Today is Satutday, July 27, the 209th day of 2024. There are 157 days left in the year.
►Birthdays: Singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry is 82. Actor-director Betty Thomas is 77. Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming is 76. Singer Maureen McGovern is 75. Comedian-actor-writer Carol Leifer is 68. Comedian Bill Engvall is 67. Jazz singer Karrin Allyson is 61. Rock musician Juliana Hatfield is 57. Actor Julian McMahon is 56. Former professional wrestler Triple H is 55. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is 54. Comedian Maya Rudolph is 52. Former MLB All-Star Alex Rodriguez is 49. Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 47. Actor/comedian Heidi Gardner (TV: “Saturday Night Live’’) is 41.
In 1789, President Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State.
In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.
In 1909, during the first official test of the US 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 1940, Billboard magazine published its first “music popularity chart’’ listing best-selling retail records. In first place was “I’ll Never Smile Again’’ by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with featured vocalist Frank Sinatra.
In 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, ending three years of fighting on the Korean peninsula that killed an estimated 4 million people.
In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Nixon, charging he had personally obstructed justice in the Watergate case.
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 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from a department store in Hollywood, Fla., and was later murdered (Adam’s father, John Walsh, subsequently became a victim’s rights activist and launched the television show “America’s Most Wanted’’).
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 2015, 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. Also, despite being selected by the US Olympic Committee as its candidate to host the 2024 Summer Games, Boston abandons its bid because of resistance among residents.
In 2018, the White House announced that North Korea had returned the remains of what were believed to be US servicemen killed during the Korean War, with a US military plane making a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 cases of remains.
In 2020, the world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine study began with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.
In 2021, American gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental well-being, saying she realized following a shaky vault that she wasn’t in the right headspace to compete.
