On This Day

August 3, 2014

1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage would lead him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.

1750 - Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It was titled "A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management."

1880 - The American Canoe Association was formed at Lake George, NY.

1900 - Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was founded.

1914 - Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.

1922 - WGY radio in Schenectady, NY, presented the first full-length melodrama on radio. The work was "The Wolf", written by Eugene Walter.

1923 - Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding.

1933 - The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.

1936 - The U.S. State Department advised Americans to leave Spain due to the Spanish Civil War.

1936 - Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.

1943 - Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.

1949 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1956 - Bedloe's Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.

1958 - The Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."

1979 - "More American Graffiti" was released.

1979 - Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory.

1981 - U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned.

1984 - Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

1985 - Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they'd wear clothes or stay out of sight when the mailperson came to deliver.

1988 - The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.

1988 - The Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow's Red Square.

1989 - Hashemi Rafsanjani was sworn in as the president of Iran.

1990 - Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.

1992 - The U.S. Senate voted to restrict and eventually end the testing of nuclear weapons.

1992 - Russia and Ukraine agreed to put the Black Sea Fleet under joint command. The agreement was to last for three years.

1995 - Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges that he had driven the van that blew up in New York's World Trade Center.

2004 - In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

2004 - NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011.

2009 - Bolivia became the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.

August 3, 2014

1735 - Freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous."

1753 - George Washington became a Master Mason.

1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service was formed. This U.S. naval task force was the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard.

1821 - "The Saturday Evening Post" was published for the first time as a weekly.

1914 - Britain declared war on Germany in World War I. The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality.

1921 - The first radio broadcast of a tennis match occurred. It was in Pittsburgh, PA.

1922 - The death of Alexander Graham Bell, two days earlier, was recognized by AT&T and the Bell Systems by shutting down all of its switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million phones.

1934 - Mel Ott became the first major league baseball player to score six runs in a single game.

1944 - Nazi police raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested eight people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death.

1954 - The uranium rush began in Saskatchewan, Canada.

1956 - William Herz became the first person to race a motorcycle over 200 miles per hour. He was clocked at 210 mph.

1957 - Florence Chadwick set a world record by swimming the English Channel in 6 hours and 7 minutes.

1957 - Juan Fangio won his final auto race and captured the world auto driving championship. It was his the fifth consecutive year to win.

1958 - The first potato flake plant was completed in Grand Forks, ND.

1958 - Billboard Magazine introduced its "Hot 100" chart, which was part popularity and a barometer of the movement of potential hits. The first number one song was Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool."

1972 - Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison.

1977 - U.S. President Carter signed the measure that established the Department of Energy.

1983 - New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warm-ups and accidentally killed a seagull. After the game, Toronto police arrested him for "causing unnecessary suffering to an animal."

1984 - Carl Lewis won a gold medal in the Los Angeles Olympics.

1984 - Upper Volta, an African republic, changed its name to Burkina Faso.

1985 - Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox achieved his 300th victory.

1985 - Rod Carew of the California angels got his 3,000th major league hit.

1986 - The United States Football League called off its 1986 season. This was after winning only token damages in its antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League.

1987 - The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.

1987 - A new 22-cent U.S. stamp honoring noted author William Faulkner, went on sale in Oxford, MS. Faulkner had been fired as postmaster of that same post office in 1924.

1989 - Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to assist end the hostage crisis in Lebanon.

1990 - The European Community imposed an embargo on oil from Iraq and Kuwait. This was done to protest the Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich Kuwait.

1991 - The Oceanos, a Greek luxury liner, sank off of South Africa's southeast coast. All of the 402 passengers and 179 crewmembers survived.

1994 - Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs. The border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia was sealed.

1996 - Josia Thugwane won a gold medal after finishing first in the marathon. He became the first black South African to win a gold medal.

1997 - Teamsters began a 15-day strike against UPS (United Parcel Service). The strikers eventually won an increase in full-time positions and defeated a proposed reorganization of the company's pension plan.

2009 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry earlier in the year.

August 5, 2014

1833 - The village of Chicago was incorporated. The population was approximately 250.

1861 - The U.S. federal government levied its first income tax. The tax was 3% of all incomes over $800. The wartime measure was rescinded in 1872.

1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Adm. David G. Farragut were led into Mobile Bay, Alabama.

1884 - On Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1914 - The electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio.

1921 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a baseball game was done by Harold Arlin. KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA described the action between the Pirates and Philadelphia.

1921 - The cartoon "On the Road to Moscow", by Rollin Kirby, was published in the "New York World". It was the first cartoon to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1923 - Henry Sullivan became the first American to swim across the English Channel.

1924 - In the New York "Daily News" debuted the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," by Harold Gray.

1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.

1953 - During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom. The exchange was labeled Operation Big Switch.

1960 - For the first time two major league baseball clubs traded managers. Detroit traded Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland's Joe Gordon.

1963 - The Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The treaty banned nuclear tests in space, underwater, and in the atmosphere.

