July 20
1881
Five years after Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer's infamous defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army, which promised amnesty for him and his followers. Sitting Bull had been a major leader in the 1876 Sioux uprising that resulted in the death of Custer and 264 of his men at Little Bighorn. Pursued by the U.S. Army after the victory, he escaped to Canada with his followers. He was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Randall in South Dakota territory for two years and then was permitted to live on Standing Rock Reservation straddling North and South Dakota territory.
1963
“Two girls for every boy!” went the immortal opening line from Jan and Dean’s “Surf City,” the song that was on the top of the U.S. pop charts. It was a claim that wasn’t actually supported by the facts, but it helped create a popular image of California as a paradise of sun and sand and endless summers. n a year that also saw the debut of the Annette Funicello-Frankie Avalon Beach Party movie franchise, “Surf City” became the first chart-topping surf song ever. Jan and Dean would go on to have four more significant surf hits in their career:: “Honolulu Lulu” (#11, 1963); “Drag City” (#10, 1963); “Dead Man’s Curve” (#8, 1964); and “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)” (#3, 1964).
1969
At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy’s bold proposal.
July 21
1861
In the first major battle of the Civil War, Confederate forces defeated the Union Army along Bull Run near Manassas Junction, Virginia. The battle became known as Manassas by the Confederates, while the Union called it Bull Run. Union forces endured a loss of 3,000 men killed, wounded, or missing in action while the Confederates suffered 2,000 casualties. The scale of this bloodshed horrified not only the frightened spectators at Bull Run but also the U.S. government in Washington, which was faced with an uncertain military strategy in quelling the “Southern insurrection.”
1865
Considered the first true western showdown, Wild Bill Hickok shot and killed Dave Tutt in the market square of Springfield, Missouri. The informal western code of what constituted a legitimate-and legal-gun battle had its origins in the duels European chivalry. The western code required that a man resort to his six-gun only in defense of his honor or life, and only if his opponent was also armed. Likewise, a western jury was unlikely to convict a man in a shooting provided witnesses testified that his opponent had been the aggressor. It is unclear what caused the dispute. Some people say it was over a card game while others say they fought over a woman. Whatever the cause, the two men agreed to a duel. Having adhered to the code of the West, Hickok was acquitted of manslaughter charges.
2011
NASA’s space shuttle program completed its final, and 135th, mission, when the shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the program’s 30-year history, its five orbiters—Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour—carried more than 350 people into space and flew more than 500 million miles, and shuttle crews conducted important research, serviced the Hubble Space Telescope and helped in the construction of the International Space Station, among other activities. NASA retired the shuttles to focus on a deep-space exploration program that could one day send astronauts to asteroids and Mars.
July 22
1933
American aviator Wiley Post returned to Floyd Bennett Field in New York, having flown solo around the world in 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes. He was the first aviator to accomplish the feat. Post, instantly recognizable by the patch he wore over one eye, began the journey on July 15, flying nonstop to Berlin in his. After a brief rest, he flew on to the Soviet Union, where he made several stops before returning to North America, with stops in Alaska, Canada, and finally a triumphant landing at his starting point in New York. He flew the Winnie Mae, a Lockheed Vega monoplane that was equipped with a Sperry automatic pilot and a direction radio for Post’s solo journey.
1934
Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, notorious criminal John Dillinger—America’s “Public Enemy No. 1″—was killed in a hail of bullets fired by federal agents. In a fiery bank-robbing career that lasted just over a year, Dillinger and his associates robbed 11 banks for more than $300,000, broke jail and narrowly escaped capture multiple times, and killed seven police officers and three federal agents. Anna Sage, Romanian-born brothel madam and friend of Dillinger’s, agreed to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for leniency in an upcoming deportation hearing. Sage and Dillinger went to see the gangster movie Manhattan Melodrama at the Biograph Theatre where FBI agents and police officers were staked out.
2003
U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, received a hero's welcome when she returned to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia The story of the 19-year-old supply clerk, who was captured by Iraqi forces in March 2003, gripped America; however, it was later revealed that some details of Lynch's dramatic capture and rescue might have ben exaggerated. Critics—and Lynch herself—charged the U.S. government with embellishing her story to boost patriotism and help promote the controversial Iraq war. According to Lynch: “I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary.” She added: “The truth of war is not always easy to hear but is always more heroic than the hype."
July 23
1885
Just after completing his memoirs, Civil War hero and former president Ulysses S. Grant dies of throat cancer. As supreme commander of Union forces, Grant led troops in a series of epic and bloody battles against Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Grant’s talent as political leader paled woefully in comparison to his military prowess. He was unable to stem the rampant corruption that plagued his administration. However, successes of Grant’s tenure include passage of the Enforcement Act in 1870, which temporarily curtailed the political influence of the Ku Klux Klan in the post-Civil War South, and the 1875 Civil Rights Act, which attempted to desegregate public places.
