1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 On July 10, 1940, during World War II, the 114-day Battle of Britain began as Nazi forces began attacking southern England by air. - In 1850, Vice President Millard Fillmore assumed the presidency, following the death of President Zachary Taylor. - In 1890, Wyoming became the 44th state. - In 1919, President Wilson personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate, and urged its ratification. - In 1925, the official news agency of the Soviet Union, TASS, was established. - In 1943, during World War II, U.S. and British forces invaded Sicily. - In 1951, armistice talks aimed at ending the Korean conflict began at Kaesong. - In 1962, the Telstar communications satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. - In 1979, conductor Arthur Fiedler, who had led the Boston Pops orchestra for a half-century, died in Brookline, Mass., at age 84. - In 1991, Boris Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic. - In 1992, a federal judge in Miami sentenced former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, convicted of drug and racketeering charges, to 40 years in prison. (However, a judge last March cut Noriega's sentence by 10 years, meaning he could be eligible for parole in 2000.) - Ten years ago: Mel Blanc, the "man of a thousand voices," including such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, died in Los Angeles at age 81. - Five years ago: In the first meeting of its kind, Russian President Boris Yeltsin joined leaders of the Group of Seven nations for political talks following their annual economic summit in Naples, Italy.- One year ago: Bringing to a close one of the biggest sex scandals ever to hit the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Dallas agreed to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who said they had been molested by a priest.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - "Mr. Wizard" Don Herbert is 82. - Former NBC and ABC News correspondent David Brinkley is 79. - Eunice Kennedy Shriver is 78.- Former boxer Jake LaMotta is 78. - Former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins is 72. - Broadway composer Jerry Herman is 66.- Director Ivan Passer is 66. - Actor Mills Watson is 59.- Actor Robert Pine is 58. - Rock musician Jerry Miller (Moby Grape) is 56. - Tennis player Virginia Wade is 54.- Actor Ron Glass ("Barney Miller") is 54. - Actress Sue Lyon is 53.- Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 52. - Country-folk singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler is 48. - Rock singer Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) is 45. - Banjo player Bela Fleck is 41. - Country musician Hawkshaw Wilson (BR5-49) is 39. - Rock musician Peter DiStefano (Porno for Pyros) is 34.

11 On July 11, 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by a congressional act that also created the U.S. Marine Band. - In 1533, Pope Clement VII excommunicated England's King Henry VIII. - In 1767, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass. - In 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J. - In 1864, Confederate forces led by General Jubal Early began an abortive invasion of Washington, D.C., turning back the next day. - In 1934, President Roosevelt became the first chief executive to travel through the Panama Canal. - In 1955, the U.S. Air Force Academy was dedicated at Lowry Air Base in Colorado.- In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee released volumes of evidence it had gathered in its Watergate inquiry. - In 1977, the Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. - In 1978, 216 people were killed when a tanker truck overfilled with propylene gas exploded on a coastal highway south of Tarragona, Spain. - In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station "Skylab" made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia. - Ten years ago: Actor Laurence Olivier died at age 82. The American League won the 60th All-Star Game, defeating the National League 5-3 in Anaheim, Calif. - Five years ago: Haiti's army-backed regime ordered the expulsion of international human rights observers. President Clinton, on his first official visit to Germany, urged his hosts to take on a stronger leadership role in global affairs. Shawn Eckardt was sentenced in Portland, Ore., to 18 months in prison for his role in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. - One year ago: Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, a casualty of the Vietnam War, was laid to rest near his Missouri home after the positive identification of his remains, which had been enshrined at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Va.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Actress Brett Somers is 72.- Actor Tab Hunter is 68. - Singer Jeff Hanna (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 52. - Singer Bonnie Pointer is 48.- Actor Stephen Lang is 47. - Boxer Leon Spinks is 46.- Actress Mindy Sterling is 46. - Actress Sela Ward is 43.- Reggae singer Michael Rose (Black Uhuru) is 42. - Singer Peter Murphy is 42.- Actor Mark Lester is 41. - Singer Suzanne Vega is 40.- Rock guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is 40. - Actress Debbe Dunning is 33.- Actor Michael Rosenbaum is 27. - Rapper Lil Kim is 24.

12 On July 12, 1984, Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) as his running mate; Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president for a major party.- In 100 B.C. Roman dictator Julius Caesar was born. - In 1543 England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr. - In 1690 Protestant forces led by William of Orange defeated the Roman Catholic army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. - In 1812 U.S. forces led by Gen. William Hull entered Canada during the War of 1812 against Britain. (However Hull retreated shortly thereafter to Detroit.) - In 1817 naturalist-author Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Mass. - In 1854 George Eastman, inventor of the Kodak camera, was born in Waterville, N.Y.- In 1862 Congress authorized the Medal of Honor. - In 1948 the Democratic National Convention opened in Philadelphia. - In 1974 John Ehrlichman, former aide to President Nixon, and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist. - In 1993 196 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck northern Japan. - Ten years ago President Bush continued his visit to Hungary, where he held talks with officials and made a speech at Karl Marx University in Budapest. A farmer in eastern France went on a shooting rampage, killing 14 people before being captured. - Five years ago President Clinton, visiting Germany, went to the eastern sector of Berlin, the first president to do so since Harry Truman. The National League won the All-Star Game, defeating the American League 8-7. - One year ago in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, three young brothers who had been asleep in their beds burned to death in a sectarian attack. France beat Brazil, 3-0, for its first World Cup soccer championship. *Happy Birthday*- Comedian Milton Berle is 91.- Artist Andrew Wyeth is 82. - Movie director Monte Hellman ("Avalanche Express") is 67. - Pianist Van Cliburn is 65.- Comedian Bill Cosby is 62. - Singer-musician Christine McVie is 56.- Actress Denise Nicholas is 55. - Singer-songwriter Butch Hancock is 54.- Fitness guru Richard Simmons is 51. - Actor Jay Thomas is 51.- Singer Walter Egan is 51. - Rock singer-musician John Wetton (Asia; King Crimson) is 50. - Gospel singer Sandi Patti is 43.- Actress Mel Harris is 42. - Actor Buddy Foster is 42.- Rock guitarist Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) is 37. - Rock singer Robin Wilson is 34.- Actress Lisa Nicole Carson is 30. - Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is 28.- Rapper Magoo is 26. - Singer Tracie Spencer is 23.- Actor Topher Grace ("That 70's Show") is 21.

