The world’s first electric traffic signal (above) was put into place
on the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland,
Ohio, on August 5, 1914.

In the earliest days of the automobile, navigating America’s roads
was a chaotic experience, with pedestrians, bicycles, horses and streetcars all competing with motor vehicles for right of way. The problem was alleviated somewhat with the gradual disappearance
of horse-drawn carriages, but even before World War I it had
become clear that a system of regulations was necessary to keep
traffic moving and reduce the number of accidents on the roads.

On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus
accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic
North Pole. The world’s first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus
dived at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles
under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world.

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Singer Tony Bennett (Anthony Dominick Benedetto) is
95 today.

Tony Bennett has won 19 Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in 2001) and two Primetime
Emmy Awards, and was named an NEA Jazz Master and a
Kennedy Center Honoree. Bennett has sold over 50 million
records worldwide.

In February 2021, it was revealed that Bennett was diagnosed
with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016. Due to the slow progression
of his illness, he has continued to record, tour, and perform.

Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, took the first close-up
images of the moon—4,308 in total—before it impacts with the
lunar surface northwest of the Sea of Clouds. The images were
1,000 times as clear as anything ever seen through earth-bound telescopes.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had attempted a similar mission earlier in the year—Ranger 6—but
the probe’s cameras had failed as it descended to the lunar
surface.

Ranger 7, launched from Earth on July 28, successfully activated
its cameras 17 minutes, or 1,300 miles, before impact and began
beaming the images back to NASA’s receiving station in
California.

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. Though he is popularly believed to have
been the victim of a Mafia hit, conclusive evidence was never
found and Hoffa’s fate remains a mystery to this day.