July 14
1951
The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, Missouri was founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who donated $30,000 to the monument. It was the first national monument dedicated to an African American and first to a non-president. George Washington Carver was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. He was the most prominent black scientist of the early 20th century. The site preserves of the boyhood home of Carve, as well as the 1881 Moses Carver house and the Carver cemetery.
1968
Atlanta Braves slugger Henry "Hank" Aaron hit the 500th home run of his career in a 4-2 win over the San Francisco Giants. Starting his career in the Negro Leagues, Aaron became the last former Negro League player to make his debut in the major leagues in 1954. On April 8, 1974, Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs. Aaron retired from baseball in 1976 with 755 home runs. After a career of remarkable offensive consistency, Aaron retired as the all-time leader in runs batted in, extra base hits and total bases. He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.
1990
"The Howard Stern Show," an American late night variety television show hosted by Howard Stern and his radio show staff, namely Robin Quivers, premiered on WWOR-TV (NYC), ushering in a new era of shock jock djs and censorship debates. Bob Woodruff, then WWOR's vice president of program development, approached Stern in 1989 after he had watched him on Late Show with David Letterman. Woodruff was keen on Stern in order to "beat the boredom of summer reruns" that WWOR-TV aired, and that his "provocative commentary should make funny television." The show was nationally syndicated until July 15, 1992 when it was cancelled.
July 15
1988
Die Hard, action film starring Bruce Willis as wisecracking New York City cop John McClane, opened in theaters across the Unite States. A highe box-office hit, the film established Willis as a movie star and spawned numerous sequels. Die Hard also became Hollywood shorthand for describing the plot of other actions films, as in “Speed is Die Hard on a bus.” As played by Willis, McClane was notable as a new type of action hero–funny and flawed. The film, which was directed by John McTiernan, received four Oscar nominations for Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects Editing.
1997
World- renowned Italian fashion designed Gianni Versace was murdered on the steps outside his Miami mansion by spree killer Andrew Cunanan. Cunanan had no criminal record before the spring of 1997, when he began a killing spree in Minneapolis. Versace’s killing set off a nationwide manhunt for Cunanan, who was famous for his chameleon-like ability to look different in every picture taken of him. However, on July 23, the search ended just 40 blocks away from Versace’s home on a two-level houseboat that Cunanan had broken into. There, police found him dead from a self-inflicted bullet wound from the same gun that took the lives of two of his victims. He left no suicide note.
2006
The San Francisco-based podcasting company Odeo officially released Twttr -later changed to Twitter- its short messaging service (SMS) for groups, to the public. Evan Williams, founder of Odeo, asked the team of 14 employees to brainstorm their best ideas for the flailing startup, One of the company’s engineers, Jack Dorsey, came up with the concept of a service allowing users to share personal status updates via SMS to groups of people. By March 2006, they had a working prototype, and a name—Twttr—inspired in part by bird sounds, and adopted after some other choices (including FriendStalker) were rejected. Dorsey (@Jack) sent the first-ever tweet (“just setting up my twttr”) on March 21.
July 16
1790
The young American Congress declared that a swampy, humid, muddy and mosquito-infested site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation's permanent capital. "Washington," in the newly designation federal "District of Columbia," was named after the leader of the American Revolution and the country's first president: George Washington. It was Washington who saw the area's potential economic and accessibility benefits due to the proximity of navigable rivers. George Washington, who had been in office just over a year when the capital site was determined, asked a French architect and city planner named Pierre L Enfant to design the capital.
1945
At 5:29:45 a.m., the Manhattan Project yielded explosive results as the first atom bomb was successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939, when Italian emigre physicist Enrico Fermi met with U.S. Navy department officials at Columbia University to discuss the use of fissionable materials for military purposes. That same year, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt supporting the theory that an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction had great potential as a basis for a weapon of mass destruction. The first mushroom cloud of searing light stretched 40,000 feet into the air and generated the destructive power of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT.
1995
Amazon officially opened for business as an online bookseller. Within a month, the fledgling retailer had shipped books to all 50 U.S. states and to 45 countries. Founder Jeff Bezos' motto was “get big fast,” and Seattle-based Amazon eventually morphed into an e-commerce colossus. Amazon has since acquired a number of companies, including Zappos and Whole Foods. In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the world’s most valuable retailer. Two decades after its founding and with Bezos still at the helm, Amazon’s market value was $250 billion. On July 5, 2021, Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon to focus on his aerospace company Blue Origin.
July 17
1955
Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy and futurism, opened. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 18 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion. In 1965, work began on an even bigger Disney theme park and resort near Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney died in 1966, and Walt Disney World was opened in his honor on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom were later added to Walt Disney World, and it remains Florida’s premier tourist attraction.
