MOMENTS IN TIME - July 22, 2010

Jul 22, 20100

The History Channel

* On July 30, 1619, in Jamestown, Va., the first elected legislative assembly in the New World — the House of Burgesses — convenes in the choir of the town’s church. Its first law required tobacco to be sold for at least three shillings per pound. Other laws included prohibitions against gambling, drunkenness and idleness. Sabbath observance was made mandatory.

* On July 29, 1909, newly formed General Motors Corporation acquires the luxury automaker Cadillac Automobile Company for $4.5 million. In 1954, Cadillac was the first automaker to provide power steering and automatic windshield washers as standard equipment.

* On July 26, 1931, a swarm of grasshoppers descends on crops throughout the American heartland, devastating millions of acres, especially in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The swarm was said to be so thick that it blocked out the sun and one could shovel the grasshoppers with a scoop.

* On July 28, 1945, a United States B-25 Mitchell bomber crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14 people. The freak accident was caused by heavy fog. The bomber was flying low, seeking better visibility, when it came upon the Chrysler Building. The plane swerved to avoid the building, but the move sent it straight into the north side of the Empire State Building, near the 79th floor.

* On July 31, 1964, Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, takes the first close-up images of the moon — 4,308 in total. The images were 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen through Earth-bound telescopes.

* Aug 1, 1972, future President George Walker Bush is suspended from flying with the Texas Air National Guard for missing an annual medical examination. Bush was given an honorable discharge from the Air National Guard in 1973 to attend Harvard Business School.

* On July 27, 1981, Adam John Walsh, age 6, is abducted from a mall in Hollywood, Fla., and later found murdered. Adam’s father, John Walsh, became a leading victims’ rights activist and host of the long-running television show “America’s Most Wanted.”