Today is Thursday, July 21, the 203rd day of 2016. There are 163 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On July 21, 1861, during the Civil War, the first Battle of Bull Run was fought at Manassas, Virginia, resulting in a Confederate victory.

On this date:

In 1773, Pope Clement XIV issued an order suppressing the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. (The Society was restored by Pope Pius VII in 1814.)

In 1816, Paul Reuter, founder of the British news agency bearing his name, was born in Kassel, Hesse, Germany.

In 1925, the so-called “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, Tennessee, with John T. Scopes found guilty of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (The conviction was later overturned on a technicality.)

In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed an executive order establishing the Veterans Administration (later the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs).

In 1944, American forces landed on Guam during World War II, capturing it from the Japanese some three weeks later. The Democratic national convention in Chicago nominated Sen. Harry S. Truman to be vice president.

In 1949, the U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.

In 1959, the NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant ship, was christened by first lady Mamie Eisenhower at Camden, New Jersey.

In 1961, Capt. Virgil “Gus” Grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth, flying aboard the Liberty Bell 7.

In 1972, the Irish Republican Army carried out 22 bombings in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing nine people and injuring 130 in what became known as “Bloody Friday.”

In 1973, Israeli agents in Lillehammer, Norway, killed Ahmed Bouchikhi, a Moroccan waiter, apparently mistaking him for an official with Black September, the group that attacked Israel’s delegation at the 1972 Munich Olympics and killed 11 athletes.

In 1980, draft registration began in the United States for 19- and 20- year-old men.

In 1996, dozens of memorial services were held across the country to remember the 230 people lost in the crash of TWA Flight 800.

Ten years ago: Israel massed tanks and troops on its northern border, called up reserves and warned civilians to flee Hezbollahcontrolled southern Lebanon as it prepared for a ground invasion, which came the next day. Mako, the Japan-born actor who used his Oscar nomination for the 1966 film “The Sand Pebbles” to push for better roles for Asian American actors, died in Somis, California, at age 72.

Five years ago: The 30-year-old space shuttle program ended as Atlantis landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after the 135th shuttle flight. Eurozone leaders agreed to a sweeping deal that would grant Greece a massive new bailout and radically reshape the currency union’s rescue fund.

The Associated Press