This day in history...

On July 9, 1877, the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at its club in Wimbledon, then a suburb of London. Twenty-one men, all English amateurs, compete in the first tournament for a first prize trophy worth 25 guineas; 27-year old W. Spencer Gore is the winner. This first tournament at Wimbledon also establishes the modern scoring method of tennis. In 1884, the club will establish a women's tournament. By the early 1900's, Wimbledon has become an all-world tournament, and in 1968, professionals are allowed to compete for the first time.


On July 9, 1850, after only 16 months in office, President Zachary Taylor dies after a brief illness. The exact cause of his death is still disputed by some historians, but cholera is a likely cause.


On July 9, 1941, a team of British cryptologists on Project Enigma score a major breakthrough, breaking the secret code used by the German army to direct ground-to-air operations on the Eastern front. Developed from business machinery in 1919, the Germans thought their Enigma coding system to be unbreakable. In fact, English and Polish experts had been breaking its codes for two years.


On July 9, 1962, Bob Dylan records "Blowin' In The Wind." He first performed the song about 3 weeks earlier, at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village, telling the audience, “This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs.” The recording is well received, but its a cover by Peter, Paul and Mary that will give the song its major breakthrough. "Blowin' In The Wind" (which Dylan will later say he wrote in about 10 minutes) will soon be widely considered the unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement.

 

On July 10, 1925, a Dayton, TN high school teacher named John T. Scopes is placed on trial for teaching evolution, in violation of state law. In what became a major show trial for the time, two-time presidential candidate and famed fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan was recruited to prosecute the case. The ACLU took Scopes' side and brought in Clarence Darrow, perhaps the top attorney of the time, to defend. In the Scopes Monkey Trial, the judge blocked Darrow's repeated attempts to call experts on evolution, saying Scopes was on trial, not the law. In an historic maneuver, Darrow then called Bryan as an expert on the Bible, and proceeded to make a mockery of his literal faith in the Bible. He then derailed Bryan further by demanding the jury find his client guilty; by state law at the time, the move denied Bryan his right to make a closing argument. The jury obliged Darrow and Scopes was fined the minimum $100; the verdict was overturned two years later, but the law remained on the books until repealed by SCOTUS in 1968. Bryan passed away 5 days after the conclusion of the trial. (Drummond (Darrow) cross-examines Brady (Bryan) in Inherit The Wind)


On July 10, 1940, the Germans begin the first in a long series of bombing raids against Great Britain. The Battle of Britain will last three and a half months; outnumbered in the air, but having the advantage of ground radar to guide them and longer combat time due to literally fighting above their homes, the Royal Air Force denies Hitler the crippling blow to Britain's defenses he hoped for, and the proposed invasion of British Isles never takes place.

On July 10, 1913, Death Valley, California is in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave; 5 consecutive days with recorded temperatures of 129F or hotter. On the 10th, a thermometer at Furnace Creek in Death Valley hits 134F, the hottest temperature in Earth's recorded history.

 

July 11, 1804, sees perhaps the most famous duel in American history. On one side is Vice President Aaron Burr; on the other, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. The animosity between the two probably dates back to 1790, when Burr beat Hamilton's father-in-law in a race for a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey. In 1796, Burr partnered with Thomas Jefferson as the Presidential ticket for the Democratic-Republic Party (forerunner of today's Democratic Party). Hamilton attacks the ticket publicly, calling it a "religious duty" to oppose Burr; they lose to John Adams. Jefferson and Burr run together again in 1800, and this time its Burr going to the mat politically; releasing a confidential document written by Hamilton that smears Adams. Jefferson-Burr win the race, but in the rules of the day, the House must choose which will be President and which is VP. After 35 tie votes, Hamilton engineers a vote switch among Federalist Party Congressmen that gives Jefferson the Presidency. Burr is highly insulted and challenges Hamilton to a duel; Hamilton accepts. The two meet in Weehawken, NJ. It is not unusual at the time for duelists to get cold feet after the challenge is made and accepted, and honor is preserved by the combatants each firing their one shot into the ground or in the air. Witnesses agree that this is the approach Hamilton took; firing well above Burr's head. Burr's shot, however strikes Hamilton in the abdomen, and he dies the next day. Burr is charged with murder, but the charges are later dropped, and Burr would complete his term as VP.


