On July 9, 1850, President Zachary Taylor died at age 65 in the White House of “intestinal disturbances” after 16 months in office.
In 1896 William Jennings Bryan caused a sensation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with his “cross of gold” speech denouncing supporters of the gold standard. (He went on to win the party’s nomination for president.)
In 1932 Donald Rumsfeld was born in Chicago.
In 1944 U.S. troops secured Saipan as Japanese defenses collapsed on the Pacific island.
In 1974 former U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren died in Washington at 83.
In 1991 the International Olympic Committee re-admitted South Africa.
In 1995 the Grateful Dead played their last concert, at Chicago’s Soldier Field. Also, French commandos boarded the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior II in the South Pacific.
In 1996 lawyer Melvin Belli died in San Francisco at 88.
In 1997 Mike Tyson was banned from boxing and fined $3 million for biting the ears of Evander Holyfield in the ring.
In 1999 a jury in Los Angeles ordered General Motors Corp. to pay $4.9 billion to six people severely burned when their Chevrolet Malibu exploded in a rear-end collision. (A judge later reduced the punitive damages to $1.9 billion, while letting stand $107 million in compensatory damages; GM settled the lawsuit in 2003 for an undisclosed amount.)
In 2000 Pete Sampras defeated Patrick Rafter to win the Wimbledon men’s singles crown, giving him a record 13 tennis grand slam titles.
In 2001 a Chilean court ruled that former dictator Augusto Pinochet wasn’t mentally fit to stand trial on charges of concealing political killings.
In 2002 the Senate voted to entomb thousands of tons of radioactive waste inside Yucca Mountain in the Nevada desert, rejecting the state’s protests. Also, baseball’s All-Star game in Milwaukee finished in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings when both teams ran out of pitchers. Also, actor Rod Steiger died in Los Angeles at 77.
In 2004 the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration relied on to justify war. Also, Paul Klebnikov, the American editor of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition, was gunned down near his Moscow office. Also, actress Isabel Sanford of TV’s “The Jeffersons” died at 86 in Los Angeles.
