Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 7, 1976, the United States Military Academy at West Point included female cadets for the first time as 119 women joined the Class of 1980.
On this date:
In 1846, U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey (mahn-tuh-RAY’) after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.
In 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C. for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln: Lewis Powell (aka Lewis Payne), David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the federal government.
In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii.
In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam).
In 1946, Jimmy Carter, 21, married Rosalynn (ROH’-zuh-lihn) Smith, 18, in Plains, Georgia.
In 1948, six female U.S. Navy reservists became the first women to be sworn in to the regular Navy.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1990, the first “Three Tenors” concert took place as opera stars Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras performed amid the brick ruins of Rome’s Baths of Caracalla on the eve of the World Cup championship.
In 2005, terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II.
In 2010, Los Angeles police charged Lonnie Franklin Jr. in the city’s “Grim Sleeper” serial killings. (Franklin, who was sentenced to death for the killings of nine women and a teenage girl, died in prison in March 2020 at the age of 67.)
In 2012: Jubilant Libyans chose a new parliament in their first nationwide vote in decades. The Obama administration declared Afghanistan the United States’ newest “major non-NATO ally.” Serena Williams beat Agnieszka Radwanska (ahg-nee-ESH’-kuh rahd-VAHN’-skuh) of Poland 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to win a fifth Wimbledon singles championship; about five hours later, she and sister Venus were back on Centre Court to win the doubles final.
In 2013, Andy Murray became the first British man in 77 years to win the Wimbledon title, beating Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the final.
In 2016, Micah Johnson, a Black Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, opened fire on Dallas police, killing five officers in an act of vengeance for the fatal police shootings of Black men; the attack ended with Johnson being killed by a bomb delivered by a police robot.
In 2017: Islamic militants attacked a remote Egyptian army outpost in the Sinai Peninsula with a suicide car bomb and heavy machine gun fire, killing at least 23 soldiers in the deadliest attack in the turbulent region in two years. A federal appeals court dismissed Hawaii’s attempt to challenge Trump administration rules for a travel ban on citizens from six majority-Muslim countries, saying it didn’t have jurisdiction to address the issue.
In 2021: A squad of gunmen assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and wounded his wife in an overnight raid on their home. (More than 40 suspects have been arrested, including at least 18 Colombian soldiers and 20 Haitian police officers.) Former President Donald Trump sued Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, claiming that he and other conservatives had been wrongfully censored. A federal judge ruled that the Air Force was mostly responsible for a former serviceman killing more than two dozen people at a Texas church in 2017 because it failed to submit his criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms. The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive season, beating the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 to wrap up the series four games to one.
Celebrity Birthdays
July 7: Bandleader Doc Severinsen is 96. Drummer Ringo Starr is 83. Singer-guitarist Warren Entner of the Grass Roots is 80. Actor Joe Spano is 77. Singer David Hodo (the construction worker) of The Village People is 76. Country singer Linda Williams is 76. Actor Shelley Duvall is 74. Actor Roz Ryan (“Amen”) is 72. Actor Billy Campbell (“Once and Again”) is 64. Bassist Mark White of the Spin Doctors is 61. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard (“Ally McBeal”) is 60. Comedian Jim Gaffigan is 57. Bassist Ricky Kinchen of Mint Condition is 57. Actor Amy Carlson (“Blue Bloods”) is 55. Actor Jorja Fox (“CSI”) is 55. Actor Cree Summer (“A Different World”) is 54. Actor Robin Weigert (“Deadwood,” “Sons of Anarchy”) is 54. Actor Kirsten Vangsness (“Criminal Minds”) is 51. Actor Troy Garity (“Barbershop”) is 50. Actor Berenice Bejo (“The Artist”) is 47. Actor Hamish Linklater (“The New Adventures of Old Christine”) is 47. Rapper Cassidy is 41. Actor Ross Malinger (“Sleepless in Seattle”) is 39. Comedian Luke Null (“Saturday Night Live”) is 33. Singer Ally Hernandez of Fifth Harmony (“The X Factor”) is 30. Drummer Ashton Irwin of 5 Seconds Of Summer is 29. Country singer Maddie Font of Maddie and Tae is 28.