Associated Press
On July 6, 1957, John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time as teenagers at a church in their native Liverpool, England, following a performance by Lennon’s band, the Quarrymen.
1483 England’s King Richard III was crowned.
1535 Sir Thomas More was executed in England for treason.
1777 British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolution.
1854 The first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Mich.
1923 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
1933 Baseball’s first All-Star game was held at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, with the American League’s best beating the National Leauge squad 4-2.
1944 Fire broke out in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn., killing 169 people.
1957 Althea Gibson became the first African-American tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2.
1974 Garrison Keillor’s radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” debuted in a live broadcast from St. Paul, Minn.
2003 Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, in a New York Times op-ed, disputed President George W. Bush’s statement that Iraq had sought uranium in Africa, saying he had found no evidence to support the claim when the CIA asked him to investigate.
2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry chose Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina to be his running mate.
2005 Soap opera actress Kelly Monaco won the first season of “Dancing With the Stars.”
2005 New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of an undercover CIA operative’s name.
2010 Queen Elizabeth II addressed the United Nations for the first time since 1957 during her first New York visit in more than 30 years.
2010 Actress Lindsay Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 90 days in a residential substance-abuse program for violating her probation stemming from two separate 2007 cases of driving under the influence of cocaine and alcohol. (She served 14 days behind bars.) .
Today’s Birthdays:
Actor Geoffrey Rush (“The King’s Speech”) turns 64 years old today.
Nancy Reagan, Former first lady, 94
William Schallert, Actor (“The Patty Duke Show”), 93
Della Reese, Singer, actress (“Touched by an Angel”), 84
Ned Beatty, Actor, 78
Burt Ward, Actor (“Batman”), 70
George W. Bush, Former president of the United States, 69
Sylvester Stallone, Actor, 69
Allyce Beasley, Actress (“Moonlighting”), 64
Grant Goodeve, Actor (“Eight is Enough”), 63
Nanci Griffith, Country singer, 62
Willie Randolph, Baseball player, manager, 61
Jennifer Saunders, Actress (“Absolutely Fabulous”), 57
Kevin Hart, Actor, comedian, 36
Brandon Jacobs, Football player, 33
Rapper 50 Cent turns 40 years old today.