Today's
highlight in history:
On July 14, 1789, during the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.
On this date:
In 1798, Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.
In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry relayed to Japanese officials a letter from President Millard Fillmore, requesting trade relations. (Fillmore's term of office had already expired by the time the letter was delivered.)
In 1881, outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias "Billy the Kid," was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, N.M.
In 1913, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., the 38th president of the United States, was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Neb.
In 1933, all German political parties, except the Nazi Party, were outlawed.
In 1958, the army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy.
In 1965, the American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, sending back photographs of the Red Planet.
In 1966, eight student nurses were murdered by Richard Speck in a Chicago dormitory.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in New York.
In 1978, Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky was convicted of treasonous espionage and anti-Soviet agitation, and sentenced to 13 years at hard labor. (Sharansky was released in 1986.)
