July 1, 1862

The tax man cometh...

On this day in 1862, the United States Congress gave the green light to the tax-centric Revenue Act. The legislation, which was soon signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, imposed a three-percent tax on people with incomes between $600 to $10,000; and also called for a five-percent levy on people with incomes reaching over $10,000. However, the Revenue Act was perhaps more notable for creating the Bureau of Internal Revenue, a government agency which was charged with collecting the revenue generated by the new taxes. Though the Revenue Act and its attendant package of taxes were allowed to lapse into legislative oblivion after the Civil War, the Bureau of Internal Revenue eventually came back to haunt America's taxpaying citizens in 1913, when the Sixteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. Along with sanctioning the income tax, the amendment paved the path for the opening of the Internal Revenue Service, which, in its role as the official clearing house for the nation's taxes, proved to be the bureaucratic progeny of the Internal Revenue Service.

July 1, 1867

Canadian Independence Day

The autonomous Dominion of Canada, a confederation of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec, is officially recognized by Great Britain with the passage of the British North America Act.

During the 19th century, colonial dependence gave way to increasing autonomy for a growing Canada. In 1841, Upper and Lower Canada--now known as Ontario and Quebec--were made a single province by the Act of Union. In the 1860s, a movement for a greater Canadian federation grew out of the need for a common defense, the desire for a national railroad system, and the necessity of finding a solution to the problem of French and British conflict. When the Maritime provinces, which sought union among themselves, called a conference in 1864, delegates from the other provinces of Canada attended. Later in the year, another conference was held in Quebec, and in 1866 Canadian representatives traveled to London to meet with the British government.

On July 1, 1867, with passage of the British North America Act, the Dominion of Canada was officially established as a self-governing entity within the British Empire. Two years later, Canada acquired the vast possessions of the Hudson's Bay Company, and within a decade the provinces of Manitoba and Prince Edward Island had joined the Canadian federation. In 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, making mass settlement across the vast territory of Canada possible.

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July 2, 1776

Congress votes for independence

On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, formally adopts Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence from Great Britain. The vote is unanimous, with only New York abstaining. The resolution had originally been presented to Congress on June 7, but it soon became clear that New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina were as yet unwilling to declare independence, though they would likely be ready to vote in favor of a break with England in due course. Thus, Congress agreed to delay the vote on Lee's Resolution until July 1. In the intervening period, Congress appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence. Its members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, well-known to be the best writer of the group, was selected to be the primary author of the document, which was presented to Congress for review on June 28, 1776. On July 1, 1776, debate on the Lee Resolution resumed as planned, with a majority of the delegates favoring the resolution. Congress thought it of the utmost importance that independence be unanimously proclaimed. To ensure this, they delayed the final vote until July 2, when 12 colonial delegations voted in favor of it, with the New York delegates abstaining, unsure of how their constituents would wish them to vote. John Adams wrote that July 2 would be celebrated as "te most memorable epoch in the history of America." Instead, the day has been largely forgotten in favor of July 4, when Jefferson's edited Declaration of Independence was adopted.

July 2, 1890

Sherman's march against monopolies

The federal government tackled the rising specter of outsized business conglomerations on this day in 1890 by passing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Sponsored by Ohio Senator John Sherman, the bill was designed as a direct strike against "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade of commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations." Along with attempting to block the future creation of monopolies, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act also called for existing monopolies to be disbanded. But, such seemingly strong tactics betrayed the bill's weak language. Written by Senator George Hoar (Mississippi) and Senator George F. Edmunds (Vermont), the Sherman Act was fraught with ambiguous terms like "trust," leaving it ripe for exploitation by both litigious business officials and savvy attorneys. Sure enough, the ensuing years saw anti-labor forces manipulate the bill in their crusade against organized labor unions. In 1894, these anti-labor efforts were legally sanctioned by the Supreme Court which ruled in United States v. DebsI that the Sherman Act did indeed cover unions, as well as hulking business entities.

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July 7, 1896

Democrats take on gold standard

The presidential campaign of 1896 was, in many ways, a battle over money. As was expected, the Republican campaign, led by the party's presidential nominee, Ohio Governor William McKinley, centered on maintaining the gold standard. On the other side of the fence, the Democrats took a cue from the Populist party and latched on to the free coinage of silver as one of their guiding issues. While the Democrat's decision to support silver shocked a number of political observers, their nominee for the Oval Office proved to be even more surprising. The Democrats had already settled on their issue, but the summer of 1896 found them without a clear candidate for the Oval Office. That all changed at the party's national convention in Chicago on July 7 when William Jennings Bryan, then just a young scribe from Nebraska, stepped to speak before the Democrat's 20,000 delegates. An ardent supporter of the silver movement, Bryan seized the reins of the party by railing against the Republican's and their "demand for a gold standard." During his speech, Bryan laid down his now famous vow against gold and the Republicans: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." These indelible words sent the delegates into frenzy and effectively sealed Bryan's unlikely nomination as the Democrat's candidate for President. Alas, Bryan's fiery oratory proved to be no match for McKinley's fat coffers: backed by the money and influence of the nation's business leaders, the Republicans were able to lavish roughly $7 million on their campaign. Bryan, on the other hand, spent a scant $300,000 and ultimately lost his bid for the White House.

