Wednesday, July 20th
The 201st day of 2005
There are 164 days left in the year

Today's Highlights in History

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon when he stepped out of the lunar module. (Go to article.)

On July 20, 1920, Elliot Richardson, the American public official best known for his refusal to obey President Richard M. Nixon's order to fire a special prosecutor, was born. Following his death on December 31, 1999, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. Other Birthdays)

On July 20, 1907, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about British appreciation for Mark Twain's social commentary. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

Reference: The New York Times



The following courtesy Iraq War Today

Today in History
1773 - Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia.
1864 - Battle of Peachtree Creek.
1868 - Tax stamps first appear on cigarettes.
1872 - Mahlon Loomis receives a patent for the wireless (radio).
1881 - Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrenders to Federal troops.
1894 - Federal troops are recalled from Chicago after ending the Pullman strike.
1917 - #258 is the first number drawn in the WW I draft.
1922 - Togo becomes a mandate of the League of Nations.
1942 - Congress authorizes the Legion of Merit Medal; the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps begins basic training at Fort Des Moines.
1944 - FDR is nominated for an unprecedented 4th term; The U.S. invades Japanese-occupied Guam; Von Stauffenberg fails in his attempt to assassinate Hitler.
1949 - Israel's 19-month war of independence ends.
1956 - France recognizes Tunisia's independence.
1960 - The USS George Washington becomes the first submerged submarine to fire a Polaris missile; the U.S.S.R. recovers two dogs - the first living creatures to return from space.
1969 - Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, from Apollo 11, take "one giant leap for mankind," and become the first men on the 1970 1st baby born on Alcatraz Island
1974 - Turkey invades Cyprus.
1976 - Viking 1 lands on Mars - the first Martian landing.
1982 - The IRA detonates two bombs in London parks.
1985 - Divers find the wreck of the Spanish galleon Atocha (I actually held a bar of gold from the Atocha...it was wild. A little unnerving, what with the two armed guards standing there, too, but wild nonetheless)
1988 - Michael Dukakis is selected the Democratic presidential nominee.
1990 - Justice William Brennan resigns from the Supreme Court after 36 years.

Birthdays
1785 - Mahmud II ,Ottoman sultan, reformer
1919 - Sir Edmund Hillary one of the first two men to scale Mt. Everest
1920 - Elliot L. Richardson, Attorney General / Secretary of Defense
1933 - Nelson Doubleday, publisher / NY Mets owner
1941 - Vladimir A. Lyakhov, cosmonaut (Soyuz 32, T-9)
1947 - Gerd Binnig Frankfurt, physicist, Nobel Prize winner

Passings
1951 - Abdullah Ibn Hussein, King of Jordan, assassinated
1983 - Frank Reynolds, news anchor (ABC)

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Barbay, Lawrence, USAF (LA); EB66C shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - alive and well as of 1998
Dillon, David A., US Army (CA); UH1B shot down, KIA, body not recovered
Hubbard, Edward L., USAF (KS); EB66C shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - alive and well as of 1998
Lewis, Merrill R., USAF (IA); F105D shot down, remains returned August, 1989
McDaniel, Norman A., USAF (NC); EB66C shot down, releasd by DRV February, 1973 - alive and well as of 1998
Means, William H., USAF (KS); EB66C shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - deceased
Nelson, William Humphrey, USAF (MI); F105D shot down, remains returned by SRV September, 1997
Norbert, Craig R., USAF (CT); EB66C shot down, possibly Died in Captivity
Perkins, Glendon W., USAF (FL); EB66C shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - alive and well in 1998
1969
Smiley, Stanley K., USN (NE); A4F shot down, KIA, body not recovered