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Today is Wednesday, July 24, the 206th day of 2024. There are 160 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts – two of whom were the first humans to set foot on the moon – landed safely in the Pacific Ocean.
Also on this date:
In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate her throne to her one-year-old son James.
In 1847, Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.
In 1866, Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.
In 1915, the SS Eastland, a passenger ship carrying more than 2,500 people, rolled onto its side while docked at the Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River. An estimated 844 people died in the disaster.
In 1932, the “Bonus Army,” a group of thousands of World War I veterans and their supporters who had gathered in Washington, D.C., to protest the U.S. government’s refusal to redeem cash bonus certificates given to veterans for their services were given, clashing with DC police; two protesting veterans were shot dead.
In 1959, during a visit to Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon had his famous “Kitchen Debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon must hand over subpoenaed White House tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
In 1975, an Apollo spacecraft crashed in the Pacific Ocean, completing a mission that included the first docking with a Soviet Soyuz capsule.
In 2010, a stampede in a tunnel full of techno music fans left 21 people dead and more than 500 injured during the famous Love Parade festival in West Germany.
In 2013, 79 people were killed in an accident involving a high-speed train outside Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 88.
- Actor Dan Hedaya is 84.
- Actor Chris Sarandon is 82.
- Actor Robert Hays is 77.
- Actor Michael Richards is 75.
- Actor Lynda Carter is 73.
- Film director Gus Van Sant is 72.
- Former Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is 71.
- Country singer Pam Tillis is 67.
- Basketball Hall of Famer Karl Malone is 61.
- Retired MLB All-Star Barry Bonds is 60.
- Actor Kadeem Hardison is 59.
- Actor-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 56.
- Actor Laura Leighton is 56.
- Actor-singer Jennifer Lopez is 55.
- Director Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) is 53.
- Actor Eric Szmanda is 49.
- Actor Rose Byrne is 45.
- Country singer Jerrod Niemann is 45.
- Actor Elisabeth Moss is 42.
- Actor Anna Paquin is 42.
- Former NHL center Patrice Bergeron is 39.
- Actor Mara Wilson is 37.
- TV personality Bindi Irwin is 26.
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