July 7, 1928

Chrysler Plymouth debuts

The Chrysler Corporation introduced the Plymouth as its newest car on this day in 1928. The Plymouth project had taken three years to complete, as Chrysler engineers worked to build a reliable and affordable car to compete with the offerings of Ford and General Motors (GM). The Plymouth debuted with great fanfare in July of 1928, with renowned aviator Amelia Earhart behind the wheel. The publicity blitz brought 30,000 people to the Chicago Coliseum for a glimpse of the new car. With a delivery price of $670, the Plymouth was an attractive buy, selling over 80,000 units in its first year and forcing Chrysler to expand its production facilities drastically. Chrysler was still negotiating its purchase of Dodge at the time, and the Plymouth played a key role in winning over the confidence of Dodge shareholders. When Chrysler released the DeSoto Six later in the year, it scored another important coup in the mid-range market, assuring its position as a competitor to Ford and GM. Chrysler's great success in the late twenties, along with its purchase of Dodge, gave the company momentum that would carry it through the Depression. Chrysler was the only car company to pay dividends to its shareholders throughout the Depression. While other companies were drowning from stifled cash flow, Chrysler managed to increase sales. In 1933 Chrysler became the only car company to best its sales of the 1929 boom year. All the while Chrysler continued to allocate resources to research and development, and by 1935 Chrysler had surpassed Ford to become the nation's second largest car company.

July 7, 1930

Building of Hoover Dam begins

On this day in 1930, construction of the Hoover Dam begins. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest manmade structures in the world.

Although the dam would take only five years to build, its construction was nearly 30 years in the making. Arthur Powell Davis, an engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation, originally had his vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902, and his engineering report on the topic became the guiding document when plans were finally made to begin the dam in 1922.

Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States and a committed conservationist, played a crucial role in making Davis’ vision a reality. As secretary of commerce in 1921, Hoover devoted himself to the erection of a high dam in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. The dam would provide essential flood control, which would prevent damage to downstream farming communities that suffered each year when snow from the Rocky Mountains melted and joined the Colorado River. Further, the dam would allow the expansion of irrigated farming in the desert, and would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and other southern California communities.

Even with Hoover's exuberant backing and a regional consensus around the need to build the dam, Congressional approval and individual state cooperation were slow in coming. For many years, water rights had been a source of contention among the western states that had claims on the Colorado River. To address this issue, Hoover negotiated the Colorado River Compact, which broke the river basin into two regions with the water divided between them. Hoover then had to introduce and re-introduce the bill to build the dam several times over the next few years before the House and Senate finally approved the bill in 1928.

In 1929, Hoover, now president, signed the Colorado River Compact into law, claiming it was "the most extensive action ever taken by a group of states under the provisions of the Constitution permitting compacts between states."

Once preparations were made, the Hoover Dam's construction sprinted forward: The contractors finished their work two years ahead of schedule and millions of dollars under budget. Today, the Hoover Dam is the second highest dam in the country and the 18th highest in the world. It generates enough energy each year to serve over a million people, and stands, in Hoover Dam artist Oskar Hansen's words, as "a monument to collective genius exerting itself in community efforts around a common need or ideal."

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July 8, 1871

The fall of the House of Tweed

July 8, 1871 was a day of reckoning for William "Boss" Tweed, the New York City official who helped pioneer urban America's lucrative version of government corruption. Indeed, on this and a few successive days, Tweed's recklessly profligate practices were exposed in a series of articles published by the New York Times. A mechanic turned politician, Tweed pushed legislation through the state government that helped transform his seemingly meager role as the head of the Department of Public Works into the roost from which he ruled over New York City. Along with his band of political cronies and network of business allies, including the notorious financier Jay Gould, Tweed used his power--and an array of kickbacks, dummy vouchers and phony contacts--to rake in a handsome fortune. When all the cash was counted, Tweed had supposedly hauled in $200 million; in the process, he also almost bankrupted New York City. However, the TimesI exposÝ, which was fueled by the confessions of a disgruntled associate, triggered the fall of Tweed's reign: the political kingpin was brought to trial and eventually received a twelve-year prison sentence. But, the ever-slippery Tweed managed to escape from jail; he trekked to Cuba and then Spain before being shipped back to the United States by foreign leaders. Upon returning home, Tweed attempted to trade a confession for immunity. The gambit proved to be a major blunder: though Tweed revealed the machinations of his corrupt regime, local officials were of no mind to wipe his crimes off the books. And so Tweed, the once imperious political boss, was sent back to prison, where he died in 1878.

