This day in history

[July 16, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Saturday, July 16, the 197th day of 2011. There are 168 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 16, 1911, actress-dancer Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Mo.

On this date:

In 1790, a site along the Potomac River was designated the permanent seat of the United States government; the area became Washington, D.C.

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

In 1935, the first parking meters were installed in Oklahoma City.

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

In 1951, the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger was first published by Little, Brown and Co.

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

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 1981, singer Harry Chapin was killed when his car was struck by a tractor-trailer on New York's Long Island Expressway.

In 1999, 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.

Ten years ago: South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan failed to reach an accord on their half-century dispute over Kashmir, ending a landmark three-day summit on a solemn note. Russia and China signed their first friendship treaty in more than half a century. Jacques Rogge (ROH'-guh) was elected to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch (SAM'-uh-rang) as president of the International Olympic Committee.

Five years ago: President George W. Bush and other Group of Eight world leaders meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, urged Israel to show "utmost restraint" and blamed Hezbollah and Hamas for escalating violence in the Middle East. Claiming election fraud had robbed him of Mexico's presidency, leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (ahn-DRAYS' mahn-WEHL' LOH'-pez OH'-brah-dohr) led hundreds of thousands of marchers through the capital.

One year ago: Retired intelligence analyst Kendall Myers, the 73-year-old great grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for quietly spying for Cuba for nearly a third of a century from inside the State Department; his wife, Gwendolyn, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years. American sprinters who'd been stripped of their 2000 Olympics relay medals because teammate Marion Jones was doping won an appeal to have them restored.

Today's birthdays: Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is 79. Soul singer Denise LaSalle is 77. Soul singer William Bell is 72. International Tennis Hall of Famer Margaret Court is 69. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 63. Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 63. Rock composer-musician Stewart Copeland is 59. Playwright Tony Kushner is 55. Dancer Michael Flatley is 53. Actress Phoebe Cates is 48. Actor Daryl "Chill" Mitchell is 46. Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 44. Actor Jonathan Adams is 44. Actress Rain Pryor is 42. Actor Corey Feldman is 40. Rock musician Ed Kowalczyk (Live) is 40. Rock singer Ryan McCombs (Drowning Pool) is 37. Actress AnnaLynne McCord is 24. Actor-singer James Maslow is 21. Actor Mark Indelicato ("Ugly Betty") is 17.

Thought for today: "When two people love each other, they don't look at each other, they look in the same direction." -- Ginger Rogers (1911-1995)

[Associated Press]

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