13 On July 13, 1974, the Senate Watergate Committee proposed sweeping reforms to prevent another Watergate scandal. - In 1787 Congress enacted an ordinance governing the Northwest Territory. - In 1793 French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday. - In 1863 deadly rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City. - In 1878 the Treaty of Berlin amended the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which had ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. - In 1960 John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination at his party's convention in Los Angeles. - In 1967 race-related rioting broke out in Newark, N.J.; by the time the violence ended, 27 people had been killed. - In 1977 a blackout that would last 25 hours hit the New York City area. - In 1978 Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II. - In 1979 a 45-hour siege by Palestinian guerrillas began at the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey. - In 1985 "Live Aid," an international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, took place to raise money for Africa's starving people. - Ten years ago Washington, D.C. attorney Thomas L. Root was rescued after ditching his private plane in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas; he had suffered a mysterious gunshot wound. Cuba executed four military officers for conspiring to smuggle drugs to the U.S. - Five years ago President Clinton visited flood-stricken Georgia, where he announced more than $60 million in aid for Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, was sentenced in Portland, Ore., to two years in prison for his role in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. He ended up serving six months. - One year ago a jury in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ruled that the Rev. Al Sharpton and two others had defamed a former prosecutor by accusing him of raping Tawana Brawley. Four young cousins in Gallup, N.M., died after becoming trapped in a car trunk. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp is 64. - Actor Patrick Stewart is 59. - Actor Robert Forster is 58. - Actor Harrison Ford is 57. - Singer-guitarist Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) is 57. - Actor-comedian Cheech Marin is 53. - Actress Didi Conn is 48. - Singer Louise Mandrell is 45. - Actor-director Cameron Crowe is 42. - Tennis player Anders Jarryd is 38. - Country singer-songwriter Victoria Shaw is 37. - Actor Michael Jace is 34. - Singer Gerald Levert is 33. - Rhythm-and-blues singers Lovell and Laval Jones (Twice) are 28. - Singer Deborah Cox is 26.

14 On July 14, 1789, during the French Revolution, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison and released its seven prisoners. - In 1798 Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the United States government. - In 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry relayed to Japanese officials a letter from former President Fillmore, requesting trade relations. - In 1881 outlaw William H. Bonney Jr., alias "Billy the Kid," was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, N.M. - In 1933 all German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed. - In 1958 the army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy. - In 1965 the American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, sending back photographs of the planet. - In 1965 U.S. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. died in London at age 65. - In 1966 eight student nurses were murdered by Richard Speck in a Chicago dormitory. (Speck died in prison in 1991, a day short of his 50th birthday.) - In 1976 Jimmy Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in New York. - In 1978 Soviet dissident Anatoly (later Natan) Sharansky was convicted of treasonous espionage and anti-Soviet agitation, and sentenced to 13 years at hard labor. (He was released in 1986.) - Ten years ago leaders of the seven richest nations opened a summit in Paris, which was also celebrating the bicentennial of the French Revolution with pomp and pageantry. - Five years ago a tidal wave of Hutu refugees from Rwanda's civil war flooded across the border into Zaire, swamping relief organizations. - One year ago the city of Los Angeles sued 15 tobacco companies for $2.5 billion over the dangers of secondhand smoke. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Actress Gloria Stuart is 89. - Animator William Hanna is 89. - Former President Gerald R. Ford is 86. - Movie and stage director Ingmar Bergman is 81. - Actor Dale Robertson is 76. - Actor Harry Dean Stanton is 73. - Actress Nancy Olson is 71. - Actress Polly Bergen is 69. - Former football player Rosey Grier is 67. - Country singer Del Reeves is 67. - Actor Jerry Houser is 47. - Actor-director Eric Laneuville is 47. - Movie producer Scott Rudin ("The Truman Show") is 41. - Actor Jackie Earle Haley is 38. - Actor Matthew Fox is 33. - Rock singer-musician Tonya Donelly (Belly) is 33. - Actress Missy Gold is 29. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Tameka Cottle (Xscape) is 24.