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July 10, 1832

Jackson battles Biddle's bank

Up until 1832, Nelson Biddle had been the savior of the Bank of the United States. When Biddle was installed as the Bank's director in 1823, the institution was in dire fiscal shape. Biddle, a historian turned prominent financier, fast proved to be a strong manage, and thanks in large part to his firm, guiding hand, the Bank enjoyed a healthy stretch of prosperity. But, whatever his managerial acumen, Biddle was less savvy when it came to political maneuverings. In 1828, Biddle pushed against Andrew Jackson's campaign for the White House; worse yet, Biddle had forged an alliance with Henry Clay, the Whig Representative who had help squelch Jackson's bid for the Presidency in 1824. However, Biddle had cast his lot with the wrong side: Jackson stormed to victory and, once in the White House, vowed to extract revenge on his opponents. The President waited until this day in 1832 to strike against Biddle: mustering up putatively philosophical opposition to the notion of a nationally based fiscal institution, Jackson vetoed the Bank's request for a new charter. The move outraged the Bank's allies, who grumbled that the veto was motivated less by principle than Jackson's cozy relationships with business leaders. No matter his rationale, Jackson continued his crusade against Bank and in 1833 ordered that all federal funds be withdrawn from the institution. Though this move ultimately sent the nation spiraling into a nasty fiscal panic, it also helped seal the fate of Biddle and his Bank.

July 10, 1992

The Exxon Valdez captain's conviction is overturned

The Alaska court of appeals overturns the conviction of Joseph Hazelwood, the former captain of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez. Hazelwood, who was found guilty of negligence for his role in the massive oil spill in Prince William Sound in 1989, successfully argued that he was entitled to immunity from prosecution because he had reported the oil spill to authorities 20 minutes after the ship ran aground.

The Exxon Valdez accident on the Alaskan coast was one of the largest environmental disasters in American history and resulted in the deaths of 250,000 sea birds, thousands of sea otters and seals, hundreds of bald eagles and countless salmon and herring eggs. The ship, 1,000 feet long and carrying 1.3 million barrels of oil, ran aground on Bligh Reef on March 24, 1989, after failing to return to the shipping lanes, which it had maneuvered out of to avoid icebergs. It later came to light that several officers, including Captain Hazelwood, had been drinking at a bar the night the Exxon Valdez left port. However, there wasn't enough evidence to support the notion that alcohol impairment had been responsible for the oil spill. Rather, poor weather conditions and preparation, combined with several incompetent maneuvers by the men steering the tanker, were deemed responsible for the disaster. Captain Hazelwood, who had prior drunk driving arrests, had a spotless record as a tanker captain before the Valdez accident.

Exxon compounded the environmental problems caused by the spill by not beginning the cleanup effort right away. In 1991, a civil suit resulted in a billion-dollar judgment against them. However, years later, while their appeal remained backlogged in the court system, Exxon still hadn't paid the damages.

The Exxon Valdez was repaired and renamed Sea River Mediterranean. It still transports oil, but is legally prohibited from entering Prince William Sound.

 

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July 11, 1985

"New Coke" is introduced

Nineteen-eighty-five was a trying year for America's soda. With hopes of eking out a lead in the hotly contested "Cola Wars," soft drink giant Coca-Cola decided to muck about with the recipe for its namesake drink. As ill-conceived as the notion may sound to our ears now, Coke thought it had a winner at the time. Indeed, an expensive battery of market testing seemed to bode well for the new formula. As one of the officials for Coke's advertising agency noted, "research clearly said we had a winner." However, despite lavishing hefty sums on an advertising blitz, the new product--aptly dubbed "New Coke"--was a resounding flop. America's legion of soft drink aficionados simply despised the new formula. Worse yet, the public pined mightily--and quite loudly--for the "old" version of Coke to be returned to the shelves. Officials for the cola giant got the message and swiftly restored order to the soft drink universe: on July 11, 1985 the company unveiled plans to return the beloved version of Coca Cola--now christened "Classic Coke"--to the market. In the wake of this groundbreaking, company officials quietly conceded that they had erred in halting distribution of the "classic" version of the drink. However, they refused to admit that releasing New Coke was a mistake. Indeed, even though American consumers reviled it, the company kept New Coke in circulation, albeit in cans and bottles that identified the drink simply as "Coke."

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July 16, 1790

Congress declares Washington, D.C. new capital

On this day in 1790, the young American Congress declares that a swampy, humid, muddy and mosquito-infested site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation’s permanent capital. “Washington,” in the newly designated federal “District of Columbia,” was named after the leader of the American Revolution and the country’s first president: George Washington. It was Washington who saw the area’s potential economic and accessibility benefits due to the proximity of navigable rivers.

