Today in History 7-27-20

Today in History

Today is Monday, July 27, the 209th day of 2020. There are 157 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.

On this date:

In 1794, French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; he was executed the following day.

In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe (a previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeks' use).

In 1909, during the first official test of the U.S. Army's first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Virginia, for one hour and 12 minutes.

In 1919, race-related rioting erupted in Chicago; the violence, which claimed the lives of 23 Blacks and 15 whites, lasted until Aug. 3.

In 1946, American author, poet and publisher Gertrude Stein, 72, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

In 1953, the Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting.

In 1960, Vice President Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of urban rioting, the same day Black militant H. Rap Brown told a press conference in Washington that violence was "as American as cherry pie."

In 1976, Air Force veteran Ray Brennan became the first person to die of so-called "Legionnaire's Disease" following an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.

In 1980, on day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis, the deposed Shah of Iran died at a military hospital outside Cairo, Egypt, at age 60.

In 1996, terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, directly killing one person and injuring 111. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleaded guilty to the bombing, exonerating security guard Richard Jewell, who had been wrongly suspected.)

In 2003, comedian Bob Hope died in Toluca Lake, Calif. at age 100. Lance Armstrong won a record-tying fifth straight title in the Tour de France. (However, Amstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles in 2012 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.)

Ten years ago: BP announced that its much-criticized chief executive, Tony Hayward, would be replaced by Robert Dudley as the company reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover the costs of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Canadian character actor Maury Chaykin died in Toronto on his 61st birthday.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, during a visit to Ethiopia, unleashed a blistering and belittling rebuke of Republican White House hopefuls, calling their attack on his landmark nuclear deal with Iran "ridiculous if it weren't so sad." The Boy Scouts of America ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.

One year ago: President Donald Trump described the Baltimore-area congressional district represented by one of his chief Democratic critics, Elijah Cummings, as a "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess." Russian police cracked down fiercely on demonstrators in central Moscow, beating some and arresting more than 1,000 who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates on the ballot for Moscow city council. A balcony inside a nightclub in South Korea collapsed, killing two people and injuring 16 others, including American and other athletes at the world swimming championships. The Boston Red Sox announced that former star David Ortiz had been released from Massachusetts General Hospital, where he'd had surgery after being shot at a bar in the Dominican Republic.

Today's Birthdays: TV producer Norman Lear is 98. Sportscaster Irv Cross is 81. Actor John Pleshette is 78. Actress-director Betty Thomas is 73. Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming is 72. Singer Maureen McGovern is 71. Actress Janet Eilber is 69. Rock musician Tris Imboden (formerly with Chicago) is 69. Actress Roxanne Hart is 66. Country musician Duncan Cameron is 64. Comedian-actress-writer Carol Leifer is 64. Comedian Bill Engvall is 63. Jazz singer Karrin Allyson is 58. Country singer Stacy Dean Campbell is 53. Rock singer Juliana Hatfield is 53. Actor Julian McMahon is 52. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is 50. Comedian Maya Rudolph is 48. Rock musician Abe Cunningham is 47. Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn is 46. Former MLB All-Star Alex Rodriguez is 45. Actor Seamus Dever is 44. Actress Martha Madison is 43. Actor Jonathan Rhys (rees) Meyers is 43. Actress/comedian Heidi Gardner is 37. Actor Blair Redford is 37. Actress Taylor Schilling is 36. MLB All-Star pitcher Max Scherzer is 36. Singer Cheyenne Kimball is 30. Golfer Jordan Spieth) is 27. Actress Alyvia Alyn Lind is 13.