History of 15 July
1901 – Over 74,000 Pittsburgh steelworkers went on strike.
1904 – The first Buddhist temple in the U.S. was established in Los Angeles, CA.
1916 – In Seattle, WA, Pacific Aero Products was incorporated by William Boeing. The company was later renamed Boeing Co.
1918 – The Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I.
1922 – The duck-billed platypus arrived in America, direct from Australia. It was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.
1942 – The first supply flight from India to China over the ‘Hump’ was carried to help China’s war effort.
1958 – Five thousand U.S. Marines landed in Beirut, Lebanon, to protect the pro-Western government. The troops withdrew on October 25, 1958.
1965 – The spacecraft Mariner IV sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars.
1968 – ABC-TV premiered “One Life to Live”.
1968 – Commercial air travel began between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., when the first plane, a Soviet Aeroflot jet, landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
1971 – U.S. President Nixon announced he would visit the People’s Republic of China to seek a “normalization of relations.”
1972 – NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft became the first to enter the asteroid belt.
1973 – Nolan Ryan (California Angels) became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season. (California)
1981 – Steven Ford, son of former President Gerald R. Ford, appeared in a seduction scene of “The Young and the Restless” on CBS-TV. Ford played the part of Andy.
1985 – Baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day interruption.
1987 – Taiwan ended thirty-seven years of martial law.
2006 – The social networking service Twitter was launched.
2009 – “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was released in theaters in the U.S. It was the sixth movie in the series.
2011 – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” was released in theaters in the U.S. and U.K. It was the final film in the Harry Potter series.
2014 – A train derails on the Moscow Metro, killing at least 24 and injuring more than 160 others.
2016 – Factions of the Turkish Armed Forces attempted a coup.
Celebrating Birthday Today
1981 – Alou Diarra, French footballer
1981 – Petros Klampanis, Greek bassist and composer
1981 – Marius Stankevičius, Lithuanian footballer
1982 – Alan Pérez, Spanish cyclist
1982 – Neemia Tialata, New Zealand rugby player
1982 – Aída Yéspica, Venezuelan model and actress
1983 – Nelson Merlo, Brazilian race car driver
1983 – Will Rudge, English cricketer
1983 – Heath Slater, American wrestler
1984 – Angelo Siniscalchi, Italian footballer
1984 – Veronika Velez-Zuzulová, Slovak skier
1985 – Sanjeev, Tamil actor
1986 – Tyler Kennedy, Canadian ice hockey player
1988 – Riki Christodoulou, English race car driver
1989 – Steven Jahn, German footballer
1989 – Alisa Kleybanova, a Russian tennis player
1989 – Anthony Randolph, American basketball player
1990 – Zach Bogosian, American ice hockey player
1990 – Damian Lillard, American basketball player
1991 – Danilo, Brazilian footballer
1991 – Derrick Favors, American basketball player
1991 – Evgeny Tishchenko, Russian boxer
1992 – Tobias Harris, American basketball player
1992 – Hokutōfuji Daiki, Japanese sumo wrestler
1992 – Wayde van Niekerk, South African sprinter
1993 – Håvard Nielsen, Norwegian footballer