By The Associated Press

              - Today is Wednesday, July 21, the 202nd day of 1999. There are 163
                days left in the year.

              - One hundred years ago, on July 21, 1899, author Ernest Hemingway was
                born in Oak Park, Ill.; poet Hart Crane was born in Garrettsville,
                Ohio.
              - In 1816 Paul Julius Reuter, founder of the British news agency
                bearing his name, was born in Hesse, Germany.
              - In 1831 Belgium became independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King
                of the Belgians.
              - In 1861 the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Va.,
                resulting in a Confederate victory.
              - In 1925 the so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tenn., with
                John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law by teaching Darwin's
                Theory of Evolution. (The conviction was later overturned.)
              - In 1944 American forces landed on Guam during World War II.
              - In 1949 the U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.
              - In 1954 France surrendered North Vietnam to the Communists.
              - In 1961 Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to
                rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around Earth, flying aboard the
                Liberty Bell 7.
              - In 1969 Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
                blasted off from the moon aboard the lunar module.
              - In 1980 draft registration began in the U.S. for 19- and 20-year-old
                men.

              - Ten years ago the State Department confirmed an ABC News report that
                Felix S. Bloch, a veteran U.S. diplomat, was being investigated as a
                possible Soviet spy. (Bloch was never charged with espionage, but
                was fired from his job in 1990.)
              - Five years ago former Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott died in
                Falls Church, Va., at age 93. Britain's Labor Party elected Tony
                Blair its new leader, succeeding the late John Smith.
              - One year ago President Clinton announced a crackdown on nursing
                homes that were lax about quality and on states that do a poor job
                of regulating them. The Pentagon said it found no evidence to
                support allegations in a CNN report that U.S. troops had used nerve
                gas against American defectors in Laos. Astronaut Alan Shepard died
                in Monterey, Calif., at age 74. Actor Robert Young died in Westlake
                Village, Calif., at age 91.
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - Violinist Isaac Stern is 79.
              - Jazz musician-critic Billy Taylor is 78.
              - Singer Kay Starr is 77.
              - Actor-comedian Don Knotts is 75.
              - Movie director Norman Jewison is 73.
              - Actor Paul Burke is 73.
              - Attorney General Janet Reno is 61.
              - Actress Patricia Elliott is 57.
              - Actor David Downing is 56.
              - Actor Edward Herrmann is 56.
              - Actor Leigh Lawson is 54.
              - Actor Wendell Burton is 52.
              - Yusuf Islam (formerly singer Cat Stevens) is 51.
              - Actor Art Hindle is 51.
              - Comedian-actor Robin Williams is 47.
              - Comedian Jon Lovitz is 42.
              - Actor Lance Guest is 39.
              - Actor Matt Mulhern is 39.
              - Rock singer Emerson Hart (Tonic) is 30.
              - Country singer Paul Brandt is 27.
              - Actor Josh Hartnett ("The Faculty") is 21.