July eleventh

Today's Highlight in History:
On July eleventh, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, New Jersey.

On this date:
In 1533, Pope Clement the Seventh excommunicated England's King Henry the Eighth.

In 1767, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts.

In 1798, the US Marine Corps was formally re-established by a congressional act that also created the US Marine Band.

In 1864, Confederate forces led by General Jubal Early began an abortive invasion of Washington DC, turning back the next day.

In 1934, President Roosevelt became the first chief executive to travel through the Panama Canal.

In 1955, the US Air Force Academy was dedicated at Lowry Air Base in Colorado.

In 1977, the Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior.

In 1979, the abandoned US space station "Skylab" made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

In 1980, American hostage Richard I. Queen, freed by Iran after eight months of captivity because of poor health, left Tehran for Switzerland.

In 1989, actor Laurence Olivier died at age 82.

Ten years ago: Leaders of the so-called "Group of Seven" nations concluded their summit in Houston by encouraging Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to enact reforms in return for Western aid.

Five years ago: The UN-designated "safe haven" of Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces. The United States normalized relations with Vietnam.

One year ago: A US Air Force cargo jet, braving Antarctic winter, swept down over the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Center to drop off emergency medical supplies for Dr. Jerri Nielsen, a physician at the center who had discovered a lump in her breast.

"False democracy shouts Every man down to the level of the average. True democracy cries All men up to the height of their fullest capacity for service and achievement."

-- Nicholas Murray Butler, American educator (1862-1947).