1975
As a part of a mission aimed at developing space rescue capability, the U.S. spacecraft Apollo 18 and the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 19 rendezvous and dock in space. As the hatch was opened between the two vessels, commanders Thomas P. Stafford and Aleksei Leonov shook hands and exchanged gifts in celebration of the first such meeting between the two Cold War adversaries in space. Back on Earth, United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim congratulated the two superpowers for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and praised their unprecedented spirit of cooperation and peace in planning and executing the mission.
1996
Shortly after takeoff from New York's Kennedy International Airport, a TWA Boeing 747 jetliner bound for Paris explodes over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard. Flight 800 had just received clearance to initiate a climb to cruise altitude when it exploded without warning. Because the plane was loaded with fuel for the long transatlantic journey, it vaporized within moments, creating a fireball seen almost all along the coastline of Long Island. Many conspiracy theories abounded over the cause of the explosion from a terrorist attack to a navy test missile hitting the plane by accident. The much-criticized Flight 800 investigation ended in late 1998, with investigators concluding that the explosion resulted from mechanical failure, not from a bomb or a missile.
July 18
1940
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who first took office in 1933 as America's 32nd president, was nominated for an unprecedented third term. Roosevelt, a Democrat, would eventually be elected to a record four terms in office, the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms. The president received some criticism for running again because there was an unwritten rule in American politics that no U.S. president should serve more than two terms. Nevertheless, Roosevelt believed it was his duty to continue serving and lead his country through the mounting crisis in Europe, where Hitler’s Nazi Germany was on the rise. His third term in office was dominated by America’s involvement in World War II.
1986
New close-up videotapes of the sunken ocean liner Titanic were released to the public. Taken on the first manned expedition to the wreck, the videotapes were stunning in their clarity and detail. Marine geologist Robert Ballard, in conjunction with Jean-Louis Michel of the Institute of Research for the Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), located the remains of the Titanic 350 miles southeast of Newfoundland, 13,000 feet down on the ocean floor. Ballard, who was from Massachusetts’ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, had the help of the U.S. Navy, which supplied him with Argo, a high resolution sonar device and submersible photographic sled.
1989
21-year-old actress Rebecca Schaeffer was murdered at her Los Angeles home by Robert John Bardo, a mentally unstable man who had been stalking her. Schaeffer's death helped lead to the passage in California of legislation aimed at preventing stalking. Schaeffer was best known for co-starring with Pam Dawber in the television sitcom My Sister Sam. The obsessed fan had reportedly obtained the actress’s home address through a detective agency, which located it through records at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. In 1994, California passed the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prevented the Department of Motor Vehicles from releasing private addresses.
July 19
1848
At the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, a woman's right convention - the first ever held in the United States - convened with almost 200 women in attendance. The convention was organized by Lucreti Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and becomes the founding of the women's rights movement in the United States. The Seneca Falls Convention was followed two weeks later by an even larger meeting in Rochester, N.Y. Thereafter, national woman’s rights conventions were held annually, providing an important focus for the growing women’s suffrage movement. After years of struggle, the 19th Amendment was adopted in 1920, granting American women the constitutionally protected right to vote.
1910
Cy Young won the 500th game of his Baseball career as the Cleveland Naps beat Washington Senators, 5 - 2, in 11 innings. Young is the only pitcher in MLB history to reach milestone. He also holds MLB records for the most career losses, innings pitched, games started and complete games. He led his league in wins during five seasons and pitched three no-hitters, including a perfect game in 1904. Young was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. In 1956, one year after his death, the Cy Young Award was created to honor the best pitcher in each league for each season.
1922
American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller became the first swimmer in history to break the one-minute barrier in the 100 freestyle, clocking a time of 58.6 seconds in Alameda, California. Weissmuller, also the first man to break five minutes in the 440-yard freestyle, went on to win three gold medals at the 1924 Olympic games in Paris and two more Olympic gold medals in 1928 in Amsterdam. In total, the swimmer out of the Illinois Athletic Club won 52 U.S. National titles and set 67 world records, and by all indications, never lost a swimming race. He would go on to a career in film, and became known as the definitive Tarzan, portraying the famous character in 12 different movies from 1932 until 1948.
July 20
1881
Five years after Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's infamous defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army, which promised amnesty for him and his followers. Sitting Bull had been a major leader in the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn. Pursued by the U.S. Army after the victory, he escaped to Canada with his followers. He was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Randall in South Dakota territory for two years and then was permitted to live on Standing Rock Reservation straddling North and South Dakota territory.
1963
“Two girls for every boy!” went the immortal opening line from Jan and Dean’s “Surf City,” the song that was on the top of the U.S. pop charts. It was a claim that wasn’t actually supported by the facts, but it helped create a popular image of California as a paradise of sun and sand and endless summers. n a year that also saw the debut of the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon Beach Party movie franchise, “Surf City” became the first chart-topping surf song ever. Jan and Dean would go on to have four more significant surf hits in their career:: “Honolulu Lulu” (#11, 1963); “Drag City” (#10, 1963); “Dead Man’s Curve” (#8, 1964); and “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)” (#3, 1964).
1969
At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy’s bold proposal.