Thursday, July 28th
The 209th day of 2005
There are 156 days left in the year

Today's Highlights in History

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. World War I began as declarations of war by other European nations quickly followed. (Go to article.)

On July 28, 1929, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the American first lady noted for her style and elegance, was born. Following her death on May 19, 1994, her obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. Other Birthdays)

On July 28, 1877, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about anti-Semitism. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

Reference: The New York Times

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Today in History (Via Iraq War Today)
1586 - Sir Thomas Harriot introduces potatoes to Europe.
1588 - The Spanish Armada sails to overthrow England's Queen Elizabeth I.
1821 - Peru declares independence from Spain (National Day).
1830 - In France, a revolution Charles X with Louis Philippe.
1862 - Confederate forces are defeated at More's Hill, MO.
1868 - The 14th Amendment is ratified, granting citizenship to ex-slaves.
1900 - In Connecticut, Louis Lassing creates the Hamburger.
1914 - Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia, officially beginning WW I.
1931 - Congress makes "The Star-Spangled Banner" the U.S. National Anthem.
1942 - Nazis murder 10,000 Jews in Minsk, Russia.
1943 - Italian Facist dictator Benito Mussolini resigns; FDR announces the end of U.S. coffee rationing.
1945 - A U.S. Army bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, 14 die; the U.S. Senate ratifies the UN charter 89-2
1962 - Mariner I is launched for Mars; it plummets into the Atlantic Ocean.
1964 - Ranger 7 is launched toward the Moon; it sends back 4308 TV pictures.
1977 - Oil first flows through the Alaska pipeline.
1986 - NASA releases the transcript from the doomed Challenger Space Shuttle.
1988 - Israeli diplomats arrive in Moscow for the first Israeli visit in 21 years.
1990 - A blackout hits Chicago.

Birthdays
1165 - Ibn al-'Arabi, Muslim mystic/philosopher
1746 - Thomas Heyward, soldier, signed Declaration of Independence
1859 - Balington Booth, founded Volunteers of America
1907 - Earl S. Tupper inventor of Tupperware
1929 - Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, First Lady
1961 - Scott E. Parazynski, MD/astronaut

Passings
1540 - Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII's chief minister, executed
1655 - Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist/novelist
1746 - John Peter Zenger, journalist, involved in 1st Amendment fight
1750 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (Art of the Fugue)
1794 - Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary/avocat, guillotined

Reported Missing in Action
1966
McSwain, George P., USN (CA); A4E shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - alive in 1998

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Today's American Minute
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach died this day, July 28, 1750.

He was considered the "master of masters," combining the tradition of Baroque music with harmonic innovations.

The majority of his works are religious, including "Passion According to St. Matthew," and "Jesus, Meine Freude" (Jesus, My Joy!).

In commenting on his music, Bach stated: "The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging."

In the U.S. Supreme Court case McCollum v. Board of Education (1948), Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote: "It would not seem practical to teach. . . appreciation of the arts if we are to forbid exposure of youth to any religious influences.

Music without sacred music, architecture minus the cathedral, or painting without the Scriptural themes would be eccentric and incomplete, even from a secular point of view. . .

One can hardly respect a system of education that would leave a student wholly ignorant of the currents of religious thought that moved the world."