Today in History: July 3

1608: A party under Samuel de Champlain begin construction of the first blockhouse and moat at what will become Quebec City.  Of the 25 residents who settle there, only eight will be alive the next spring.

1870: New Brunswick lawyer Richard Bedford Bennett (Dalhousie Law 1893), who will become Canada’s 11th Prime Minister, is born at Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick.

1886: The New York Herald becomes the first newspaper to use the new Linotype machine, which eliminates hand typesetting and puts thousands of skilled workers out of work.

1890: Idaho is admitted to the Union as the 43rd state.

1893: Blues guitarist “Mississippi” John Hurt is born at Carroll County, Mississippi.  He’ll get his nickname when an Okeh Records label rep decides he needs a gimmick to sell.

1929: E.A. Murphy of Dunlop Latex Development Laboratories in Birmingham, England, tries putting some raw latex rubber into a home mixing machine, and discovers foam rubber.

1935: André-Gustave Citroën dies at Paris.  At the time of his death, his eponymous automobile company is the fourth largest in the world.

1938: The London & North Eastern Railway’s 4-6-2 Mallard engine sets the world record for a steam locomotive, when it hits 126 mph at Stoke Bank, south of Grantham.

1962: Actor Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is born at Syracuse, New York.  He’ll become the first actor to star in five conesecutive $100 million-grossing films:  A Few Good Men (1992), The Firm (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), and Jerry Maguire (1996).