Today is Wednesday, July 11, the 193rd day of 2012. There are 173 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 11, 1937, American composer and pianist George Gershwin, whose works included "Rhapsody in Blue," "Concerto in F," "An American in Paris," and "Porgy and Bess," died at a Los Angeles hospital of a brain tumor; he was 38.

On this date:

In 1767, John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass.

In 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by a congressional act that also created the U.S. Marine Band.

In 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton during a pistol duel in Weehawken, N.J.

In 1859, Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the first time.

In 1922, the Hollywood Bowl officially opened with a program called "Symphonies Under the Stars" with Alfred Hertz conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first incumbent chief executive to travel through the Panama Canal.

In 1952, the Republican national convention, meeting in Chicago, nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president.

In 1960, the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee was first published by J.B. Lippincott and Co.

In 1962, American diver Fred Baldasare completed an underwater crossing of the English Channel using scuba gear, arriving in Sandwich Bay 18 hours after leaving Calais.

In 1972, the World Chess Championship opened as grandmasters Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union began play in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Fischer won after 21 games.)

In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

In 1989, actor and director Laurence Olivier died in Steyning, West Sussex, England, at age 82.

Ten years ago: Lawmakers balked at moving the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency into a new Homeland Security Department despite pleas from senior Cabinet officials to stick to President George W. Bush's blueprint. (Both agencies did end up being included in the new department.)

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