Today is Saturday, July 7, the 189th day of 2012. There are 177 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 7, 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted into full-scale conflict as Imperial Japanese forces attacked the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing. (The end of the fighting coincided with the conclusion of World War II.)

On this date:

In 1846, U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey (mahn-tuh-RAY') after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.

In 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C., for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

In 1887 (New Style calendar), artist Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk (vee'-tehpsk) in present-day Belarus.

In 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii.

In 1919, the first Transcontinental Motor Convoy, in which a U.S. Army convoy of motorized vehicles crossed the United States, departed Washington, D.C. (The trip ended in San Francisco on Sept. 6, 1919.)

In 1930, construction began on Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam).

In 1941, U.S. forces took up positions in Iceland, Trinidad and British Guiana to forestall any Nazi invasion, even though the United States had not yet entered the Second World War.

In 1952, the Republican National Convention, which nominated Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Sen. Richard Nixon for vice president, opened in Chicago.

In 1969, Canada's House of Commons gave final approval to the Official Languages Act, making French equal to English throughout the national government.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1983, 11-year-old Samantha Smith of Manchester, Maine, left for a visit to the Soviet Union at the personal invitation of Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov (ahn-DROH'-pawf).

In 1987, Lt. Col. Oliver North began his long-awaited public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing, telling Congress that he had "never carried out a single act, not one," without authorization.

Ten years ago: Afghanistan's vice president, Abdul Qadir (kah-DEER'), was buried with full military honors a day after being assassinated. Texas Gov. Rick Perry saw by helicopter the devastation days of torrential rain had brought to central and southern Texas. Lleyton Hewitt crushed David Nalbandian in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, in the Wimbledon final to win his second Grand Slam title.

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