This week in history: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Catcher in the Rye’ published; Bastille prison stormed

DEK: Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.

From left to right, George Michael of Wham!, Bob Geldolf, Bono of U2, Freddie Mercury of Queen, Andrew Ridgley of Wham! and Howard Jones perform at the Live Aid concert at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 13, 1985. (AP Photo)

“This Week” looks back at the key events from this week in history

July 11

1798: The U.S. Marine Corps was formally reestablished by a congressional act that created the U.S. Marine Band.

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1804: Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a pistol duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton died the next day.

1859: Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the first time.

1914: Babe Ruth made his major league baseball debut, pitching the Boston Red Sox to a 4-3 victory over Cleveland.

1960: Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” was published.

July 12

1543: England’s King Henry VIII married his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr.

1862: President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill authorizing the Army Medal of Honor during the Civil War.

1962: The Rolling Stones played their first show at the Marquee Club in London.

July 13

1923: A sign consisting of 50-foot-tall letters spelling out “HOLLYWOODLAND” was dedicated in the Hollywood Hills to promote a subdivision (the last four letters were removed in 1949).

1985: The Live Aid benefit rock concerts were held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia, raising millions for famine relief in Ethiopia.

July 14

1789: Known as Bastille Day, symbolizing the start of the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.

1798: Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government.

1881: Outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias Billy the Kid, was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in present-day New Mexico.

1945: Italy formally declared war on Japan, its former Axis partner during World War II.

July 15

1799: The Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts, was found at Fort Julien in the Nile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.

1834: The Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 350 years after its creation.

1916: The Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

1997: Fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home by suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan.

2006: Twitter (now known as X) was launched publicly.

July 16

1945: The United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico.

1790: A site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington, D.C.

1862: Flag Officer David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States Navy.

1951: J.D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was first published by Little, Brown and Co.

1969: Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy in Florida on the first manned mission to the moon’s surface.

July 17

1955: Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, after its $17 million, yearlong construction; the park drew a million visitors in its first 10 weeks.

1902: Willis Carrier produced designs for the world’s first modern air-conditioning system.

1918: Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.