Today is Sunday, July 8, the 189th day of 2007. There are 176 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 8, 1776, Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia.

On this date:

1099 Christian Crusaders march around Jerusalem as Muslims watch from within the city.

1608 The first French settlement at Quebec is established by Samuel de Champlain.

1663, King Charles II of England granted a Royal Charter to Rhode Island.

1686 The Austrians take Budapest from the Turks and annex Hungary.

1709 Peter the Great defeats Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, effectively ending the Swedish empire.

1755 Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensify.

1758 The British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, is foiled by the French.

1776 The Liberty Bell rings

1794 French troops capture Brussels, Belgium.

1815 With Napoleon defeated, Louis XVIII returns to Paris.

1822 29-year old poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns while sailing in Italy.

1853, an expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Yedo Bay, Japan, on a mission to seek diplomatic and trade relations with the Japanese.

1859 The Truce at Villafranca Austria cedes Lombardy to France.

1863 Demoralized by the surrender of Vicksburg, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrender to Union forces.

1864 Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreats into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by Union General William T. Sherman.

1865 Four of the conspirators in President Abraham Lincoln's assassination are hanged in Washington, D.C.

1879 The first ship to use electric lights departs from San Francisco, California.

1881 Edward Berner, druggist in Two Rivers, WI, poured chocolate syrup on ice cream in a dish. Up to this time, chocolate syrup had only been used for making ice-cream sodas.

1889, The Wall Street Journal was first published.

1892 License plate designer born

1905 The mutinous crew of the battleship Potemkin surrenders to Rumanian authorities.

1907, 100 years ago, Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies," on the roof of the New York Theater.

1918 Ernest Hemingway is wounded in Italy while working as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross.

1919, President Woodrow Wilson received a tumultuous welcome in New York City after his return from the Versailles Peace Conference in France.

1941 20 B-17s fly in their first mission with the Royal Air Force over Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

1943 American B-24 bombers strike Japanese-held Wake Island for the first time.

1947, demolition work began in New York City to make way for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations.

1947, U.S. Army Air Force officials in Roswell, N.M., announced that an object that had crashed nearby was a weather balloon — not a "flying disc," as initially reported.

1950, President Truman named Gen. Douglas MacArthur commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea.

1953 Notre Dame announced that the next five years of its football games would be shown in theatres over closed circuit TV.

1960 The Soviet Union charges American pilot Francis Gary Powers with espionage.

1970 The San Francisco Giant’s, Jim Ray Hart, became the first National League player in 59 seasons to collect six runs batted (RBI) during a single inning.

1986, Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.

1994, Kim Il Sung, North Korea's communist leader since 1948, died at age 82.

1997 The Mayo Clinic and the U.S. government warned that the diet-drug combination known as "fen-phen" could cause serious heart and lung damage.

1997 NATO invited Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to join the alliance in 1999.

2000 J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was released in the U.S. It was the fourth Harry Potter book.



Ten years ago:
The U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee opened politically charged hearings into fund-raising abuses, with chairman Fred Thompson accusing China of trying to influence the 1996 U.S. elections.

NATO extended membership invitations to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The Mayo Clinic and the government warned the diet-drug combination known as "fen-phen" could cause serious heart and lung damage.


Five years ago:
WorldCom and its former auditors clashed over responsibility for nearly $4 billion in accounting improprieties, as WorldCom's former CEO and finance chief, Scott Sullivan, refused to testify before a House panel investigating the debacle.


One year ago:
Four more U.S. soldiers were charged with rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.

Discovery astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour spacewalk to test a repair technique for space shuttles.

Amelie Mauresmo beat Justine Henin-Hardenne, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Wimbledon to win her second Grand Slam championship.

Actress June Allyson died in Ojai, Calif., at age 88.


Today's Birthdays:
1621 Jean de La Fontaine, poet and author (Fables).
1838 Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German designer and manufacturer of airships.
1839 John D. Rockefeller, financier, philanthropist, founder of Standard Oil.
1869 Wiliam Vaughan Moody, poet and playwright (The Great Divide).
1906 Philip C. Johnson, architect.
1908 Nelson Rockefeller, U.S. vice president to Gerald Ford.
1943 Faye Wattleton, women's rights advocate.

Actor Mickey Carroll is 88.
Singer Jerry Vale is 75.
Singer Steve Lawrence is 72.
Actor Jeffrey Tambor is 63.
Ballerina Cynthia Gregory is 61.
Actress Kim Darby is 60.
Children's performer Raffi is 59.
Austrian-American celebrity chef, restaurateur Wolfgang Puck is 58.
Actress Anjelica Huston is 56.
News columnist Anna Quindlen is 55.
Actor Kevin Bacon is 49.
Rock musician Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode) is 46.
Country singer Toby Keith is 46.
Rock musician Graham Jones (Haircut 100) is 46.
Rock singer Joan Osborne is 45.
Writer-producer Rob Burnett is 45.
Actor Corey Parker is 42.
Actor Billy Crudup is 39.
Actor Michael Weatherly is 39.
Singer Beck is 37.
Country singer Drew Womack (Sons of the Desert) is 37.
Christian rock musician Stephen Mason (Jars of Clay) is 32.
Actor Milo Ventimiglia is 30.
Rock musician Tavis Werts (Reel Big Fish) is 30.
Singer Ben Jelen is 28.
Actress Sophia Bush is 25.
Rock musician Jamie Cook (Arctic Monkeys) is 22.
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