#Middlebury
On July 9, 1777, New York elects Brigadier Gen. George Clinton as the first governor of the independent state of New York. Clinton would go on to become New York’s longest-serving governor, as well as the longest-serving governor in the U.S., holding the post until 1795.- On July 7, 1852, according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, Dr. John H. Watson is born. Coincidentally, the Sherlock Holmes author died on July 7, 1930, in England at the age of 71.
- On July 4, 1911, record temperatures are set in the northeastern U.S. with the arrival of a deadly heat wave that would go on to kill 380 people. On July 13, New York alone reported 211 people dead from the excessive heat.
- On July 10, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called Monkey Trial begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high-school science teacher, accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. The law made it a misdemeanor to teach any theory that denied the story of man’s Divine Creation.
- On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at a popular swimming pool in Paris. Reard dubbed the swimsuit a “bikini,” inspired by a U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll earlier that week.
- On July 8, 1950, the day after the U.N. Security Council recommended that all U.N. forces in Korea be placed under the command of the U.S. military, Gen. Douglas MacArthur is appointed head of the United Nations Command. When MacArthur later publicly threatened to escalate hostilities with China, President Harry Truman fired him.
- On July 6, 1971, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, dies in New York City at the age of 69. Armstrong pioneered jazz improvisation and the style known as swing.
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