What happened on this day in history: Ringo Starr is born in 1940, Islamist terrorists attack London in 2005, and more events that happened on July 7th.
1865: Mary Surratt Is Executed
Library of CongressFour people, including Mary Surratt, are hanged for their role in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
Mary Surratt is hanged after being found guilty of the conspiracy to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. The first woman executed by the United States federal government, Surratt owned a boardinghouse frequented by her co-conspirators, including John Wilkes Booth.
Though Surratt insisted on her innocence, she was executed along with three others: Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, and David Herold.
1940: Ringo Starr Is Born
Richard Starkey, later known as Ringo Starr, is born in Liverpool, England. A drummer, Starr rose to fame as a member of the Beatles, where he played the drums and sang some of the band’s most iconic songs, like “Yellow Submarine.” Today, he’s considered one of the greatest drummers of all time.
1946: Howard Hughes’ Plane Crash In Los Angeles
World-famous aviator Howard Hughes is piloting an experimental spy plane he recently built when the hydraulics suddenly give out and he crashes into a series of Beverly Hills mansions, narrowly escaping with his life. Miraculously, no one was killed when the plane went down, even though the right wing tore through one couple’s bedroom and one of the engines went flying more than 60 feet through another home.
However, the crash would leave Hughes permanently scarred after he required several skin grafts to treat the third-degree burns that nearly covered his body. He never recovered and grew increasingly secluded and paranoid for the remainder of his life.
1947: The Roswell UFO Incident
History’s most infamous alien conspiracy gets underway when a rancher near Roswell, New Mexico, brings pieces of a supposed flying saucer he’d found to the local sheriff’s office. At first, the Air Force claimed that they had recovered the wreckage of a “flying disc” from Foster Ranch.
Following public outcry and concern, the Air Force went back on this statement and claimed the debris was nothing but a weather balloon. But within years, the incident had inspired countless theories and spawned a number of books. To this day, the Roswell Incident remains one of the most infamous alleged alien encounters in history.
1968: Bumpy Johnson Dies
Records of the Bureau of Prisons/Wikimedia CommonsA mugshot of Bumpy Johnson, the notorious Harlem crime boss, from 1954.
Ellsworth Raymond “Bumpy” Johnson dies of a heart attack in Harlem, New York, at the age of 62. A notorious crime boss, Johnson controlled the Harlem neighborhood for decades. He worked closely with other gangsters of his era, including Stephanie St. Clair, Lucky Luciano, and Frank Lucas.
2005: The ‘7/7’ London Bombings Take Place
Four suicide bombers detonate explosives on public transport in London, England. The so-called 7/7 attacks, perpetrated by Islamist terrorists, killed 52 people, including the bombers themselves. An additional 700 people were injured in the attack, which is considered one of the worst in British history.
