Today in History 7/11/20

Published 12:33 pm Saturday, July 11, 2020

By The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, July 11, the 193rd day of 2020. There are 173 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a pistol duel in Weehawken, N.J. (Hamilton died the next day.)

On this date:

In 1533, Pope Clement VII issued a bull of excommunication against England’s King Henry VIII for the annulment of the king’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and subsequent marriage to second wife Anne Boleyn.

In 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by a congressional act that also created the U.S. Marine Band.

In 1859, Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the first time.

In 1915, the Chicago Sunday Tribune ran an article titled, “Blues Is Jazz and Jazz Is Blues.” (It’s believed to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, uses of the word “jazz” as a musical term by a newspaper.)

In 1936, New York City’s Triborough Bridge (now officially the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge) linking Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx was opened to traffic.

In 1955, the U.S. Air Force Academy swore in its first class of cadets at its temporary quarters at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado.

In 1960, the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee was first published by J.B. Lippincott and Co.

In 1972, the World Chess Championship opened as grandmasters Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union began play in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Fischer won after 21 games.)

In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee released volumes of evidence it had gathered in its Watergate inquiry.

In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

In 1995, the U.N.-designated “safe haven” of Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina fell to Bosnian Serb forces, who then carried out the killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The United States normalized relations with Vietnam.

In 2017, emails released by Donald Trump Jr. revealed that he’d been told before meeting with a Russian attorney during the presidential campaign that the Russian government had information that could “incriminate” Hillary Clinton. MSNBC “Morning Joe” host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough announced that he was leaving the Republican party, partly because of its loyalty to President Donald Trump.

Ten years ago: Over the din of vuvuzela horns in Johannesburg, South Africa, Spain won soccer’s World Cup after an exhausting 1-0 victory in extra time over the Netherlands. The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, founder of Southern California’s Crystal Cathedral megachurch, announced he would retire after 55 years in the pulpit. Paula Creamer won her first major tournament, shooting a final-round 2-under 69 for a 3-under 281 at the U.S. Women’s Open in Oakmont, Pa.

Five years ago: Top Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico for the second time by exiting through a secretly dug mile-long tunnel (he was recaptured in January 2016 and is serving a life sentence at a supermax prison in Colorado following a conviction on U.S. drug-trafficking charges.) A crowd of furious Bosnian Muslims jumped over fences and attacked Serbia’s prime minister, Aleksandar Vucic, with stones and water bottles, marring the 20th anniversary commemorations of the Srebrenica massacre. Serena Williams won her sixth title at Wimbledon, beating Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-4, 6-4 in the women’s final; for Williams, it was her second “Serena Slam” — holding all four major titles at the same time.

One year ago: Singer R. Kelly was arrested in Chicago after he was indicted on 13 federal counts including sex crimes. (Kelly has pleaded not guilty; a trial is set for later this year.) President Donald Trump abandoned his effort to put a citizenship question into the 2020 census, instead telling federal agencies to try to compile the information through existing databases. Twitter was down for about an hour in an outage that appeared to affect users around the world; the company blamed an “internal configuration change.”

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Susan Seaforth Hayes is 77. Singer Jeff Hanna (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 73. Ventriloquist-actor Jay Johnson is 71. Actor Bruce McGill is 70. Actor Stephen Lang is 68. Actress Mindy Sterling is 67. Former boxer Leon Spinks is 67. Actress Sela Ward is 64. Reggae singer Michael Rose (Black Uhuru) is 63. Singer Peter Murphy is 63. Actor Mark Lester is 62. Jazz musician Kirk Whalum is 62. Singer Suzanne Vega is 61. Rock guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is 61. Actress Lisa Rinna is 57. Rock musician Scott Shriner (Weezer) is 55. Actress Debbe (correct) Dunning is 54. Actor Greg Grunberg is 54. Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin is 53. Actor Justin Chambers is 50. Actress Leisha Hailey is 49. Actor Michael Rosenbaum is 48. Pop-rock singer Andrew Bird is 47. Country singer Scotty Emerick is 47. Rapper Lil’ Kim is 46. Actor Jon Wellner is 45. Rapper Lil’ Zane is 39. Pop-jazz singer-musician Peter Cincotti is 37. Actress Serinda Swan is 36. Actor Robert Adamson is 35. Actor David Henrie is 31. Actor Connor Paolo is 30. Former tennis player Caroline Wozniacki is 30. R&B/pop singer Alessia Cara is 24.