Today is Friday, July 20, the 202nd day of 2012. There are 164 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

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.

On this date:

In 1861, the Congress of the Confederate States convened in Richmond, Va.

In 1871, British Columbia entered Confederation as a Canadian province.

In 1917, the draft lottery in World War I went into operation.

In 1942, the first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps — later known as WACs — began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. The Legion of Merit was established by an Act of Congress.

In 1944, an attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb failed as the explosion at Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters only wounded the Nazi leader. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

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

In 1954, the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into northern and southern entities.

In 1960, a pair of Polaris missiles were fired from the submerged USS George Washington off Cape Canaveral, Fla., at a target more than 1,100 miles away.

In 1976, America's Viking 1 robot spacecraft made a successful, first-ever landing on Mars.

In 1982, Irish Republican Army bombs exploded in two London parks, killing eight British soldiers, along with seven horses belonging to the Queen's Household Cavalry.

In 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis received the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Atlanta.

In 1990, Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, one of the court's most liberal voices, announced he was stepping down.

Ten years ago: Twenty-nine people died in a blaze started by bartenders who were doing tricks with fire at Utopia, an unlicensed night club in Lima, Peru.

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