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 Today's highlights in history:
On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain.
On this date:
In 1509, England's King Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon.
In 1770, Capt. James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it.
In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner.
In 1947, the government announced the end of household and institutional sugar rationing, to take effect the next day.
In 1963, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set himself afire on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
In 1970, the United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.
In 1977, Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown.
In 1978, Joseph Freeman Jr. became the first black priest ordained in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan, the comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision, died in Morris Plains, N.J., at age 31.
In 2001, Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
Ten years ago: Mitsubishi Motors agreed to pay $34 million to settle allegations that women on the assembly line at its Illinois factory were groped and insulted and that managers did nothing to stop it.
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 Five years ago: A suicide bomber killed 17 people in a Jerusalem bus blast; two Israeli rocket strikes against Hamas fugitives killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza City. Houston's Roy Oswalt, Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner combined for the first no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 45 years, winning 8-0. Pioneering broadcast journalist David Brinkley died in Houston at age 82.
One year ago: Republicans blocked a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, rejecting a symbolic Democratic effort to force him from office amid blistering criticism from lawmakers in both parties. A divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Bush administration could not use new anti-terrorism laws to keep U.S. residents locked up indefinitely without charging them. Actress Mala Powers died in Burbank, Calif., at age 75.
Today's birthdays: Opera singer Rise Stevens is 95. Actor-producer Richard Todd is 89. Actor Gene Wilder is 75. Actor Chad Everett is 71. Comedian Johnny Brown is 71. Former auto racer Jackie Stewart is 69. Singer Joey Dee is 68. Actress Adrienne Barbeau is 63. Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 59. Rock singer Donnie Van Zant is 56. Actor Peter Bergman is 55. Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 52. Actor Hugh Laurie ("House, M.D.") is 49. Singer Gioia Bruno (Expose) is 45. Country singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is 42. Actor Peter Dinklage is 39. Country musician Smilin' Jay McDowell is 39. Rock musician Dan Lavery (Tonic) is 39. Rock musician Tai Anderson (Third Day) is 32. Actor Joshua Jackson is 30. Christian rock musician Ryan Shrout (Kutless) is 28. Actor Shia LaBeouf is 22.
Thought for today: "Forgetfulness is a form of freedom."
-- Khalil Gibran, American poet and artist (1883-1931)
[Associated Press]
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