15 On July 15, 1971, President Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China to seek a normalization of relations. - In 1606 the Dutch painter Rembrandt was born in Leiden, Netherlands. - In 1870 Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. - In 1916 the Boeing Co., originally known as Pacific Aero Products, was founded in Seattle. - In 1918 the Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I. - In 1948 President Truman was nominated for another term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. - In 1964 Sen. Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco. - In 1979 President Carter delivered his "malaise" speech in which he lamented what he called a "crisis of confidence" in America. - In 1985 a gaunt-looking Rock Hudson appeared at a news conference with actress Doris Day to promote her cable TV program. It was later revealed Hudson was suffering from AIDS. - In 1992 Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in New York. - In 1997 fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot dead outside his Miami home; the suspected gunman, alleged serial killer Andrew Phillip Cunanan was found dead eight days later. - Ten years ago leaders of the seven major industrial democracies, meeting in Paris, voiced support for democracy behind the Iron Curtain and condemned repression in China. - Five years ago Microsoft Corp. reached a settlement with the Justice Department, promising to end practices it used to corner the market for personal computer software programs. - One year ago three days of ceremonies to bury Russia's last czar and his family, who were killed by the Bolsheviks, began in the city of Yekaterinburg. The Congressional Budget Office estimated federal surpluses of $1.55 trillion over the next decade. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Actor Philip Carey is 74. - Actor Alex Karras is 64. - Actor Ken Kercheval is 64. - Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, is 63. - Actor Patrick Wayne is 60. - Actor Jan-Michael Vincent is 55. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Millie Jackson is 55. - Rock singer-musician Peter Lewis (Moby Grape) is 54. - Singer Linda Ronstadt is 53. - Actor Terry O'Quinn is 47. - Rock musician Joe Satriani is 43. - Model Kim Alexis is 39. - Actor Willie Aames is 39. - Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 38. - Actress Lolita Davidovich is 38. - Actress Brigitte Nielsen is 36. - Rock musician Phillip Fisher (Fishbone) is 32. - Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 31. - Actor Stan Kirsch ("Highlander") is 31. - Actor Scott Foley ("Felicity") is 27. - Actor Brian Austin Green is 26. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Kia Thornton (Divine) is 18.

16 On July 16, 1945, the United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb, in the desert of Alamogordo, N.M. - In 1790 the District of Columbia was established as the seat of the U.S. government. - In 1862 David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. - In 1918 Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his empress and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks. - In 1951 novelist J.D. Salinger published "The Catcher in the Rye." - In 1957 Marine Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds. - In 1964, accepting the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." - In 1969 Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon. - In 1973 White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield revealed at the Senate Watergate hearings the existence of President Nixon's secret taping system. - In 1979 Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq. - In 1980 Ronald Reagan won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Detroit. - Ten years ago leaders of the seven major industrial democracies called at their economic summit in Paris for "decisive action" against global pollution. Conductor Herbert von Karajan died near Salzburg, Austria, at age 81. - Five years ago the first of 21 pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy smashed into Jupiter, to the joy of astronomers awaiting the celestial fireworks. - One year ago the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to block Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr from calling President Clinton's Secret Service protectors before a grand jury. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - TV director Vincent Sherman is 93. - Actor Barnard Hughes is 84. - Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is 67. - Soul singer William Bell is 60. - Actor Corin Redgrave is 60. - Former tennis player Margaret Court is 57. - Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 51. - Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 51. - Rock composer-musician Stewart Copeland is 47. - Dancer Michael Flatley is 41. - Actress Phoebe Cates is 36. - Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 32. - Actress Rain Pryor is 30. - Actor Corey Feldman is 28. - Rock musician Ed Kowalczyk (Live) is 28.

17 One hundred years ago, on July 17, 1899, actor James Cagney was born in New York City. - In 1821 Spain ceded Florida to the United States. - In 1898 during the Spanish-American War, Spanish troops in Santiago, Cuba, surrendered to U.S. forces. - In 1917 the British royal family's name was changed from Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor. - In 1944 322 people were killed when two ammunition ships exploded in Port Chicago, Calif. - In 1955 Disneyland debuted in Anaheim, Calif. - In 1975 an "Apollo" spaceship docked with a "Soyuz" spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind. - In 1979 Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled into exile in Miami. - In 1981 114 people were killed when a pair of walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a "tea dance." - In 1996 TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound Boeing 747, exploded and crashed off Long Island, N.Y., shortly after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people aboard. - In 1997 Woolworth Corp. announced it was closing its 400 remaining five-and-dime stores across the country, ending 117 years in business. - Ten years ago the controversial B-2 Stealth bomber underwent its first test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California, two days after a technical problem forced a postponement. - Five years ago fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy continued to smash into Jupiter, sending up towering fireballs. Brazil defeated Italy to win its fourth World Cup title. - One year ago prosecutors in the Monica Lewinsky case questioned President Clinton's Secret Service protectors before a grand jury. Nicholas II, the last of the Romanov czars, was buried in Russia 80 years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. In Rome, delegates from more than 100 countries overwhelmingly approved a historic treaty creating the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal - ignoring strenuous U.S. objections over certain provisions. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - TV personality Art Linkletter is 87. - Comedian Phyllis Diller is 82. - The president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, is 79. - Actor Donald Sutherland is 64. - Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 64. - Rock singer Spencer Davis is 57. - Rock musician Terry "Geezer" Butler (Black Sabbath) is 50. - Actress Lucie Arnaz is 48. - Actor David Hasselhoff is 47. - Singer Phoebe Snow is 47. - Actress Nancy Giles is 39. - Singer Regina Belle is 36. - Hip-hop singer Guru (Gang Starr) is 33. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Stokley (Mint Condition) is 32.

