Adv16

Adv16
For release Friday, July 16
Today in History
By The Associated Press
Today is Friday, July 16, the 198th day of 2004. There are 168 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On July 16, 1945, the United States exploded its first experimental atomic bomb, in the desert of Alamogordo, N.M.
On this date:
In 1790, the District of Columbia was established as the seat of the United States government.
In 1862, David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the United States Navy.
In 1918, Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his empress and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks.
In 1951, the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger was first published.
In 1964, in accepting 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 Nixon's secret taping system.
In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq.
In 1980, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Detroit.
In 1981, singer Harry Chapin was killed when his car was struck by a tractor-trailer on New York's Long Island Expressway.
Ten years ago: The first of 21 pieces of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter, to the joy of astronomers awaiting the celestial fireworks.
Five years ago: John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when the single-engine plane Kennedy was piloting plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Stanley Kubrick's final film, "Eyes Wide Shut" starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, opened.
One year ago: The Environmental Protection Agency announced it was starting big-money, long-term cleanups at 10 Superfund toxic waste sites and putting ten other sites aside for later. A car driven by 87-year-old George Russell Weller plowed through a farmer's market in Santa Monica, Calif., killing 10 people and injuring 63. Cuban-born "Queen of Salsa" Celia Cruz died in Fort Lee, N.J. at age 77.
Today's Birthdays: T.V. director Vincent Sherman is 98. Actor Barnard Hughes is 89. Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is 72. Soul singer William Bell is 65. Actor Corin Redgrave is 65. Former tennis player Margaret Court is 62. Violinist Pinchas Zukerman is 56. Actor-singer Ruben Blades is 56. Rock composer-musician Stewart Copeland is 52. Dancer Michael Flatley is 46. Actress Phoebe Cates is 41. Country singer Craig Morgan is 39. Actor-comedian Will Ferrell is 37. Actress Rain Pryor is 35. Actor Corey Feldman is 33. Rock musician Ed Kowalczyk (Live) is 33.
Thought for Today: "The fear of becoming a 'has been' keeps some people from becoming anything." -- Eric Hoffer, American author-philosopher (1902-1983).