1964 - U.S. aircraft bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1969 - The Mariner 7, a U.S. space probe, passed by Mars. Photographs and scientific data were sent back to Earth.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon said that he expected to be impeached. Nixon had ordered the investigation into the Watergate break-in to halt.

1974 - "Tank McNamara", the comic strip, premiered in 75 newspapers.

1981 - The U.S. federal government started firing striking air traffic controllers.

1984 - Toronto’s Cliff Johnson set a major league baseball record by hitting the 19th pinch-hit home run in his career.

1986 - It was revealed that artist Andrew Wyeth had secretly created 240 drawings and paintings of his neighbor. The works of Helga Testorf had been created over a 15-year period.

1989 - In Honduras, five Central American presidents began meeting to discuss the timetable for the dismantling of the Nicaraguan Contra bases.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush angrily denounced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1991 - An investigation was formally launched by Democratic congressional leaders to find out if the release of American hostages was delayed until after the Reagan-Bush presidential election.

1991 - Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons.

1992 - Federal civil rights charges were filed against four Los Angeles police officers. The officers had been acquitted on California State charges. Two of the officers were convicted and jailed on violation of civil rights charges.

1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors.

1998 - Marie Noe of Philadelphia, PA was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, accused of smothering eight of her children to death between 1949 and 1968. Noe later received 20 years' probation.

1999 - Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) hit his 500th career homerun. He also set a record for the fewest at-bats to hit the 500 homerun mark.

2002 - The U.S. closed its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The consulate was closed after local authorities removed large concrete blocks and reopened the road in front of the building to normal traffic.

2011 - NASA announced that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons.

2011 - Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a mission to Jupiter. It was the first solar-powered spacecraft to go to Jupiter.

August 6, 2014

1787 - At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia debate began on the first draft of the U.S. Constitution.

1806 - The Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis II abdicated.

1825 - Bolivia declared independence from Peru.

1879 - The first Australian rules football game to be played at night took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The game was to promote the introduction of electricity to the city of Melbourne.

1890 - Cy Young achieved his first major league victory. He would accumulate 511 in his career.

1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia. Serbia declared war against Germany.

1926 - Gertrude Ederle became the first American woman to swim the English Channel. She was 19 years old at the time. The swim took her 14 1/2 hours.

1926 - Warner Brothers premiered its Vitaphone system in New York. The movie was "Don Juan," starring John Barrymore.

1939 - Dinah Shore started her own show on the NBC Blue radio network.

1945 - The American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed. (8:16am Japanese time)

1949 - Chicago White Sox player Luke Appling played in the 2,154th game of his 19-year, major league career.

1952 - Satchel Paige, at age 46, became the oldest pitcher to complete a major league baseball game.

1960 - Nationalization of U.S. and foreign-owned property in Cuba began.

1962 - Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.

1965 - The Voting Rights Act was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

1969 - The first fair ball to be hit completely out of Dodger Stadium occurred. Willie "Pops" Stargell, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, hit the ball 506 feet from home plate.

1981 - Fire fighters in Indianapolis, IN, answered a false alarm. When they returned to their station it was ablaze due to a grease fire.

1981 - Lee Trevino was disqualified from the PGA Championship in Duluth, GA when he had his scorecard signed by Tom Weiskopf instead of himself.

1985 - The 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing brought tens of thousands of Japanese and foreigners to Hiroshima.

1986 - William J. Schroeder died. He lived 620 days with the Jarvik-7 manmade heart. He was the world's longest surviving recipient of a permanent artificial heart.

1986 - Timothy Dalton became the fourth actor to be named "James Bond."

1989 - Jaime Paz Zamora was inaugurated as the president of Bolivia.

1990 - The U.N. Security Council ordered a worldwide trade embargo with Iraq. The embargo was to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait.

1993 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Louis Freeh to be the director of the FBI.

1993 - Morihiro Hosokawa was elected prime minister of Japan.

1995 - Thousands of glowing lanterns were set afloat in rivers in Hiroshima, Japan, on the 50th anniversary of the first atomic bombing.

1996 - NASA announced the discovery of evidence of primitive life on Mars. The evidence came in the form of a meteorite that was found in Antarctica. The meteorite was believed to have come from Mars and contained a fossil.

1997 - Apple Computer and Microsoft agreed to share technology in a deal giving Microsoft a stake in Apple's survival.

1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with U.S. President Clinton.

August 6, 2014

1789 - The U.S. War Department was established by the U.S. Congress.

1782 - George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart.

1888 - Theophilus Van Kannel received a patent for the revolving door.

1914 - Germany invaded France.

1928 - The U.S. Treasure Department issued a new bill that was one third smaller than the previous U.S. bills.

1934 - The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the government's attempt to ban the controversial James Joyce novel "Ulysses."

1942 - U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.

1947 - The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago.

1959 - The U.S. launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth.

1960 - The Cuban Catholic Church condemned the rise of communism in Cuba. Fidel Castro then banned all religious TV and radio broadcasts.

1964 - The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

1974 - French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

1976 - Scientists in Pasadena, CA, announced that the Viking 1 spacecraft had found strong indications of possible life on Mars.

