July 21st

Today's Highlight in History:
On July 21st, 1925, the so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution. (The conviction was later overturned.)

On this date:
In 1831, Belgium became independent as Leopold the First was proclaimed King of the Belgians.

In 1861, the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.

In 1899, author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois; poet Hart Crane was born in Garrettsville, Ohio.

In 1944, American forces landed on Guam during World War Two.

In 1949, the US Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.

In 1954, France surrendered North Vietnam to the Communists.

In 1955, during the Geneva summit, President Eisenhower presented his "open skies" proposal under which the U-S and the Soviet Union would trade information on each other's military facilities.

In 1961, Captain Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth, flying aboard the "Liberty Bell Seven."

In 1969, "Apollo Eleven" astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the lunar module.

In 1980, draft registration began in the United States for 19- and 20-year-old men.

Ten years ago: A day after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan announced his retirement, President Bush convened a meeting with key administration officials to begin finding a replacement.

Five years ago: At a 16-nation conference in London, the United States and NATO allies warned Bosnian Serbs that further attacks on UN safe havens would draw a "substantial and decisive response."

One year ago: Navy divers found the bodies of John F. Kennedy Junior, his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, in the wreckage of Kennedy's plane in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard. Advertising executive David Ogilvy died in Bonnes, France, at age 88.

"This is the final test of a gentleman: His respect for those who can be of no possible service to him."

-- William Lyon Phelps, American educator (1865-1943).