On this date in:

1790 The District of Columbia was established as the seat of the U.S. government.

1945 The United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb, in the desert near Alamogordo, N.M.

1951 J.D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the Rye" was published.

1957 Marine Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he flew a jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

1964 In accepting the Republican presidential nomination in San Francisco, Barry M. Goldwater said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

1969 Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the moon.

1973 Former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield publicly revealed the existence of President Richard Nixon's secret taping system during the Senate Watergate hearings.

1979 Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq.

1980 Ronald Reagan won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Detroit.

1999 John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister died when the single-engine plane Kennedy was piloting plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

2004 Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge in New York for lying about a stock sale.

Current Birthdays

Will Ferrell turns 41 years old today.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer Actor-comedian Will Ferrell turns 41 years old today.

76 Dick Thornburgh
Former U.S. attorney general

69 William Bell
Soul singer

69 Corin Redgrave
Actor

66 Margaret Smith Court
Tennis Hall of Famer

60 Ruben Blades
Singer, actor

56 Stewart Copeland
Rock musician (The Police)

50 Michael Flatley
Dancer

45 Phoebe Cates
Actress

44 Craig Morgan
Country singer

40 Barry Sanders
Football Hall of Famer

39 Rain Pryor
Actress

37 Corey Feldman
Actor

37 Ed Kowalczyk
Rock musician (Live)

34 Ryan McCombs
Rock singer (Drowning Pool)

21 AnnaLynne McCord
Actress ("Nip/Tuck")

14 Mark Indelicato
Actor ("Ugly Betty")

Historic Birthdays

Ginger Rogers

7/16/1911 - 4/25/1995
American stage and screen dancer and actress
(Go to obit.)

59 Clare of Assisi
7/16/1194 - 8/11/1253
Italian founder of the order of Poor Clares; canonized in 1255

44 Andrea Del Sarto
7/16/1486 - 9/28/1530
Italian painter and draftsman

86 Marc-Rene Montalembert
7/16/1714 - 3/29/1800
French general and military engineer

69 Sir Joshua Reynolds
7/16/1723 - 2/23/1792
English portrait painter

79 Camille Corot
7/16/1796 - 2/22/1875
French landscape painter

89 Mary Baker Eddy
7/16/1821 - 12/3/1910
American founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist

64 Fannie Zeisler
7/16/1863 - 8/20/1927
Austrian-born American pianist

55 Roald Amundsen
7/16/1872 - 6/18/1928
Norwegian explorer; the first to reach the South Pole

83 Barbara Stanwyck
7/16/1907 - 1/20/1990
American motion-picture and television actress

68 Guy Laroche
7/16/1921 - 2/17/1989
French couturier