July 19

It’s National Raspberry Cake Day

ON THIS DAY…
1553 Fifteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey is deposed after a nine-day reign as queen of England; she is executed for treason the following year
1692 Five women are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, MA
1837 Isambard Kingdom Brunel’sS.S. Great Western, an oak-hulled steamship propelled by paddle wheels powered by a two-cylinder steam engine, was launched at Bristol; the 2,300-ton vessel had an overall length of 236 feet
1843 Brunel’s steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and also becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world
1848 In Seneca Falls, NY women’s rights advocates Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton open the Seneca Falls Convention, which demands full citizenship rights for women
1870 France declares war on Prussia to begin the Franco-Prussian War, which will result in the unification of Germany and the end of the reign of French emperor Napoleon III
1873 William Gosse becomes the first European to discover Ayers Rock (Uluru) and names it in honor of South Australian Premier Sir Henry Ayers
1879 Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday’s New Mexico saloon
1881 Sitting Bull surrenders with 186 followers; the US Army breaks its amnesty promise and jails him at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory
1900 The Métropolitan subway (Métro) in Paris opened the first eight stations on its first line running east-west through the center of the city from Porte de Vincennes to Porte Maillot
1912 A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190kg exploded over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, AZ causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town
1923 WRC-AM in Washington, D.C. began broadcasting
1934 Disney signs a contract with the Lionel Corporation to produce a Mickey Mouse wind-up hand-car
1935 The first parking meters were installed in the Oklahoma City business district. Carl C. Magee of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce traffic committee, solved the parking problems in downtown Oklahoma City
1940 Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army
1942 German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to the an effective American convoy system
1943 Rome is bombed by the Allies for the first time in the war
1945 Montgomery Ward is seized by United States Army troops at the direction of Attorney General Francis Biddle because of its refusal to obey National War Labor Board orders; Montgomery Ward chairman Seward Avery is carried out of his office by troops
1963 Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90; exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention
1966 Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow were married; they would divorce two years later
1985 US Vice President George H. W. Bush announces that New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe will become the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the Space Shuttle
1988 Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson gives a dramatic speech at the Democratic National Convention, promising to “keep hope alive” after finishing second to Michael Dukakis for the party’s nomination
2001 UK politician and novelist Jeffrey Archer, Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare, is sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice

BORN:
1814 Samuel Colt, inventor and industrialist who was the founder of the Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, and is widely credited with popularizing the revolver gun
1860 Lizzie Borden, a New England spinster who was the central figure in the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother
1883 Max Fleischer, pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon who served as the head of Fleischer Studios; he brought such characters as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen and was responsible for a number of technological innovations
1924 Pat Hingle, actor (Nevada Smith, Hang ‘Em High, Norma Rae, Sudden Impact, Commissioner Gordon in the Batman films of the 1980’s and 90’s)
1947 Brian May, musician (Queen)
1961 Campbell Scott, actor (Six Degrees, Longtime Companion, Dying Young, Dead Again, Singles, The Exorcism of Emily Rose)
1962 Anthony Edwards, actor (Zodiac, ER, Thunderbirds (2004), Mr. North, Top Gun, Revenge of the Nerds, Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
1963 Garth Nix, author of young adult fantasy novels, most notably the Old Kingdom series, The Seventh Tower series, and The Keys to the Kingdom series

DIED:
1974 Joe Flynn, character actor (McHale’s Navy, The Love Bug, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Barefoot Executive, Now You See Him, Now You Don’t, Superdad), dies in drowning accident following a heart attack at 49
1998 Betty Marsden, actress (Britannia Hospital, French and Saunders, Little Dorrit, Merlin of the Crystal Cave), dies of complications due to heart trouble and pneumonia at 79
2006 Jack Warden, Emmy Award-winning actor (Brian’s Song, Crazy Like a Fox, Heaven Can Wait, Shampoo, 12 Angry Men (1957), Used Cars, All the President’s Men), dies of heart and kidney failure at 85