Moments in Time – June 29, 2023

#MiddleburyCT

• On July 10, 2011, the British newspaper News of the World published its final edition after 168 years in print, when owner Rupert Murdoch received a high amount of criticism following accusations against his staff that complained of phone hacking and bribing police to obtain the paper’s stories.
• On July 11, 1977, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by Jimmy Carter, who called King “the conscience of a generation” who “made our nation stronger because he made it better.”
• On July 12, 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first sitting American president to opt for flying in a helicopter over using a motorcade to get to his destination (in this case, Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland).
• On July 13, 1930, France defeated Mexico 4-1 and the United States defeated Belgium 3-0 in the first-ever World Cup football matches, played simultaneously in host city Montevideo, Uruguay. The World Cup has since become the world’s most watched sporting event.
• On July 14, 1882, gunfighter John Ringo was found dead in Turkey Creek Canyon, Arizona. Romanticized as a supposedly Shakespeare-quoting fellow of honor and courage whose wit was as quick as his gun, Ringo was not formally educated and came from a struggling, working-class Indiana family, but cultivated the image of a refined gentleman.
• On July 15, 1986, Columbia Records dropped Johnny Cash from its roster after a 26-year partnership, due to changing tastes in country music and declining album sales. At the time, Cash hadn’t made it into the Top 10 with a single since releasing “The Baron” in 1981.
• On July 16, 2007, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck central Japan, killing nine people and damaging hundreds of homes, as well as one of the world’s largest nuclear power plants, which had a small electrical fire and leaked of radioactive air and water into the environment. The incident prompted increased safety in power plants over concern of a repeated scare.

© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.