Today in History
Saturday, July 12
1862: President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill authorizing the Medal of Honor.
1909: The House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing a federal income tax, and submitted it to the states. (It was declared ratified in February 1913.)
1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower was flown by helicopter from the White House to a secret mountaintop location as part of a drill involving a mock nuclear attack on Washington.
1967: Six days of race-related rioting erupted in Newark, N.J.; the violence claimed 26 lives.
1977: President Jimmy Carter defended Supreme Court limits on government payments for poor women’s abortions, saying, “There are many things in life that are not fair.”
1994: President Bill Clinton, visiting Germany, went to the eastern sector of Berlin, the first president to do so since Harry Truman.
2013: A train carrying hundreds of passengers derailed and crashed outside Paris; at least six people were killed and dozens injured.
Birthdays: Comedian Bill Cosby is 77. Singer-musician Christine McVie is 71. Actress Denise Nicholas is 70. Fitness guru Richard Simmons is 66. Actress Cheryl Ladd is 63. Actress Judi Evans is 50. Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is 43. Country singer-musician Kimberly Perry (The Band Perry) is 31. Olympic gold medal gymnast Jordyn Wieber is 19.
Thought for Today: “The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that they are not mended again.” — Alan Paton, South African author (1903-88).