This day in history - July 24

[seamusTX]

1759 - George Washington took a seat in the Virginia House of Burgess, where he served five years. (He left to become a delegate to the Continental Congress.)

1866 - Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.

1847 - The Mormons arrived at the site of Salt Lake City after traveling the west to avoid persecution.

1915 - The S.S. Eastland, a passenger ship docked in Chicago, capsized, killing 845 of the nearly 2800 people aboard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eastlan ... d_Disaster" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Receding into forgotten history now, this disaster was very well remembered by Chicagoans who were alive at the time.

1959 - Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev cross swords in the famous ''kitchen debate" at an exhibition in Moscow.

1961 - The first rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral.

1969 - The Apollo 11 mission ended with a safe splashdown.

1974 - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that President Richard M. Nixon had to turn over Oval Office tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.

1975 - Apollo 18, the last Apollo mission, splashed down. The crew nearly died from venting of toxic propellants into the cabin.

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/apooastp.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim