Today is Thursday, July 24, the 205th day of 2025. There are 160 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts — two of whom had been the first humans to set foot on the moon — splashed down safely in the Pacific.
Also on this date:
In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate her throne to her 1-year-old son James.
In 1847, Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.
In 1866, Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.
In 1915, the SS Eastland, a passenger ship carrying more than 2,500 people, rolled onto its side while docked at the Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River. An estimated 844 people died in the disaster.
In 1959, during a visit to Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in his famous “Kitchen Debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.
In 1975, an Apollo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which included the first docking with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union.
In 2010, a stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans left 21 people dead and more than 500 injured at the famed Love Parade festival in western Germany.
In 2013, a high-speed train crash outside Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain killed 79 people.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Actor Dan Hedaya is 85.
- Actor Chris Sarandon is 83.
- Actor Robert Hays is 78.
- Actor Michael Richards is 76.
- Actor Lynda Carter is 74.
- Movie director Gus Van Sant is 73.
- Country singer Pam Tillis is 68.
- Basketball Hall of Famer Karl Malone is 62.
- Retired MLB All-Star Barry Bonds is 61.
- Actor Kadeem Hardison is 60.
- Actor-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 57.
- Actor Laura Leighton is 57.
- Actor-singer Jennifer Lopez is 56.
- Director Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”) is 54.
- Actor Eric Szmanda is 50.
- Actor Rose Byrne is 46.
- Country singer Jerrod Niemann is 46.
- Actor Elisabeth Moss is 43.
- Actor Anna Paquin is 43.
- Former NHL center Patrice Bergeron is 40.
- Actor Mara Wilson is 38.
- TV personality Bindi Irwin is 27.
