This Week in History

JULY 18

John Sica was born.

George England was born.

George B. Johnson was born (in 1937!).

64 – A great fire began that ultimately destroyed most of Rome. The emperor Nero blamed it on Christians and began the first Roman persecution of them.

1925 – The first volume of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf was published.

JULY 19

Dennis Farrell was born.

1966 – Fifty-year-old singer Frank Sinatra married 21-year-old actress Mia Farrow.

1984 – Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for the vice-presidency by a major political party.

JULY 20

Meghan Courtney Flanagan was born.

Susan Enright was born.

1969 – Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon.

JULY 21

Michael Prendergast was born.

Barbara Mietzner Innes was born.

Leah Nicole Meier was born.

1873 – The first train robbery west of the Mississippi was pulled off by Jesse James and his gang.

1925 – In the “Monkey Trial,” John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee state law by teaching evolution.

JULY 22

Kristina Iudica Hayden was born.

Karen Grupinski was born.

Kevin Donohue was born.

1933 – Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world.

1934 – John Dillinger was shot to death outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater.

JULY 23

Clifford Baumann was born.

John Moroney was born.

Rosie Kelly was born.

1903 – The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.

JULY 24

Patty Cashman was born.

Kathie Hillis was born.

1974 – The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over White House tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

2002 – Nine coal miners were trapped in a mine in Pennsylvania. All were rescued three days later.