Today is Monday, June 11, the 162nd day of 2007. There are 203 days left in the year.

Today's Highlights in History:

On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain.

On this date:

1346 Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected Holy Roman Emperor.

1509, England's King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.

1770, Capt. James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.

1798 Napoleon Bonaparte takes the island of Malta.

1861 Union forces under General George B. McClellen repulse a Confederate force at Rich Mountain in western Virginia.

1865 Major General Henry W. Halleck finds documents and archives of the Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia. This discovery will lead to the publication of the official war records.

1880 Jeanette Rankin was born. She became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.

1889 The Washington Business High School opened in Washington, DC. It was the first school devoted to business in the U.S.

1895 Charles E. Duryea receives the first U.S. patent granted to an American inventor for a gasoline-driven automobile.

1903 King Alexander and Queen Draga of Belgrade are assassinated by members of the Serbia army.

1915 British troops take Cameroon in Africa.

1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner.

1927 Charles A. Lindberg was presented the first Distinguished Flying Cross.

1930 William Beebe, of the New York Zoological Society, dives to a record-setting depth of 1,426 feet off the coast of Bermuda, in a diving chamber called a bathysphere.

1934 The Disarmament Conference in Geneva ends in failure.

1936 The Presbyterian Church of America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.

1940 The Italian Air Force bombs the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean.

1942 The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviets in their effort in World War II.

1943 The Italian island of Pantelleria surrenders after a heavy air bombardment.

1944 U.S. carrier-based planes attack Japanese airfields on Guam , Rota, Saipan and Tinian islands, preparing for the invasion of Saipan.

1947, the government announced the end of household and institutional sugar rationing, to take effect the next day.

1962 Alcatraz proves escapable for three men

1963, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set himself afire on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

1963 University of Alabama desegregated

1963 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in Florida for trying to integrate restaurants.

1967 Israel and Syria accept a U. N. cease-fire.

1970, the United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.

1972 Hank Aaron tied the National League record for 14 grand-slam home runs in a season.

1973 After a ruling by the Justice Department of the State of Pennsylvania, women were licensed to box or wrestle.

1977, a 20-day hostage drama in the Netherlands ended as Dutch marines stormed a train and a school held by South Moluccan extremists. Six gunmen and two hostages on the train were killed.

1977, Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.

1979 John Wayne dies at age 72 after battling cancer for more than a decade.

1982 Steven Spielberg's movie, E.T., opened.

1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, N.J., at age 31.

1987 Margaret Thatcher wins her third consecutive term as Prime Minister.

1990 The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that would prohibit the desecration of the American Flag.

1993 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who commit "hate crimes" could be sentenced to extra punishment. The court also ruled in favor of religious groups saying that they indeed had a constitutional right to sacrifice animals during worship services.

1998 Pakistan announced moratorium on nuclear testing and offered to talk with India over disputed Kashmir.

2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.



Ten years ago:
The parents of Timothy McVeigh pleaded for their son's life during the penalty phase of the Oklahoma City bombing trial.


Five years ago:
Congressional investigators released a report which said Clinton administration workers had defaced equipment and left behind prank messages as they departed the White House in January 2001; but the investigators failed to uncover the widespread problems alleged by some Republicans.

Rock star Paul McCartney and Heather Mills were married in a remote Irish castle. (The couple is now in the process of divorcing.)


One year ago:
Al-Qaida in Iraq vowed "major attacks" after the death of leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. airstrike.

Rafael Nadal won his second consecutive French Open title, beating Roger Federer 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Se Ri Pak beat Karrie Webb to win the LPGA Championship.

"The History Boys" won six Tony Awards, including best play; "Jersey Boys" was named best musical and won four awards.

James Cameron, who survived an attempted lynching and went on to found America's Black Holocaust Museum, died in Milwaukee at age 92.


Today's Birthdays:
1572 Ben Jonson, English playwright and poet.
1769 Anne Newport Royall, American newspaper reporter.
1823 James L. Kemper, Confederate general during the American Civil War.
1880 Jeannette Rankin, U.S. Representative from Montana, the first woman in Congress.
1895 Nikolai A. Bulganin, premier of the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1958.
1910 Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French oceanic explorer, filmaker, author and inventor of the aqualung.
1913 Vince Lombardi, American football coach.
1925 William Styron, American novelist (The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice).
1932 Athol Fugard, South African playwright, director and actor (The Blood Knot, "Master Harold" . . . and the Boys).

Opera singer Rise Stevens is 94.
Actor-producer Richard Todd is 88.
Actor Gene Wilder is 74.
Actor Chad Everett is 70.
Comedian Johnny Brown is 70.
Former auto racer Jackie Stewart is 68.
Singer Joey Dee is 67.
Actress Adrienne Barbeau is 62.
Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 58.
Rock singer Donnie Van Zant is 55.
Actor Peter Bergman is 54.
Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 51.
Actor Hugh Laurie ("House") is 48.
Singer Gioia Bruno (Expose) is 44.
Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 41.
Actor Peter Dinklage is 38.
Country musician Smilin' Jay McDowell is 38.
Rock musician Dan Lavery (Tonic) is 38.
Rock musician Tai Anderson (Third Day) is 31.
Actor Joshua Jackson is 29.
Christian rock musician Ryan Shrout (Kutless) is 27.
Actor Shia LaBeouf ("Even Stevens") is 21.
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