On August 1, 1861, Robert FitzRoy, a British naval officer who
had been researching ways to predict the weather, published
the first known weather forecast in The Times.

The report, which included a prediction of 62 degrees and clear
skies in London, was largely accurate.

Fitzroy—who had captained the famed HMS Beagle, which
sailed around the world with naturalist Charles Darwin—
had become concerned about the massive loss of life at
sea, with more than 7,400 shipwrecks near the British
coast over a five-year period.

After the initial August 1 forecast, weather reports quickly became
very popular and syndicated in publications around England. It
wasn’t just fishermen and sailors, traditionally affected by the
weather, who availed themselves of the forecasts.

People involved in organizing events like county fairs and flower
shows obsessively followed them as well. Some people even
used the forecasts for more speculative purposes, like picking
which horse to bet on in races, depending on how the weather
might affect track turf.

A Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30, similar
to the one involved.

On July 31, 1973, Delta Flight 723 struck a concrete seawall
as it descended into Boston’s Logan International Airport
amid heavy ground fog.

The collision broke off some of the fuselage and the plane
slimed into the ground, breaking apart and bursting into
flames.

Almost all on board died instantly in what became the worst
air disaster at Logan and in all of New England.

On the morning of July 31, 1975, James Riddle Hoffa, one of
the most influential American labor leaders of the 20th century,
was officially reported missing after he failed to return home
the previous night.

On July 17, 1944, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine near San
Francisco experienced a catastrophic explosion when two
ammunition ships, the SS E.A. Bryan and the SS Quinault
Victory, detonated while loading munitions for Pacific troops.

Celebrated actress Jayne Mansfield was killed instantly on June
29, 1967, when the car in which she is riding struck the rear of a
trailer truck on U.S. Route 90 east of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Mansfield had been on her way to New Orleans from Biloxi,
Mississippi, where she had been performing at a local nightclub;
she had a television appearance scheduled the following day.