Join us in honoring those who have been awarded the Purple Heart.         

 
In 1782, General George Washington created The Purple
Heart, then known as the “Badge for Military Merit.”

          
        

Then Navy Commander John F. Kennedy was
the only future President presented the
purple heart while recovering from back
surgery in 1944. 

Kennedy was injured while rescuing three  
members his crew when their PT-109 was
struck by a Japanese destroyer near the
Solomon Islands in 1943.

Jimmie Johnson was among the racing legends who were elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday along
with crew chief Chad Knaus and Donnie Allison.

Johnson won seven NASCAR Cup Championships during his
career, which is tied with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for
the most all time. Johnson’s first five came consecutively.

He is also the all-time winningest driver at five tracks. In
addition to that, he won Driver of the Year five times and
was the first racing driver to win The Associated Press
Male Athlete of the Year in the U.S. He had 83 total Cup
wins. Johnson will be 47 in September.

On July 24, 1998, the director Steven Spielberg’s World War
II epic, Saving Private Ryan, was released in theaters across
the United States. The film, which starred Tom Hanks and
Matt Damon, was praised for its authentic portrayal of war
and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards. It took home
five Oscars, for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best
Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Effects Editing.

The film’s lengthy opening scene was a bloody re-enactment
of American troops landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy,
France, on June 6, 1944, D-Day. 

Emmy-winning meteorologist Elise Finch has died, according
to WCBS New York, the station she worked at for 16 years.

According to a statement issued by the TV station, Finch died
at a local hospital, and her cause of death remains unknown.

On July 13, 1990, the romantic-thriller Ghost, starring
Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg,
opened in theaters across the United States.

The film was a commercial success, grossing $505 million
against a budget of $22–23 million and emerging as the
highest-grossing film of 1990 and at the time of its release,
was the third-highest-grossing film of all time.

The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise
going towards the score and performances of the cast.
Ghost earned five nominations at the 63rd Academy
Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Film
Editing, and winning Best Supporting Actress for Goldberg
and Best Original Screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin.