Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 1, 1966, the Medicare federal insurance program went into effect.
On this date:
In 1863, the pivotal, three-day Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, resulting in a Union victory, began in Pennsylvania.
In 1867, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain as the British North America Act took effect.
In 1903, the first Tour de France began. (It ended on July 19; the winner was Maurice Garin.)
In 1944, delegates from 44 countries began meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, where they agreed to establish the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
In 1963, the U.S. Post Office inaugurated its five-digit ZIP codes.
In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration was established.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated federal appeals court judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, beginning an ultimately successful confirmation process marked by allegations of sexual harassment.
In 1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony.
In 2004, actor Marlon Brando died in Los Angeles at age 80.
In 2009, actor Karl Malden, 97, died in Brentwood, California.
In 2012: Syria’s main opposition groups rejected a new international plan that called for a transitional government because the compromise agreement did not bar President Bashar Assad from participating. Voters in Mexico returned the Institutional Revolutionary Party to power. Tiger Woods won the AT&T National at Congressional in Bethesda, Maryland, closing with a 2-under 69 for the 74th win of his career.
In 2015, after more than a half-century of hostility, the United States and Cuba declared they would reopen embassies in each other’s capitals, marking a historic full restoration of diplomatic relations between the Cold War foes.
In 2017: Pope Francis declined to renew the mandate of German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases. (During Mueller’s five-year term, the congregation amassed a 2,000-case backlog and came under blistering criticism from abuse survivors.)
In 2019, 15-year-old Coco Gauff, the youngest player to qualify at Wimbledon in the professional era, defeated 39-year-old Venus Williams in the first round, 6-4, 6-4. Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, 27, was found dead in his room at the Texas hotel where the team was staying; the medical examiner found that Skaggs had a toxic mix of alcohol and the painkillers fentanyl and oxycodone in his body.
In 2021: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority cut back on a landmark voting rights law, in a decision likely to help Republican states fight challenges to voting restrictions that were put in place since the 2020 elections. Donald Trump’s company and its longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, were charged in New York in what prosecutors called a “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme in which top executives allegedly failed to report compensation including free use of apartments and cars. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the most unyielding GOP critic of Trump, to serve on a new select committee looking into the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Celebrity Birthdays:
Actor Jean Marsh (“Upstairs, Downstairs”) is 89. Dancer Twyla Tharp is 82. Actor Genevieve Bujold is 81. Singer Deborah Harry of Blondie is 78. Actor Daryl Anderson (“Lou Grant”) is 72. Actor Trevor Eve is 72. Stage actor Terrence Mann is 72. Singer Fred Schneider of The B-52′s is 72. Singer Victor Willis of the Village People is 72. Actor Dan Aykroyd is 71. Actor Lorna Patterson (“Airplane!”) is 67. Actor Alan Ruck (“Succession,” ″Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) is 67. Singer Evelyn “Champagne” King is 63. Singer Michelle Wright is 62. Actor Andre Braugher (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” ″Homicide”) is 61. Actor Dominic Keating (“Star Trek: Enterprise”) is 61. Actor Pamela Anderson is 56. Bassist Mark Pirro of Polyphonic Spree is 53. Actor Henry Simmons (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” ″NYPD Blue”) is 53. Rapper Missy Elliott is 52. Actor Julianne Nicholson (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” ″Ally McBeal”) is 52. Actor and writer Jill Kargman (“Odd Mom Out”) is 49. Drummer Bryan Devendorf of The National is 48. Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens is 48. Actor Thomas Sadoski (“Life in Pieces”) is 47. Actor Liv Tyler is 46. Actor Hilarie Burton (“One Tree Hill”) is 41. Actor Lea Seydoux (“Spectre,” ″The Grand Budapest Hotel”) is 38. Actors Steven and Andrew Cavarno (“Party of Five”) are 31. Singer Chloe Bailey of Chloe X Halle is 25. Actor Storm Reid (“12 Years a Slave,” ″A Wrinkle in Time”) is 20