George Washington, who had been in office just over a year when the capital site was determined, asked a French architect and city planner named Pierre L’Enfant to design the capital. In 1793, the first cornerstones of the president’s mansion, which was eventually renamed the “White House,” were laid. George Washington, however, never lived in the mansion as it was not inhabitable until 1800. Instead, President John Adams and his wife Abigail were the White House’s first residents. They lived there less than a year; Thomas Jefferson moved in in 1801.

July 16, 1918

Russia’s Romanov family executed

In Yekaterinburg, Russia, Czar Nicholas II and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks, bringing an end to the three-century-old Romanov dynasty.

Crowned in 1896, Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve among a people desperate for change. The disastrous outcome of the Russo-Japanese War led to the Russian Revolution of 1905, which ended only after Nicholas approved a representative assembly—the Duma—and promised constitutional reforms. The czar soon retracted these concessions and repeatedly dissolved the Duma when it opposed him, contributing to the growing public support for the Bolsheviks and other revolutionary groups. In 1914, Nicholas led his country into another costly war—World War I—that Russia was ill-prepared to win. Discontent grew as food became scarce, soldiers became war weary and devastating defeats at the hands of Germany demonstrated the ineffectiveness of Russia under Nicholas.

In March 1917, revolution broke out on the streets of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and Nicholas was forced to abdicate his throne later that month. That November, the radical socialist Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized power in Russia from the provisional government, sued for peace with the Central Powers and set about establishing the world's first communist state. Civil war broke out in Russia in June 1918, and in July the anti-Bolshevik "White" Russian forces advanced on Yekaterinburg, where Nicholas and his family were located, during a campaign against the Bolshevik forces. Local authorities were ordered to prevent a rescue of the Romanovs, and after a secret meeting of the Yekaterinburg Soviet, a death sentence was passed on the imperial family.

Late on the night of July 16, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five children and four servants were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death.

The remains of Nicholas, Alexandra and three of their children were excavated in a forest near Yekaterinburg in 1991 and positively identified two years later using DNA fingerprinting. The Crown Prince Alexei and one Romanov daughter were not accounted for, fueling the persistent legend that Anastasia, the youngest Romanov daughter, had survived the execution of her family. Of the several "Anastasias" that surfaced in Europe in the decade after the Russian Revolution, Anna Anderson, who died in the United States in 1984, was the most convincing. In 1994, however, scientists used DNA to prove that Anna Anderson was not the czar's daughter but a Polish woman named Franziska Schanzkowska.

July 16, 1945

Atom bomb successfully tested

On this day in 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., the Manhattan Project comes to an explosive end as the first atom bomb is successfully tested in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939, when Italian emigre physicist Enrico Fermi met with U.S. Navy department officials at Columbia University to discuss the use of fissionable materials for military purposes. That same year, Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt supporting the theory that an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction had great potential as a basis for a weapon of mass destruction. In February 1940, the federal government granted a total of $6,000 for research. But in early 1942, with the United States now at war with the Axis powers, and fear mounting that Germany was working on its own uranium bomb, the War Department took a more active interest, and limits on resources for the project were removed.

Brigadier-General Leslie R. Groves, himself an engineer, was now in complete charge of a project to assemble the greatest minds in science and discover how to harness the power of the atom as a means of bringing the war to a decisive end. The Manhattan Project (so-called because of where the research began) would wind its way through many locations during the early period of theoretical exploration, most importantly, the University of Chicago, where Enrico Fermi successfully set off the first fission chain reaction. But the Project took final form in the desert of New Mexico, where, in 1943, Robert J. Oppenheimer began directing Project Y at a laboratory at Los Alamos, along with such minds as Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, and Fermi. Here theory and practice came together, as the problems of achieving critical mass-a nuclear explosion-and the construction of a deliverable bomb were worked out.

Finally, on the morning of July 16, in the New Mexico desert 120 miles south of Santa Fe, the first atomic bomb was detonated. The scientists and a few dignitaries had removed themselves 10,000 yards away to observe as the first mushroom cloud of searing light stretched 40,000 feet into the air and generated the destructive power of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT. The tower on which the bomb sat when detonated was vaporized.

The question now became-on whom was the bomb to be dropped? Germany was the original target, but the Germans had already surrendered. The only belligerent remaining was Japan.

A footnote: The original $6,000 budget for the Manhattan Project finally ballooned to a total cost of $2 billion.

July 16, 1969

Apollo 11 departs Earth

At 9:32 a.m. EDT, Apollo 11, the first U.S. lunar landing mission, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a historic journey to the surface of the moon. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19.

The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, separated from the command module, where a third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston a famous message, "The Eagle has landed." At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. Seventeen minutes later, at 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke the following words to millions listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." A moment later, he stepped off the lunar module's ladder, becoming the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module, and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon--July 1969 A.D.--We came in peace for all mankind." At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). The expense was justified by President John F. Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished, ongoing missions lost their viability.