18 On July 18, 1969, a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha's Vineyard. His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, died. - In A.D. 64 the Great Fire of Rome began. - In 1792 American naval hero John Paul Jones died in Paris at age 45. - In 1872 Britain introduced the concept of voting by secret ballot. - In 1927 Ty Cobb hit safely for the 4,000th time in his career. - In 1932 the U.S. and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway. - In 1936 the Spanish Civil War began as Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of army troops based in Spanish North Africa. - 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 Truman signed the 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 1984 a gunman opened fire at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people before being shot dead by police. Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco. - Ten years ago actress Rebecca Schaeffer, 21, was shot to death at her Los Angeles home by obsessed fan Robert Bardo, who was later sentenced to life in prison. - Five years ago a car bomb destroyed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 95 people. Tutsi rebels declared an end to Rwanda's 14-week-old civil war. - One year ago residents along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea were left reeling after a 23-foot-high tidal wave hit the night before, killing an estimated 3,000. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Actor Hume Cronyn is 88. - Former South African President Nelson Mandela is 81. - Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) is 78. - Skating champion and commentator Dick Button is 70. - Singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins is 70. - Author-journalist Hunter S. Thompson is 62. - Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 61. - Singer Brian Auger is 60. - Singer Dion DiMucci is 60. - Actor James Brolin is 59. - Singer Martha Reeves is 58. - Blues guitarist Lonnie Mack is 58. - Actor Kurt Mann is 52. - Singer Ricky Skaggs is 45. - Rock musician Nigel Twist (The Alarm) is 41. - Actress Audrey Landers is 40. - Actress Elizabeth McGovern is 38. - Rock musician John Hermann (Widespread Panic) is 37. - Rock musician Jack Irons (Pearl Jam) is 37. - Actor Vin Diesel ("Saving Private Ryan") is 32. - Actor Jason Weaver is 20.

19 On July 19, 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon. - In 1553 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. King Henry VIII's daughter Mary was proclaimed queen. - In 1848 a pioneer women's rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y. - In 1870 the Franco-Prussian War began. - In 1941 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory" campaign in Europe. - In 1943 allied air forces raided Rome during World War II. - In 1975 the Apollo and Soyuz space capsules that were linked in orbit for two days separated. - In 1979 the Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country. - In 1984 U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) won the Democratic nomination for vice president by acclamation at the party's convention in San Francisco. - In 1985 Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire was chosen as the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the space shuttle. (McAuliffe and six other crew members died when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff.) - In 1993 President Clinton announced a compromise allowing homosexuals to serve in the military, but only if they refrained from homosexual activity. - Ten years ago 112 people died when a United Airlines DC-10 crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa; 184 others survived. - Five years ago a bomb ripped apart a Panama commuter plane, killing 21, including 12 Jews, a day after a car bomb destroyed a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 95 people. Funeral services were held for North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung, who had died July 8 at age 82. - One year ago, seeking to break a 16-month deadlock, Israel and the Palestinians held their first high-level talks in months. Hundreds of Serb police battled secessionist guerrillas for control of the central Kosovo town of Orahovac. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Former U.S. Sen. George McGovern is 77. - Actor Pat Hingle is 75. - Actress Helen Gallagher is 73. - Country singer Sue Thompson is 73. - Country singer George Hamilton IV is 62. - Actor Dennis Cole is 59. - Singer Vikki Carr is 58. - Actor George Dzundza is 54. - Rock singer-musician Alan Gorrie (Average White Band) is 53. - Rock musician Brian May is 52. - Rock musician Bernie Leadon is 52. - Actress Beverly Archer is 51. - Actor Peter Barton is 43. - Rock musician Kevin Haskins (Love and Rockets; Bauhaus) is 39. - Movie director Atom Egoyan is 39. - Actor Anthony Edwards is 37. - Actor Campbell Scott is 37. - Country singer Kelly Shiver is 36.

20 On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon. - In 1810 Colombia declared independence from Spain. - In 1861 the Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, Va. - In 1871 British Columbia entered Confederation as a Canadian province. - In 1881 Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops. - In 1942 the first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, later known as WACs, began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. - In 1944 German officials tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb at his Rastenburg headquarters. The explosion only wounded the Nazi leader. President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term at the Democratic convention in Chicago. - In 1951 Jordan's King Abdullah was assassinated in Jerusalem. - In 1976 America's Viking 1 robot spacecraft made a successful first-ever landing on Mars. - In 1977 a flash flood hit Johnstown, Penn., killing 80 people and causing $350 million in damage. - Ten years ago President Bush called for a long-range space program to build an orbiting space station, establish a base on the moon and send a manned mission to the planet Mars. - Five years ago Bosnian Serbs rejected an international peace plan sponsored by the U.S., Russia, France, Britain and Germany. - One year ago Russia won an $11.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency. A smoky fire aboard the cruise ship Ecstasy just two miles from the Florida shore forced its return to port. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Actress-singer Sally Ann Howes is 69. - Video artist Nam June Paik is 67. - Rockabilly singer Sleepy LaBeef is 64. - Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) is 63. - Actress Diana Rigg is 61. - Rock musician John Lodge (The Moody Blues) is 56. - Country singer T.G. Shepherd is 55. - Singer Kim Carnes is 53. - Rock musician Carlos Santana is 52. - Rock musician Paul Cook (The Sex Pistols) is 43. - Actress Donna Dixon is 42. - Actor Frank Whaley is 36. - Rock singer Chris Cornell is 35. - Rock musician Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam) is 33. - Actor Reed Diamond is 32. - Actor Charlie Korsmo is 21.

