Today is Friday, July 18, the 199th day of 2014. There are 166 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 18, A.D. 64, the Great Fire of Rome began, consuming most of the city for about a week. (Some
blamed the fire on Emperor Nero, who in turn blamed Christians.)
On this date: In 1536, the English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in
England.
In 1932, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Presidential Succession Act which placed the speaker of the
House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.
In 1964, nearly a week of rioting erupted in New York’s Harlem neighborhood following the fatal police
shooting of a black teenager, James Powell, two days earlier.
In 1969, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., left a party on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard
with Mary Jo Kopechne 28; some time later, Kennedy’s car went off a bridge into the water. (Kennedy was
able to escape, but Kopechne drowned.)
In 1984, gunman James Huberty opened fire at a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in San Ysidro, California,
killing 21 people before being shot dead by police.
In 1989, actress Rebecca Schaeffer, 21, was shot to death at her Los Angeles home by obsessed fan Robert
Bardo, who was later sentenced to life in prison.
In 1994, a bomb hidden in a van destroyed a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing
85.
Five years ago: The Taliban posted a video of an American soldier who’d gone missing June 30, 2009 from
his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured; in the recording, the
soldier (later identified as Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl) said he was "scared I won’t be able to go
home."
One year ago: Once the very symbol of American industrial might, Detroit became the biggest U.S. city to
file for bankruptcy.