On this Day

Wednesday, July 6th
The 187th day of 2005
There are 178 days left in the year

Today's Highlights in History

On July 6, 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. (Go to article.)

On July 6, 1907, Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter famous for her surrealist and expressionist work , was born. Following her death on July 13, 1954, her obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. Other Birthdays)

On July 6, 1872, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the Senator Charles Sumner, civil rights for black Americans, and the presidential election of 1872. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

Reference: The New York Times



The following courtesy Iraq War Today

Today in History
1483 - King Richard III of England is crowned.
1535 - Sir Thomas Moore is executed in England for treason.
1699 - Captain William Kidd is arrested in Boston.
1777 - British General Burgoyne captures Fort Ticonderoga from the Americans.
1785 - Congress resolves that U.S. currency will be named the "dollar," and adopts a decimal coinage system.
1798 - U.S. law makes aliens "liable to be apprehended, restrained...and removed as alien enemies..."
1885 - Louis Pasteur performs the first human inoculation (for rabies).
1908 - Robert Peary's expedition sails from New York City, bound for the North Pole.
1923 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
1928 - The first all-talking motion picture is shown in New York; America's heaviest hailstone falls in Coffeyville, KS (1.67 lbs.).
1944 - Fire breaks out at the Ringling Bros. Circus in Hartford, CT - 170 are killed.
1945 - Nicaragua becomes the first nation to formally accept the UN Charter; President Truman signs the executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.
1958 - Alaska becomes the 49th U.S. state.
1976 - Soyuz-21 carries two cosmonauts to the Salyut-5 space station.
1978 - Israeli jet fighters bomb West Beirut.
1987 - Sikh extremists carry out the first of three massacres in India.
1989 - U.S. Marshals and the FCC seize Brooklyn pirate radio station WHOT.

Birthdays
1747 - John Paul Jones, Naval hero (said, "I have not yet begun to fight")
1796 - Czar Nicholas I of Russia
1903 - Axel Theorell Sweden, biochemist, studied enzymes, Nobel Prize winner
1923 - Nancy Davis Reagan, First Lady
1945 - Burt Ward, actor (Robin-Batman)

Passings
1189 - King Henry II of England
1415 - Jan Hus, burned for heresy by the Church at Constance, Germany
1535 - Sir Thomas Moore, executed for treason in England
1990 - Paul Wynne, KGO-TV SF reporter, of AIDS

Missing in Action
1966
Hestle, Roosevelt L., Jr., USAF (FL); F105F shot down, wife believes she saw him in film footage from a Hanoi press conference
Morgan, Charles E., USAF (CA); F105F shot down, remains returned July, 1989 - ID'd April, 1990
Tomes, Jack H., USAF (AZ); F105D shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - died December, 1984
Young, James Faulds, USAF (MI); RF101C shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1996
1967
Hughey, Kenneth R., USAF (CA);F4C shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel as of 1996 - alive as of 1998
Pollack, Melvin, USAF (NY); F4C shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel as of 1996 - alive and well as of 1998
1968
Mahoney, Thomas P. III, USMC (CA); KIA, body not recovered
1971
Carr, Donald G., US Army SF (IN); passenger in OV10A believed shot down while on recon mission
Thomas, Daniel W., USAF (IA); OV10A believed shot down while on recon mission