21 One hundred years ago, on July 21, 1899, author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Ill.; poet Hart Crane was born in Garrettsville, Ohio. - In 1816 Paul Julius Reuter, founder of the British news agency bearing his name, was born in Hesse, Germany. - In 1831 Belgium became independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians. - In 1861 the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Va., resulting in a Confederate victory. - In 1925 the so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law by teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution. (The conviction was later overturned.) - In 1944 American forces landed on Guam during World War II. - In 1949 the U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty. - In 1954 France surrendered North Vietnam to the Communists. - In 1961 Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around Earth, flying aboard the Liberty Bell 7. - In 1969 Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the lunar module. - In 1980 draft registration began in the U.S. for 19- and 20-year-old men. - Ten years ago the State Department confirmed an ABC News report that Felix S. Bloch, a veteran U.S. diplomat, was being investigated as a possible Soviet spy. (Bloch was never charged with espionage, but was fired from his job in 1990.) - Five years ago former Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott died in Falls Church, Va., at age 93. Britain's Labor Party elected Tony Blair its new leader, succeeding the late John Smith. - One year ago President Clinton announced a crackdown on nursing homes that were lax about quality and on states that do a poor job of regulating them. The Pentagon said it found no evidence to support allegations in a CNN report that U.S. troops had used nerve gas against American defectors in Laos. Astronaut Alan Shepard died in Monterey, Calif., at age 74. Actor Robert Young died in Westlake Village, Calif., at age 91. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Violinist Isaac Stern is 79. - Jazz musician-critic Billy Taylor is 78. - Singer Kay Starr is 77. - Actor-comedian Don Knotts is 75. - Movie director Norman Jewison is 73. - Actor Paul Burke is 73. - Attorney General Janet Reno is 61. - Actress Patricia Elliott is 57. - Actor David Downing is 56. - Actor Edward Herrmann is 56. - Actor Leigh Lawson is 54. - Actor Wendell Burton is 52. - Yusuf Islam (formerly singer Cat Stevens) is 51. - Actor Art Hindle is 51. - Comedian-actor Robin Williams is 47. - Comedian Jon Lovitz is 42. - Actor Lance Guest is 39. - Actor Matt Mulhern is 39. - Rock singer Emerson Hart (Tonic) is 30. - Country singer Paul Brandt is 27. - Actor Josh Hartnett ("The Faculty") is 21.

22 On July 22, 1934, a man identified as bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater. - In 1587 a second English colony - also fated to vanish under mysterious circumstances - was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. - In 1796 Cleveland, Ohio was founded by Gen. Moses Cleaveland. - In 1812 English troops defeated the French at the Battle of Salamanca in Spain. - In 1916 a bomb went off during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco, killing 10 people. - In 1937 the Senate rejected President Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court. - In 1942 gasoline rationing involving the use of coupons began along the Atlantic seaboard. - In 1943 American forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily. - In 1946 Jewish extremists blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 90 people. - In 1975 the House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore the American citizenship of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. - In 1991 police in Milwaukee arrested serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer, who was later murdered in prison. - Ten years ago nearly 200,000 Palestinian children returned to classrooms in the West Bank after the Israeli army lifted an order that had kept their schools closed during the Palestinian uprising. - Five years ago O.J. Simpson pleaded innocent to the slaying of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. - One year ago the Senate Armed Services Committee rejected, on a 9-9 vote, Daryl Jones' bid to become Air Force secretary. President Clinton, with Republican lawmakers at his side, signed a bill designed to mold the Internal Revenue Service into a friendlier, fairer tax collector. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Sen. William V. Roth Jr. (R-Del.) is 78. - Former Sen. Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) is 76. - Singer Margaret Whiting is 75. - Actor-comedian Orson Bean is 71. - Actor Perry Lopez is 68. - Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta is 67. - Actress Louise Fletcher is 65. - Director John Korty is 63. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Chuck Jackson is 62. - Actor Terence Stamp is 60. - Game show host Alex Trebek is 59. - Singer George Clinton is 59. - Actor-singer Bobby Sherman is 56. - Singer Estelle Bennett (The Ronettes) is 55. - Movie writer-director Paul Schrader is 53. - Actor Danny Glover is 52. - Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks is 52. - Rock singer Don Henley is 52. - Actor Willem Dafoe is 44. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Keith Sweat is 38. - Actress Joanna Going is 36. - Actor Rob Estes is 36. - Folk singer Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls) is 36. - Actor John Leguizamo is 35. - Actor-comedian David Spade is 35. - Actor Patrick Labyorteaux is 34. - Actress Irene Bedard is 32. - Actor Rhys Ifans is 32.

23 On July 23, 1886, New York saloonkeeper Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River. - In 1829 William Austin Burt of Mount Vernon, Mich., received a patent for his "typographer" - a forerunner of the typewriter. - In 1885 Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the U.S., died in Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63. - In 1904, by some accounts, the ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. - In 1914 Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the dispute led to World War I. - In 1948 American pioneer filmmaker D.W. Griffith died in Los Angeles at age 73. - In 1952 Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I. - In 1967 rioting that claimed 43 lives erupted in Detroit. - In 1977 a jury in Washington, D.C. convicted 12 Hanafi Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March. - In 1984 Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign her title, because nude photographs of her were published in Penthouse magazine. - In 1986 Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. (They divorced in 1996.) - Ten years ago Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost its majority in the upper house of the Diet in parliamentary elections. Greg LeMond of the U.S. won the Tour de France. - Five years ago space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth after a 15-day mission which included experiments on the effects of weightlessness on aquatic animals. - One year ago Scientists at the University of Hawaii announced they had turned out more than 50 carbon-copy mice, with a cloning technique said to be more reliable than the one used to create Dolly the sheep. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Actress Gloria DeHaven is 74. - Actor Calvert DeForest is 71. - Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is 63. - Radio personality Don Imus is 59. - Country singer Tony Joe White is 56. - Rock singer David Essex is 52. - Actor Larry Manetti is 52. - Actress Belinda Montgomery is 49. - Rock musician Blair Thornton (Bachman Turner Overdrive) is 49. - Actress-writer Lydia Cornell is 42. - Actor Woody Harrelson is 38. - Rock musician Martin Gore (Depeche Mode) is 38. - Actor Eriq Lasalle is 37. - Rock musician Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing) is 36. - Rock musician Nick Menza is 35. - Rock musician Slash is 34. - Actress Charisma Carpenter ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") is 29. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Sam Watters (Color Me Badd) is 29. - Country singer Alison Krauss is 28. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Mr. Dalvin (Jodeci) is 28. - Rock musician Chad Gracey (Live) is 28. - Actor-comedian Marlon Wayans is 27. - Actor Omar Epps ("Scream 2") is 26.