July 16, 1998

Medicare subsidiary forks over $140 million

July 16, 1998 was a dark and costly day for the Health Care Services Corporation, as the giant Medicare subsidiary agreed to settle a pack of felony charges by paying the federal government roughly $140 million. The Medicare carrier for both Illinois and Michigan, Health Care Services had been charged with eight different counts of felony, including the mishandling, and even shredding, of claims, and various attempts to manipulate and obscure evidence. On top of the hefty civil settlement, the Medicare giant also copped to charges that it had blocked government attempts to audit company records; the price tag for this confession was a mere $4 million. In the wake of these settlements, the government pledged to keep a close watch on Health Care Services and even locked the company into a "strict corporate integrity agreement."

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July 17, 1916

Farmers get relief

America's cash-strapped farmers got a dose of relief on this day in 1916, as Congress passed the Federal Farm Loan Act. The legislation called for the creation of a land bank that would dole out loans to farmers who sorely needed funds to preserve and upgrade their crops. The passage of the bill was celebrated by the nation's farm owners, who had long struggled to secure equitable loans from commercial banks. The farmer's credit woes were only compounded by Federal laws, which, until 1913, had capped the maturity of commercial loans at a mere five years. In turn, the Farm Loan Act was something of a conscious attempt by the government to redress this situation. Indeed, the legislation was an outgrowth of a Federal investigation of America's farm finances, as well as the agrarian credit plans used by other nations. The Farm Loan Act, which was signed by President Woodrow Wilson later in 1916, featured a number of the recommendations from the government study, including the recommendation to model the farm bank on a German cooperative credit system from the late eighteenth century. But, neither the passage of the Farm Loan Act nor the concurrent establishment of the Federal Farm Bureau could prevent America's economy from sinking into a mild depression in 1920; the economic slump was particularly cruel to the nation's farmers and suppressed both crop prices and profits well into the decade.

July 17, 1955

Disneyland opens

Disneyland, Walt Disney's metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy, and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 14 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion.

Walt Disney, born in Chicago in 1901, worked as a commercial artist before setting up a small studio in Los Angeles to produce animated cartoons. In 1928, his short film Steamboat Willy, starring the character "Mickey Mouse," was a national sensation. It was the first animated film to use sound, and Disney provided the voice for Mickey. From there on, Disney cartoons were in heavy demand, but the company struggled financially because of Disney's insistence on ever-improving artistic and technical quality. His first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), took three years to complete and was a great commercial success.

Snow White was followed by other feature-length classics for children, such as Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). Fantasia (1940), which coordinated animated segments with famous classical music pieces, was an artistic and technical achievement. In Song of the South (1946), Disney combined live actors with animated figures, and beginning with Treasure Island in 1950 the company added live-action movies to its repertoire. Disney was also one of the first movie studios to produce film directly for television, and its Zorro and Davy Crockett series were very popular with children.

In the early 1950s, Walt Disney began designing a huge amusement park to be built near Los Angeles. He intended Disneyland to have educational as well as amusement value and to entertain adults and their children. Land was bought in the farming community of Anaheim, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and construction began in 1954. In the summer of 1955, special invitations were sent out for the opening of Disneyland on July 17. Unfortunately, the pass was counterfeited and thousands of uninvited people were admitted into Disneyland on opening day. The park was not ready for the public: food and drink ran out, a women's high-heel shoe got stuck in the wet asphalt of Main Street USA, and the Mark Twain Steamboat nearly capsized from too many passengers.

Disneyland soon recovered, however, and attractions such as the Castle, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Adventures, Space Station X-1, Jungle Cruise, and Stage Coach drew countless children and their parents. Special events and the continual building of new state-of-the-art attractions encouraged them to visit again. In 1965, work began on an even bigger Disney theme park and resort near Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney died in 1966, and Walt Disney World was opened in his honor on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom were later added to Walt Disney World, and it remains Florida's premier tourist attraction. In 1983, Disneyland Tokyo opened in Japan, and in 1992 Disneyland Paris--or "EuroDisney"--opened to a mixed reaction in Marne-la-Vallee. The newest Disneyland, in Hong Kong, opened its doors in September 2005.

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July 18, 1940

FDR nominated for unprecedented third term

On this day in 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who first took office in 1933 as America's 32nd president, is nominated for an unprecedented third term. Roosevelt, a Democrat, would eventually be elected to a record four terms in office, the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms.

Roosevelt was born January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, and went on to serve as a New York state senator from 1911 to 1913, assistant secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920 and governor of New York from 1929 to 1932. In 1932, he defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover to be elected president for the first time. During his first term, Roosevelt enacted his New Deal social programs, which were aimed at lifting America out of the Great Depression. In 1936, he won his second term in office by defeating Kansas governor Alf Landon in a landslide.

