On This Day in History - July 28th - Almanac

Today is Sunday, July 28, the 219th day of 2013 with 156 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars are Saturn and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include Beatrix Potter, British author and illustrator of the Peter Rabbit stories, in 1866; French surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp in 1887; comedian Joe E. Brown in 1891; singer/actor/band leader Rudy Vallee in 1901; Tupperware founder Earl Tupper in 1907; conductor Carmen Dragon in 1914; former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1929; pianist and bandleader Peter Duchin in 1937 (age 76); former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori in 1938 (age 75); former U.S. Senator and basketball Hall of Fame member Bill Bradley in 1943 (age 70); rock musician Mike Bloomfield, also in 1943; "Garfield" creator Jim Davis in 1945 (age 68); singer/songwriter Jonathan Edwards in 1946 (age 67); actors Linda Kelsey in 1946 (age 67), Sally Struthers and Georgia Engel, both in 1948 (age 65) and Lori Loughlin in 1964 (age 49); and activist Terry Fox, who ran across Canada after his right leg was amputated because of cancer, in 1958.

On this date in history:

In 1868, the ratified 14th Amendment was adopted into the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing citizenship and all its privileges to African-Americans.

In 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia, leading to World War I.

In 1945, the U.S. Senate ratified the United Nations.

In 1976, an earthquake struck China's Tangshan Province, killing an estimated 1 million people.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan opened the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. A Soviet-led bloc of 15 nations, as well as Iran, Libya, Albania and Bolivia, boycotted the games.

In 1990, the collision of a freighter and two barges spilled 500,000 gallons of oil in the Houston Ship Channel near Galveston, Texas.

In 1998, in return for immunity, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky agreed to testify before a federal grand jury investigating a possible relationship between her and President Bill Clinton.

In 2003, J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup, the two largest U.S. banks, agreed to pay nearly $300 million in fines and penalties to settle charges they had aided Enron in deceiving investors.

In 2004, Democrats nominated Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to oppose Republic incumbent George W. Bush in the November presidential election.

In 2005, the Irish Republic Army said it was ending violence as a political tactic against Great Britain in Northern Ireland after a 36-year campaign. The IRA promised to disarm and cease terrorist activity.

In 2008, Iraqi authorities said suicide bombers, including three females, killed 61 people and injured 249 others in ethnic violence in Kirkuk and Baghdad.

In 2009, former Liberian President Charles Taylor, on trial at The Hague for war crimes, denied he had ordered cannibalism during a savage civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.

In 2010, a plane flying in intense fog and rain to Islamabad, Pakistan, crashed in the Himalayan foothills near its destination, killing all 152 aboard.

In 2011, a federal judge in Washington threw out a lawsuit seeking to end the Obama administration's funding of embryonic stem cell research into possible cures for deadly diseases.

In 2012, Flooding from the Yellow River forced nearly 41,000 people in two Chinese provinces to evacuate their homes.

A thought for the day: Nikolai Nekrasov wrote, "You do not have to be a poet but you are obliged to be a citizen."