This day in history

[July 07, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Tuesday, July 7, the 188th day of 2009. There are 177 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 7, 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C., for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

On this date:

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii.

In 1908, the Democratic national convention, which nominated William Jennings Bryan for president, opened in Denver.

In 1919, the first Transcontinental Motor Convoy, in which a U.S. Army convoy of motorized vehicles crossed the United States, departed Washington, D.C. (The trip ended in San Francisco on Sept. 6, 1919.)

In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam).

In 1948, six female reservists became the first women to be sworn into the regular U.S. Navy.

In 1969, Canada's House of Commons gave final approval to the Official Languages Act, making French equal to English throughout the national government.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1983, 11-year-old Samantha Smith of Manchester, Maine, left for a visit to the Soviet Union at the personal invitation of Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov.

In 2005, suicide terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II.

Ten years ago: In the first class-action lawsuit by smokers to go to trial, a jury in Miami held cigarette makers liable for making a defective product that caused emphysema, lung cancer and other illnesses. (The jury later ordered the tobacco industry to pay $145 billion in punitive damages, but the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 voided the award, saying each smoker's case had to be decided individually.) President Bill Clinton became the first chief executive since Franklin D. Roosevelt to visit an Indian reservation as he toured the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Five years ago: Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay was indicted on criminal charges related to the energy company's collapse. (Lay was later convicted of fraud and conspiracy, but died in July 2006 before he could be sentenced.) Jeff Smith, public television's popular "Frugal Gourmet" until a sex scandal ruined his career, died at age 65.

One year ago: A suicide bomber struck the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing at least 60 people. President George W. Bush met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the first time at the G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan. Actress Nicole Kidman gave birth to a girl; she and her husband, country star Keith Urban, named their daughter Sunday Rose Kidman Urban.

Today's birthdays: Blues musician Pinetop Perkins is 96. Musician-conductor Doc Severinsen is 82. Country singer Charlie Louvin is 82. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough is 76. Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is 69. Singer-musician Warren Entner (The Grass Roots) is 65. Rock musician Jim Rodford is 64. Actor Joe Spano is 63. Pop singer David Hodo (The Village People) is 62. Country singer Linda Williams is 62. Actress Shelley Duvall is 60. Actress Roz Ryan is 58. Actor Billy Campbell is 50. Rock musician Mark White (Spin Doctors) is 47. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 46. Actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan is 43. R&B musician Ricky Kinchen (Mint Condition) is 43. Actress Jorja Fox is 41. Actress Cree Summer is 40. Actress Kirsten Vangsness is 37. Actor Troy Garity is 36. Actor Hamish Linklater is 33. Olympic silver and bronze medal figure skater Michelle Kwan is 29. Rapper Cassidy is 27. Country singer Gabbie Nolen is 27.

Thought for today: "Only a mediocre person is always at his best." -- W. Somerset Maugham, English author and dramatist (1874-1965)

[Associated Press]

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