July 25th

Today's Highlight in History:
On July 25th, 1866, Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army, the first officer to hold the rank.

On this date:
In 1593, France's King Henry the Fourth converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

In 1868, Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory.

In 1909, French aviator Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel in a monoplane, traveling from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes.

In 1944, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In" in Los Angeles for Decca Records.

In 1946, the United States detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the first underwater test of the device.

In 1952, Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.

In 1956, 51 people died when the Italian liner "Andrea Doria" sank after colliding with the Swedish ship "Stockholm" off the New England coast.

In 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the first "test tube baby," was born in Oldham, England; she'd been conceived through the technique of in-vitro fertilization.

In 1985, a spokeswoman for Rock Hudson confirmed that the actor, hospitalized in Paris, was suffering from "AIDS." (Hudson died the following October.)

In 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein signed a declaration at the White House ending their countries' 46-year-old formal state of war.

Ten years ago: The US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to discuss Iraq's economic dispute with Kuwait. The Senate formally denounced Senator Dave Durenberger (Republican, Minnesota) for financial improprieties. Comedian Roseanne Barr sparked controversy with an off-key rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" during a double-header at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

Five years ago: A bomb exploded on a Paris subway, killing seven people and injuring at least 60. A UN war crimes tribunal indicted Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, army commander General Ratko Mladic, and 22 other Serbs for war crimes.

One year ago: The Woodstock '99 music festival in Rome, New York, ended in fires and looting. Lance Armstrong rode to victory in the Tour de France. Morocco held a funeral for King Hassan the Second.

"One brave deed makes no hero."

-- John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet and essayist (1807-1892).