A giant Mickey Mouse hot air balloon, over four stories high, is inflated in Moscow's Red Square, July 22, 1991. The balloon was used as a prop in a film for the new EuroDisney resort which is scheduled to open in next spring in Paris. (AP Photo/Olga Shalygin)

Today is Sunday, July 18, the 199th day of 2021. There are 166 days left in the year.

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Today’s Highlight in History

On July 18, 1918, South African anti-apartheid leader and president Nelson Mandela was born in the village of Mvezo.

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Spectators crowd the scene, hours before the music spectacle “The Wall” starts at the site in East Berlin on Saturday, July 21, 1990 where former Berlin Wall and death strip had divided the city in East and West. Building in rear is the Reichstag, the pre-war German parliament. (AP Photo/Rainer Klostermeier)

On this date

In 1536, the English Parliament passed an act declaring the authority of the pope void in England.

In 1863, during the Civil War, Union troops spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made up of Black soldiers, charged Confederate-held Fort Wagner on Morris Island, S.C. The Confederates were able to repel the Northerners, who suffered heavy losses; the 54th’s commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was among those who were killed.

In 1872, Britain enacted voting by secret ballot.

In 1940, the Democratic National Convention at Chicago Stadium nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who was monitoring the proceedings at the White House) for an unprecedented third term in office; earlier in the day, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke to the convention, becoming the first presidential spouse to address such a gathering.

Supreme Court nominee Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg is surrounded by photographers prior to the start of her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, July 20, 1993 in Washington before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Washington D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton who helped introduced Ginsburg is at right. (AP Photo/Doug Mills)

In 1944, Hideki Tojo was removed as Japanese premier and war minister because of setbacks suffered by his country in World War II. American forces in France captured the Normandy town of St. Lo.

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 (chap-uh-KWIH’-dihk) Island near Martha’s Vineyard with Mary Jo Kopechne (koh-PEHK’-nee), 28; Kennedy’s car later went off a bridge into the water. Kennedy was able to escape, but Kopechne drowned.

In 1976, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci (koh-mah-NEECH’), 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.)

In 1984, gunman James Huberty opened fire at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro (ee-SEE’-droh), California, killing 21 people before being shot dead by police. Walter F. Mondale won the Democratic presidential nomination in San Francisco.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), delivers a speech at American University, Friday, July 18, 1980, in Washington, D.C., where he said he will continue fighting for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Kennedy said Ronald Reagan may win the presidency if Democrats don't reject President Jimmy Carters "fools gold of failing policies." (AP Photo/Peter Cullen)

In 1994, a bomb hidden in a van destroyed a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85. Tutsi rebels declared an end to Rwanda’s 14-week-old civil war.

In 2005, an unrepentant Eric Rudolph was sentenced in Birmingham, Alabama, to life in prison for an abortion clinic bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.

Ten years ago: Gen. David Petraeus handed over command of American and coalition forces in Afghanistan to Gen. John Allen as he left to take over the Central Intelligence Agency. Reeling from months of tragedy caused by a devastating tsunami and earthquake, Japan celebrated after its women’s soccer team won the World Cup by beating the United States 3-1 on penalty kicks, after coming from behind twice in a 2-2 tie.

Five years ago: Republicans opened their national convention in Cleveland as they prepared to nominate Donald Trump for president; Trump’s wife, Melania, delivered a speech in which she assured delegates and voters that her husband had the character and determination to unite a divided nation. (Mrs. Trump’s well-received address was marred by two passages with similarities to a speech first lady Michelle Obama delivered at the 2008 Democratic convention; a speechwriter accepted responsibility for the passages in question.) 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.

One year ago: The World Health Organization reported a single-day record of new coronavirus infections – more than 259,000 worldwide – for a second day in a row. South Africa became one of the five worst-hit countries in the pandemic.

Today’s Birthdays: Skating champion and commentator Dick Button is 92. Olympic gold medal figure skater Tenley Albright is 86. Movie director Paul Verhoeven is 83. Musician Brian Auger is 82. Singer Dion DiMucci is 82. Actor James Brolin is 81. Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Torre is 81. Singer Martha Reeves is 80. Pop-rock musician Wally Bryson (The Raspberries) is 72. Country-rock singer Craig Fuller (Pure Prairie League) is 72. Business mogul Richard Branson is 71. Actor Margo Martindale is 70. Singer Ricky Skaggs is 67. Actor Audrey Landers is 65. World Golf Hall of Famer Nick Faldo is 64. Rock musician Nigel Twist (The Alarm) is 64. Actor Anne-Marie Johnson is 61. Actor Elizabeth McGovern is 60. Rock musician John Hermann (Widespread Panic) is 59. Rock musician Jack Irons is 59. Talk show host-actor Wendy Williams is 57. Actor Vin Diesel is 54. Actor Grant Bowler is 53. Retired NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway is 50. Bluegrass musician Jesse Brock (The Gibson Brothers) is 49. Alt-country singer Elizabeth Cook is 49. Actor Eddie Matos is 49. Dance music singer-songwriter M.I.A. is 46. Rock musician Daron Malakian (System of a Down; Scars on Broadway) is 46. Actor Elsa Pataky (“The Fast and the Furious” films) is 45. Rock musician Tony Fagenson (formerly with Eve 6) is 43. Movie director Jared Hess is 42. Actor Jason Weaver is 42. Actor Kristen Bell is 41. Actor Michiel Huisman (MIHK’-heel HOWS’-man) is 40. Rock singer Ryan Cabrera is 39. Actor Priyanka Chopra is 39.

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JULY 19

On July 19, 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.

In 1848, a pioneering women’s rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, New York.

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JULY 20

On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon after reaching the surface in their Apollo 11 lunar module.

In 1951, Jordan’s King Abdullah I was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian gunman who was shot dead on the spot by security.

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JULY 21

On July 21, 1944, American forces landed on Guam during World War II, capturing it from the Japanese some three weeks later.

In 1861, during the Civil War, the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.

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JULY 22

On July 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln presented to his Cabinet a preliminary draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.

In 1934, bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater, where he had just seen the Clark Gable movie “Manhattan Melodrama.”

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JULY 23

On July 23, 2003, Massachusetts’ attorney general issued a report saying clergy members and others in the Boston Archdiocese probably had sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of six decades.

In 1829, William Austin Burt received a patent for his “typographer,” a forerunner of the typewriter.

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JULY 24

On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts – two of whom had been the first men to set foot on the moon – splashed down safely in the Pacific.

In 1847, Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in present-day Utah.