Today is Tuesday, July 24, the 205th day of 2007. There are 160 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 24, 1959, during a visit to Moscow, Vice President Richard M. Nixon engaged in a “Kitchen Debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on the merits of their countries’ political-economic systems at a U.S. exhibition.
On this date:
In 1783, Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 1847, Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.
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 four of the nine young black men accused of raping two white women in the “Scottsboro Case.”
In 1967, French President Charles de Gaulle stirred controversy during a visit to Montreal, Canada, when he declared, “Vive le Quebec libre!” (Long live free Quebec!)
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 1987, Hulda Crooks, a 91-year-old mountaineer from California, became the oldest woman to conquer Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest peak.
Ten years ago: Retired Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan died in Arlington, Va., at age 91.
Five years ago: 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. The House expelled Ohio Rep. James Traficant, who had been convicted of bribery, racketeering and tax evasion; it was only the second time a sitting member had been banished since the Civil War.
One year ago: The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants resumed in Baghdad without the former Iraqi leader, who remained hospitalized after going on a hunger strike. Rescuers from the U.S. Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members from a cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Peter Yates is 78. Actress Jacqueline Brookes is 77. Political cartoonist Pat Oliphant is 72. Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 71. Actor Mark Goddard is 71. Actor Dan Hedaya is 67. Actor Chris Sarandon is 65. Comedian Gallagher is 61. Actor Robert Hays is 60. Former Republican national chairman Marc Racicot is 59. Actor Michael Richards is 58. Actress Lynda Carter is 56. Movie director Gus Van Sant is 55. Country singer Pam Tillis is 50. Actor Kadeem Hardison is 42. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 39. Actress Laura Leighton is 39. Actor John P. Navin Jr. is 39. Basketball player-turned-actor Rick Fox is 38. Actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 37. Actor Eric Szmanda is 32. Actress Elisabeth Moss is 25. Actress Anna Paquin is 25. Actress Mara Wilson is 20. TV personality Bindi Irwin is 9.
Thought for Today: “History repeats itself; historians repeat each other.” — Attributed to Philip Guedalla, British writer (1889-1944).