Today is Wednesday, July 31, the 212th day of 2013. There are 153 days left in the year.
Highlights in History
• In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army.
• In 1875, the 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson, died in Carter County, Tenn., at age 66.
• In 1919, Germany’s Weimar Constitution was adopted by the republic’s National Assembly.
• In 1942, Oxfam International, which had its beginnings as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, was founded in England.
• In 1953, Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio (above), known as “Mr. Republican,” died in New York at age 63.
• In 1971, Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin became the first astronauts to use a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.
• In 1972, Democratic vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton (left) withdrew from the ticket with George McGovern following disclosures that Eagleton had once undergone psychiatric treatment.
• In 1989, a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a grisly videotape showing the body of American hostage William R. Higgins, a Marine lieutenant-colonel, dangling from a rope.
• In 1991, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow.
• Ten years ago: The Vatican launched a global campaign against gay marriages.
• Five years ago: Scientists reported the Phoenix spacecraft had confirmed the presence of frozen water in Martian soil.
• One year ago: Three Indian electric grids collapsed in a cascade, cutting power to 620 million people in the world’s biggest blackout.
Thought for Today
“History is idle gossip about a happening whose truth is lost the instant it has taken place.” — Gore Vidal (1925-2012)
Source: Associated Press