Today in History

Today is Monday, July 15, the 197th day of 2024. There are 169 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts, was found at Fort Julien in the Nile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.

Also on this date:

In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 350 years after its creation.

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

In 1913, Democrat Augustus Bacon of Georgia became the first person elected to the U.S. Senate under the terms of the recently ratified 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of senators.

In 1916, The Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

In 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed; the kidnappers were caught.)

In 1996, MSNBC, a 24-hour all-news network, made its debut on cable and the internet.

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NAN’-an), 27, was found dead eight days later, a suicide. (Investigators believed Cunanan killed four other people before Versace in a cross-country rampage that began the previous March.)

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who’d fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

In 2006, Twitter (now known as X) was launched to the public.

In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years for killing one and injuring dozens of others when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In 2020, George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. (The city would agree to pay $27 million to settle the lawsuit in March 2021.)

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Patrick Wayne is 85. R&B singer Millie Jackson is 80. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 78. Author Richard Russo is 75. Musician Trevon Horn is 75. Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, is 74. Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is 73. Actor Terry O’Quinn (TV: “Lost”) is 72. Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 72. Rock musician Joe Satriani is 68. Model Kim Alexis is 64. Actor Willie Aames is 64. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 63. Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 61. Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 58. TV personality Adam Savage (TV” “MythBusters”) is 57. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 56. Actor-screenwriter Jim Rash (TV: “Community”) is 52. Actor Scott Foley is 52. Actor Brian Austin Green is 51. Singer Buju Banton is 51. Actor Diane Kruger is 48. Actor Lana Parrilla (LAH’-nuh pa-REE’-uh) is 47. Actor Travis Fimmel is 45. Actor-singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds is 35. NBA point guard Damian Lillard is 34. Actor Iain Armitage (TV: “Young Sheldon”) is 16.