This day in history

[July 16, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, July 16, the 197th day of 2009. There are 168 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. and Michael Collins, blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon.

On this date:

In 1790, a site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the U.S. government; the area became Washington.

In 1862, David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States Navy.

In 1909, the Audi auto company was founded in Zwickau, Germany, by August Horch under the name Horch Automobil-Werke. (A legal dispute resulted in Horch renaming the company Audiwerke the following year.)

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

In 1957, Marine Maj. John Glenn set a transcontinental speed record by flying a jet from California to New York in three hours, 23 minutes and eight seconds.

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

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

In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq.

In 1989, conductor Herbert von Karajan died near Salzburg, Austria, at age 81.

In 1994, the first of 21 pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter, to the joy of astronomers awaiting the celestial fireworks.

Ten years ago: John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when their single-engine plane, piloted by Kennedy, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

Five years ago: 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. Some 90 children were killed in a school fire in southern India. Former Georgia Gov. George Busbee died in Savannah at age 76.

One year ago: Republican John McCain addressed the annual convention of the NAACP, telling the civil rights group in Cincinnati he would expand education opportunities, partly through vouchers for low-income children to attend private school. Israel freed notorious Lebanese militant Samir Kantar and four others after Hezbollah guerrillas handed over the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. Band singer Jo Stafford died in Century City, Calif., at age 90.

Today's birthdays: Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is 77. Soul singer Denise LaSalle is 75. Soul singer William Bell is 70. Actor Corin Redgrave is 70. Former tennis player Margaret Court is 67. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 61. Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 61. Rock composer-musician Stewart Copeland (The Police) is 57. Playwright Tony Kushner is 53. Dancer Michael Flatley is 51. Former NFL kicker Gary Anderson is 50. Actress Phoebe Cates is 46. Country singer Craig Morgan is 45. Actor Daryl "Chill" Mitchell is 44. Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 42. Actress Rain Pryor is 40. Actor Corey Feldman is 38. Rock musician Ed Kowalczyk (Live) is 38. Rock singer Ryan McCombs (Drowning Pool) is 35. Actress AnnaLynne McCord is 22. Actor Mark Indelicato ("Ugly Betty") is 15.

Thought for today: "What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that man set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth." -- Norman Cousins, American author and journalist (1915-1990)

[Associated Press]

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