Today in History
Today is Wednesday, July 15, the 196th day of 2026. There are 169 days left in the year.
Today in History:
On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts, was found at Fort Julien in the Nile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.
Also on this date:
In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 350 years 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 1916, The Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.
In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spacecraft 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, 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NAN鈥�-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鈥檇 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. (Walker was released in 2019 after serving 17 years of a 20-year prison sentence.)
In 2006, Twitter (now known as X) was launched to the public.
In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced by a state court to life in prison plus 419 years for killing one person and injuring dozens when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (The previous month, Fields received a life sentence on 29 federal hate crime charges.)
In 2020, George Floyd鈥檚 family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd鈥檚 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.)
Today鈥檚 Birthdays: Actor Patrick Wayne is 87. R&B singer Millie Jackson is 82. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 80. Author Richard Russo is 77. Musician Trevon Horn is 77. Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, is 76. Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is 75. Actor Terry O鈥橯uinn (TV: 鈥淟ost鈥�) is 74. Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 74. Rock musician Joe Satriani is 70. Model Kim Alexis is 66. Actor Willie Aames is 66. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 65. Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 63. Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 60. TV personality Adam Savage (TV鈥� 鈥淢ythBusters鈥�) is 59. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 58. Actor-screenwriter Jim Rash (TV: 鈥淐ommunity鈥�) is 55. Actor Scott Foley is 54. Actor Brian Austin Green is 53. Singer Buju Banton is 53. Actor Diane Kruger is 50. Actor Lana Parrilla (LAH鈥�-nuh pa-REE鈥�-uh) is 49. Actor Travis Fimmel is 47. Actor-singer Tristan 鈥淢ack鈥� Wilds is 37. Actor Iain Armitage (TV: 鈥淵oung Sheldon鈥�) is 18.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
