The Rosetta Stone (British Museum, via European Space Agency)

Today in History

• The Rosetta Stone is discovered (1799)
• The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years (1834)
• Georgia becomes the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union (1870)
• William Boeing and George Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products, later Boeing Airplane Company (1916)
• World War I: The Second Battle of the Marne begins (1918)
• The prototype for the Boeing 707 (and C-135), codenamed 367-80 (“Dash 80,” now at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum), flies for the first time at the Gold Cup Hydroplane Races in Seattle. The demonstration pilot performed two unauthorized barrel rolls (1955)
• Apollo-Soyuz program: An Apollo and a Soyuz spacecraft lift off for a planned in-space docking (1975)
• AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape, and the Mozilla Foundation is established (2003)
• Twitter is launched (2006)

Birthdays

• Inigo Jones, architect (1573)
• Rembrandt, painter (1606)
• Clement Clarke Moore, author of “The Night Before Christmas” (1779)
• Thomas Bulfinch, mythologist (1796)
• Vilfredo Pareto, economist and sociologist; the “Pareto principle” is named for him (1848)
• Hammond Innes, author (1913)
• Iris Murdoch, author (1919)
• Jacques Derrida, philosopher (1930)
• Clive Cussler, author (1931)
• Guido Crepax, comics illustrator (1933)
• Alex Karras, football player and actor (1935)
• Jan-Michael Vincent, actor (1944)
• Linda Ronstadt, singer-songwriter (1946)
• Arianna Huffington, journalist and publisher, founded The Huffington Post (1950)
• Jesse Ventura, wrestler and Governor of Minnesota (1951)
• Marky Ramone, punk rocker (1952)
• Jean-Bernard Aristide, priest and President of Haiti (1953)
• Kim Alexis, fashion model (1960)
• Lolita Davidovich, actress (1961)
• Forest Whitaker, actor (1961)
• Adam Savage, actor and special effects designer, known for MythBusters (1967)
• Brian Austin Green, actor (1973)

Deaths

• General Tom Thumb, circus performer (1883)
• Anton Chekhov, playwright (1904)
• John J. Pershing, US general (1948)
• Paul Gallico, aiuto (1976)
• Bert Convy, actor and game show host (1991)
• Gianni Versace, fashion designer (1997)
• Celeste Holm, actress (2012)
• Martin Landau, actor (2017)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Bon Festival (Kanto region of Japan)
• Elderly Men Day (Kiribati)
• Festival of Santa Rosalia (Palermo, Sicily)
• Social Media Giving Day
• Sultan’s Birthday (Brunei Darussalam)

July 15 is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years). There are 169 days remaining until the end of the year.