Today is Thursday, July 18, the 200th day of 2024. There are 166 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 18, 1976, at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, Nadia Comaneci of Romania became the first gymnast to receive a perfect score of 10 from Olympic judges for her performance on the uneven bars.

Also on this date:

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Today in History: July 14, the storming of the Bastille

In 1536, the English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.

In 1863, during the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of Black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island, S.C. The Confederates were able to repel the Northerners, who suffered heavy losses; the 54th’s commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was among those who were killed.

In 1918, South African anti-apartheid leader and president Nelson Mandela was born in the village of Mvezo.

In 1925, Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his autobiographical manifesto, “Mein Kampf (My Struggle).”

In 1944, Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II.

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Presidential Succession Act which placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

In 1964, nearly a week of rioting erupted in New York’s Harlem neighborhood following the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager, James Powell, two days earlier.

In 1994, a bomb hidden in a van destroyed a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85.

In 2005, an unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Alabama, to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.

In 2013, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, its finances ravaged and its neighborhoods hollowed out by a long, slow decline in population and auto manufacturing.

In 2020, Canadian officials said the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team would not be able to play its home games in Toronto during the shortened 2020 season because it wasn’t safe for players to travel back and forth from the United States. (The Blue Jays would play “home” games in the ballpark of their minor league affiliate in Buffalo, N.Y.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Skating champion and commentator Dick Button is 95.
Olympic gold medal figure skater Tenley Albright is 89.
Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 86.
Singer Dion DiMucci is 85.
Actor James Brolin is 84.
Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Torre is 84.
Singer Martha Reeves is 83.
Business mogul Richard Branson is 74.
Actor Margo Martindale is 73.
Musician Ricky Skaggs is 70.
World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Faldo is 67.
Actor Elizabeth McGovern is 63.
Broadcaster Wendy Williams is 60.
Actor Vin Diesel is 57.
Author Elizabeth Gilbert is 55.
Retired NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway is 53.
Singer-songwriter M.I.A. is 49.
Actor Elsa Pataky (“The Fast and the Furious” films) is 48.
Movie director Jared Hess is 45.
Actor Kristen Bell is 44.
Actor Priyanka Chopra is 42.
Actor Chace Crawford is 39.
Boxer Canelo Alvarez is 34.
Olympic sprinter Noah Lyles is 27.

Minnesota United knew full well Christian Benteke was the most dangerous man for D.C. United on Wednesday.

But the Loons couldn’t even slow down the 6-foot-3 striker who contributed to all three of his team’s goals in the Loons’ 3-2 loss at Allianz Field.

MNUFC took a 2-1 lead in the 80th minute, but Benteke assisted on Aaron Herrera’s equalizer in the 90th minute and scored the game-winner in the 91st minute.

Benteke, who had 14 goals coming into Wednesday, scored the first goal in the 15th minute.

Until stoppage time, the story was about how Tani Oluwaseyi returned from duty with the Canadian men’s national team to score an equalizing goal in the 32nd minute. And Teemu Pukki gave the Loons a 2-1 lead in the 80hh minute.

Oluwaseyi proclaimed he returned to Minnesota United “a better player” after debuting with the Canadian men’s national team and playing 136 minutes in the Copa America tournament over the past six weeks.

But that blossoming had come at the expense of MNUFC (8-10-6, 30 points), which wilted in an eight-game winless streak without internationals such as Oluwaseyi, their leading scorer in MLS play.

The Loons’ losing streak, which started June 1, reached nine matches, while D.C. (6-11-8, 25 points) won consecutive games for the first time since April 2023.

The Loons gave D.C. a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute. Caden Clark had a brutal giveaway pass in the attacking third, allowing D.C. to spring a counterattack. Hassani Dotson and Bongi Hlongwane couldn’t intervene, and Benteke scored.

The Loons welcomed back Oluwaseyi and goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair after they played for Canada in Copa America’s third-place game Saturday, and head coach Eric Ramsay inserted them into the starting lineup Wednesday. The two key players missed all eight games of the winless skid.

Briefly

Loons captain center back Michael Boxall received a yellow card in the second half of Wednesday’s match and will be suspended for Saturday’s match against San Jose in St. Paul due to yellow-card accumulation. … The Loons granted a Make-A-Wish to 7-year-old Carter Lucero on Wednesday. The kid from Tucson, Ariz., was an honorary starter and scored the opening goal.

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Leading the league in 3-point shooting, the long ball was key for the Lynx on Wednesday afternoon.

It just wasn’t who you’d expect to provide the late long-distance spark.

Natisha Hiedeman scored 16 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, and the Lynx rallied to beat Atlanta 86-79 at Target Center to end a two-game slide.

“It was a gritty, gritty win,” said Kayla McBride, who led the Lynx with 30 points.

Hiedeman made three 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes, a quarter she acknowledged was her best with the Lynx. The guard was 7 for 41 (17.1%) from outside the arc entering the game.

“Everything was just really going my way. My teammates were finding the ball, we were just playing together,” she said. “(Today) it was my (day), and I was just super-excited and happy to see the ball go through.”

A 10-0 Atlanta run late in the third quarter led to a 60-56 Dream advantage entering the final 10 minutes, but Hiedeman and Dorka Juhász combined for Minnesota’s first 12 fourth-quarter points to tie the game with 6:38 left.

Hiedeman’s third 3-pointer gave Minnesota a 73-72 lead midway through the fourth. She added a jumper and scored on a drive for an 81-74 lead with 1:26 to go, evoking another shriek of excitement from a Camp Day crowd of 15,013, many of whom were shrilling, Lynx towel giveaway-waving youth clad in a spectrum of T-shirts representing park and rec and other groups.

Running the offense, Hiedeman also finished with four second-half assists.

“What she did today is what we envisioned her being able to do, not that she’s got to score 18,” said coach Cheryl Reeve. “… What I appreciate is how locked in she was to play-calling, her playmaking, getting easier shots for others. The first half of the season a lot of conversations about what we’re looking for, and this game I thought she grabbed hold of that.”

Atlanta scored five of the next six points to get within three points, but McBride scored on a scoop while getting knocked down with 19 seconds left, pushing the Lynx lead back to five.

McBride added four 3-pointers. She’ll participate in the 3-point contest Friday as part of All-Star Weekend. McBride is hitting 42.7% of her shots from deep, third-most in the WNBA among players with at least 80 attempts.

For the fifth straight game, the Lynx played without leading scorer Napheesa Collier who is out with plantar fasciitis in her left foot but plans to play for Team USA in the upcoming Olympics.

Alanna Smith, who’ll play for Australia in the Olympics, had 13 points, 10 rebounds and six assists (five in the fourth quarter) and was a plus-8 in the deflection battle. Courtney Williams had eight points and nine assists.

Canadian Olympian Bridget Carleton uncharacteristically struggled from deep, going 3 for 11 to finish with nine points but made some crucial defensive stops late.

At 17-8, Minnesota heads into the nearly monthlong Olympic break leading the Western Conference and in third place overall. Its next game is Aug. 15 against Washington at Target Center.

“I think we’re doing what we think we’re capable of doing, but we also know it’s very fragile,” Reeve said. “To this point we’ve had our sights set on being one of the top teams, top rung if you will, and we’ve done that. Now, we have to see if we can improve and see if we can make it a really beautiful season.”

“It’s time for a break. We’re pretty beat up because this league is so hard to get wins in,” McBride said. “We want to be able to hit the ground running. … We want to be ready like we were at the beginning of the season. We want to be fresh and ready to go because those last 15 games, those are going to be playoff games for us.”

Atlanta (7-17) has lost eight straight and 11 of 12.