Today is Thursday, July 9, the 190th day of 2009. There are 175 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington’s troops in New York.
On this date:
In 1540, England’s King Henry VIII had his 6-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.
In 1755, General Edward Braddock’s British army was thoroughly defeated in the Battle of the Monongahela during the French and Indian War.
In 1762, Catherine II overthrew Peter III and began her reign as empress of Russia.
In 1793, Vermont completed revisions to its constitution and became the first state in the United States to prohibit slavery. Vermont had already been admitted to the union as the fourteenth state on March 4, 1791.
In 1816, Delegates from colonies in southern South America declare their independence from Spain as the United Provinces of South America, later known as Argentina.
In 1828, American portrait painter Gilbert Stuart died in Boston.
In 1850, the 12th president of the United States, Zachary Taylor, died after serving only 16 months of his term. (He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.)
In 1896, William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous “cross of gold” speech at the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
In 1900, Queen Victoria of Great Britain gives the royal assent to the Australian Federation Bill, establishing an autonomous Commonwealth of Australia on Jan. 1, 1901.
In 1918, 101 people were killed in a train collision in Nashville, Tenn. The Distinguished Service Cross was established by an Act of Congress.
In 1922, “Tarzan” breaks a world record in swimming.
Weissmüller broke the 100-meters freestyle world record on July 9, 1922 at the Alameda pool in California, with a time under the magic minute mark. The clock stopped at 58.6 seconds, a sensational record time and personal best. At the Olympic Games in 1924, Weissmüller again swam the distance in less than one minute.
As the holder of three gold medals, he was the second most successful athlete behind the legendary track star, Paavo Nurmi from Finland. Four years later in Amsterdam, Weissmüller won two further gold medals. For ten years, until his amateur career ended in 1929, the U.S. citizen remained unbeatable in the freestyle distances of between 50 yards and half a mile. He put his name to no less than 67 world records.
But from 1932 onwards, Johnny Weissmüller was Tarzan. It is said that the scriptwriter at the powerful MGM entertainment company saw the almost two-meters tall and 100-kilograms heavy athlete swimming in a hotel pool and immediately cast him in the role.
Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane and Weissmüller as Tarzan are the classic jungle couple. MGM paid the ex-swimmer’s wife $10,000 to divorce him because Weismüller could be more effectively marketed as a single man. Johnny’s Tarzan call echoed around the globe.
Weissmüller later said that his call was inspired by yodelling. And his Tarzan call was supposed to have even saved his life once. In 1959, during the Cuban revolution — so legend has it — Weissmüller and a few golfing friends were surrounded by armed followers of Castro. He quickly let off one of his famous calls. Then, the revolutionaries immediately recognized him and escorted the group to safety.
Weismüller starred in a total of 12 Tarzan films, followed by 16 Jungle Jim episodes, in which he played a similar role. His film career ended in 1955.
Weissmüller’s private life was less successful than his film career: a succession of failed marriages, lawsuits due to his failure to pay maintenance, business flops and, as a result, financial problems. His health also failed. After several strokes in the final years of his life, Weissmüller’s mental capacity started to deteriorate. When in this reduced state, he would cry out his Tarzan call almost without cease.
On January 20, 1984, he died at the age of 79. There are only three words on his gravestone in Acapulco, Mexico: Johnny Weissmüller, Tarzan.
In 1929, Hassan II, who ruled Morocco from 1961 to 1999, was born.
In 1938, Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo died in Port Chester, N.Y., at age 68.
In 1942, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam and lived in a secret annex—an experience documented in her diary, which became a classic of war literature—until their capture on August 4, 1944.
In 1947, the engagement of Britain’s Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.
In 1951, President Harry S. Truman asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany.
In 1960, the Thresher, the first of a class of U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, which sank in 1963 in the worst submarine accident in history, was launched.
In 1974, former U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren died in Washington at age 83.
In 1982, a Pan Am Boeing 727 crashed in Kenner, La., killing all 145 people aboard and eight people on the ground.
In 1982, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton tapped Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee to be his running mate.
In 1995: The Grateful Dead played their last concert, at Soldier Field in Chicago. (Lead guitarist Jerry Garcia died the following month.)
In 1997, Boxer Mike Tyson was banned from the ring and fined $3 million for biting opponent Evander Holyfield’s ear.
In 1999, ten years ago, a jury in Los Angeles ordered General Motors Corp. to pay $4.9 billion to six people severely burned when their Chevrolet Malibu exploded in flames in a rear-end collision. (A judge later reduced the punitive damages to $1.09 billion, while letting stand $107 million in compensatory damages; GM settled the lawsuit in July 2003 for an undisclosed amount.)
