Friday, July 22nd
The 203rd day of 2005
There are 162 days left in the year

Today's Highlights in History

On July 22, 1934, a man identified as bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater. (Go to article.)

On July 22, 1849, Emma Lazarus, the American poet best known for her words inscribed at the Statue of Liberty, was born. Following her death on November 19, 1887, her obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. Other Birthdays)

On July 22, 1905, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the problem of yellow fever during construction of the Panama Canal. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

Reference: The New York Times



The following courtesy Iraq War Today

Today in History
1298 - The English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Falkirk.
1775 - George Washington takes command of American troops.
1796 - Cleveland, OH, is founded by General Moses Cleaveland.
1812 - In Spain, the Duke of Wellington defeats the French at the Battle of Salamanca.
1864 - Confederate General John Bell Hood attacks William Sherman's Union forces at the Battle of Atlanta; the Confederates suffer terrible losses.
1916 - During the San Francisco Preparedness Parade, anti-militarist terrorists detonate a bomb, killing 10.
1917 - Alexander Kerensky becomes PM in Russia.
1937 - The U.S. Senate rejects FDR's proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court.
1942 - Gasoline rationing begins in the U.S.; the Nazis begin deportations from Warsaw to Treblinka.
1943 - Allied forces captured Palermo, Sicily.
1944 - Soviets set up the Polish Committee of National Liberation.
1950 - After six years in exile, King Leopold returns to Belgium
1952 - The Polish constitution is adopted (National Day)
1955 - Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. Vice President to preside over a Cabinet meeting.
1962 - Mariner 1, the first American Venus probe, fails at lift-off.
1969 - The U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik 50 and the Molniya 1-12 communications satellite.
1972 - Venera 8 makes a soft landing on Venus
1975 - The House of Representatives votes to posthumously restore citizenship to General Robert E. Lee.
1981 - In Rome, Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca is sentenced to life.
1983 - Polish PM Januzelski lifts martial law.
1986 - The U.S. House of Representatives impeaches Judge Harry E. Claiborne on tax evasion
1987 - The Soyuz TM-3 Is launched with three cosmonauts (1 Syrian); the U.S. begins escorting Kuwaiti tankers in the Persian Gulf.
1991 - Jeffrey Dahmer confesses to killing 17 young men in 1978.

Birthdays
1478 - Philip I (the Handsome), first Habsburg king of Spain (1506)
1822 - Gregor Mendel, monk/geneticist; discovered the laws of heredity
1849 - Emma Lazarus, poet ("The New Colossus," at the base of the Statue of Liberty)
1887 - Gustav Hertz, quantum physicist, Nobel Prize Winner
1890 - Rose Kennedy, mother of JFK, RFK, Ted
1921 - William Roth (Sen-DE)
1923 - Robert Dole (Sen-KS)
1930 - Yuri P. Artyukhin, cosmonaut (Soyuz 14)
1955 - Willem Dafoe, actor (Platoon, Roadhouse 66, Mississippi Burning)

Passings
1461 - Charles VII king of France (1422-61), dies at 58
1802 - Marie-François-Xavier Bichat, one of the founders of histology (microscopic study of tissue)
1826 - Giuseppe Piazzi discoverer of 1st asteroid, dies
1934 - John Dillinger shot dead at Biograph Theater in Chicago
1967 - Carl Sandburg, poet (Abraham Lincoln: The Prarie Years)

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Wells, Robert J., US Army (PA); drowned when his safety line broke as he was crossing a river, Killed, body not recovered
1972
Paige, Gordon C., USN (CA); RF8G shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - alive as of 1998