Today is Monday, July 7, the 188th day of 2014. There are 177 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight

1997: Britain’s House of Lords backs a bill that would give princesses equal rights with princes in succession to the throne.

Other Events

1718: Alexis, son of Russia’s Peter the Great, dies in a Moscow fortress after being tortured on his father’s orders and questioned about a conspiracy.

1753: Act is passed for naturalisation of Jews in England.

1898: United States annexes island of Hawaii.

1973: Iraq executes 23 people accused of attempting to overthrow government.

1993: Hurricane Calvin hits the Mexican mainland, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction along the Pacific Coast.

1995: After nearly four months in orbit, American astronaut Norman Thagard lands at Kennedy Space Center with seven others who took part in the first US-Russian space linkup in 20 years.

1998: Nigeria’s most prominent political prisoner, Moshood Abiola, dies of an apparent heart attack a few days before he was expected to be released.

2000: Eager kids around the globe grab volumes of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the boy wizard’s fourth magical adventure — a massive hit even before its publication.

2002: At least 34 miners die when a fire breaks out in a coal mine in the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk.

2003: US President George W Bush’s administration acknowledges for the first time that Bush relied on faulty intelligence when he claimed in his January State of the Union address that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Africa.

2004: The government announces that the U.S. military will review the individual cases of the 595 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to determine whether they are legally held.

2005: A string of rush-hour explosions tear into at least three London subway trains and a double-decker bus in the worst attack on London since World War II, killing at least 52 people and injuring 700.

2012: Jubilant Libyans choose a new parliament in their first nationwide vote in decades, but violence and protests in the restive east underscore the challenges ahead as the North African nation struggles to restore stability after last year’s ouster of long-time Moammar Gadhafi.

2013: A runaway train derails and catches fire in the eastern Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, killing dozens of people and igniting explosions and fires that destroy the downtown district.

Today’s Birthdays

Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (1860-1911); Marc Chagall, Russian artist (1887-1985); Vittorio de Sica, Italian director (1901-1974); Margaret Walker, US writer (1915-1998); Shelley Duvall, US actress (1949–); Ringo Starr, British musician (1940–).

— AP