Today is Monday, July 11, the 193rd day of 1988. There are 173 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel near Weehawken, N.J. On this date: In 1533, Pope Clement VII excommunicated England's King Henry VIII. In 1767, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass. In 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps was created by an act of Congress. In 1864, Confederate forces led by Gen. Jubal Early began their invasion of Washington D.C. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to travel through the Panama Canal, aboard the cruiser Houston. In 1955, the new U.S. Air Force Academy was dedicated at Lowry Air Base in Colorado. In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee released volumes of evidence it had gathered in its Watergate inquiry. In 1977, the Medal of Freedom was awarded posthumously to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a White House ceremony. In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia. In 1980, American hostage Richard I. Queen, freed by Iran after eight months of captivity because of poor health, left Tehran for Switzerland. In 1985, Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros became the first pitcher in major league baseball to strike out 4,000 batters as he fanned Danny Heep of the New York Mets. Ten years ago: A tanker truck overfilled with propylene gas exploded on a coastal highway south of Tarragona, Spain, setting off a fireball that devastated a nearby campsite, killing 215 tourists as well as the driver. The National League downed the American League, 7-3, in baseball's 49th annual All-Star Game. Five years ago: The Reagan administration filed its first school desegregation suit, charging that Alabama's public colleges and universities were practicing racial segregation. One year ago: Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke won a third consecutive term, becoming the first Labor Party leader in the country's history to be elected to three straight terms in office. Today's Birthdays: Actor Tab Hunter is 57. Singer Bonnie Pointer is 37. Boxer Leon Spinks is 35. Thought for Today: ``History is written by the winners.'' _ Alex Haley, American author.