On July 11, 1914, 19-year old George Herman "Babe" Ruth makes his major league debut. Ruth pitches 7 innings and allows 8 hits (5 in the final inning) in a 4-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. Ruth was 0 for 2 at the plate.

 

On July 12, 1862, President Lincoln signs into law a measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army Medal of Honor, in the name of Congress, “to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection.” Six soldiers who will later that year perform a covert operation to destroy bridges and railroad tracks between Chattanooga and Atlanta will be the first to receive the new award. The following year, the Medal of Honor will be made a permanent military decoration, and also be made available to commissioned officers.


On July 12, 1984, Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY) becomes the first woman on a major party Presidential ticket, when she is chosen by Democratic Party nominee Walter Mondale as his running mate. Mondale-Ferraro will lose in a landslide to the incumbent GOP ticket of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; the only state the Dems carry is Minnesota, Mondale's home state.


On July 12, 1943, the Soviet army turns back the Germans at the Russian railway and industrial center of Kursk, in one of the greatest clashes of armor in military history. Between the two combatants, more than 6,000 tanks will be involved.

On July 12, 1979, a promotional event at a Chicago White Sox baseball game goes very, very wrong. In an effort to denegrate the Disco music movement (and promote their rock station), DJ's Steve Dahl and Garry Meier of WLUP-FM propose "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox. A makeup of an earlier rainout turned the White Sox' July 12 date with the Detroit Tigers into a double header; White Sox management agrees to stage the proposed promotion between games, allowing the DJ's to blow up a dumpster full of disco albums on the field. The club also sells 98-cent tickets to the games to anyone who brings a disco record. They expect to add 5,000 or so fans to the normal midweek attendance of about 15,000 with the promo. They get 40,000 and a crowd nearly as large outside the stadium. The club also made no plans for actually collecting the records that fans brought in, and the vinyl discs soon become projectiles flying around the stadium. Already in a tizzy, the crowd grows even further out of control when the dumpster full of records is detonated in centerfield. Fans storm the field and begin lighting their own disco record bonfires; 9 are injured, dozens are arrested, the field gets completely torn up, and the White Sox are forced to forfeit the nightcap. Afterward, White Sox pitcher and Texas native Rich Wortham says, "This wouldn't have happened ithey had country and western night."

 

On July 13, 1985, the "Live Aid" superconcert opens in London's Wembley Stadium, and later in the day, in Philadelphia's JFK Stadium. The brainchild of Irish rock singer Bob Geldof, Live Aid is a 16-hour collaboration of many of the world's leading rock performers to raise money for famine relief in Africa. Witnessed live in the two venues by a combined 170,000 spectators and televised to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations, Live Aid raises $127 million, and many nations pledge to donate their surplus grain to the cause. Among the noteworthy performances are the live renditions of the famine relief movement's two anthems, "Do They Know Its Christmas" at Wembley, and "We Are The World" at JFK, Phil Collins' double duty, playing a set of personal hits at Wembley and then hopping a Concorde flight to Philly to play with the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, an unannounced reunion performance of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and a live set by Queen that many industry execs consider the greatest live performance in rock and roll history.


On July 13, 1787, Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance, structuring settlement of the Northwest Territory and creating a policy for the addition of new states to the nation.

On July 13, 2015, 28-year old Sandra Bland is found dead in her Texas jail cell, in an apparent suicide. Bland was pulled over for a minor traffic violation 3 days earlier and arrested for failing to comply with instructions. Her arrest and subsequent death has become one of the flashpoints of the Black Lives Matter movement (which also began this day in 2013)