July 21st
Today in America's Present Past
1669 | John Locke's Constitution of the colony of Carolina is approved.
1824 | SCOTUS: Justice Stanley Matthew was born.
1832 | Entrepreneur Henrietta Maria Morse King was born.
1840 | Author and cleric Moses Waddel died.
1853 | The New York legislature appropriates 750 acres of land in Manhattan Island to create Central Park in New York City.
1856 | Architect Louise Blanchard Bethune was born.
1861 | Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia.
1864 | First Lady Frances Cleveland was born.
1865 | In Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
1873 | Outlaws Jesse James and the James Younger gang's first train robbery at Adair, Iowa.
1896 | Civil Rights: The National Federation of Colored Women established in Washington, D.C.
1899 | Novelist Ernest Hemingway was born.
1899 | Author Robert G. Ingersoll died.
1899 | Poet Hart Crane was born.
1918 | WWI: German submarines attack ships at Orleans, Massachusetts.
1919 | Civil Rights: “Red Summer race riots” in Norfolk, Virginia.
1921 | U.S. Colonel William Mitchel demonstrates his contention that air power is superior to sea power by bombing a captured German battleship.
1924 | Actor Don Knotts was born.
1925 | Tennessee v Scopes decided.
1930 | The U.S. Veterans Administration is formed.
1932 | POTUS: Republican President Hoover signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act.
1938 | Author Owen Wister died.
1948 | Painter Arshile Gorky died.
1949 | Congress: Senate ratifies North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13 (NATO).
1951 | Actor Robin Williams was born.
1952 | Film: The “Quiet Man” debuted.
1957 | Actor Jon Lovitz was born.
1957 | Inventor Bernard Spooner died.
1974 | Congress: House Judiciary approves two Articles of Impeachment against President Nixon.
1978 | Actor Josh Hartnett was born.
1987 | Journalist Peter Doocy was born.
1998 | Astronaut Alan Shepard died.
1999 | Advertiser David Ogilvy died.
2011 | NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135.
2012 | Aviator James D. Ramage died.
2023 | Entertainer Tony Bennett died.
2024 | POTUS: Democrat President Biden suddenly withdraws from his reelection campaign.