Friday, July 29th
The 210th day of 2005
There are 155 days left in the year

Today's Highlights in History (Via The New York Times)

On July 29, 1981, Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. (Go to article.)

On July 29, 1905, Dag Hammarskjold, the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish statesman and secretary-general of the United Nations from 1953 to 1961, was born. Following his death on September 18, 1961, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. Other Birthdays)

On July 29, 1871, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the Orange Riots in New York City. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

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Today in History (Via Iraq War Today)
1588 - The attacking Spanish Armada is crushed by English defenders.
1715 - A hurricane sinks ten Spanish treasure galleons off the coast of Florida.
1786 - The "Pitts Gazette" becomes the first newspaper published west of the Alleghenies.
1858 - The first commercial treaty between the U.S. and Japan is signed; U.S. citizens are allowed to live anywhere in Japan.
1899 - Manhattan Beach, NY, witnesses the first motorcycle race.
1915 - U.S. marines land in Haiti to quell anarchy and help establish the Haitian armed forces; the last leave in 1934.
1920 - The first transcontinental airmail flight goes from New York to San Francisco.
1928 - Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" is released
1938 - Olympic National Park is established
1952 - First nonstop transpacific jetflight.
1956 - Jacques Cousteau's Calypso sets a record, anchoring in 7,500 m of water.
1957 - The U.N establishes the International Atomic Energy Agency; Jack Paar's "Tonight Show" premiers.
1958 - President Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act.

1967 - In the Gulf of Tonkin, an explosion and fire aboard the carrier USS Forrestal kills 134 and causes $100 million worth of damage. See Iraq War Today for this post and photos about the Forrestal.

1969 - Mariner-6 begins transmitting far-encounter photos of Mars.
1975 - Gerald Ford becomes the first U.S. President to visit Auschwitz.
1978 - Pioneer-11 transmits images of Saturn and its rings.
1981 - Charles, Prince of Wales, weds Lady Diana Spencer.
1988 - In Lansing, MI, the last Playboy Club in the U.S. closes.
1991 - Donald Trump gives Marla Maples a 7+ carat engagement ring

Birthdays
1861 - Alica Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, Teddy's first wife
1871 - Rasputin (Gregory Efimovich), the mad Russian monk
1883 - Benito Mussolini, Fascist Italian dictator
1898 - Isidor Isaac Rabi, physicist, explored the atom, Nobel Prize winner
1905 - Dag Hammarskjöld, second U.N. Secretary-General (1953-61), Nobel Prize winner
1932 - Nancy Kassebaum (Sen-KS)
1936 - Elizabeth Dole, U.S. Secretary of Transportation (1981-87), wife of Bob Dole
1938 - Peter Jennings, news anchor (ABC Evening News)

Passings
1030 - King Olaf Haraldsson of Norway (Olav II - later canonized as St. Olaf), in battle of Stiklestad
1890 - Vincent Van Gogh, artist
1900 - King Umberto I of Italy, assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci
1960 - Richard Simon, cofounder of Simon and Shuster
1974 - Cass "Mamma Cass" Elliot (Mamas and Papas)

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Brown, Edward D., Jr., USN (NC); F8E shot down, KIA, body not recovered
Weatherby, Jack Wilton, USAF (TX); RF101 shot down, remains returned August, 1978
1966
Bossio Galileo F., USAF (WA); RC47D shot down, presumed dead
Cameron, Virgil K., USN (TX); A4E shot down, remains ID'd August, 1999
Chiarello, Vincent A., USAF (NY); RC47D shot down, KIA in crash, remains returned March, 1988
Conklin, Bernard, USAF (NY); RC47D shot down, KIA in crash, remains returned March, 1988
Di Tommaso, Robert J., USAF (NY); RC47D shot down, presumed dead
Hall, James S., USAF (NC); RC47D shot down, KIA in crash, remains returned March, 1988
Hoskinson, Robert E., USAF (OR); RC47D shot down, presumed dead
Laws, Delmer L., US Army SF (MO); KIA when his unit was ambushed
Mamiya, John II, USAF (HI); RC47D shot down, KIA in crash, remains returned March, 1988
Smith, Herbert E., USAF (FL); RC47D shot down, KIA in crash, remains returned March, 1988
1967
Bennefeld, Steven Henry, USMC (KS); KIA, body not recovered
Johnson, Richard H. USMC (NY); KIA, body not recovered
1968
Auxier, Jerry E. Dixie, US Army (WV); presumed Killed, body not recovered
1972
Kula, James D., USAF (NH); F4E shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel in 1999
Matsui, Melvin K., USAF (HI); F4E shot down, released by DRV March, 1973

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Today's American Minute
Alexis de Tocqueville was born this day, July 29, 1805.

He was a French social philosopher who traveled the United States in 1831.

His work, "Democracy in America," has been described as "the most comprehensive...analysis...between character and society in America that has ever been written."

In it, de Tocqueville wrote: "In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country....

Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it...

There is no country in the whole world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility...than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth."