Today in history: July 21
The 30-year-old space shuttle program ended as Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after the 135th shuttle flight, and more events that happened on this day in history.
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1861: Battle of Bull Run
In 1861, during the Civil War, the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1925: "Monkey Trial"
In 1925, the so-called “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (The conviction was later overturned on a technicality.)
1944: Guam
In 1944, American forces landed on Guam during World War II, capturing it from the Japanese some three weeks later.
1972: Belfast
In 1972, the Irish Republican Army carried out 22 bombings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing nine people and injuring 130 in what became known as “Bloody Friday.”
2000: John C. Danforth
In 2000, Special Counsel John C. Danforth concluded “with 100 percent certainty” that the federal government was innocent of wrongdoing in the siege that killed 80 members of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in 1993.
2008: Radovan Karadzic
In 2008, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (RA’-doh-van KA’-ra-jich), one of the world’s top war crimes fugitives, was arrested in a Belgrade suburb by Serbian security forces. (He was sentenced by a U.N. court in 2019 to life imprisonment after being convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.)
2009: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
In 2009, prosecutors in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dropped a disorderly conduct charge against prominent Black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested by a white officer at his home near Harvard University after a report of a break-in.
2011: Atlantis
Ten years ago: The 30-year-old space shuttle program ended as Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after the 135th shuttle flight.
2011: Eurozone
Ten years ago: Eurozone leaders agreed to a sweeping deal that would grant Greece a massive new bailout and radically reshape the currency union’s rescue fund.
2015: Barry Bonds
In 2015, after a nearly decade-long steroids prosecution, former baseball star Barry Bonds emerged victorious when federal prosecutors dropped what was left of their criminal case against the career home runs leader.
2016: Donald Trump
Five years ago: Donald Trump accepted the GOP presidential nomination with a speech in which he pledged to cheering Republicans and still-skeptical voters that as president, he would restore the safety they feared they were losing, strictly curb immigration and save the nation from what he said was Hillary Clinton’s record of “death, destruction, terrorism and weakness.”
2016: The NBA
Five years ago: The NBA moved the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte because of its objections to a North Carolina law that limited anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay and transgender people.
2020: Donald Trump
One year ago: President Donald Trump told reporters that he was “getting used to” wearing one; as Trump returned from a three-month hiatus from daily virus briefings, he warned that the coronavirus would get worse in the United States before it got better.
2020: Larry Householder
One year ago: The Republican speaker of the Ohio House, Larry Householder, and four associates were arrested in a $60 million federal bribery case connected to a taxpayer-funded bailout of Ohio’s two nuclear power plants. (Householder, who has proclaimed his innocence, was expelled from the Ohio House by fellow lawmakers in June 2021.)
COVID-19 drives down US life expectancy; Olympics will return to Australia in 2032; Bucks celebrate long-awaited NBA title. Plus, western fires cause eastern haze. Get caught up.