This Day in History – July 20, 2011

1773 Scottish settlers arrive at Pictou, Nova Scotia (Canada) 1810 Colombia declared independence from Spain 1858 Fee 1st charged to see a baseball game (50c) (NY beats Brooklyn 22-18) 1861 Confederate state’s congress began holding sessions in Richmond, Va 1864 Battle of Peachtree Creek-Atlanta Campaign 1868 1st use of tax stamps on cigarettes 1871 British Columbia becomes 6th Canadian province 1872 Mahlon Loomis receives patent for wireless … the radio is born 1876 1st US intercollegiate track meet held, Saratoga, NY; Princeton wins 1878 1st telephone introduced in Hawaii 1881 Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, surrenders to federal troops 1917 WW I draft lottery held; #258 is 1st drawn 1938 Finland awarded 1940 Olympic games after Japan withdraws 1940 Singles record charts 1st published by Billboard-Tommy Dorsey #1 1942 Legion of Merit Medal authorized by congress 1942 Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps began basic training at Fort Des Moines 1944 President FDR nominated for an unprecedented 4th term at Dem convention 1944 US invades Japanese-occupied Guam in WW II 1944 Von Stauffenberg fails on an attempt on Hitler’s life (Valkyrie) 1949 Israel’s 19 month war of independence ends 1960 1st submerged submarine to fire Polaris missile (George Washington) 1960 USSR recovered 2 dogs; 1st living organisms to return from space 1964 1st surfin’ record to go #1-Jan & Dean’s “Surf City” 1967 Race riots in Memphis Tenn 1968 Jane Asher breaks her engagement with Paul McCartney on live TV 1968 Iron Butterfly’s “In-a-gadda-da-vida” becomes the 1st heavy metal song to hit the charts, it comes in at #117 1969 1st men on Moon, Neil Armstrong & Edwin Aldrin, Apollo 11 1970 1st baby born on Alcatraz Island 1976 US Viking 1 lands on Mars at Chryse Planitia, 1st Martian landing 1982 Bombs planted by Irish Republican Army explode in 2 London parks 1985 Divers find wreck of Spanish galleon Atocha 1989 93ø F, highest overnight low ever recorded in Phoenix Arizona 1990 Justice William Brennan resigns from the Supreme Court after 36 years]]]]> ]]>