On This Day, July 15: Caspian Airlines crash in Iran kills 169

July 15 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1799, the Rosetta Stone, which helped decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, was found in an Egyptian village by French soldiers.

In 1806, Zebulon Pike began an expedition to explore the American Southwest.

In 1907, three organizations -- the Publishers Press Association, the Scripps-McRae Press Association and the Scripps News Associations -- joined to form United Press, which would eventually become United Press International. The wire service started business with 460 newspaper clients, of which 400 were evening newspapers and 60 were Sunday morning newspapers.

In 1912, the U.S. Olympic team, led by all-round athlete Jim Thorpe, took more medals than any other country at the Summer Games in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 1945, Italy declared war on Japan, its former Axis partner.

In 1965, the unmanned spacecraft Mariner 4 passed over Mars at an altitude of 6,000 feet and sent the first close-up images of the planet to Earth.

A view of the surface Mars taken by Mariner 4 on July 14, 1965. File Photo courtesy NASA

In 1968, a Soviet Aeroflot jetliner landed at New York's JFK Airport, marking the beginning of direct commercial flights between the United States and the Soviet Union.

In 1968, daytime soap opera One Life to Live premiered on ABC. In its 45-year run, the television series racked up dozens of Daytime Emmy Awards, including six for actor Erika Slezak.

In 1992, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for president.

In 1997, Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death in front of his Miami mansion. The prime suspect was Andrew Cunanan, already wanted in four other slayings. He was found dead a week later, an apparent suicide.

Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace's house on South Beach, in Miami Beach, Fla. Versace was killed in front of his mansion. File Photo by Adam Werner/UPI

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, a 21-year-old American captured by the U.S. military in Afghanistan while with Taliban forces, admitted he had fought as a soldier with them. After cooperating in the investigation of the terrorist network, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released from prison in May 2019.

In 2009, Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran bound for Armenia. Officials said 168 people were killed.

In 2010, BP, the London energy company, announced it had capped its crippled underwater well that sent millions of barrels of crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico over the previous three months after an offshore drilling rig explosion and fire killed 11 workers and unleashed an unchecked torrent from the depths.

In 2018, Serbian Novak Djokovic beat South African Kevin Anderson in the 2018 Wimbledon final, winning his 13th career Grand Slam. It was his fourth Wimbledon win.