TODAY IN HISTORY - JULY 21ST

1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown.

1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.

1877 – After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.

1889 – Nelson Dewey, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Wisconsin (b. 1813) dies.

1899 – Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961) is born.

1907 – The passenger steamer SS Columbia collides with the steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, causing the Columbia to sink killing 88 people.

1919 – The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.

1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.

1951 – Robin Williams, American actor, singer, and producer (d. 2014) is born.

1959 – NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative.

1959 – Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate. He came in as a pinch runner for Vic Wertz and stayed in as shortstop in a 2–1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

1968 – Brandi Chastain, American soccer player and sportscaster is born.

1998 – Alan Shepard, American admiral, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1923) dies.

2011 – NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

2014 – Dan Borislow, American businessman, invented the magicJack (b. 1961) dies.

2015 – E. L. Doctorow, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1931) dies.