Today’s highlight

On July 7, 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Also on this date:

1865: Four people were hanged in Washington, D.C. for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln: Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt, the first woman to be executed by the federal government.

1898: President William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution, approving the annexation of the Republic of Hawaii.

1930: Construction began on Boulder Dam.

1976: The United States Military Academy at West Point included female cadets for the first time as 119 women joined the Class of 1980.

1990: The first “Three Tenors” concert took place as opera stars Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras performed amid the brick ruins of Rome’s Baths of Caracalla on the eve of the FIFA World Cup final.

2005: Terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 people and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II.

Today’s birthdays

Former Beatle Ringo Starr is 84. World Golf Hall of Famer Tony Jacklin is 80. Actor Shelley Duvall is 75. Basketball Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson is 64. Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard is 61. Actor-comedian Jim Gaffigan is 58. Basketball Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie is 52. Olympic figure skating medalist and current US Ambassador to Belize Michelle Kwan is 44.