Today is Sunday, July 24, the 205th day of 2011. There are 160 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On July 24, 1911, Yale University history professor Hiram Bingham III found the “Lost City of the Incas,” Machu Picchu, in Peru. (Although local residents had been aware of the site in the Andes, it was Bingham’s discovery that made it known to the world.)

On this date

In 1783, Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas.

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

In 1862, the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, died in Kinderhook, N.Y.

In 1866, Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy.

In 1937, the state of Alabama dropped charges against four of the nine young black men accused of raping two white women in the “Scottsboro Case.”

In 1959, during a visit to Moscow, Vice President Richard Nixon engaged in his famous “Kitchen Debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

In 1961, a hijacker commandeered an Eastern Airlines Electra en route from Miami to Tampa, forcing it to fly to Cuba.

In 1974, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.

In 1991, Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer died in Miami at age 87.

Ten years ago

A Chinese court sentenced two U.S. residents to 10 years in prison on charges of spying for Taiwan. (China released Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang two days later.)

Five years ago

The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants resumed in Baghdad without the former Iraqi leader, who remained hospitalized after going on a hunger strike.

One year ago

A stampede inside a tunnel crowded with techno music fans left 21 people dead and more than 500 injured at the famed Love Parade festival in western Germany.

Today’s Birthdays

Actress Jacqueline Brookes is 81. Actor John Aniston (TV: “Days of Our Lives”) is 78. Political cartoonist Pat Oliphant is 76. Comedian Ruth Buzzi is 75. Actor Mark Goddard is 75. Actor Dan Hedaya is 71. Actor Chris Sarandon is 69. Comedian Gallagher is 65. Actor Robert Hays is 64. Former Republican national chairman Marc Racicot is 63. Actor Michael Richards is 62. Actress Lynda Carter is 60. Movie director Gus Van Sant is 59. Country singer Pam Tillis is 54. Actor Paul Ben-Victor is 49. Actor Kadeem Hardison is 46. Actress-singer Kristin Chenoweth is 43. Actress Laura Leighton is 43. Actor John P. Navin Jr. is 43. Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez is 42. Basketball player-turned-actor Rick Fox is 42. Actor Eric Szmanda is 36. Actress Rose Byrne is 32. Actress Summer Glau is 30. Actress Elisabeth Moss is 29. Actress Anna Paquin is 29. Actress Mara Wilson is 24. TV personality Bindi Irwin is 13.

Thought for Today

“People who jump to conclusions rarely alight on them.”

— Philip Guedalla, British writer (1889-1944)