• Today is Sunday, July 7, the 188th day of 2013. There are 177 days left in the year.
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• Today's Highlight in History:
• On July 7, 1846, U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey (mahn-tuh-RAY') after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.
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• On this date:
• In 1865, four people were hanged in Washington, D.C., for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.
• 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 September 6, 1919.)
• In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War erupted into full-scale conflict as Imperial Japanese forces attacked the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing.
• 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 1963, a Navy jet fighter from Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania crashed into a picnic area, killing seven people; the pilot, who ejected, survived.
• In 1973, actress Veronica Lake, known for her "peek-a-boo" hairstyle, died in Burlington, Vt., at age 50.
• In 1976, President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford hosted a White House dinner for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

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