1799: The Rosetta Stone is found
The ancient Egyptian rock inscribed with a decree by King Ptolemy V was found in the Egyptian port city of Rashid (Rosetta) by French Captain Pierre Bouchard.
1932: US President Herbert Hoover slashed his salary by 20% and his cabinet members by 15% due to the Economic Act signed on June 30, 1932.
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1955: Mainau Declaration is signed by 18 Nobel laureates
The declaration against the use of nuclear weapons was initiated by German scientists Otto Hahn and Max Born.
1957: After being raped and tortured by the French military while in their custody, Djamila Bouhired, a militant in the War for Algerian Independence, is found guilty by a military tribunal of bombing a café that killed 11. She is sentenced to death by the guillotine. Her lawyer, the famous attorney activist Jacques Vergès, mounts a publicity campaign in France and Algeria against the verdict. Princess Laila Ayesha of Morocco, which is another French colony, will plead for Bouhired’s life to the President of France, René Coty. Coty will commute the death sentence to life imprisonment. Bouhired will be freed at the end of the war, when Algeria achieves independence, in 1962.
1979: Jimmy Carter speaks about a national “crisis of confidence” On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter addresses the nation via live television to discuss the nation’s energy crisis and accompanying recession. Carter prefaced his talk about energy policy with an explanation of why he believed the American economy remained in crisis. He recounted a meeting he had hosted at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, with leaders in the fields of business, labor, education, politics and religion. Although the energy crisis and recession were the main topics of conversation, Carter heard from the attendees that Americans were also suffering from a deeper moral and spiritual crisis. This lack of “moral and spiritual confidence,” he concluded, was at the core of America’s inability to hoist itself out of its economic troubles.
1983: Orly Airport attack
A Turkish Airlines check-in counter was bombed at the Orly Airport in Paris, killing 8 people and injuring more than 50 people. The Armenian militant organization ASALA took responsibility for the attack.
1996: MSNBC is launched
The American news television channel was created by Microsoft and General Electric’s NBC unit. The first show of the channel was hosted by Jodi Applegate.
1997: Fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered by Andrew Cunanan in a killing spree. Spree killer Andrew Cunanan murders world-renowned Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace on the steps outside his Miami mansion. Versace is shot twice in the head, and Cunanan flees the scene. Cunanan was thought to have killed at least 5 people before committing suicide.
On July 15, 2006, the San Francisco-based podcasting company Odeo officially releases Twttr—later changed to Twitter—its short messaging service (SMS) for groups, to the public.
2009: MEND declared a unilateral 60-day ceasefire after the release of rebel leader Henry Okah.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: July 15
Folorunso Alakija, 73 years
Nigerian business executive, in Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria was born on 15 July 1951. She has ascended to the top of the real estate, fashion, oil, and publishing industries to become Nigeria’s wealthiest woman (US$1 billion in 2020). She is currently the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group and also serves as executive vice chairman of Famfa Oil Limited. Forbes Business magazine 2015 ranked her as Africa’s second most powerful woman and the world’s 87th most powerful woman.
Lana Parrilla, 47 years
Lana Parrilla is an American actress, born July 15, 1977. She was a regular cast member in the fifth season of the ABC sitcom Spin City and in the fourth season of 24, and starred in Boomtown, Windfall, Swingtown, and as Dr. Eva Zambrano in the short-lived medical drama Miami Medical.
Okechukwu Ukeje, 43 Years
Okechukwu Ukeje, known as OC Ukeje is a Nigerian actor, model, and musician. He came into prominence after winning the Amstel Malta Box Office reality show.
