Today in History

Today is Sunday, July 22, the 204th day of 2012. There are 162 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

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

On this date:

In 1587, an English colony fated to vanish under mysterious circumstances was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina.

In 1796, Cleveland, Ohio, was founded by General Moses Cleaveland.

In 1812, English-led troops defeated the French at the Battle of Salamanca in Spain during the Peninsular War.

In 1893, Wellesley College professor Katharine Lee Bates visited the summit of Pikes Peak, where she was inspired to write the original version of her poem "America the Beautiful."

In 1916, a bomb went off during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco, killing 10 people.

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."

In 1937, the Senate rejected President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court.

In 1942, the Nazis began transporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. Gasoline rationing involving the use of coupons began along the Atlantic seaboard.

In 1946, Jewish extremists blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 90 people.

In 1962, Mariner 1, NASA's first attempt at sending a spacecraft to Venus, was destroyed shortly after launch because of faulty steering.

In 1975, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore the American citizenship of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

In 1992, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escaped from his luxury prison near Medellin. (He was slain by security forces in December 1993.)

Ten years ago: Factory worker Alejandro Avila was charged with murder and kidnapping in the abduction and slaying of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Stanton, Calif. (Avila was later convicted and sentenced to death.)

Five years ago: A bus carrying Polish Catholic pilgrims from a holy site in the French Alps plunged off a steep mountain road, killing 26 people. Padraig Harrington survived a calamitous finish in regulation and a tense putt for bogey on the final hole of a playoff to win the British Open. Cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 74.

One year ago: Anders Breivik, a right-wing extremist, massacred 69 people at a Norwegian island youth retreat after detonating a bomb in nearby Oslo that killed eight others in the nation's worst violence since World War II. A jury in Cleveland convicted Anthony Sowell of killing 11 poor, drug-addicted women whose remains were found in his home and backyard; Sowell was later sentenced to death. President Barack Obama formally signed off on ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military. Former Democratic National Chairman Charles T. Manatt, 75, died in Richmond, Va.

Today's Birthdays: Opera singer Licia Albanese is 99. Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., is 89. Actor-comedian Orson Bean is 84. Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta is 80. Actress Louise Fletcher is 78. Rhythm-and-blues singer Chuck Jackson is 75. Actor Terence Stamp is 74. Game show host Alex Trebek is 72. Singer George Clinton is 71. Actor-singer Bobby Sherman is 69. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is 69. Movie writer-director Paul Schrader is 66. Actor Danny Glover is 66. Singer Mireille Mathieu is 66. Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks is 65. Rock singer Don Henley is 65. Movie composer Alan Menken is 63. Singer-actress Lonette McKee is 59. Jazz musician Al Di Meola is 58. Actor Willem Dafoe is 57. Rhythm-and-blues singer Keith Sweat is 51. Actress Joanna Going is 49. Actor Rob Estes is 49. Folk singer Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls) is 49. Actor John Leguizamo is 48. Actor-comedian David Spade is 48. Actor Patrick Labyorteaux is 47. Rock musician Pat Badger is 45. Actress Irene Bedard is 45. Actor Rhys Ifans is 45. Actor Colin Ferguson is 40. Rock musician Daniel Jones is 39. Singer Rufus Wainwright is 39. Actress Franka Potente is 38. Actress A.J. Cook is 34. Actress Selena Gomez is 20.

Thought for Today: "Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common sense." -- Helen Rowland, American writer and humorist (1875-1950).

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.