Today is Wednesday, July 16, the 197th day of 2024. There are 168 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On July 16, 1945, the United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico; the same day, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis left Mare (mar-AY’) Island Naval Shipyard in California on a secret mission to deliver atomic bomb components to Tinian Island in the Marianas.
Also on this date:
In 1790, a site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington, D.C.
In 1862, Flag Officer David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States Navy.
In 1951, the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little, Brown and Co.
In 1957, Marine Corps Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record by flying a Vought F8U Crusader jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.4 seconds.
In 1964, as he accepted the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater declared that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” and that “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
In 1969, Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.
In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
In 2004, Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge in New York for lying about a stock sale.
In 2008, Florida resident Casey Anthony, whose 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, had been missing a month, was arrested on charges of child neglect, making false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. (Casey Anthony was later acquitted at trial of murdering Caylee, whose skeletal remains were found in December 2008; Casey was convicted of lying to police.)
In 2015, a jury in Centennial, Colorado, convicted James Holmes of 165 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the 2012 Aurora movie theater rampage that left 12 people dead.
In 2017, 10 people died at a popular swimming hole in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest after a rainstorm unleashed a flash flood.
In 2018, after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, President Donald Trump openly questioned the finding of his own intelligence agencies that Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to his benefit. (Trump said a day later that he misspoke.)
Today’s Birthdays:
- International Tennis Hall of Famer Margaret Court is 83.
- Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 77.
- Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 77.
- Rock composer-musician Stewart Copeland is 73.
- Playwright Tony Kushner is 69.
- Dancer Michael Flatley is 67.
- Former actor and teen model Phoebe Cates is 62.
- Actor Daryl “Chill” Mitchell is 60.
- Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 58.
- Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders is 57.
- Actor Corey Feldman is 54.
- Actor Jayma Mays is 46.
- Retired soccer star Carli Lloyd is 43.
- Actor AnnaLynne McCord is 38.
- Actor-singer James Maslow (Big Time Rush) is 35.
- Actor Mark Indelicato is 31.
- Pop singer-musician Luke Hemmings (5 Seconds to Summer) is 29.