Well, folks, it would appear we have a short day in today’s tidbits – but there are a few gems in here to be had this July 6:

1699 Pirate Captain William Kidd is captured in Boston

1776 American Declaration of Independence announced on front page of “PA Evening Gazette”

1785 Congress unanimously resolves US currency named “dollar” & adopts decimal coinage

1798 US law makes aliens “liable to be apprehended, restrained, … & removed as alien enemies” Known as the Alien Enemy Act, this law has been updated and is still a US statute. http://tinyurl.com/y7fdcvc5

1854 First Republican state convention (Jackson, Michigan)

1885 Louis Pasteur successfully tests an anti-rabies vaccine

1898 US Senate agrees to annex Hawaii Three failed attempts prior give a clearer history: https://www.alohaquest.com/arbitration/annexation_attempts.htm

1904 The US Democratic Party nominates little known New York judge Alton B. Parker for presidential nominee – virtually assuring the election of Theodore Roosevelt

1924 First photo sent experimentally across Atlantic by radio, US-England. The most popular “Transatlantic Picture” in google seems to focus on Alfred Hitchcock’s Transatlantic Pictures” movie company. I did run across an interesting story about Marconi, though: ” On December 12, 1901 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Marconi raised a kite with an antenna dangling from it. He sought to prove that radio waves could cross the Atlantic. Through that hanging wire he heard the anticipated signal from across the ocean. The first transatlantic signal from England had been detected.” http://tinyurl.com/y9xgsmyj

1928 First all-talking motion picture shown in NY “Lights of New York” Interesting clip shows the acting/talkies overlap in acting method. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8dRxTf4mlE

1932 First class postage back up to 3 cents from 2 cents

1939 German Nazis close last Jewish enterprises

1942 Anne Frank’s family goes into hiding in After House, Amsterdam. From the Holocaust Museum online: http://tinyurl.com/hrrjlh7

1944 World’s largest circus tent catches fire at Ringling Brother’s – Barnum & Bailey 2nd performance, 168 die (Hartford Conn) Was one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the US. The fire occurred during an afternoon performance of the  that was attended by 6,000 to 8,000 people. 167 people died[1] and more than 700 were injured. http://tinyurl.com/y8d569f7

1945 US President Harry Truman signs executive order establishing Medal of Freedom

1945 Abbott and Costello’s film “The Naughty Nineties” released featuring longest version of their “Who’s on First” routine

1947 The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.

1957 John Lennon (16) & Paul McCartney (15) meet for first time as Lennon’s rock group Quarrymen perform at a church dinner

1957 Harry S. Truman Library forms in Independence, Missouri

1964 Beatles’ film “Hard Day’s Night” premieres in London

1965 Rock group “Jefferson Airplane” forms

1969 Filming begins on “Ned Kelly” starring Mick Jagger

1970 California passes first “no fault” divorce law. For a quick round the world view of no-fault divorce see an interesting Wikipedia entry: http://tinyurl.com/y9wkp3x6

1983 Supreme Court rules retirement plans can’t pay women less

1989 US marshals & FCC seize pirate radio station WHOT in Brooklyn

1990 “Jetsons the Movie” with Tiffany, premieres

1994 “Forrest Gump”, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise, is released (Best Picture 1995)

1999 U.S. Army private Barry Winchell dies from baseball-bat injuries inflicted in his sleep the previous day by fellow soldiers for his relationship with transgendered showgirl and former Navy combat medic, Calpernia Addams.

2014 Israeli Air Force strike kills 7 Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip

2016 Chilcot Report, UK’s Iraqi War Inquiry released; concludes Tony Blair overstated case for war and was unprepared

2016 African American Alton Sterling is shot by Louisiana police in Baton Rouge, while being restrained on the ground, the killing is filmed

2016 African American Philando Castile is shot by police in St Paul, Minnesota after being pulled over for a broken rear light, killing is filmed

2016 Pokémon Go, the real-world mobile game by Niantic, is first released

Bonus Video: Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First” from “Naughty Nineties”