► Today is Wednesday, July 15, the 196th day of 2009. There are 169 days left in the year. ► Today’s birthdays: Author Clive Cussler is 78. Actor Alex Karras is 74. Actor Ken Kercheval is 74. Senator George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) is 73. Actor Patrick Wayne is 70. Actor Jan-Michael Vincent is 65. R&B singer Millie Jackson is 65. Rock singer-musician Peter Lewis (Moby Grape) is 64. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 63. Rock musician Artimus Pyle is 61. Actor Terry O’Quinn is 57. Rock musician Marky Ramone is 53. Rock musician Joe Satriani is 53. Country singer-songwriter Mac McAnally is 52. Model Kim Alexis is 49. Actor Willie Aames is 49. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 48. Actress Lolita Davidovich is 48. Actress Brigitte Nielsen is 46. Rock musician Jason Bonham is 43. Actor Kristoff St. John is 43. Rock musician Phillip Fisher is 42. R&B singer Stokley (Mint Condition) is 42. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 41. Actor Stan Kirsch is 41. Actor Reggie Hayes is 40. Rock musician Chi Cheng (Deftones) is 39. Rock musician John Dolmayan is 37. Actor Scott Foley is 37. Actor Brian Austin Green is 36. Rapper Jim Jones is 33. Actress Diane Kruger is 33. Actress Lana Parrilla is 32. Rock musician Ray Toro (My Chemical Romance) is 32. Actor Travis Fimmel is 30. R&B singer Kia Thornton (Divine) is 28. ► In 1606, the painter Rembrandt was born in Leiden, in the Netherlands. ► In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union. Manitoba entered confederation as the fifth Canadian province. ► In 1916, Boeing Co., then known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle. ► In 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne began, resulting in an Allied victory. ► In 1948, President Truman was nominated for another term by the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. ► In 1964, Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona was nominated for president by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. ► In 1971, President Nixon startled the country by announcing he would visit the People’s Republic of China. ► In 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, Calif., by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed.) ► In 1979, President Carter delivered his “malaise’’ speech in which he lamented what he called a “crisis of confidence’’ in America. ► In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot dead outside his Miami home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan was found dead eight days later. ► In 1999, the government acknowledged for the first time that thousands of workers had become sick while making nuclear weapons and announced a plan to compensate many of them. China declared that it had invented its own neutron bomb. ► In 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law a measure imposing mandatory prison terms for criminals who use identity theft in committing terrorist acts and other offenses. Retired Air Force General Charles W. Sweeney, who had piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki in the final days of World War II, died in Boston at 84. ► In 2008, President Bush urged lawmakers to quickly enact legislation to prop up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
