This Day in History: 07/22/1934 - Jessica Lynch gets hero's welcome - HISTORY

On this day in 2003, U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero's welcome when she returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia.

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On this day in 1934 Alcatraz opens its doors. A group of federal prisoners classified as "most dangerous" arrives at Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop situated 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay. The convicts--the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary--joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island's days as a U.S. military prison.

In a This Day in History video, learn that on July 7, 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam. Twenty-thousand unemployed laborers happily took on the job, but it was a grueling and dangerous task between the scorching desert heat and constant dynamite blasts. When finished, Hoover was the largest dam in the world, standing 726 feet high.

In a This Day in History video, learn that on July 30, 1945, a Japanese submarine struck down the U.S.S. Indianapolis. The ship had just left a military base in the Pacific where uranium and components for the atomic bomb were delivered. The cruiser was traveling alone when two torpedoes struck; 900 men were forced into the water. Unfortunately, at sunrise, sharks began to attack those men in the water, and for three days survivors floated fending off predators. On the 4th day after the attack, survivors were spotted by an American bomber pilot who began a rescue mission; but only 316 men survived.