By The Associated Press

              - Today is Thursday, July 29, the 210th day of 1999. There are 155
                days left in the year.

              - On July 29, 1981, Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana
                Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. (They were divorced in
                1996.)
              - In 1588 the English defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of
                Gravelines.
              - In 1890 artist Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot
                wound in Auvers, France.
              - In 1914 transcontinental telephone service began with the first
                phone conversation between New York and San Francisco.
              - In 1948 Britain's King George VI opened the Olympic Games in London.
              - In 1957 the International Atomic Energy Agency was established. Jack
                Paar debuted as host of NBC's "Tonight" show.
              - In 1958 President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and
                Space Act, which created NASA.
              - In 1967 fire swept the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, killing
                134 servicemen.
              - In 1968 Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's stance
                against artificial methods of birth control.
              - In 1975 President Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the
                site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and paid tribute
                to the victims.

              - Ten years ago Poland's newly elected president, Wojciech Jaruzelski,
                resigned as Communist Party general secretary and was succeeded by
                Mieczyslaw Rakowski.
              - Five years ago abortion opponent Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John
                Bayard Britton and Britton's bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside
                the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Fla. (Hill was convicted and
                sentenced to death.) Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer won
                Senate approval.
              - One year ago President Clinton reached an agreement with Kenneth
                Starr to provide grand jury testimony via closed-circuit TV in the
                Monica Lewinsky case. Jerome Robbins, a master choreographer of
                modern ballet and a major Broadway innovator, died in New York at
                age 79.
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - Actor Lloyd Bochner is 75.
              - Actor Robert Horton is 75.
              - Former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker (R-Kan.) is 67.
              - Actor Robert Fuller is 65.
              - Republican presidential candidate Elizabeth H. Dole is 63.
              - ABC News anchor Peter Jennings is 61.
              - Actor David Warner is 58.
              - Rock musician Neal Doughty (REO Speedwagon) is 53.
              - Marilyn Tucker Quayle, ex-Vice President Dan Quayle's wife, is 50.
              - Rock musician Simon Kirke (Bad Company) is 50.
              - Documentary maker Ken Burns is 46.
              - Rock singer-musician Geddy Lee (Rush) is 46.
              - Rock singer Patti Scialfa (Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band) is 43.
              - Actress Alexandra Paul is 36.
              - Country singer Martina McBride is 33.
              - Rock musician Chris Gorman (Belly) is 32.
              - Actor Wil Wheaton is 27.
              - Singer Wanya Morris (Boyz II Men) is 26.
              - Actor Stephen Dorff is 26.