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***Today's Highlight in History:
- On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound Boeing 747, exploded and crashed off Long Island, N.Y., shortly after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people aboard.
- In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
- In 1841, the British humor magazine Punch was first published.
- In 1918, Russia's Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
- In 1938, aviator Douglas Corrigan took off from New York, saying he was headed for California; he ended up in Ireland, supposedly by accident, earning the nickname "Wrong Way Corrigan."
- In 1944, 322 people were killed when a pair of ammunition ships exploded in Port Chicago, Calif.
- In 1948, Southern Democrats opposed to the nomination of President Truman met in Birmingham, Ala., to endorse South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond.
- In 1955, Disneyland opened to the public in Anaheim, Calif.
- In 1968, a coup in Iraq returned the Baath Party to power, five years after it was ousted.
- In 1975, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup of its kind.
- In 1981, 114 people were killed when a pair of walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a "tea dance."
- Prosecutors in the Monica Lewinsky case questioned President Clinton's Secret Service protectors before a grand jury.
- Nicholas II, last of the Romanov czars, was buried in Russia 80 years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
- A 23-foot-high tsunami hit the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, killing more than 2,000 people.
- In Rome, delegates from more than 100 countries overwhelmingly approved a historic treaty creating the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal — ignoring strenuous U.S. objections over certain provisions.
- President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair forcefully defended their decision to topple Saddam Hussein during a joint White House news conference. In a speech to the U.S. Congress, Blair said even if they were proven wrong about Iraq's weapons capabilities, "We will have destroyed a threat that at its least is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering."
- Democrats Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich apologized to the NAACP for bypassing a presidential forum.
- Senate Democrats launched an all-night debate on the Iraq war.
- VA Secretary Jim Nicholson abruptly resigned in the wake of charges of shoddy health care for veterans injured in the Iraq war.
- A Brazilian passenger jet crashed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, killing all 187 people aboard and 12 on the ground.
- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury in Richmond, Va., on charges related to competitive dogfighting. (Vick later admitted bankrolling the dogfighting operation and helping to kill six to eight dogs; he was sentenced to 23 months in prison.)
- The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 14,000 for the first time before ending the day at 13,918.22.
- TV personality Art Linkletter is 96.
- Comedian Phyllis Diller is 91.
- The former president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, is 88.
- Jazz singer Jimmy Scott is 83.
- Actor Donald Sutherland is 73.
- Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 73.
- Rock musician Spencer Davis is 66.
- Rock musician Terry "Geezer" Butler (Black Sabbath) is 59.
- Actress Lucie Arnaz is 57.
- Actor David Hasselhoff is 56.
- Rock musician Fran Smith Jr. (The Hooters) is 56.
- Singer Phoebe Snow is 56.
- Television producer Mark Burnett ("Survivor," "The Apprentice") is 48.
- Actress Nancy Giles is 48.
- Singer Regina Belle is 45.
- Rock musician Lou Barlow is 42.
- Hip-hop singer Guru (Gang Starr) is 42.
- Contemporary Christian singer Susan Ashton is 41.
- Actor Andre Royo is 40.
- Actress Bitty Schram is 40.
- Actor Jason Clarke is 39.
- Singer JC (PM Dawn) is 37.
- Rapper Sole' is 35.
- Country singer Luke Bryan is 32.
- Actor Eric Winter is 32.
"Life has taught me that it is not for our faults that we are disliked and even hated, but for our qualities."
Bernard Berenson, Lithuanian-American art critic and author (1865-1959).
"Let's all be careful out there!"