In 2000, Pete Sampras won his seventh Wimbledon singles title, tying the record for men at the All England Club.
In 2001, a court in Chile ruled that Gen. Augusto Pinochet could not be tried on human rights charges because of his deteriorating physical and mental health.
In 2002, the baseball All-Star game in Milwaukee finished in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings when both teams ran out of pitchers.
In 2004, five years ago, a Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration had relied on to justify going to war.
In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s planned security barrier in the West Bank violated international law.
In 2004, Paul Klebnikov, the American editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition, was gunned down near his Moscow office.
In 2004, actress Isabel Sanford died in Los Angeles at age 86.
In 2008, one year ago, prosecutors cleared JonBenet Ramsey’s parents and brother in the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen in Boulder, Colo.
In 2008, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, battling a brain tumor, walked into the Senate to cast a dramatic vote in favor of long-stalled Medicare legislation.
In 2008, Iran test-fired nine missiles, including ones capable of hitting Israel.
In 2008, gunmen stormed a guard post at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, touching off a firefight that killed three police officers and three assailants.
Today’s Birthdays
Actor-singer Ed Ames is 82. Actor James Hampton is 73. Actor Brian Dennehy is 71. Actor Richard Roundtree is 67. Author Dean Koontz is 64. NFL Hall of Famer and convicted felon O.J. Simpson is 62. Actor Chris Cooper is 58. TV personality John Tesh is 57. Country singer David Ball is 56. R&B singer Debbie Sledge (Sister Sledge) is 55. Actor Jimmy Smits is 54. Actress Lisa Banes is 54. Actor Tom Hanks is 53. Singer Marc Almond is 52. Actress Kelly McGillis is 52. Rock singer Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) is 50. Actress-rock singer Courtney Love is 45. Rock musician Frank Bello (Anthrax) is 44. Actor David O’Hara is 44. Rock musician Xavier Muriel (Buckcherry) is 41. Actor Scott Grimes is 38. Actor Enrique Murciano is 36. Rock musician Dan Estrin (Hoobastank) is 33. Actor-director Fred Savage is 33. Country musician Pat Allingham is 31. Actress Megan Parlen is 29. R&B singer Kiely Williams (3lw) is 23. Actor Mitchel Musso is 18. Actress Georgie Henley (“The Chronicles of Narnia” films) is 14.
Today’s Historic Birthdays
German emperor (11619-1637). Ferdinand was born in Graz, in Austria, brought up by Jesuits and tried to restore unity among the Christians in his empire. He ardently pursued his aim of reinstating Catholicism and ordered the return of church property from Protestant Bohemia. He was initially successful, but suffered setbacks when Gustav II. Adolf of Sweden intervened. He died in Vienna in 1637, before he was able to complete his mission.
Thomas De La Warr
7/9/1577 – 6/7/1618
English official; one of the founders of the Virginia colony
Thomas Davenport
7/9/1802 – 7/6/1851
American inventor; developed successful electric motor
Elias Howe
7/9/1819 – 10/3/1867
American inventor of the sewing machine
Franz Boas (1858-1942), German American anthropologist and ethnologist, born in Minden, and educated at the universities of Heidelberg, Bonn, and Kiel. In 1883-1884 he made a scientific exploration of the Baffin Island region of the Arctic. Two years later he immigrated to the United States and made the first of many trips to study the Kwakiutl and other tribes in British Columbia.
Ottorino Respighi
7/9/1879 – 4/18/1936
Italian composer
Mikhail Borodin
7/9/1884 – 5/29/1951
Russian Comintern agent
Samuel Eliot Morison
7/9/1887 – 5/15/1976
American biographer and historian
Dorothy Thompson
7/9/1893 – 1/30/1961
American journalist and writer
Albert Wedemeyer
7/9/1897 – 12/17/1989
American military leader during W. W. II
Carmen Franco
7/9/1900 – 2/6/1988
Spanish consort of Francisco Franco
Mervyn Peake
7/9/1911 – 11/17/1968
English novelist, poet, playwright and illustrator
Edward Heath
7/9/1916 – 7/17/2005
British prime minister (1970-1974)
Hassan II
7/9/1929 – 7/23/1999
Moroccan king (1961-99)
Thought for Today
“Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough.” — Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator and reformer (1875-1955).
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Full article: http://www.boston.com/news/history/articles/2009/07/09/today_in_history___july_9/
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20090709.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html
http://www.britannica.com/eb/dailycontent/rss
http://www.todayinhistory.de/index.php?tag=9&monat=7&dayisset=1&year=2009&lang=en
http://www.todayinhistory.de/index.php?tag=9&monat=7&dayisset=1&year=2009&lang=en
