On This Day July 3

1988
An Iranian passenger jet is shot down by the USS Vincennes, killing all 290 persons aboard. It had mistaken it for an Iranian F-14 jet fighter.

1987
First transatlantic hot-air balloon crossing: British billionaire and Virgin Records co-founder Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand arrive at the Scottish coast in their hot-air balloon the Virgin Atlantic Flyer. They had departed from Sugarloaf Mountain, Maine, 33 hours earlier and travelled a distance of 2,900 miles.

1976
Flight 139: Israeli commandos rescue 103 hostages from an Air France flight. It had been hijacked to Uganda by the PLO June 27th.

1950
Pantomime Quiz debuts on CBS. It was one of only four shows to appear on all four major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, DuMont), and won the first Emmy for Most Popular TV Program (1948 while still a local program in Los Angeles).

1934
First payments by the FDIC on a closed bank: The depositors in the Fond du Lac State Bank of East Peoria, Ill are paid off. The bank had closed in May.

1930
Veterans Administration (VA) is established, to consolidate and administer a system of benefits for veterans and their dependents.

1928
First public demonstration of color TV: Inventor John L. Baird shows his device in London.

1906
Pope St. Pius X formally condemns the intellectual movement within the Roman Catholic Church.

1886
First Automobile: Karl Benz takes his creation for its first drive in Mannheim, Germany, reaching a top speed of 10 mph.

1871
Narrow Gauge Railroad: The first U.S. made narrow-gauge locomotive for mountain use goes into service on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway Company.

1863
Civil War - Battle of Gettysburg ends: The Confederate Army led by General George Pickett sounds the retreat, marking the beginning of the end for the South. Each side had lost more than 3,000 men in this two-day battle.

1844
The Great Auk becomes extinct: The last pair is clubbed to death on the Island of Eldey off of Iceland.

1775
American Revolution: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army.

1754
French and Indian War: George Washington is forced to surrender Fort Necessity at Great Meadows to the numerically superior French.

1964
Yeardley Smith, American actress. TV: The Simpsons (voice of Lisa) and Herman's Head (Louise).

1962
Tom Cruise, American Golden Globe-winning actor, Scientologist. Film: Risky Business (1983), Top Gun (1986), The Firm (1993), and Interview with the Vampire (1994, Lestat).

1957 d. 2004
Laura Branigan, American singer. Music: Gloria (1982, #2). She died of a brain aneurism, which also killed her father and paternal grandfather.

1927
Ken Russell, British director. Film: Women In Love (1969), The Music Lover (1971), and Altered States (1979).

1912 d. 1975
Elizabeth Taylor, British novelist. Quote: People with no vices usually have annoying virtues. (source: Fifth 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said)

1906 d. 1972
George Sanders, British Oscar-winning Actor. Film: Starred in The Saint and The Falcon movies. He was married to both Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sister Magda. He died of suicide.

1879 d. 1950
Alfred Korzybski, American scientist, pioneer in the study of semantics, founded the Institute of General Semantics (1938) in Chicago.

1878 d. 1942
George M. Cohan, American playwright, songwriter, Over There, You're a Grand Old Flag and I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. Note: He told people his birthday was July 4.

1731 d. 1796
Samuel Huntington, 7th president of the Continental Congress (1779-81), signer of the Declaration of Independence, president of the Continental Congress (1779-81), and governor of Connecticut (1786-96).

1993 b. 1936
Don Drysdale, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, sportscaster. TV: Monday Night Baseball.

1993 b. 1909
"Curly" Joe DeRita, American comic, one of the Three Stooges. Replacing Joe Besser, he appeared in Have Rocket Will Travel (1959), Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), and The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962).

1989 b. 1913
Jim Backus (James Gilmore Backus), American actor. TV: Gilligan's Island (Thurston Howell III) and Mr. Magoo (voice of Magoo).

1986 b. 1901
Rudy Vallee (Hubert Prior Vallee), American singer, actor, "The Vagabond Lover." He learned the saxophone through a mail-order course.

1981 b. 1920
Ross Martin (Martin Rosenblatt), Polish-born American actor. TV: The Wild, Wild West (Artemus Gordon).

1971 b. 1943
Jim Morrison, American singer, with The Doors, "The Lizard King." Music: Light My Fire (1967, #1) and L.A. Woman (1971).

1969 b. 1942
Brian Jones, British singer, guitarist, founder of The Rolling Stones.

1965 b. 1932
Trigger (Golden Cloud), American horse star, "Smartest Horse in the Movies." Starred with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans in movies and TV. After his death, he was stuffed and displayed at the Roy Rogers museum.

1962 b. 1894
e.e. cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings), American poet. Writings: The Enormous Room (1922) describing his imprisonment by the French after being mistaken for a spy.

1935 b. 1878
Andre Gustave Citroën, French automaker, industrialist. He brought Henry Ford's mass production to the European auto industry. In 1915, during the lead up to WWI, he built a munitions plant that had a capacity of 55,000 shells a day. After the war he converted his munitions plant to produce the small, inexpensive Citroën automobile (1919).

1920 b. 1854
William Crawford Gorgas, American sanitarian, controlled malaria and yellow fever outbreaks during the construction of the Panama Canal.

1916 b. 1835
Hetty Green (Henrietta Howland Green), American financial wizard and miser, called the Witch of Wall Street. She wore the same black dress for years (eventually it turned green and then brown), used old newspapers for lingerie and lived in an unheated apartment. Her estate was valued at $100,000,000.

1904 b. 1860
Theodor Herzl, Hungarian journalist, founder of modern Zionism. His efforts led to the establishment of the state of Israel (1948). (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

1833 b. 1765
Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, French inventor. He created the first true photographs (1826).

July 3

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