On July 18, 1940, Roosevelt was nominated for a third presidential term at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago. The president received some criticism for running again because there was an unwritten rule in American politics that no U.S. president should serve more than two terms. The custom dated back to the country's first president, George Washington, who in 1796 declined to run for a third term in office. Nevertheless, Roosevelt believed it was his duty to continue serving and lead his country through the mounting crisis in Europe, where Hitler's Nazi Germany was on the rise. The president went on to defeat Republican Wendell Wilkie in the general election, and his third term in office was dominated by America's involvement in World War II.

In 1944, with the war still in progress, Roosevelt defeated New York governor Thomas Dewey for a fourth term in office. However, the president was unable to complete the full term. On April 12, 1945, Roosevelt, who had suffered from various health problems for years, died at age 63 in Warm Springs, Georgia. He was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.
On March 21, 1947, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which stated that no person could be elected to the office of president more than twice. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states in 1951.

July 18, 1996

Johnson makes bid for Prince

On this day in 1996, erstwhile car seating manufacturer Johnson Controls, Inc. made a bid to become the king of automotive interiors by acquiring Prince Holding Corporation. For the regal sum of $1.35 billion, Johnson snapped up a company that, for the past thirty years, had strove to "surprise and delight" drivers and passengers. Towards that end, Prince pioneered the use of electronics in car interiors; one of the company's main claims to fame was grafting lighted mirrors on to car's sun visors. This and other luxury-minded novelties made Prince an attractive partner for Johnson. Indeed, as company honcho James Keyes noted, Johnson had been looking to expand beyond the world of automotive seating "systems." Viewed in purely fiscal terms, the addition of Prince and its lucrative roster of products promised to fatten Johnson's already healthy coffers. In a statement released shortly after the deal, the companies estimated that their combined sales muscle would skyrocket Johnson's annual sales from $850 million to $6 billion.

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July 23, 1903

First Ford model delivered to buyer

The first two-cylinder Ford Model A was delivered to its owner, Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago, on this day in 1903. The Model A was the result of a partnership between Henry Ford and Detroit coal merchant Alexander Malcomson. Ford had met Malcomson while working at Edison Illuminating Company: Malcomson sold him coal. The Model A, designed primarily by Ford's assistant C. Harold Wills, was the affordable runabout that Ford needed to begin marketing his company's stock. In the next year Ford raised enough stock to release a line of cars and to incorporate as the Ford Motor Company. Ford's company grew quickly, but it wasn't until the release of the Model T that Ford took the position of our nation's largest carmaker. The Model T kept Ford number one in the industry until production was stopped in 1927, and Ford relinquished its place to Chevrolet. The second Model A, released in November of 1927, was a great success. Between 1927 and 1931, 4.3 million Model A Fords were made. The stylish, dependable, and affordable Model A reaffirmed Ford's position as a premier automaker at the time. Sales for the Model A would never approach those of its forerunner the Model T, due to the onset of the Depression. As sales slumped, Henry Ford decided to release a new car model in 1932. He introduced the speedy Ford V-8, known as the fastest car in the land at the time. Ford would never again regain hegemony atop the car industry.

July 23, 1926

Fox buys Movietone

On this day in 1926, Fox Film Corp. purchases the patents for a sound system that will record sound onto film. Studio founder William Fox pays $60,000 for the system, which he renames Movietone. Fox began making feature films with the Movietone system in 1928. Movietone soon became associated with newsreels, which captured newsworthy events on film and created a valuable historical record in the process.

July 23, 1964

LBJ pushes through anti-poverty legislation

Shortly after being shoved into the top spot in the White House, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson began pushing an ambitious slate of social initiates through the legislative chain. Along with watching over the passage of a landmark civil rights bill, Johnson marshaled the government's forces in a so-called "War on Poverty." Though it had been U.S. President John F. Kennedy's brainchild, Johnson transformed the War on Poverty into one of his pet projects. Indeed, LBJ aimed to do nothing less than eradicate poverty. Towards that end, he intended to utilize federal funds to train indigent Americans and, to a far lesser degree, offer them financial aid. In the spring of 1964, Johnson called on Congress to earmark $962,000 for the opening salvo in his War. Legislators acceded to the President's request on this day in 1964 and handed over $947,000 for a melange of literacy, drug rehabilitation and employment programs. While the War on Poverty was borne of high ideals and good intentions, it met with only modest results. Johnson's programs did help precipitate a steady decline in America's poverty rolls between 1962 and 1973; however, the War hardly came close to fulfilling LBJ's grander goals.

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July 24, 1911

Machu Picchu discovered

On July 24, 1911, American archeologist Hiram Bingham gets his first look at 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.