24 On July 24, 1959, during a visit to the Soviet Union, Vice President Richard M. Nixon engaged in a "Kitchen Debate" with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a U.S. exhibition. - In 1783 Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela. - In 1847 Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah. - In 1862 the eighth president of the U.S., Martin Van Buren, died in Kinderhook, N.Y. - In 1866 Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War. - In 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland. - In 1929 President Hoover proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy. - In 1937 the state of Alabama dropped charges against five black men accused of raping two white women in the Scottsboro Case. - In 1969 the Apollo 11 astronauts - two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon - splashed down safely in the Pacific. - In 1974 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor. - In 1979 a Miami jury convicted Theodore Bundy of first-degree murder in the slayings of Florida State University sorority sisters Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy. - Ten years ago President Bush said he was "aggrieved" about allegations that veteran U.S. diplomat Felix S. Bloch might have spied for the Soviet Union. - Five years ago Rwandan refugees began trickling home after Zaire reopened the border between the two countries; meanwhile, the first wave of a U.S. airlift arrived. Miguel Indurain won his fourth consecutive Tour de France victory. - One year ago a gunman burst into the U.S. Capitol, opening fire and killing two police officers before being shot and captured. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Broadway producer Alexander H. Cohen is 79. - Movie director Peter Yates is 70. - Actress Jacqueline Brookes is 69. - Political cartoonist Pat Oliphant is 64. - Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 63. - Actor Mark Goddard is 63. - Actor Dan Hedaya is 59. - Actor Chris Sarandon is 57. - Actor Robert Hays is 52. - Montana Gov. Marc Racicot is 51. - Actor Michael Richards is 50. - Actress Lynda Carter is 48. - Movie director Gus Van Sant is 47. - Country singer Pam Tillis is 42. - Actor Kadeem Hardison is 34. - Actress Laura Leighton is 31. - Actor John P. Navin Jr. is 31. - Actress Jennifer Lopez is 29. - Actress Anna Paquin is 17. - Actress Mara Wilson is 12.

25 On July 25, 1956, 51 people died when the Italian liner Andrea Doria sank after colliding with the Swedish ship Stockholm off the New England coast. - In 1593 France's King Henry IV converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. - In 1866 Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army, the first officer to hold the rank. - In 1868 Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory. - In 1909 French aviator Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel in a monoplane, traveling from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes. - In 1944 Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In" in Los Angeles for Decca Records. - In 1946 the U.S. detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the first underwater test of the device. - In 1952 Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S. - In 1969, a week after the Chappaquiddick accident that claimed the life of Mary Jo Kopechne, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident. - In 1978 Louise Joy Brown, the first "test tube baby," was born in Oldham, England; she had been conceived through the technique of in-vitro fertilization. - In 1984 Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space, carrying out more than three hours of experiments outside the orbiting space station Salyut 7. - Ten years ago the pilot of the United DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, July 19, Alfred C. Haynes, appeared at a news conference in which he dismissed descriptions of himself as a hero after he and his crew managed to save 184 of the 296 people aboard the crippled aircraft. - Five years ago Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein signed a declaration at the White House ending their countries' 46-year-old formal state of war. - One year ago two government officials revealed that special prosecutor Kenneth Starr had subpoenaed President Clinton to testify before a federal grand jury about the Monica Lewinsky case. The U.S. Capitol was reopened, a day after a gunman killed two police officers; a wounded suspect, Russell E. Weston Jr., was charged with murder. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Actress Estelle Getty is 76. - Actress Barbara Harris is 64. - Rock musician Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire) is 48. - Model-actress Iman is 44. - Cartoonist Ray Billingsley ("Curtis") is 42. - Rock musician Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) is 41. - Actress Illeana Douglas is 34. - Country singer Marty Brown is 34. - Actor Matt LeBlanc ("Friends") is 32. - Actor Brad Renfro is 17.

26 On July 26, 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. - In 1775 Benjamin Franklin became Postmaster General. - In 1788 New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. - In 1908 U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order creating an investigative agency, a forerunner of the FBI. - In 1928 Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City. - In 1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were trounced by the Labor Party. (Clement Attlee became prime minister.) - In 1948 President Truman signed executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment. - In 1952 Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at age 33. - In 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. - In 1964 Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and six others were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the handling of a union pension fund. - In 1971 Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy. - Ten years ago Mark Wellman, a 29-year-old paraplegic, reached the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park after hauling himself up the granite cliff six inches at a time over nine days. - Five years ago the House Banking Committee opened limited hearings on the Whitewater controversy. A car bomb heavily damaged the Israeli embassy in London, injuring 14; hours later, a second bomb exploded outside a building housing Jewish organizations in north London. - One year ago the White House said President Clinton's lawyers were working with prosecutor Kenneth Starr to avert Clinton's direct testimony to a grand jury about the Monica Lewinsky case. (The president ended up testifying via closed-circuit TV.) AT&T and British Telecommunications PLC announced they were forming a joint venture to combine international operations and develop a new Internet system. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Actor Jason Robards Jr. is 77. - Movie director Blake Edwards is 77. - Actor James Best ("The Dukes of Hazzard") is 73. - Singer Dobie Gray is 59. - Rock star Mick Jagger is 56. - Movie director Peter Hyams is 56. - Actress Susan George is 49. - Actor Kevin Spacey is 40. - Rock singer Gary Cherone (Van Halen) is 38. - Actress Sandra Bullock is 35. - Actor Jeremy Piven ("Ellen") is 34. - Actress Kate Beckinsale is 26.

