TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, July 18, the 199th day of 2017. There are 166 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 18, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed a Presidential Succession Act that placed the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore next in the line of succession after the vice president.

On this date:

In 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.)

In 1932, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to develop the St. Lawrence Seaway.

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 1976, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, competing at the Montreal Olympics, received the first-ever perfect score of 10 with her routine on uneven parallel bars. (Comaneci would go on to receive six more 10s in Montreal.)

Ten years ago: Senate Republicans torpedoed legislation to force the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq. An underground steam pipe exploded on a New York City street, swallowing a tow truck and claiming the life of a woman who suffered a heart attack.

Five years ago: Rebels penetrated the heart of Syria’s power elite, detonating a bomb inside a high-level crisis meeting in Damascus that killed three leaders of the regime, including President Bashar Assad’s brother-in-law and the defense minister. A bus bombing at the Burgas airport in Bulgaria killed five Israeli tourists, the bus driver and the suspected perpetrator.

One year ago: President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to retired Lt. Col. Charles Kettles, a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War credited with helping rescue more than 40 American soldiers under heavy fire.

Today’s Birthdays: Skating champion and commentator Dick Button is 88. Musician Brian Auger is 78. Singer Dion DiMucci is 78. Actor James Brolin is 77. Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Torre is 77. Singer Martha Reeves is 76. Pop-rock musician Wally Bryson (The Raspberries) is 68. Country-rock singer Craig Fuller (Pure Prairie League) is 68. Business mogul Richard Branson is 67. Actress Margo Martindale is 66. Singer Ricky Skaggs is 63. World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Faldo is 60.

Thought for Today: “It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.”—From “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen (1775-1817).