Associated Press
Today in History: Monday, July 20, 2015
On July 20, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.
On this date in:
1810- Colombia declared independence from Spain.
1861- The Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, Va.
1871- British Columbia joined the confederation as a Canadian province.
1881- Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull surrendered to federal troops.
1917- The World War I draft lottery began.
1944- Adolf Hitler was only slightly wounded when a bomb planted by would-be assassins exploded at the German leader’s Rastenburg headquarters.
1944- President Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
1976- America’s Viking 1 robot spacecraft landed on Mars.
1977- A flash flood hit Johnstown, Pa., killing 80 people and causing $350 million in damage.
1990- A federal appeals court set aside Oliver North’s Iran-Contra convictions.
1993- White House deputy counsel Vince Foster was found shot to death in a park near Washington, D.C., in an apparent suicide.
1999- After 38 years at the bottom of the Atlantic, astronaut Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule was recovered.
2007- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted almost totally along party lines, 13-6, to approve Elena Kagan to be the Supreme Court’s fourth female justice.
Today’s Birthdays:
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., turns 79 years old today.
Diana Rigg, Actress (“The Avengers”), 77
John Lodge, Rock musician (The Moody Blues), 72
Kim Carnes, Rock singer, 70
Larry Craig, Former U.S. senator, R-Idaho, 70
Carlos Santana, Rock musician, 68
Josh Holloway, Actor (“Lost”), 46
Omar Epps, Actor (“House M.D.”), 42
Peter Forsberg, Hockey player, 42
Judy Greer, Actress, 40
Charlie Korsmo, Actor, 37
Elliott Yamin, Singer (“American Idol”), 37
Gisele Bundchen, Model, 35
Stephen Strasburg, Baseball player, 27
Singer-dancer Julianne Hough (“Dancing with the Stars”) turns 27 years old today.