Today in history: July 27
During the first official test of the U.S. Armyβs first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger for one hour and 12 minutes,Β andΒ more events that happened on this day in history.
1866: Cyrus W. Field
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In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe (a previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeksβ use).
1909: Orville Wright
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In 1909, during the first official test of the U.S. Armyβs first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Virginia, for one hour and 12 minutes.
1946: Gertrude Stein
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In 1946, American author, poet and publisher Gertrude Stein, 72, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine (NUβ-yee-suhr-sehn), France.
1953: The Korean War Armistice
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In 1953, the Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting.
1960: Richard Nixon
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In 1960, Vice President Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
1967: The Kerner Commission
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In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of urban rioting, the same day Black militant H. Rap Brown told a press conference in Washington that violence was βas American as cherry pie.β
1974: Articles of Impeachment
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In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.
1980: The Shah of Iran
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In 1980, on day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis, the deposed Shah of Iran died at a military hospital outside Cairo, Egypt, at age 60.
2003: Bob Hope
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In 2003, comedian Bob Hope died in Toluca Lake, Calif. at age 100.
2003: Lance Armstrong
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In 2003, Lance Armstrong won a record-tying fifth straight title in the Tour de France. (However, Amstrong was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles in 2012 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.)
2010: BP
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Ten years ago: BP announced that its much-criticized chief executive, Tony Hayward, left, would be replaced by Robert Dudley, right, as the company reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover the costs of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Β
2015: Barack Obama
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Five years ago: President Barack Obama, during a visit to Ethiopia, unleashed a blistering and belittling rebuke of Republican White House hopefuls, calling their attack on his landmark nuclear deal with Iran βridiculous if it werenβt so sad.βΒ
2015: The Boy Scouts of America
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Five years ago: The Boy Scouts of America ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.
2019: Donald Trump
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One year ago: President Donald Trump described the Baltimore-area congressional district represented by one of his chief Democratic critics, Elijah Cummings, as a βdisgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.β
2019: Moscow
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One year ago: Russian police cracked down fiercely on demonstrators in central Moscow, beating some and arresting more than 1,000 who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates on the ballot for Moscow city council.Β
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