British sculptor Henry Moore was born on July 30, 1898. As a child, he drew inspiration from the work of Renaissance master Michelangelo. Moore later developed a more personal modernist style, but it was some time before his radical but majestic stone figures began to win approval. Moore evoked form from empty space as much as he did from solids, and he claimed that it took a lifetime to learn how to set his sculptures into a landscape.

1619 First Legislative Assembly in America

In Jamestown, Virginia, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World--the House of Burgesses--convened in the choir of the town's church. Earlier in the year, the London Company, which had established the Jamestown settlement twelve years before, directed Virginia Governor Sir George Yeardley to summon a "General Assembly" elected by the settlers, with every free adult male voting. Twenty-two representatives from the eleven Jamestown boroughs were chosen, and Master John Pory was appointed the assembly's speaker. On July 30, the House of Burgesses (an English word for citizens) convened for the first time. Its first law, which, like all of its laws, would have to be approved by the London Company, required tobacco to be sold for at least three shillings per pound. Other laws passed during its first six-day session included prohibitions against gambling, drunkenness, and idleness, and a measure that made observance of the Sabbath mandatory. The creation of the House of Burgesses, along with other progressive measures, made Sir George Yeardley exceptionally popular among the colonists, and he served two terms as Virginia governor.

1864 Battle of the Crater

During the siege of Petersburg, Union forces attempted to break through Confederate lines by exploding some 8,000 pounds of gunpowder under their trenches. The 48th Pennsylvania, made up of former coal miners from the Schuylkill Valley, had dug the five-hundred-foot-long tunnel under the Confederate entrenchments, which was exploded at dawn. The blast killed hundreds of Confederates and blew a four-hundred-yard gap in their lines. However, it also created a bloody, rubble-filled crater 200-feet-long, seventy-feet-wide, and thirty-feet-deep. The Federals, nearly as shocked as the rebels by the massive explosion, hesitated in the attack, but eventually some 20,000 Union troops joined in the assault. However, the Confederates, under the direct command of General P. G. T. Beauregard, reacted quickly and in a murderous fire slaughtered the Union soldiers advancing across the crater. The pit rapidly filled with a mass of confused Federal troops attempting to escape the Confederate volleys, and Southern infantry surged up to the crater's rim and began mowing down the trapped Yankees. After nearly four hours of bloodshed, Union General George G. Meade finally called off the attack. His forces had suffered nearly 4,000 casualties in the disastrous attack, compared to 1,500 lost by the Confederates. After the battle, Union forces returned to their trenches, and resumed their siege of attrition against Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. General Ulysses S. Grant, the commander-in-chief of all Union forces at Petersburg, later called the Battle of the Crater "the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war."

1974 Watergate Affair Approaches Climax

Under coercion from the U.S. Supreme Court, President Nixon M. Nixon released subpoenaed White House recordings, suspected to prove his guilt in the Watergate cover-up, to special prosecutor Leon Jaworski. The same day, the House Judiciary Committee voted a third article of impeachment against the president: contempt of Congress in hindering the impeachment process. The committee had already voted two other impeachment articles against Nixon: obstruction of justice and abuse of presidential powers. On June 17, 1972, seven men, including two members of the Nixon reelection campaign, had been arrested for breaking into and illegally wiretapping the Democratic National Convention headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate Hotel. Journalists and the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities discovered a higher-echelon conspiracy surrounding the incident, and a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude erupted. On May 17, 1973, the special Senate committee began televised proceedings on the rapidly escalating Watergate affair, and one week later, Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was sworn in as special Watergate prosecutor. During the Senate hearings, former White House legal counsel John Dean testified that the Watergate break-in had been approved by former Attorney General John Mitchell with the knowledge of chief White House advisers John Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman, and that the president had been aware of the cover-up. Meanwhile, Cox and his staff began to uncover widespread evidence of political espionage by the Nixon reelection committee, illegal wiretapping of thousands of citizens by the administration, and corporate contributions to the Republican Party in return for political favors. In July, the existence of what were to be called the Watergate tapes, official recordings of White House conversations between Nixon and his staff, was revealed during the Senate hearings. Cox subpoenaed these tapes, and after three months of delay, President Nixon agreed to send summaries of the recordings. Cox rejected the summaries, and Nixon fired him. His successor as special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, leveled indictments against several high-ranking administration officials, including Mitchell and Dean, who were duly convicted. Public confidence in the president rapidly waned, and on July 30, 1974, Nixon finally released the Watergate tapes as the House Judiciary Committee recommended impeachment. On August 5, transcripts of the recordings were revealed, including a segment in which the president was heard instructing Haldeman to order the FBI to halt the Watergate investigation. Four days later, Richard M. Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign. On September 16, he was pardoned from any criminal charges by his successor, President Gerald Ford.

