Today in History: July 11

969: St. Olga (known as Olga Prekrasa, or “the Beautiful”), the peasant-born queen of Kiev whose conversion marked the turning point for whether Russia would be Christian or Muslim, dies.

1533: English King Henry VIII is formally excommunicated by Pope Clement VII.

1754: Dr. Thomas Bowdler, whose 10-volume Family Shakespeare will run through four editions during his life and give the word “bowdlerize” to the language, is born near Bath, in Somerset.

1767: Boston lawyer and diplomat John Quincy Adams is born at Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts.  One of his habits as President will be taking early morning nude swims in the Potomac River.

1804: U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr kills Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a duel at Weehauken, New Jersey, after Hamilton refuses to apologize for impugning Burr’s integrity.

1893: After five years of labor and repeated approaches to bankruptcy, Kokichi Mikimoto produces the first cultured pearl.  It will take him another 12 years to develop spherical pearls indistinguishable from the natural article.

1916: Barrister Edward Gough Whitlaw (Sydney Law 1946), who will become Australia’s 21st prime minister, is born at Kew, Victoria.

1921: Former President William Howard Taft is sworn in as the 10th Chief Justice of the United States.

1955: The phrase “In God We Trust” is added to all U.S. currency.

1962: The first transatlantic television signal is transmitted by satellite, over AT&T’s Telstar satellite.