Today is Monday, July 2, the 183rd day of 2007. There are 182 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution saying that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

On this date:

1298 An army under Albert of Austria defeats forces led by Adolf of Nassua.

1625 The Spanish army takes Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.

1644 Oliver Cromwell crushes the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor.

1747 Marshall Saxe leads the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.

1776 The Continental Congress resolves that the American colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

1807, in the wake of the Chesapeake incident, in which the crew of a British frigate boarded an American ship and forcibly removed four suspected deserters, President Thomas Jefferson ordered all British ships to vacate U.S. territorial waters.

1822 Denmark Vesey is executed in Charleston, South Carolina, for planning a massive slave revolt.

1857 New York City's first elevated railroad officially opened for business.

1858 Czar Alexander II frees the serfs working on imperial lands.

1863 The Union left flank holds at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.

1881, President James Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield died the following September. (Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.)

1890 The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1926, the U.S. Army Air Corps was created.

1934 Fox signs Shirley Temple

1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight along the equator.

1947 An object crashed near Roswell, NM. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft.

1955 The Lawrence Welk Show debuts

1961, author Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.

1964 U.S. President Johnson signed the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" into law. The act made it illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against others because of their race.

1967 The U.S. launches Operation Buffalo in Vietnam.

1976 North and South Vietnam are officially reunified.

1976 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.

1980 President Jimmy Carter reinstates draft registration for males 18 years of age.

1985 General Motors announced that it was installing electronic road maps as an option in some of its higher-priced cars.

1987, 18 illegal aliens were found dead inside a locked boxcar near Sierra Blanca, Texas, in what authorities called a botched smuggling attempt; a 19th man survived.

1992 Chevrolet celebrates 1 million Corvettes

1994, a U.S. Air DC-9 crashed in poor weather at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, killing 37 of the 57 people aboard.

1994 Colombian soccer player, Andres Escobar, was shot to death in Medellin. Ten days earlier he had accidentally scored a goal against his own team in the World Cup competition.

1996, electricity and phone service was knocked out for millions of customers from Canada to the Southwest after power lines throughout the West failed on a record-hot day.

1998 The Cable News Network retracted a story that alleged that U.S. commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the Vietnam War.

2004, actor Marlon Brando died in Los Angeles at age 80.



Ten years ago:
Actor James Stewart died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 89.


Five years ago:
American adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world as he returned to western Australia.


One year ago:
Conservative free-trader Felipe Calderon defeated leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by just 234,000 votes in Mexico's presidential election.

Comic Jan Murray died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 89.


Today's Birthdays:
1489 Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant archbishop of Cantebury (1533-1556).
1877 Hermann Hesse, German novelist and poet.
1894 Andre Kertesz, photographer.
1900 Tyrone Guthrie, English theater director.
1908 Thurgood Marshall, first African-American Supreme Court Justice.
1916 Barry Gray, radio talk show host.
1918 Robert Sarnoff, president of NBC.
1926 Medgar Evers, American civil rights activist.

Country singer Marvin Rainwater is 82.
Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos is 78.
Jazz musician Ahmad Jamal is 77.
Actor Robert Ito is 76.
Actress Polly Holliday is 70.
Former NASCAR driver Richard "The King" Petty is 70.
Former White House chief of staff John H. Sununu is 68.
Actor Ron Silver is 61.
Writer-director-comedian Larry David is 60.
Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, is 60.
Actor Saul Rubinek is 59.
Rock musician Roy Bittan (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) is 58.
Rock musician Gene Taylor (The Blasters) is 55.
Actress-model Jerry Hall is 51.
Actor Jimmy McNichol is 46.
Former MLB player José Canseco is 43.
Rock musician Dave Parsons (Bush) is 42.
Actress Yancy Butler is 37.
Contemporary Christian musician Melodee DeVevo (Casting Crowns) is 31.
Singer Michelle Branch is 24.
Actress Vanessa Lee Chester is 23.
Actress-singer Ashley Tisdale is 22.
Actress Lindsay Lohan is 21.