Historic Events on July 23 Including Eileen Collins’ Space Shuttle Command

Retired NASA astronaut Col. Eileen Collins spoke at the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016, highlighting her historic achievement as the first woman to command a space shuttle flight with the launch of Columbia on July 23, 1999. This momentous event is part of a larger historical context, which includes several significant events and milestones recorded over the years.

On July 23, history notes several significant events, including William Burt’s 1829 patent of the “typographer,” considered the first typewriter. In 1948, the death of pioneering movie director D.W. Griffith, who directed the silent classic “The Birth of a Nation,” marked the end of an era in filmmaking.

The 1967 Detroit riots erupted in a predominantly African-American inner city area, leading to a significant military intervention and resulting in numerous casualties.

The 1970s saw pivotal moments such as Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox serving subpoenas to the White House in 1973, challenging President Richard Nixon over the infamous tapes.

In 1982, a tragic accident on the set of “The Twilight Zone” resulted in the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors. Additionally, in 1984, Vanessa Williams relinquished her Miss America title due to a scandal involving nude photographs.

Key events in the later decades include the 1999 command of a space shuttle by Eileen Collins, marking a milestone for women in space exploration. In 2002, a significant Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed Sheik Salah Shehada, a founder of Hamas’ military wing.

The early 2000s also saw the exposure of extensive abuse cases within the Boston Roman Catholic diocese and a deadly terrorist attack in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, in 2005.

Recent historical highlights include the severe penalties imposed on Penn State University by the NCAA in 2012 due to the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal, and the 2013 FDA review linking mint-flavored cigarettes to smoking initiation and difficulty in quitting. In 2014, a TransAsia Airways plane crash resulted in numerous casualties.

The Conservative Party elected Boris Johnson as British prime minister in 2019, and in 2020, China successfully launched its Tianwen-1 Mars mission. In 2023, Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X.