July 15th

Today's Highlight in History:
On July 15th, 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an "Apollo" spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a "Soyuz" spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

On this date:
In 1606, Dutch painter Rembrandt was born in Leiden, Netherlands.

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union.

In 1916, Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products, was founded in Seattle.

In 1948, President Truman was nominated for another term of office by the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.

In 1964, Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona was nominated for president by the Republican national convention in San Francisco.

In 1965, US scientists displayed close-up photographs of the planet Mars taken by "Mariner Four."

In 1971, President Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China.

In 1985, a gaunt-looking Rock Hudson appeared at a news conference with actress Doris Day (it was later revealed Hudson was suffering from AIDS).

In 1992, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination in New York.

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace was shot dead outside his Miami home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan was found dead eight days later.

Ten years ago: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and visiting West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl held talks on the issue of a united Germany's membership in NATO. Tens of thousands of people marched in Moscow to protest the Communist Party's control of the government, the army and the KGB.

Five years ago: A 19-year-old sales clerk was rescued after being buried in the rubble of a collapsed shopping mall in Seoul, South Korea, for 16 days.

One year ago: The government acknowledged for the first time that thousands of workers were made sick while making nuclear weapons and announced a plan to compensate many of them. China declared that it had invented its own neutron bomb. The Seattle Mariners played their first game in their new home, Safeco Field, losing to the San Diego Padres, 3-to-2.

"It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods."

-- Margaret Fuller, American journalist and social critic (1810-1850).