27 On July 27, 1953, the Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting. - In 1694 the Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution. - In 1789 Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, the forerunner of the Department of State. - In 1861 Union Gen. George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac. - In 1866 Cyrus W. Field finally succeeded, after two failures, in laying the first underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe. - In 1940 Bugs Bunny made his "official" debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon "A Wild Hare." - In 1967 in the wake of urban rioting President Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence, the same day black militant H. Rap Brown said in Washington that violence was "as American as cherry pie." - In 1974 the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to recommend President Nixon's impeachment on a charge that he had personally engaged in a "course of conduct" designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case. - In 1984 actor James Mason died in Lausanne, Switzerland, at age 75. - In 1995 the Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington by President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam. - In 1996 terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at the public Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and injuring more than 100. - Ten years ago workers at the Nissan Motor Corp. assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn., voted against representation by the United Auto Workers. Eighty people were killed when a Korean Air DC-10 crashed in Libya. - Five years ago Bosnian Serbs reimposed their blockade of Sarajevo and fired on a U.N. convoy, killing one British soldier and wounding another. - One year ago President Clinton held a town meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., on the future of Social Security, during which he expressed skepticism about proposals to privatize part of the Social Security trust fund. Monica Lewinsky was interviewed by prosecutors in New York in a possible prelude to an immunity deal. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - TV producer Norman Lear is 77. - Movie and drama critic Vincent Canby is 75. - Actor Jerry Van Dyke is 68. - Sportscaster Irv Cross is 60. - Actor John Pleshette is 57. - Singer Bobbie Gentry is 55. - Actress-director Betty Thomas is 51. - Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming is 51. - Actor Maury Chaykin is 50. - Singer Maureen McGovern is 50. - Actress Janet Eilber is 48. - Actress Roxanne Hart is 47. - Rock musician Karl Mueller (Soul Asylum) is 36. - Country singer Stacy Dean Campbell is 32. - Rock singer Juliana Hatfield is 32. - Actor Julian McMahon is 31. - Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers is 22.

28 On July 28, 1945, a U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building, killing 14 people. - In 1540 King Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed, the same day Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. - In 1794 Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine. - In 1821 Peru declared its independence from Spain. - In 1868 the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing due process of law, was declared in effect. - In 1896 the city of Miami was incorporated. - In 1929 Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, first lady of the U.S. from 1961 to 1963, was born in Southampton, N.Y. - In 1943 President Roosevelt announced the end of coffee rationing. - In 1959, in preparation for statehood, Hawaiians voted to send the first Chinese-American, Hiram L. Fong, to the U.S. Senate and the first Japanese-American, Daniel K. Inouye, to the U.S. House of Representatives. - In 1965 President Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000. - In 1976 an earthquake devastated northern China, killing at least 242,000 people, according to an official estimate. - Ten years ago Israeli commandos abducted a pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim cleric, Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid, from his home in south Lebanon. - Five years ago congressional negotiators agreed on a crime-fighting package that included hiring 100,000 new police officers, banning assault-style weapons, vastly expanding the death penalty and putting third-time felons behind bars for life. - One year ago, during a day of official mourning, President Clinton praised two slain police officers at the U.S. Capitol as heroes whose sacrifice "consecrated this house of freedom." General Motors reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers to end an almost two-month strike. Bell Atlantic and GTE announced a $52 billion deal to create the second-biggest phone company. Monica Lewinsky received blanket immunity in exchange for providing "full and truthful testimony" to a grand jury investigating President Clinton. *Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Movie director Andrew V. McLaglen is 79. - Actor Darryl Hickman is 68. - The president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, is 61. - Former Sen. Bill Bradley is 56. - "Garfield" creator Jim Davis is 54. - Rock musician Rick Wright (Pink Floyd) is 54. - Singer Jonathan Edwards is 53. - Actress Linda Kelsey is 53. - Actress Sally Struthers is 51. - Actress Georgia Engel is 51. - Actor Michael Hayden is 36. - Actress Elizabeth Berkley is 27. - Actor Jonathan Osser ("Hiller and Diller") is 10.