Traveling on foot and by mule, Bingham and his team made their way from Cuzco into the Urubamba Valley, where a local farmer told them of some ruins located at the top of a nearby mountain. The farmer called the mountain Machu Picchu, which meant "Old Peak" in the native Quechua language. The next day--July 24--after a tough climb to the mountain's ridge in cold and drizzly weather, Bingham met a small group of peasants who showed him the rest of the way. Led by an 11-year-old boy, Bingham got his first glimpse of the intricate network of stone terraces marking the entrance to Machu Picchu.

The excited Bingham spread the word about his discovery in a best-selling book, sending hordes of eager tourists flocking to Peru to follow in his footsteps up the Inca trail. The site itself stretches an impressive five miles, with over 3,000 stone steps linking its many different levels. Today, more than 300,000 people tramp through Machu Picchu every year, braving crowds and landslides to see the sun set over the towering stone monuments of the "Sacred City" and marvel at the mysterious splendor of one of the world's most famous man-made wonders.

July 24, 1969

Kennedy's goal accomplished

At 12:51 EDT, Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely returns to Earth.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon had 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."

Eight years later, on July 16, 1969, the world watched as Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, separated from the command module, where a third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility.

Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston a famous message: "The Eagle has landed." At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. Seventeen minutes later, at 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke the following words to millions listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." A moment later, he stepped off the lunar module's ladder, becoming the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon--July 1969 A.D--We came in peace for all mankind." At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.

July 24, 1998

Merger mania continues

Merger mania seeped into international waters on this day in 1998, as Enron Corporation inked a lavish deal to acquire British-based Wessex Water, PLC. For the sum of $2.2 billion--which was reportedly paid in cash--Enron, an electricity and gas titan from Houston, Texas, made a splashy entrance on to world water utility stage. According to company officials, the deal signaled Enron's first move towards creating a global water subsidiary; Wessex Water was slated to be the crowning jewel of the new concern, which would focus on developing water distribution systems and treatment plants in Asia, Europe and Latin America. In the wake of the deal, Enron's eyes were clearly fixed on a handsome payday in the not-too distant future. As company chief Kenneth Lay noted, the "worldwide water market" was quite lucrative (company figures pegged the field's worth at $300 billion), but sparsely populated; the situation presented "tremendous opportunities for future growth as the...industry moved toward privatization and consolidation." Gazing into his crystal ball, Lay predicted that the acquisition of Wessex would swiftly push the subsidiary to the point where no longer relied on Enron's coffers to maintain its daily operations.

Questionable accounting practices and corporate fraud caused Enron's stock to plummet, leading to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001. Enron’s CEO, Kenneth Lay, was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2004; his trial began in January 2006. On May 25, 2006, Lay was convicted of conspiracy and fraud.

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July 25, 1904

Workers hit the picket line in Fall River

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries the booming textile mills in Fall River, Mass., were lightning rods for labor action. Mill managers and textile honchos, who had first descended upon Fall River in 1811, pushed their largely female work force to toil for long hours in abysmal conditions. By 1871, Fall River had become one of the textile capitals of the United States and many of the mill owners had raked in hefty profits. The prosperity, though, didn't trickle down to the textile workers, prompting them to stage a series of increasingly bitter strikes. But, despite the torrent of protests, and the female employees' decision to form their own union in 1875, the textile workers struggled to gain rights or recognition from the mill owners. The advent of the industrial revolution only exacerbated the situation, as the textile chiefs took the advent of automation as an excuse to hire young children to staff their mills. Much like their adult cohorts, the children worked for hours on end in the local mills. This pernicious development outraged the adult work force and prompted them to take action on an unprecedented scale. Indeed, on this day in 1904, some 25,000 textile workers in Fall River hit the picket line to protest against conditions at the mills. The strike stretched on for most of the late summer and, though they hardly toppled the textile owners, the workers helped force the situation at mills, as well as the plight of child laborers, onto the national stage. The child labor issue, which was symptomatic of a larger phenomenon (in 1900 roughly 250,000 children under the age of 15 worked in mills, factories and mines) proved to be particularly resonant and prompted the formation of the National Child Labor Committee later that year.

July 25, 1978

World's first "test tube baby" born

On this day in 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world's first baby to be conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown. The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section and weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces.

Before giving birth to Louise, Lesley Brown had suffered years of infertility due to blocked fallopian tubes. In November 1977, she underwent the then-experimental IVF procedure. A mature egg was removed from one of her ovaries and combined in a laboratory dish with her husband’s sperm to form an embryo. The embryo then was implanted into her uterus a few days later. Her IVF doctors, British gynecologist Patrick Steptoe and scientist Robert Edwards, had begun their pioneering collaboration a decade earlier. Once the media learned of the pregnancy, the Browns faced intense public scrutiny. Louise’s birth made headlines around the world and raised various legal and ethical questions.

The Browns had a second daughter, Natalie, several years later, also through IVF. In May 1999, Natalie became the first IVF baby to give birth to a child of her own. The child’s conception was natural, easing some concerns that female IVF babies would be unable to get pregnant naturally. In December 2006, Louise Brown, the original "test tube baby," gave birth to a boy, Cameron John Mullinder, who also was conceived naturally.

