This day in history

[July 07, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, July 7, the 188th day of 2011. There are 177 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 7, 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.

On this date:

In 1846, U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey (mahn-tuh-RAY') after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.

In 1860, composer-conductor Gustav Mahler was born in Kalischt, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (in the present-day Czech Republic).

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

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii.

In 1911, composer Gian Carlo Menotti was born in Cadegliano, Italy.

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 1941, U.S. forces took up positions in Iceland, Trinidad and British Guiana to forestall any Nazi invasion, even though the United States had not yet entered the Second World War.

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 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 (ahn-DROH'-pawf).

Ten years ago: Racial violence between white and south Asian youths erupted in Bradford, England.

Five years ago: Japan introduced a draft U.N. Security Council resolution to sanction North Korea for test-launching a series of missiles. (The Council unanimously adopted a compromise resolution on July 15.) Syd Barrett, co-founder of Pink Floyd, died in Cambridge, England, at age 60.

One year ago: President Barack Obama bypassed the Senate and appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to run Medicare and Medicaid. In Philadelphia, a disabled sightseeing "duck boat" adrift in the Delaware River was struck by a barge and capsized; two Hungarian tourists died. Los Angeles police charged Lonnie Franklin Jr. in the city's "Grim Sleeper" serial killings.

Today's birthdays: Musician-conductor Doc Severinsen is 84. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough is 78. Rock star Ringo Starr is 71. Singer-musician Warren Entner (The Grass Roots) is 68. Rock musician Jim Rodford is 66. Actor Joe Spano is 65. Pop singer David Hodo (The Village People) is 64. Country singer Linda Williams is 64. Actress Shelley Duvall is 62. Actress Roz Ryan is 60 Actor Billy Campbell is 52. Rock musician Mark White (Spin Doctors) is 49. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 48. Actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan is 45. Rhythm-and-blues musician Ricky Kinchen (Mint Condition) is 45. Actress Amy Carlson is 43. Actress Jorja Fox is 43. Actress Cree Summer is 42. Actress Kirsten Vangsness is 39. Actor Troy Garity is 38. Actor Hamish Linklater is 35. Olympic silver and bronze medal figure skater Michelle Kwan is 31. Rapper Cassidy is 29. Country singer Gabbie Nolen is 29 Actor Ross Malinger is 27.

Thought for today: "Memory depends very much on the perspicuity, regularity, and order of our thoughts. Many complain of the want of memory, when the defect is in their judgment; and others, by grasping at all, retain nothing." -- Margaret Fuller, American critic and social reformer (1810-1850)

[Associated Press]

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