29 On July 29, 1981, Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. (They were divorced in 1996.) - In 1588 the English defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines. - In 1890 artist Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France. - In 1914 transcontinental telephone service began with the first phone conversation between New York and San Francisco. - In 1948 Britain's King George VI opened the Olympic Games in London. - In 1957 the International Atomic Energy Agency was established. Jack Paar debuted as host of NBC's "Tonight" show. - In 1958 President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA. - In 1967 fire swept the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing 134 servicemen. - In 1968 Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's stance against artificial methods of birth control. - In 1975 President Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and paid tribute to the victims. - Ten years ago Poland's newly elected president, Wojciech Jaruzelski, resigned as Communist Party general secretary and was succeeded by Mieczyslaw Rakowski. - Five years ago abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton's bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Fla. (Hill was convicted and sentenced to death.) Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer won Senate approval. - One year ago President Clinton reached an agreement with Kenneth Starr to provide grand jury testimony via closed-circuit TV in the Monica Lewinsky case. Jerome Robbins, a master choreographer of modern ballet and a major Broadway innovator, died in New York at age 79. *Happy Birthday*----------------- Actor Lloyd Bochner is 75. - Actor Robert Horton is 75.- Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker (R-Kan.) is 67. - Actor Robert Fuller is 65. - Republican presidential candidate Elizabeth H. Dole is 63. - ABC News anchor Peter Jennings is 61.- Actor David Warner is 58. - Rock musician Neal Doughty (REO Speedwagon) is 53. - Marilyn Tucker Quayle, ex-Vice President Dan Quayle's wife, is 50. - Rock musician Simon Kirke (Bad Company) is 50. - Documentary maker Ken Burns is 46. - Rock singer-musician Geddy Lee (Rush) is 46. - Rock singer Patti Scialfa (Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band) is 43. - Actress Alexandra Paul is 36.- Country singer Martina McBride is 33. - Rock musician Chris Gorman (Belly) is 32.- Actor Wil Wheaton is 27. - Singer Wanya Morris (Boyz II Men) is 26.- Actor Stephen Dorff is 26.

30 On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters. - In 1619 the first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown, Va.- In 1729 the city of Baltimore was founded. The French national anthem "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris.- In 1844 the New York Yacht Club was founded. - In 1863 American automaker Henry Ford was born in Dearborn Township, Mich. - In 1864 during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va. by exploding a mine under Confederate defense lines. The attack failed. - In 1932 the Summer Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles. - In 1942 President Roosevelt signed a bill creating a women's auxiliary agency in the Navy known as "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service" - WAVES for short. - In 1965 President Johnson signed into law the Medicare bill, which took effect the following year. - In 1975 former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit; although presumed dead, his remains have never been found. - Ten years ago in Lebanon, the pro-Iranian group Organization for the Oppressed on Earth threatened to kill an American hostage, Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, unless Israel released Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid, a cleric seized by Israeli commandos. - Five years ago the first U.S. troops landed in the Rwandan capital of Kigali to secure the airport for an expanded international aid effort. - One year ago Japan's Parliament declared Keizo Obuchi the country's next prime minister. "Buffalo Bob" Smith, the cowboy-suited host of "The Howdy Doody Show," died in Hendersonville, N.C., at age 80. A group of 13 Ohio machinists stepped forward to claim the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot. (The workers opted to take the cash option: one payment of about $161.5 million.)*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Actor Dick Wilson ("Mr. Whipple") is 83.- Actor Richard Johnson is 72. - Actor Edd "Kookie" Byrnes is 66.- Blues musician Buddy Guy is 63. - Movie director Peter Bogdanovich is 60. - Feminist activist Eleanor Smeal is 60. - Former U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) is 59.- Singer Paul Anka is 58. - Jazz musician David Sanborn is 54.- Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is 52. - Actor William Atherton is 52.- Actor Jean Reno is 51. - Actor Frank Stallone is 49.- Actor Ken Olin is 45.- Actress Delta Burke is 43. - Singer-songwriter Kate Bush is 41.- Actor Richard Burgi is 41. - Actor Laurence Fishburne is 38.- Country singer Neal McCoy is 38. - Actress Lisa Kudrow is 36.- Country musician Dwayne O'Brien is 35. - Actress Vivica Fox is 35.- Actress Christine Taylor is 28. - Actress Hilary Swank is 25.

31 On July 31, 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army. - In 1498, during his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Trinidad. - In 1556 St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus - the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers - died in Rome. - In 1875 the 17th president of the U.S., Andrew Johnson, died in Carter Station, Tenn., at age 66. - In 1919 Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted. - In 1948 President Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field. - In 1953 Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio, known as "Mr. Republican," died in New York at age 63. - In 1964 the American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon's surface. - In 1972 Thomas Eagleton withdrew as Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern's running-mate following disclosures he had once undergone psychiatric treatment. - In 1981 the leader of Panama, Gen. Omar Torrijos, died in a plane crash. A seven-week-old Major League Baseball strike ended. - Ten years ago a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a grisly videotape purportedly showing the body of American hostage William R. Higgins dangling from a rope, a day after his kidnappers threatened to kill him. - Five years ago the U.N. Security Council authorized member states to use "all necessary means" to oust the military leadership in Haiti. - One year ago President Clinton said he would "completely and truthfully" answer prosecutors' questions about Monica Lewinsky in testimony to be beamed by closed-circuit TV to a grand jury. IBM's Russian subsidiary agreed to pay $8.5 million in federal fines for selling powerful computers ultimately destined for a Russian nuclear weapons laboratory.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman is 87. - Sportscaster Curt Gowdy is 80.- Actor Don Murray is 70. - Jazz composer-musician Kenny Burrell is 68.- Actor Geoffrey Lewis is 64. - Actress France Nuyen is 60.- Actress Susan Flannery is 56.- Singer Lobo is 56. - Actress Geraldine Chaplin is 55.- Movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 55. - Singer Gary Lewis is 53.- Rock singer Bob Welch is 53. - Tennis player Evonne Goolagong Cawley is 48.- Actor Barry Van Dyke is 48. - Actor James Read is 46.- Actor Michael Biehn is 43. - Rock singer-musician Daniel Ash (Love and Rockets) is 42. - Rock musician Bill Berry is 41.- Actor Wesley Snipes is 37. - Actor Dean Cain is 33.- Actor Loren Dean is 30.- Actor Robert Telfer is 22.