On This Day in History - July 10th - Almanac

Today is Saturday, July 10, the 191st day of 2021 with 174 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Protestant theologian John Calvin in 1509; author/abolitionist Solomon Northup in 1808; Danish-French artist Camille Pissarro in 1830; painter James Whistler in 1834; German brewer Adolphus Busch in 1839; inventor Nikola Tesla in 1856; French novelist Marcel Proust in 1871; educator Mary McLeod Bethune in 1875; TV news anchor/commentator David Brinkley in 1920; social activist Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1921; boxer Jake LaMotta in 1921; former New York City Mayor David Dinkins in 1927; author Alice Munro in 1931 (age 90); musician Ronnie James Dio in 1942; tennis star Arthur Ashe in 1943; actor Ron Glass in 1945; actor Sue Lyon in 1946; folksinger Arlo Guthrie in 1947 (age 74); actor Phyllis Smith in 1951 (age 70); baseball Hall of Fame member Andre Dawson in 1954 (age 67); actor Fiona Shaw in 1958 (age 63); football coach Urban Meyer in 1964 (age 57); country singer Gary Levox in 1970 (age 51); singer/TV personality Erika Jayne, born Erika Girardi, in 1971 (age 50); actor Sofia Vergara in 1972 (age 49); actor Adrian Grenier in 1976 (age 45); actor/singer Jessica Simpson in 1980 (age 41); actor Isabela Merced in 2001 (age 20).

On this date in history:

In 1925, the so-called Monkey Trial, in which John Scopes was accused of teaching evolution in school, a violation of state law, began in Dayton, Tenn., featuring a classic confrontation between William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate and fundamentalist hero, and legendary defense attorney Clarence Darrow.

In 1962, the United States launched the first telecommunications satellite, Telstar, into orbit, which relayed TV pictures between the United States and Europe.

In 1985, Coca-Cola, besieged by consumers dissatisfied with the new Coke introduced in April, dusted off the old formula and dubbed it "Coca-Cola Classic."

In 1989, Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters and radio and TV comic creations, died from complications of heart disease. He was 81.

In 1991, Boris Yeltsin was inaugurated as the first freely elected president of the Russian republic.

In 1992, former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was sentenced to 40 years in prison for cocaine racketeering.

In 2009, General Motors completed its race through bankruptcy with the signing of a contract with the U.S. government, which got 61 percent of the company. The recovery plan included considerable shrinkage, including the closing of factories and layoffs of 21,000 union workers.

In 2011, media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, Britain's best-selling weekly newspaper, abruptly ceased publication amid allegations that its reporters and investigators had hacked into telephones of royalty, politicians, celebrities, homicide victims, families of fallen soldiers and others to illegally gain material for stories.

In 2012, an Israeli court acquitted former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of corruption but found him guilty of breach of trust. The charges stemmed from a period before he was PM.

In 2018, divers rescued the last of the 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand, where they'd been trapped for more than two weeks.

In 2019, Forbes ranked Taylor Swift as the highest-paid entertainer for 2019, with Kylie Jenner coming in second and Kanye West third.

A thought for the day: French novelist Marcel Proust said, "As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost ... ."