This day in history

[July 24, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Friday, July 24, the 205th day of 2009. There are 160 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 24, 1959, during a visit to Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in his famous "Kitchen Debate" with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. (The impromptu exchanges occurred in the kitchen of a model home at the American National Exhibition, with each man arguing for his country's technological advances.)

On this date:

In 1783, Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela.

In 1847, Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.

In 1858, Republican senatorial candidate Abraham Lincoln formally challenged Democrat Stephen A. Douglas to a series of political debates; the result was seven face-to-face encounters.

In 1862, the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, died in Kinderhook, N.Y.

In 1866, Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy.

In 1937, the state of Alabama dropped charges against four of the nine young black men accused of raping two white women in the "Scottsboro Case."

In 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts -- two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon -- splashed down safely in the Pacific.

In 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.

In 1975, an Apollo spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific, completing a mission which included the first-ever docking with a Soyuz capsule from the Soviet Union.

Ten years ago: President Bill Clinton attacked the Republicans' $792 billion tax-cut plan in fundraising speeches and his weekly radio address, saying it would "imperil the future stability of the country." House Majority Leader Dick Armey replied that the GOP plan would help fix an unfair tax system.

Five years ago: Without promising what specific steps he would take, President George W. Bush said in his weekly radio address that his administration was committed to relying on the recommendations of the September 11th commission in waging the war on terrorism. Former Nixon administration official Fred LaRue, who served a prison term for Watergate, died in Biloxi, Miss., at age 75.

One year ago: Ford Motor Co. posted the worst quarterly performance in its history, losing $8.67 billion. Cheered by an enormous crowd in Berlin, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama summoned Europeans and Americans together to "defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it" as surely as they had conquered communism a generation ago. Zvonko Busic, who'd served 32 years in a U.S. prison for hijacking a TWA jetliner and planting a bomb that killed a policeman, was paroled and returned home to Croatia.

Today's birthdays: Movie director Peter Yates is 80. Actress Jacqueline Brookes is 79. Actor John Aniston (TV: "Days of Our Lives") is 76. Political cartoonist Pat Oliphant is 74. Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 73. Actor Mark Goddard is 73. Actor Dan Hedaya is 69. Actor Chris Sarandon is 67. Comedian Gallagher is 63. Actor Robert Hays is 62. Former Republican national chairman Marc Racicot is 61. Actor Michael Richards is 60. Actress Lynda Carter is 58. Movie director Gus Van Sant is 57. Country singer Pam Tillis is 52. Actor Paul Ben-Victor is 47. Actor Kadeem Hardison is 44. Actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 41. Actress Laura Leighton is 41. Actor John P. Navin Jr. is 41. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 40. Former NBA player-turned-actor Rick Fox is 40. Actor Eric Szmanda is 34. Actress Rose Byrne is 30. Actress Summer Glau is 28. Actress Elisabeth Moss is 27. Actress Anna Paquin is 27. Actress Mara Wilson is 22. TV personality Bindi Irwin is 11.

Thought for today: "I never liked the middle ground -- the most boring place in the world." -- Louise Nevelson, Russian-American artist (1900-1988)

[Associated Press]

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