On this date in:

1606 The painter Rembrandt was born in Leiden, Netherlands.

1870 Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

1916 William Boeing founded Pacific Aero Products, the forerunner of the Boeing Co., in Seattle.

1948 President Harry S. Truman was nominated for another term by the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

1964 Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.

1971 President Richard Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China to seek a "normalization of relations."

1976 A 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, Calif., by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed.)

1979 President Jimmy Carter delivered a speech in which he lamented what he called a "crisis of confidence" in America. Though he didn't use the word, it became known as the "malaise" speech.

1992 Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in New York City.

1996 MSNBC, a 24-hour all-news network, made its debut on cable TV and the Internet.

1997 Fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot to death outside his home in Miami; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan was found dead eight days later.

1999 The government acknowledged for the first time that thousands of workers were made sick while making nuclear weapons and announced a compensation plan.

2002 John Walker Lindh, an American who had fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

2007 The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles announced it was settling clergy sex-abuse cases for $660 million.

2007 The Philadelphia Phillies lost their 10,000th game, 10-2, to the visiting St. Louis Cardinals.

Current Birthdays

Terry O'Quinn turns 56 years old today.

AP Photo/Richard Drew Actor Terry O'Quinn ("Lost") turns 56 years old today.

83 Philip Carey
Actor ("One Life To Live")

77 Clive Cussler
Author

73 Alex Karras
Actor

73 Ken Kercheval
Actor

72 George Voinovich
U.S. senator, R-Ohio

69 Patrick Wayne
Actor

64 Millie Jackson
R&B singer

64 Jan-Michael Vincent
Actor

63 Peter Lewis
Rock singer, musician (Moby Grape)

62 Linda Ronstadt
Singer

60 Artimus Pyle
Rock musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

56 John Stallworth
Football Hall of Famer

52 Marky Ramone
Rock musician (The Ramones)

52 Joe Satriani
Rock musician

51 Mac McAnally
Country singer, songwriter

48 Kim Alexis
Model

48 Willie Aames
Actor ("Eight is Enough")

47 Forest Whitaker
Actor ("The Last King of Scotland")

47 Lolita Davidovich
Actress

45 Brigitte Nielsen
Actress

42 Jason Bonham
Rock musician (Led Zeppelin)

42 Kristoff St. John
Actor ("The Young and the Restless")

41 Phillip Fisher
Rock musician

40 Eddie Griffin
Actor, comedian

40 Stan Kirsch
Actor

39 Reggie Hayes
Actor

36 Scott Foley
Actor ("The Unit," "Felicity")

35 John Dolmayan
Rock musician

35 Brian Austin Green
Actor ("Beverly Hills 90210")

32 Jim Jones
Rapper

31 Lana Parrilla
Actress ("Swingtown")

31 Ray Toro
Rock musician (My Chemical Romance)

27 Kia Thornton
R&B singer (Divine)

Historic Birthdays

Dame Iris Murdoch

7/15/1919 - 2/8/1999
British novelist and philosopher
(Go to obit.)

78 Inigo Jones
7/15/1573 - 6/21/1652
English architect, painter and designer

63 Rembrandt Van Rijn
7/15/1606 - 10/4/1669
Dutch painter, draftsman and etcher

83 Clement Moore
7/15/1779 - 7/10/1863
American scholar; wrote "The Night Before Christmas"

73 Sir Henry Cole
7/15/1808 - 4/18/1882
English art patron and educator

67 Mother Cabrini
7/15/1850 - 12/22/1917
Italian-born American founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart; canonized in 1946

57 Alfred Northcliffe
7/15/1865 - 8/14/1922
English newspaper publisher

38 Jacques Riviere
7/15/1886 - 2/14/1925
French writer, critic and editor

69 Thomas Francis, Jr.
7/15/1900 - 10/1/1969
American microbiologist and epidemiologist

62 Philly Joe Jones
7/15/1923 - 8/30/1985
American jazz percussionist