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TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is the 205th day of 2019. There are 160 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific.

On this date:

In 1862, Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, and the first to have been born a U.S. citizen, died at age 79 in Kinderhook, N.Y., the town where he was born in 1782.

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 1937, the state of Alabama dropped charges against four of the nine young black men accused of raping two white women in the “Scottsboro Case.”

In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings.

In 1998, a gunman burst into the U.S. Capitol, killing two police officers before being shot and captured.

In 2002, nine coal miners became trapped in a flooded tunnel of the Quecreek Mine in western Pennsylvania; the story ended happily 77 hours later with the rescue of all nine.

In 2005, Lance Armstrong won his seventh consecutive Tour de France. (Those wins were stripped away after Armstrong’s confession to using steroids.)

Ten years ago: Trying to tamp down a national uproar over race, President Barack Obama acknowledged using unfortunate words in declaring that Cambridge, Mass., police had “acted stupidly” in arresting Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Five years ago: Air Algerie Flight 5017, an MD-83 carrying 116 people, crashed in Mali, killing all on board. A psychiatrist’s patient opened fire at a medical complex in Media, Pa., killing his caseworker and grazing his psychiatrist before the doctor pulled out his own weapon and fired back, wounding the patient. Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice received a two-game suspension from the NFL following his arrest for domestic violence after an altercation with then-fiance (later wife) Janay Palmer in Atlantic City, N.J.

One year ago: The Trump administration said it would provide $12 billion in emergency relief to farmers hurt by trade disputes with China and other countries.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor John Aniston is 86. Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 83. Actor Mark Goddard is 83. Actor Dan Hedaya is 79. Actor Chris Sarandon is 77. Comedian Gallagher is 73. Actor Robert Hays is 72. Actor Michael Richards is 70. Actress Lynda Carter is 68. Country singer Pam Tillis is 62. Actor Paul Ben-Victor is 57. Retired MLB All-Star Barry Bonds is 55. Actor Kadeem Hardison is 54. Actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 51. Actress Laura Leighton is 51. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 50. Actress Jamie Denbo (TV: “Orange is the New Black”) is 46. Actor Eric Szmanda is 44. Actress Rose Byrne is 40. Country singer Jerrod Niemann is 40. Actress Elisabeth Moss is 37.

Thought for Today: “People who jump to conclusions rarely alight on them.” — Philip Guedalla, British writer (1889-1944).

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