Today in History: July 6, Althea Gibson wins Wimbledon

Posted by author July 6, 2024 Tennis

Today is Saturday, July 6, the 188th day of 2024. There are 178 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 6, 1957, Althea Gibson became the first Black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title as she defeated fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2.

Also on this date:

In 1483, England’s King Richard III was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga (ty-kahn-dur-OH’-gah).

In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.

In 1933, the first All-Star baseball game was played at Chicago’s Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League 4-2 behind winning pitcher Lefty Gomez of the New York Yankees.

In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a “secret annex” in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.

In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.

In 1967, Nigerian forces invade the Republic of Biafra, sparking the Nigerian Civil War.

In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.

In 2013, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport, killing three passengers and injuring 181.

In 2016, Philando Castile, a Black elementary school cafeteria worker, was killed during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights by Officer Jeronimo Yanez. (Yanez was later acquitted on a charge of second-degree manslaughter.)

In 2018, six followers of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult were hanged along with its leader, Shoko Asahara; they had been convicted of crimes including a 1995 sarin gas attack that killed 13 people and made thousands of others sick on the Tokyo subway system.

In 2020, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization; President Donald Trump had criticized the WHO’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. (The pullout was later halted by President Joseph Biden’s administration.)

Today’s Birthdays:

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 89.
Singer Gene Chandler (“Duke of Earl”) is 87.
Country singer Jeannie Seely is 84.
Actor Burt Ward (TV: “Batman”) is 79.
Former President George W. Bush is 78.
Actor-director Sylvester Stallone is 78.
Actor Geoffrey Rush is 73.
Retired MLB All-Star Willie Randolph is 70.
Former first daughter Susan Ford Bales is 67.
Actor-writer Jennifer Saunders (“Absolutely Fabulous”) is 66.
Actor Brian Posehn is 58.
Political reporter/moderator John Dickerson is 56.
Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan) is 54.
Rapper 50 Cent is 49.
Actors Tia and Tamera Mowry (MOHR’-ee) are 46.
Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 45. Actor Eva (EH’-vuh) Green is 44.
San Diego Padres infielder Manny Machado is 32. NBA power forward Zion Williamson is 24.