ON THIS DAY 7 19 2023

This Day in History: July 19

Featured Event

2014



James Garner
American actor


James Garner, original name James Scott Bumgarner, (born April 7, 1928, Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.—died July 19, 2014, Brentwood, California), American actor who was noted for his portrayal of good-natured characters and reluctant heroes. He was perhaps best known for his roles in the television series Maverick and The Rockford Files. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Garner pursued an acting career. He made several television commercials before making his film debut in 1956, appearing in Mervyn LeRoy’s Toward the Unknown and the comedy The Girl He Left Behind. In 1957 he acted opposite Marlon Brando in ...(100 of 393 words)


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Featured Biography

Lizzie Borden
American murder suspect


Lizzie Borden, in full Lizzie Andrew Borden, (born July 19, 1860, Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.—died June 1, 1927, Fall River), American woman suspected of murdering her stepmother and father in 1892; her trial became a national sensation in the United States.
Borden was the daughter of a well-to-do businessman who married for a second time in 1865, three years after Lizzie’s mother died. Lizzie was popular and engaged in charitable work. Her father, by contrast, was reputedly dour and parsimonious—as well as eminently wealthy—and Lizzie and her elder sister Emma were ever at odds with him and their stepmother, often over financial matters. On a Thursday morning, August 4, 1892, Mr. Borden left home to conduct his business, leaving in the house, besides his wife, an Irish maid (Bridget Sullivan) and Lizzie. (Emma was away visiting.) On his return, he settled on a couch for a nap. About 11:15 am, Lizzie (according to her testimony) discovered her father dead, repeatedly struck in the head with a sharp instrument. Upstairs his wife’s body was found, even more brutally mutilated; examination proved that her death had preceded her husband’s by an hour or so. It was found that Lizzie had tried to purchase prussic acid (a poison) on August 3, and a few days later she was alleged to have burned a dress in a stove. Sullivan, who also has been suspected, later that evening reportedly left the house carrying an unexamined parcel. No weapon was found, though an axe found in the basement was suspected.






Lizzie Borden
Lizzie was arrested and tried for both murders in June 1893 but was acquitted, given the circumstantial evidence. She was nonetheless ostracized thereafter by the people of her native Fall River, Massachusetts, where she continued to live until her death in 1927. The grisly murders inspired a great many books, both serious studies and fiction; Fall River Legend (1948), a ballet by Agnes de Mille; an opera, Lizzie Borden (1965), by Jack Beeson and Kenward Elmslie; and one immortal, if slightly inaccurate, quatrain:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks;
And when she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

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