Today, IVF is considered a mainstream medical treatment for infertility. Hundreds of thousands of children around the world have been conceived through the procedure, in some cases with donor eggs and sperm.

July 25, 2000

Concorde jet crashes

An Air France Concorde jet crashes upon takeoff in Paris on this day in 2000, killing everyone onboard as well as four people on the ground. The Concorde, the world’s fastest commercial jet, had enjoyed an exemplary safety record up to that point, with no crashes in the plane’s 31-year history.

Air France Flight 4590 left DeGaulle Airport for New York carrying nine crew members and 96 German tourists who were planning to take a cruise to Ecuador. Almost immediately after takeoff, however, the plane plunged to the ground near a hotel in Gonesse, France. A huge fireball erupted and all 105 people on the plane were killed immediately.

The Concorde fleet was grounded in the wake of this disaster while the cause was investigated. The Concorde, powered by four Rolls Royce turbojets, was able to cross the Atlantic Ocean in less than three-and-a-half hours, reaching speeds of 1,350 miles per hour, which is more than twice the speed of sound. The July 25 incident, though, was not related to the Concorde’s engine construction or speed.

The investigation revealed that the plane that took off just prior to Flight 4590 had dropped a piece of metal onto the runway. When the Concorde jet ran over it, its tire was shredded and thrown into one of the engines and fuel tanks, causing a disabling fire.

Concorde jets went back into service in November 2001, but a series of minor problems prompted both Air France and British Airways to end Concorde service permanently in October 2003.

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July 28, 1841

Senate passes Fiscal Bank Bill

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July 29, 1932

Washington wages war on the Bonus Army

The Great Depression sent poverty-stricken Americans scrambling for any available source of income. Veterans of World War I certainly felt pinched, and cast about for ways to haul in cash, but, unlike Americans who hadn't fought in the war, the veterans seemingly had a solution: in the wake of the war, the government had promised to hand out handsome cash bonuses to all servicemen. The catch was the bonuses were to be paid out in 1945. In dire need of money, veterans called on legislators during the spring and summer of 1932 to speed up payment of the bonuses. In May, a group of veterans from Portland, Oregon, staged the "Bonus March" and headed to Washington, D.C., to plead their case. The March fast became a mini-movement, and by June a "Bonus Army" of 20,000 vets had set up shop in Washington. At first all seemed to go well for the veterans, as the House of Representatives passed the Patman Bonus Bill, which called for the early payment of bonuses. The Senate, however, put the kibosh on the movement and killed the Patman legislation. Though chunks of the Bonus Army fled Washington after the bill's defeat, a hefty handful of veterans stayed on through late July. President Herbert Hoover ordered the ousting of the vets who had decamped in government quarters. When the eviction proceedings turned ugly, and two veterans were killed, Hoover called on the army to disperse the remaining Bonus protesters. General Douglas MacArthur, and his young assistant Dwight Eisenhower, marshaled troops, tanks and tear gas in their war to send the stragglers home. Duly persuaded by this gross show of force, the remaining members of the Bonus Army headed home on July 29, 1932.

July 29, 1958

NASA created

On this day in 1958, the U.S. Congress passes legislation establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America's activities in space. NASA has since sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. It has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.
NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union's October 4, 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race.
On November 3, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik II, which carried a dog named Laika. In December, America attempted to launch a satellite of its own, called Vanguard, but it exploded shortly after takeoff. On January 31, 1958, things went better with Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite to successfully orbit the earth. In July of that year, Congress passed legislation officially establishing NASA from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and other government agencies, and confirming the country's commitment to winning the space race.
In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared that America should put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. On July 20, 1969, NASA's Apollo 11 mission achieved that goal and made history when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, saying "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
NASA has continued to make great advances in space exploration since the first moonwalk, including playing a major part in the construction of the International Space Station. The agency has also suffered tragic setbacks, however, such as the disasters that killed the crews of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 and the Columbia space shuttle in 2003. In 2004, President George Bush challenged NASA to return to the moon by 2020 and establish "an extended human presence" there that could serve as a launching point for "human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond."

July 29, 1981

Prince Charles marries Lady Diana

Nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries tune in to witness the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana Spencer, a young English schoolteacher. Married in a grand ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in the presence of 2,650 guests, the couple's romance was for the moment the envy of the world. Their first child, Prince William, was born in 1982, and their second, Prince Harry, in 1984.

Before long, however, the fairy-tale couple grew apart, an experience that was particularly painful under the ubiquitous eyes of the world's tabloid media. Diana and Charles announced a separation in 1992, though they continued to carry out their royal duties. In August 1996, two months after Queen Elizabeth II urged the couple to divorce, the prince and princess reached a final agreement. In exchange for a generous