History Today

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 5th. With the historic Wimbledon tennis tournament cancelled for the first time since World War II, we look back to this day in 1975, when Arthur Ashe became the first Black man to win the famed tournament by defeating the heavily favored Jimmy Connors. Although Ashe had previously won the Australian and U.S. Opens, he was 31 in 1975 and assumed to be well past the prime of his playing career.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 4th. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Those words, which have inspired Americans for nearly two and a half centuries, are from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, which was approved by the Continental Congress on this day in 1776.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 3rd. It’s been 35 years since Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd hit the big screen as Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown in Back to the Future, the blockbuster action-comedy that premiered on this day in 1985. In the film, Michael J Fox’s Marty traveled back 30 years in time using a time machine built out of a DeLorean sports car.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 2nd. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history, was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson 56 years ago today. The act prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on July 1st. Today our music goes with us wherever our phone does, but the idea of portable high quality sound didn’t become a reality until this day in 1979 when the first-ever Sony Walkman went on sale. The device wasn’t a product of consumer demand--it was originally made for Sony chairman Masaru Ibuka. He was a music lover who traveled frequently and wanted something light that he could bring with him on trips.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 30th. Just weeks after protesters began hitting the streets to demand racial justice and an end to police brutality, we look back to this day in 1989 and the release of one of Hollywood’s most notable portrayals of modern-day racial tensions: Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 29th. Just weeks after SpaceX successfully carried two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, we look back to this day in 1995, when the American space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir to form what was at the time the largest man-made satellite ever to orbit the Earth.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 28th. In the wake of protests around the nation, we look back to this day in 1969, when the Stonewall Riots began in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. It was the first major protest on behalf of equal rights for LGBT people, and helped galvanize the formation of the Gay Liberation Front as well as other gay, lesbian and bisexual civil rights organizations.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 27th. Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Institution consists of 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers and a zoo, with holdings of more than 150 million items. It’s administered by the U.S. government. But just how did it get the name “Smithsonian?” It all goes back to this day in 1829, when an English scientist named James Smithson died in Genoa, Italy.

Hello, and welcome to This Day in History. Here’s what happened on June 26th. With the mission of saving “succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” the United Nations charter was signed on this day in 1945, in the aftermath of the devastation of World War II. The Charter was ratified on October 24, and the first U.N. General Assembly met in London on January 10, 1946. Surprising fact? The term “United Nations” was coined by President Franklin Roosevelt.