By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Thursday, July 15, the 196th day of 2021. There are 169 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On July 15, 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 3 1/2 centuries after its creation.

On this date:

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union. Manitoba entered confederation as the fifth Canadian province.

In 1910, the term ìAlzheimerís diseaseî was used to describe a progressive form of presenile dementia in the book ìClinical Psychiatryî by German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, who credited the work of his colleague, Alois (al-WAHí) Alzheimer, in identifying the condition.

In 1913, Augustus Bacon, D-Ga., became the first person elected to the U.S. Senate under the terms of the recently ratified 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of senators.

In 1916, Boeing Co., originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

In 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne, resulting in an Allied victory, began during World War I.

In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

In 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed; the kidnappers were caught.)

In 1985, a visibly gaunt Rock Hudson appeared at a news conference with frequent co-star Doris Day (it was later revealed Hudson was suffering from AIDS).

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace (ver-SAHí-chay), 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NANí-an), 27, was found dead eight days later, a suicide. (Investigators believed Cunanan killed four other people before Versace in a cross-country rampage that began the previous March.)

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American whoíd fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

In 2018, President Donald Trump arrived in Finland for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Earlier, in an interview with CBS News, Trump named the European Union as a top adversary of the United States.

In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years for killing one and injuring dozens of others when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Ten years ago: Rupert Murdoch accepted the resignation of The Wall Street Journalís publisher, Les Hinton, and the chief of his British operations, Rebekah Brooks, as the once-defiant media mogul struggled to control an escalating phone hacking scandal. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony announced they were breaking up after seven years of marriage.

Five years ago: Donald Trump chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, an experienced politician with deep Washington connections, as his running mate.

One year ago: George Floydís family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death.

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