Updated July 7, 2014, 9:28 am
On July 7, 1981, President Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court.
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On July 7, 1906, Satchel Paige, the pitching star of Negro League and major-league baseball, was born. Following his death on June 8, 1982, his obituary appeared in The Times.
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On This Date
| 1846 | U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison. |
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| 1865 | Four people were hanged in Washington, D.C., after being convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. |
| 1898 | The United States annexed Hawaii. |
| 1930 | Construction began on Boulder Dam on the Colorado River. |
| 1954 | Elvis Presley made his radio debut when Memphis, Tenn., station WHBQ played his first recording for Sun Records, "That's All Right." |
| 1958 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill. |
| 1987 | Lt. Col. Oliver North began his public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing, telling Congress that he had "never carried out a single act, not one" without authorization. |
| 1990 | Martina Navratilova won a record ninth women's singles title at Wimbledon. |
| 2003 | A federal judge approved a settlement fining WorldCom $750 million for its $11 billion accounting scandal. |
| 2005 | Terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims and four suicide bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II. |
| 2011 | "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," the final movie based on the wizard fantasy books, debuted in London. |
Historic Birthdays
Satchel Paige 7/7/1906 - 6/8/1982 American professional baseball pitcher.Go to obituary »
| 82 | Joseph-Marie Jacquard 7/7/1752 - 8/7/1834 French inventor of the Jacquard loom |
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| 91 | Abraham Cahan 7/7/1860 - 8/31/1951 Russian-born American editor of the Jewish Daily Forward (1903-51) |
| 50 | Gustav Mahler 7/7/1860 - 5/18/1911 Austrian composer and conductor |
| 97 | Marc Chagall 7/7/1887 - 3/28/1985 Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker and designer |
| 83 | George Cukor 7/7/1899 - 1/24/1983 American motion-picture director |
| 73 | Vittorio De Sica 7/7/1901 - 11/13/1974 Italian motion-picture director |
| 80 | Robert Heinlein 7/7/1907 - 5/8/1988 American science-fiction writer |
| 73 | Lawrence O'Brien 7/7/1917 - 9/28/1990 American politician and N.B.A. commissioner (1975-84) |
| 53 | Ezzard Charles 7/7/1921 - 5/28/1975 American world heavyweight boxing champion (1950-1) |