King of France (996-1031), dies
1454 Johan II, King of Castille, dies at 49
1636 John Oldham, trader in Mass, murdered by indians
1752 John C Pepusch, English composer (Beggar's Opera), dies at about 85
1819 John Playfair, Scottish geologist/mathematician, dies
1923 Pancho Villa, [Doroteo Arango], Mexican rebel, murdered at 55
1944 Brandt, col/German staff chief, dies in bombing
1944 Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, count/German antifascist colonel, dies
1944 Friedrich Olbricht, German general (July 20th plotter), executed
1944 Heinz Burns, German (Olympic-gold-1936), dies in bombing
1944 Korten, chef gen of Germany Luftwaffe, dies in bomb explosion
1944 Ludwig Beck, gen/chief Germany general staff (July 20th plot), dies
1944 Mertz, German colonel (July 20th plotter), executed
1944 Rudolf Schmundt, gen/Hitler's Army adjunct, dies from wounds
1944 Werner von Haeffen, German lieutenant (July 20th plotter), executed
1951 Abdullah Ibn Hussein Jordan's King assassinated in Jerusalem
1951 Mustafa Shuqri Ashu, tailor/murderer of king Abdullah, shot to death
1954 Blair Moody (Sen-Mich), dies at 52
1973 Bruce Lee, [Lee Yuen Kam], actor (Enter the Dragon), dies at 32
1983 Frank Reynolds news anchor (ABC Evening News), dies at 59
1995 Helmut Erich Robert Gernsheim, photographer/collector, dies at 82
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 BARBAY LAWRENCE---BATON ROUGE LA.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 DILLON DAVID A.---SPRING VALLEY CA.
1966 HUBBARD EDWARD L.---SHAWNEE MISSION KS.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV,ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 LEWIS MERRILL R.---INDIANOLA IA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 08/29/89]
1966 MC DANIEL NORMAN A.---FAYETTEVILLE NC.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 MEANS WILLIAM H.---TOPEKA KS.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, DECEASED]
1966 NELSON WILLIAM HUMPHREY---FILION MI.
[09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV]
1966 NOBERT CRAIG R.---AVON CT.
1966 PERKINS GLENDON W.---ORLANDO FL.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1969 SMILEY STANLEY K.---SIDNEY NE.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0514 St Hormisdas begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1031 Henry I succeeds father Robert II as King of France
1773 Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada)
1801 Elisha Brown Jr pressed a 1,235 pound cheese ball at his farm
1808 Napoleon decrees all French Jews adopt family names
1810 Colombia declared independence from Spain
1858 Fee 1st charged to see a baseball game (50cents) (NY beats Bkln 22-18)
1861 Confederate state's congress began holding sessions in Richmond, Va
1862 Guerrilla campaign in GA (Porter's and Poindexter's)
1864 Battle at Stephenson's Depot Virginia: 200 killed or injured
1864 Battle of Peachtree Creek-Atlanta Campaign
1868 1st use of tax stamps on cigarettes
1871 British Columbia becomes 6th Canadian province
1872 Mahlon Loomis receives patent for wireless ... the radio is born
1876 1st US intercollegiate track meet held, Saratoga, NY; Princeton wins
1881 Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, surrenders to federal troops
1890 Snow & hail in Calais, ME
1894 2000 fed troops recalled from Chicago, having ended Pullman strike
1903 Giuseppe Sarto elected Pope Pius X
1912 Phillies Sherry Magee steals home twice in 1 game
1914 Armed resistance against British rule begins in Ulster
1917 Pact of Corfu signed: Serbs, Croats and Slovenes form Yugoslavia
1917 WW I draft lottery held; #258 is 1st drawn
1922 Togo made a mandate of the League of Nations
1925 Beirut sultan Pasja al-Atrasj calls Druzen for holy war against France
1927 Lindbergh begins NY flight (Spirit of St Louis)
1930 106ø F (41ø C), Washington, DC (district record)
1933 Vatican state secretary Pacelli (Pius XII) signs accord with Hitler
1934 118ø F (48ø C), Keokuk, Iowa (state record)
1938 Finland awarded 1940 Olympic games after Japan withdraws
1942 Legion of Merit Medal authorized by congress
1942 Women's Army Auxiliary Corps began basic training at Fort Des Moines
1943 Joint Chiefs of Staff question adm Nimitz (landing Gilbert Island)
