Today is Sunday, July 24, the 205th day of 2005. There are 160 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 24, 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.
On this date:
In 1783, Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 1862, the eighth president of the United States, 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 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 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 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.
In 1975, an Apollo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which included the first-ever docking with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union.
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.
In 2002, nine coal miners were trapped in a flooded mine in western Pennsylvania; the story ended happily three days later with the rescue of all nine.
Ten years ago: A suicide bomber set off an explosion in a crowded commuter bus in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing six people.
Five years ago: President Clinton continued to mediate the Camp David Mideast summit, meeting with Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. negotiators. Michael Stone, a pro-British paramilitary member, was freed from prison as part of Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord after serving 11 years of a life sentence for murder. Georgia’s Democratic former Gov. Zell Miller was appointed to the late Republican Paul Coverdell’s Senate seat.
One year ago: Without promising what specific steps he would take, President Bush said in his weekly radio address that his administration was committed to relying on the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission in waging the war on terrorism. Former Nixon administration official Fred LaRue, who served a prison term for Watergate, died in Biloxi, Mississippi, at age 75.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Peter Yates is 76. Actress Jacqueline Brookes is 75. Political cartoonist Pat Oliphant is 70. Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 69. Actor Mark Goddard is 69. Actor Dan Hedaya is 65. Actor Chris Sarandon is 63. Comedian Gallagher is 59. Actor Robert Hays is 58. Former Republican National Chairman Marc Racicot is 57. Actor Michael Richards is 56. Actress Lynda Carter is 54. Movie director Gus Van Sant is 53. Country singer Pam Tillis is 48. Actor Kadeem Hardison is 40. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 37. Actress Laura Leighton is 37. Actor John P. Navin Jr. is 37. Actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 35. Actress Elisabeth Moss (“The West Wing”) is 23. Actress Anna Paquin is 23. Actress Mara Wilson is 18.
Thought for Today: “I never liked the middle ground — the most boring place in the world.” — Louise Nevelson, Russian-American artist (1900-1988).