Calendar for July 18th, 2012

2001: Tisha B'Av

2006: Full Buck Moon

64: 6-day, 7-night fire started in Rome

Died 1792: John Paul Jones (naval commander)

Born 1811: William Makepeace Thackeray (writer)

1898: Pierre and Marie Curie announced the discovery of a new element and called it polonium

1908: Fireworks banned in Cleveland, Ohio

Born 1911: Hume Cronyn (actor)

Born 1913: Red Skelton (actor & comedian)

Born 1918: Nelson Mandela (political activist)

Born 1921: John Glenn, Jr. (astronaut)

Born 1940: James Brolin (actor)

1942: The first jet combat plane was tested

1942: Garden State Park racetrack opened, Cherry Hill, New Jersey

1947: President Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act into law which places the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the United States Vice President

Born 1963: Mike Greenwell (baseball player)

Born 1967: Vin Diesel (actor)

Born 1978: Ben Sheets (baseball player)

Born 1980: Kristen Bell (actress)

Died 2005: Gerry Thomas (invented the TV dinner and helped revolutionize food marketing and distribution)

Died 2005: General William Westmoreland (commanded U.S. forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968)

Died 2007: Jerry Hadley (tenor)