Today in History: July 15, designer Gianni Versace shot dead

Today in History

Today is Friday, July 15, the 196th day of 2022. There are 169 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 15, 1916, Boeing Co., originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

On this date:

In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 3 1/2 centuries after its creation.

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

In 1913, Democrat Augustus Bacon of Georgia became the first person elected to the U.S. Senate under the terms of the recently ratified 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of senators.

In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

In 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed; the kidnappers were caught.)

In 1996, MSNBC, a 24-hour all-news network, made its debut on cable and the internet.

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace (ver-SAH’-chay), 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NAN’-an), 27, was found dead eight days later, a suicide. (Investigators believed Cunanan killed four other people before Versace in a cross-country rampage that began the previous March.)

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who’d fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

In 2016, Donald Trump chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, an experienced politician with deep Washington connections, as his running mate.

In 2018, President Donald Trump arrived in Finland for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Earlier, in an interview with CBS News, Trump named the European Union as a top adversary of the United States.

In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years for killing one and injuring dozens of others when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In 2020, George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. (The city would agree to pay $27 million to settle the lawsuit in March 2021.)

Ten years ago: Syria’s 16-month bloodbath crossed an important symbolic threshold as the international Red Cross formally declared the conflict a civil war, a status with implications for potential war crimes prosecutions. A Russian Soyuz craft launched into the morning skies over Kazakhstan, carrying three space travelers, including NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, to the International Space Station. Oscar-winning actor Celeste Holm, 95, died in New York.

Five years ago: After twice being rejected for U.S. visas, an all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan arrived in Washington for an international competition after President Donald Trump used a rare “parole” mechanism to sidestep the visa system; the case had become a flashpoint in the debate about Trump’s efforts to tighten entrance to the U.S. Two former high-ranking Penn State administrators surrendered to serve jail sentences for how they responded to a 2001 complaint about assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky showering with a boy. Garbine Muguruza (GAHR’-been moo-gah-ROO’-thuh) beat Venus Williams 7-5, 6-0 to win the Wimbledon title. Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau died at the age of 89.

One year ago: A jury found gunman Jarrod Ramos criminally responsible for killing five people in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland in 2018. (Ramos would be sentenced to more than five life sentences without the possibility of parole.) Amid a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, officials in Los Angeles County said masks would again be required indoors, even for people who’d been vaccinated.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Patrick Wayne is 83. R&B singer Millie Jackson is 78. Rock singer-musician Peter Lewis (Moby Grape) is 77. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 76. Rock musician Artimus Pyle is 74. Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, is 72. Actor Celia Imrie is 70. Actor Terry O’Quinn is 70. Rock singer-musician David Pack is 70. Rock musician Marky Ramone is 70. Rock musician Joe Satriani is 66. Country singer-songwriter Mac McAnally is 65. Model Kim Alexis is 62. Actor Willie Aames is 62. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 61. Actor Lolita Davidovich is 61. Actor Shari Headley is 59. Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 59. Rock musician Jason Bonham is 56. Actor Amanda Foreman is 56. R&B singer Stokley (Mint Condition) is 55. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 54. Actor Reggie Hayes is 53. Actor-screenwriter Jim Rash is 51. Rock musician John Dolmayan is 50. Actor Scott Foley is 50. Actor Brian Austin Green is 49. Rapper Jim Jones is 46. Actor Diane Kruger is 46. Actor Lana Parrilla (LAH’-nuh pa-REE’-uh) is 45. Rock musician Ray Toro (My Chemical Romance) is 45. Actor Laura Benanti is 43. Actor Travis Fimmel is 43. Actor Taylor Kinney is 41. Actor-singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds is 33. Actor Medalion Rahimi is 30. Actor Iain Armitage (TV: “Big Little Lies” “Young Sheldon”) is 14.

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