1944 Pres FDR nominated for an unprecedented 4th term at Dem convention
1944 US invades Japanese-occupied Guam in WW II
1944 Browns Nelson Potter is 1st pitcher suspended for throwing spitballs
1944 Von Stauffenberg fails on an attempt on Hitler's life
1948 Syngman Rhee elected president of South-Korea
1948 US Communist Party chairman William Forster arrested
1949 Israel's 19 month war of independence ends
1950 "Arthur Murray Party" premiers on ABC TV (later DuMont, CBS, NBC)
1954 Armistice for Indo-China signed, Vietnam separates into North and South
1956 France recognizes Tunisia's independence
1960 1st submerged submarine to fire Polaris missile (George Washington)
1960 USSR recovered 2 dogs; 1st living organisms to return from space
1963 Verne Gagne beats Crusher Lisowski in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
1964 1st surfin' record to go #1-Jan & Dean's "Surf City"
1965 46.18 cm (18.18") of rainfall, Edgarton, Missouri (state 24-hr record)
1967 Race riots in Memphis Tenn
1968 Iron Butterfly's "In-a-gadda-da-vida" becomes the 1st heavy metal song to hit the charts, it comes in at #117
1969 1st men on Moon, Neil Armstrong & Edwin Aldrin, Apollo 11
1970 1st baby born on Alcatraz Island
1974 Turkey invades Cyprus
1976 US Viking 1 lands on Mars at Chryse Planitia, 1st Martian landing
1979 44-kg Newfoundland dog pulls 2293-kg load, Bothell, Wash
1985 Divers find wreck of Spanish galleon Atocha
1988 Michael Dukakis selected Democratic presidential nominee
1989 93ø F, highest overnight low ever recorded in Phoenix Arizona
1990 Justice William Brennan resigns from the Supreme Court after 36 years
1991 Mike Tyson is accused of raping a Miss Black America contestant
1992 Seven people were killed when a test model of the Marine Corps' controversial V-22 Osprey transport aircraft crashed into the Potomac River
1993 Deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster was found shot to death in a park in northern Virginia. His death was ruled a suicide.
1994 OJ Simpson offers $500,000 reward for evidence of ex-wife's killer (FOUR!)
1999 After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, astronaut Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule surfaced.
2000 A federal grand jury indicted two former Utah Olympic officials for their alleged roles in paying $1 million in cash and gifts to help bring the 2002 games to Salt Lake City.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Columbia-1819, Tunisia-1956 : Independence Day/D¡a de la Independencia
US : Moon Day (1969)
US : National Nap Day
National Lamb and Wool Month
Religious Observances
RC : Comm of St Margaret of Antioch, virgin/martyr (3rd cen)
Old Catholic : Feast of St Jerome Emiliani, confessor
St. Wilgefortis Feast Day
Commemoration of Elijah (Elias), greatest of the prophets (Roman and Greek Churches).
Religious History
1648 The Westminster Larger Catechism was adopted by the General Assembly of the Churchof Scotland at Edinburgh. This and the Shorter Catechism have both been in regular use amongPresbyterians, Baptists and Congregationalists ever since.
1726 Colonial clergyman Jonathan Edwards, 23, married Sarah Pierpont, 16. Theirmarriage prospered for over 30 years, before his premature death in 1758. Sarah herself diedonly six months later, at 48.
1877 Birth of Jesse Overholtzer, who in 1937 incorporated Child Evangelism Fellowshipin Chicago. Today the CEF mission agency works in over 60 countries worldwide.
1910 The Christian Endeavor Society of Missouri began a campaign to ban all motionpictures that depicted kissing between non-relatives.
1962 Pope John XXIII sent invitations to all 'separated Christian churches andcommunities,' asking each to send delegate-observers to the upcoming Vatican II EcumenicalCouncil in Rome.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have."
Things To Do If You Ever Became An Evil Overlord...
See a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage
PUNishment of the the day...
Working for the IRS is a hard job because it is so taxing.
Dumb Laws...
St. Cloud Minnesota:
Hamburgers may not be eaten on Sundays.
How to Annoy Osama bin Laden If You're Invited To A Dinner Party At His Secret Afghan Lair...
Mine his bathroom.