1984
21-year-old Vanessa Williams gave up her Miss America title, the first resignation in the pageant’s history, after Penthouse magazine announces plans to publish nude photos of the beauty queen. Williams originally made history on September 17, 1983, when she became the first Black woman to win the Miss America crown. Vanessa Williams rebounded from the Miss America scandal and went on to a successful entertainment career as an actress and recording artist, performing on Broadway as well as in movies and television and releasing a number of albums.
1996
The U.S women's gymnastics team won its first-ever team gold at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Nicknamed the "magnificent seven," the team was made up of seven talented teenage girls: Amanda Borden, Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Dominque Moceanu, Jaycie Phelps and Kerri Strug. Kerri Strug famously and bravely executed a perfect one-and-a-half twisting Yurchenko, landing solidly on two feet and a badly sprained ankle. She spun and hopped on one foot towards the judges’ table before collapsing in pain when her gold clinching score of 9.712 was announced.
July 24
1847
After 17 months and many miles of travel, Brigham Young led 148 pioneers unto Utah's Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Gazing over the parched earth of the remote location, Young declared, "This is the place," and the pioneers began preparation for the thousands of followers of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons) who would soon come. Seeking religious and political freedom, the Latter-day Saints began planning their great migration from the east after the murder of Joseph Smith, the Christian sect's founder and first leader.
1911
American archeologist Hiram Bingham got his first look at the ruins of Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world’s top tourist destinations. Tucked away in the rocky countryside northwest of Cuzco, Machu Picchu is believed to have been a summer retreat for Inca leaders, whose civilization was virtually wiped out by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. For hundreds of years afterwards, its existence was a secret known only to the peasants living in the region. That all changed in the summer of 1911, when Bingham arrived with a small team of explorers to search for the famous “lost” cities of the Incas.
1998
Director Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic, Saving Private Ryan, was released in theaters across the United States. The film, which starred Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, was praised for its authentic portrayal of war and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards. Saving Private Ryan centered around the fictional story of Captain John Miller (Hanks), and his band of seven rangers, who are sent on a mission to rescue Private James Francis Ryan (Damon), a paratrooper missing somewhere behind enemy lines. Ryan’s three older brothers have recently been killed in action, so military officials order Miller to find the young soldier and prevent a public-relations disaster.
July 25
1898
During the Spanish-American War U.S. forces launched their invasion of Puerto Rico, the approximately 110-mile-long, 35-mile-wide island that was one of Spain's two principal possessions in the Caribbean. With little resistance and only seven deaths, U.S. troops under General Nelson A. Miles were able to secure the island by mid-August. After the signing of an armistice with Spain, American troops raised the U.S. flag over the island, formalizing U.S. authority over its one million inhabitants. In December, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Spanish-American War and officially approving the cession of Puerto Rico to the United States.
1946
At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis staged their first show as a comedy team. The team would last ten years to the day. Martin and Lewis were the hottest act in America during the early '50s, but they eventually split due to disillusionments over the partnership. According to Lewis, the two did not speak to each other privately for 20 years. The two men reconciled in September 1976, after Frank Sinatra orchestrated a surprise appearance by Martin on Lewis's annual Labor Day telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, saying only "I have a friend who loves what you do every year." The brief reunion was big national news and, according to Lewis, the two spoke "every day after that."
1985
Rock Hudson, a quintessential tall, dark and handsome Hollywood leading man pf the 1950s and 1960s who made more than 60 films during his career, announced through a press release that he was suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). With that announcement, Hudson became the first major celebrity to go public with such a diagnosis. Hudson died on October 2, 1985, at age 59 in Beverly Hills, California. His death was credited with bringing attention to an epidemic that went on to kill millions of men, women and children of all backgrounds from around the world.
July 26
1775
The U.S. postal system was establish by the Scond Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. Today, the US has over 40,000 post offices and the postal service delivers more than 200 billion pieces of mail each year to over 144 million homes and businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The postal service is the nation’s largest civilian employer, with roughly 500,000 career workers. The postal service is a not-for-profit, self-supporting agency that covers the majority of its expenses through postage (stamp use in the United States started in 1847) and related products. The postal service gets the mail delivered, rain or shine, using everything from planes to mules.
1948
President Harry. S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981-ending discrimination in the military. Truman's order ended a long-standing practice of segregating Black soldiers and relegating them to more menial jobs. African Americans had been serving in the US military since the Revolutionary War, but were deployed in their largest numbers during WWII. Black WWII veterans were eligible for a free college education under the Servicemen Readjustment Act of 1944—the GI Bill—as well as other benefits, but most faced discrimination when trying to access their benefits. Executive Order 9981 stated : “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.”
1990
PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the most sweeping affirmation of rights for the disabled in American history at the time, into law. Disability rights activists explicitly compared their struggle to the Civil Rights movement, arguing that without federal requirements in place, the disabled faced discrimination both as patrons of public spaces and businesses and in seeking employment. The eventual bill covered a wide range of physical and mental disabilities. The bulk of the act provides legal recourse against employers who discriminate against the disabled and set standards of access to public buildings and public accommodations (hotels, restaurants, etc.).