1863 - Henry Ford (auto manufacturer: first assembly line production: the Tin Lizzie)

1890 - Casey (Charles) Stengel (baseball: NY Yankees player and manager: 7 World Series championships [1949-53, 1956, 1958])

1898 - Henry Moore (sculptor)

1925 - Jacques Sernas (actor: 55 Days at Peking, La Dolce Vita, Superfly T.N.T.)

1929 - Christine McGuire (singer: group: The McGuire Sisters: Sincerely, Something's Gotta Give, He, Sugartime)

1933 - Edd Byrnes (Breitenberger) (actor: 77 Sunset Strip, Darby's Rangers; singer w/Connie Stevens: Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb; holds record for appearing on the most magazine covers [20] in one month [October 1960])

1934 - Ben Piazza (actor: Guilty by Suspicion, The Hanging Tree)

1938 - Joe Nuxhall (baseball: Cincinnati Reds pitcher: youngest major-league player [15yrs, 314 days])

1939 - Peter Bogdanovich (director: Texasville, The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, What's Up Doc?; writer: The Last Unicorn)

1939 - Eleanor Smeal (feminist: president of NOW)

1941 - Paul Anka (songwriter: Johnny's Theme [Tonight Show Theme], My Way, She's a Lady, Diana; singer: 33 hits over 3 decades: Diana, You Are My Destiny, Lonely Boy, Put Your Head on My Shoulder, Puppy Love, You're Having My Baby)

1947 - Marc Bolan (Feld) (singer: group: T. Rex: Bang a Gong)

1947 - Arnold Schwarzenegger (actor: Eraser, The Terminator, Predator, Twins, Conan the Barbarian, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, True Lies, Last Action Hero; married to Maria Shriver; 5-time Mr. Universe; part owner of Planet Hollywood restaurants)

1949 - Dwight White (football: Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end: Super Bowl IX, X, XIII, XIV)

1950 - Willie Harper (football: San Francisco '49ers linebacker: Super Bowl XVI)

1952 - Randy Crowder (football)

1954 - Ken Olin (actor: Hill Street Blues, Falcon Crest, Thirtysomething)

1956 - Delta Burke (actress: Delta, Designing Women, Filthy Rich, Chisholm; Miss Florida)

1956 - Anita Hill (law professor: Hill-Thomas hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee concerning Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court)

1961 - Laurence Fishburne (Tony Award-winning actor: Two Trains Running; Apocalypse Now, Bad Company, Boyz in the Hood)

1974 - Hilary Swank (actress: Growing Pains, Evening Shade, The Next Karate Kid)

My Prayer - The Platters

Whatever Will Be Will Be (Que Sera Sera) - Doris Day

A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl - Teresa Brewer

The Girl from Ipanema - Stan Getz/Astrud Gilberto

The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena) - Jan and Dean

Memphis - Johnny Rivers

Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - Looking Glass

School's Out - Alice Cooper

It's Gonna Take a Little Bit Longer - Charley Pride

Magic - Olivia Newton-John

Shining Star - Manhattans

Bar Room Buddies - Merle Haggard and Clint Eastwood

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