Kala Dunn

Happy Fourth of July! Today we celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from Great Britain. 

She was the largest ocean liner constructed in the US and the fastest liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. Even still, the SS United States retains the Blue Riband, given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic with the highest record speed. 

Sam Walton began his career at a J.C. Penney store in Iowa. In 1945, he met the owners of a chain of stores called Ben Franklin, and offered him one in Newport Arkansas. While Walton was successful in running the store, he felt he could be more profitable in Bentonville. So, there, he opened a store called "Walton's Five and Dime." It did so well that on this day 50 years ago, he opened a store in Rogers called "Walmart Discount City." And thus, Walmart was born.

Samantha Reed Smith was an American schoolgirl, peace activist, and child actress. She became famous in the Cold War-era United States and Soviet Union for writing a letter to CPSU General Secretary Yuri Andropov, in which she received a personal reply that included an invitation to visit the Soviet Union, which she accepted. 

Holyfield-Tyson II: The Sound and the Fury. There was a little bit of both that night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas; the night Iron Mike infamously chomped down on The Real Deal.  

King Louis XII reigned from 1498 to 1515 and was called the "Father of the People," known for leading France through a period of transition (La Guerre folle, aka The Mad War), domestic policy, and the messy Italian War in which he seized and lost and seized again parts of Italy. 

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, aka Sai Zhenzhju, was an American writer who lived in China for much of her early life, until penning The Good Earth, the best-selling book in the United States in 1931-32, which also won the Pulitzer in 1932. In 1938, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." 

Around these parts it seems like every day is catfish day. Nevertheless, by Presidential Proclamation (President Reagan in 1987), June 25 is officially recognized to celebrate "the value of farm-raised catfish." 

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Paul Morphy was the greatest chess player of his era and unofficial World Chess Champion. He was called "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess" because of his brief and brilliant career, early retirement, and unusual death.