On This Day July 15

2005
Disneyland: The theme park becomes the first location to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1993
First U.S. death from the Killer Bees: An 82-year-old Texas man is killed by a swarm of the Africanized bees.

1992
Marriage cost limit: The state of Orissa in India passes a law limiting the cost of a marriage ceremony to $800 (the average annual middle-class income) and limits the reception to 50 guests, punishable by up to six years in jail.

1975
First manned Soviet-American space project: Apollo 18 and Soviet Soyuz 19 are launched. Two days later they linked together in space.

1957
Edsel: The first official day of production of the automobile that would come to symbolize a flop in popular culture.

1954
First flight of the Boeing 707, capable of flying 219 passengers at 600 mph.

1952
First transatlantic helicopter flight Two U.S. Air Force pilots - in separate helicopters - take off from Massachusetts, completing the 3,410-mile Atlantic crossing on July 31.

1933
First around-the-world solo flight begins, by Wiley Post in the Winnie Mae, completing the journey on July 22.

1904
First Buddhist temple in the U.S.: The Shinshu Sect establishes a temple in Los Angeles. The chief priest was Rinban Izumeda.

1881
Jesse James: James commits his last murders when he kills a railroad engineer and a passenger while he and his gang, including his brother Frank, were holding up a train near Winston, Missouri.

1834
Spanish Inquisition: The infamous Inquisition, authorized by Pope Sixtus IV in 1478, is officially ended.

1815
Napoleon - 100 Days War: Napoleon surrenders to the British at Rochefort after his loss the previous month at Waterloo. He was then exiled to Saint Helena where he died six years later.

1789
Andrew Jackson: The future President of the U.S. signs a loyalty pledge swearing allegiance to Spain.

1099
First Crusade: Christian soldiers, after a seven-day siege, take Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

1960
Willie Aames, American actor. TV: Charles in Charge (Buddy Lembeck) and Eight Is Enough (Tommy Bradford).

1951
Jesse "The Body" Ventrua (James George Janos), American wrestler, actor, governor of Minnesota (1999-2003, Reform Party).

1946
Linda Ronstadt, American Grammy-winning singer. Music: You're No Good (1975, #1), When Will I Be Loved (1975), and Blue Bayou (1977).

1944
Jan-Michael Vincent, American actor. Film: World's Greatest Athlete (1973). TV: Airwolf (Hawke).

1943
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, British astronomer. She discovered pulsars (1967), while studying quasars. She noticed an unusual radio signal pulsing every 1.3 seconds which turned out to be the new type of celestial object.

1928
Carl Richard Woese, American microbiologist. he defined the Archaea (1977, a new domain or kingdom of life) and identified methanogens, a form of life that lives in oxygen-deprived environments and survive by reducing CO2 and oxidizing hydrogen, and releasing the resulting methane. He also originated the RNA world hypothesis (1967).

1922
Leon Max Lederman, American Nobel-winning physicist. He and Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger received the Nobel Prize for Physics (1988) for the discovery of the subatomic particle the muon neutrino. Quote: "Physics isn't a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money."

1906 d. 1989
Richard Willard Armour, American author, poet. Writings: It All Started With Eve (1956).

1900 d. 1969
Thomas Francis, Jr., American virologist, epidemiologist. He was the first American to isolate the virus influenza A (1934) and showed that there are other strains, such as influenza B (1940) and developed an effective vaccine against both strains. He also conducted the field trials of the polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk.

1850 d. 1917
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrina, patron saint of Emigrants, first American to be declared a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church (1946). She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

1779 d. 1863
Clement Clarke Moore, American theology professor. He is best known for his poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (1822, which begins "Twas the night before christmas").

2006 b. 1936
Robert H. Brooks, American businessman, founder of Naturally Fresh Foods. He purchased the Hooters restaurant chain. Quote: "Good food, cold beer and pretty girls never go out of style."

2004 b. 1919
Major Charles Sweeney, American pilot, flew the plane which dropped the "Fat Man" atom bomb on Nagasaki (1945). Sixty percent of the city was destroyed and approximately 70,000 people were killed in the initial blast.

1991 b. 1939
Bert Convy, American Emmy-winning game show host, actor. TV: Super Password.

1974 b. 1944
Chris Chubbuck, Florida talk-show host, during her live TV broadcast she announced "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood¼ and guts in living color. We bring you another first: an attempt at suicide." She then fatally shot herself in the head.

1948 b. 1860
John Joseph Pershing, American general, commander in chief of the American forces during World War I (1917-19) and U.S. Army chief of staff (1921-24).

1940 b. 1918
Robert Pershing Wadlow, American giant, the world's tallest person: 8 ft. 11½ in. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1939 b. 1857
Eugen Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist. He coined the term "Schizophrenia" (1908, schizo=split, phrene=mind). He also coined the terms "ambivalence" (1911) and "autism" (1912)

1939 b. 1874
Carl Fisher, American entrepreneur, Mr. Miami Beach. He started what is considered the first automobile dealership in the U.S., helped organize the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and developed Miami Beach. He lost his fortune, an estimated $100 million, in the 1929 stock market crash leaving him penniless.

1936 b. 1858
Richard Dixon Oldham, Irish geologist and seismologist. He discovered evidence of the Earth's molten core (1906) by studying the the 1897 Indian Earthquake.

1930 b. 1875
Robert Ernest House, American physician. He discovered that scopolamine hydrobromide could be used as a "truth serum." However, later research showed that its use was unreliable due to its hallucinogenic effects.

1883 b. 1838
General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton), American dwarf, 3 ft. 4 in. tall, travelled with P.T. Barnum. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1868 b. 1819
Dr. William T. G. Morton (William Thomas Green Morton), American dentist. He performed the first tooth extraction under anesthesia, using ether (Sep 30, 1846).

July 15

Events

Birthdays

Deaths