Today in History for July 20, 2014

July 20, 1864 - On this day, General John Bell Hood's Confederate forces attacked William T. Sherman's troops outside of Atlanta, Georgia at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, but were repulsed with heavy losses.

July 20, 1869 – Mark Twain’s second book, “Innocents Abroad,” was first published, firmly establishing Twain as a serious writer.

July 20, 1870 – Steamboat pilot Charles Johnson of Franklin, Ala. married Frances Elizabeth Foster (Fannie Bett). One of the stained-glass windows in the First Methodist Church at Franklin was dedicated to her memory.

July 20, 1875 – The largest swarm of locusts in American history descended upon the Great Plains. Measuring 1,800 miles long and 110 miles wide, the swarm stretched from Canada to Texas.

July 20, 1881 – Five years after General George A. Custer's infamous defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army, which promised amnesty for him and his followers.

July 20, 1919 – Sir Edmund Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay would be the first two climbers to summit the world's tallest mountain, Mount Everest, on May 29, 1953.


July 20, 1933 – Cormac McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island.

July 20, 1969 - At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

July 20, 2006 – “Heavens Fall,” which starred Timothy Hutton and Leelee Sobieski and was filmed largely in Monroe County, Ala. was released for the first time at the Stony Brooks Film Festival.