1981 - After 128 years of publication, "The Washington Star" ceased all operations.

1983 - AT&T employees went on strike.

1987 - The presidents of five Central American nations, met in Guatemala City, and signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their region.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard against a possible invasion by Iraq.

1999 - Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres got his 3,000th hit of his major league career.

2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would run for the office of governor.

2003 - Stephen Geppi bought a 1963 G.I. Joe prototype for $200,000.

August 8, 2014

1356 - Edward "the Black Prince" began a raid north from Aquitaine.

1588 - The Spanish Armada was defeated by the English fleet ending an invasion attempt.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic. The remainder of his life was spent there in exile.

1844 - After the killing of Joseph Smith, Bringham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons.

1876 - Thomas Edison received a patent for the mimeograph. The mimeograph was a "method of preparing autographic stencils for printing."

1899 - The refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall.

1900 - In Boston, the first Davis Cup series began. The U.S. team defeated Great Britain three matches to zero.

1911 - The number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435. There was one member of Congress for every 211,877 residents.

1940 - The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Great Britain.

1945 - The United Nations Charter was signed by U.S. President Truman.

1945 - During World War II, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.

1950 - Whataburger opened its restaurant in Corpus Christi, TX.

1953 - The U.S. and South Korea initiated a mutual security pact.

1956 - Japan launched an oil tanker that was 780 feet long and weighed 84,730 tons. It was the largest oil tanker in the world.

1966 - Michael DeBakey became the first surgeon to install an artificial heart pump in a patient.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon announced that he would resign the following day.

1978 - The U.S. launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.

1988 - It was announced that a cease-fire between Iraq and Iran had begun.

1989 - The space shuttle Columbia took off from Cape Canaveral, FL. The trip was said to be a secret five-day military mission.

1990 - American forces began positioning in Saudia Arabia.

1991 - John McCarthy, a British TV producer was released by his Lebanese kidnappers. He had been held captive for more than five years. A rival group abducted Jerome Leyraud in retaliation and threatened to kill him if any more hostages were released.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council approved North and South Korea for membership.

1992 - The "Dream Team" clinched the gold medal at the Barcelona Summer Olympics. The U.S. basketball team beat Croatia 117-85.

1994 - The first road link between Israel and Jordan opened.

1994 - Representatives from China and Taiwan signed a cooperation agreement.

1995 - Saddam Hussein's two eldest daughters, their husbands, and several senior army officers defected.

1999 - Wade Boggs got his 3,000th hit of his major league baseball career.

2000 - The submarine H.L. Hunley was raised from ocean bottom after 136 years. The sub had been lost during an attack on the U.S.S. Housatonic in 1864. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink a warship.

August 9, 2014

1678 - American Indians sold the Bronx to Jonas Bronck for 400 beads.

1790 - The Columbia returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage. It was the first ship to carry the American flag around the world.

1831 - The first steam locomotive began its first trip between Schenectady and Albany, NY.

1842 - The U.S. and Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which solved a border dispute.

1848 - Martin Van Buren was nominated for president by the Free-Soil Party in Buffalo, NY.

1854 - "Walden" was published by Henry David Thoreau.

1859 - The escalator was patented by Nathan Ames.

1892 - Thomas Edison received a patent for a two-way telegraph.

1893 - "Gut Holz" was published. It was America's first bowling magazine.

1910 - A.J. Fisher received a patent for the electric washing machine.

1930 - Betty Boop had her beginning in "Dizzy Dishes" created by Max Fleischer.

1936 - Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. He was the first American to win four medals in one Olympics.

1942 - Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested Britain. He was not released until 1944.

1942 - CBS radio debuted "Our Secret Weapon."

1944 - The Forest Service and Wartime Advertising Council created "Smokey the Bear."

1945 - The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The bombing came three days after the bombing of Hiroshima. About 74,000 people were killed. Japan surrendered August 14.

1945 - The first network television broadcast occurred in Washington, DC. The program announced the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.

1956 - The first statewide, state-supported educational television network went on the air in Alabama.

1965 - Singapore proclaimed its independence from the Malaysian Federation.

1973 - The U.S. Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair filed suit against President Richard Nixon.

1974 - U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon formally resigned. Gerald R. Ford took his place, and became the 38th president of the U.S.

1975 - The New Orleans Superdome as officially opened when the Saints played the Houston Oilers in exhibition football. The new Superdome cost $163 million to build.

1981 - Major league baseball teams resumed play at the conclusion of the first mid-season players’ strike.

1984 - Daley Thompson, of Britain, won his second successive Olympic decathlon.

1985 - Arthur J. Walker, a retired Navy officer, was found guilty of seven counts of spying for the Soviet Union.

1988 - Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers) was traded. The trade was at Gretzky's request. He was sent to the Los Angeles Kings.

1996 - Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as president of Russia for the second time.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and his entire cabinet for the fourth time in 17 months.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush announced he would support federal funding for limited medical research on embryonic stem cells.

2004 - Donald Duck received the 2,257th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2004 - Trump Hotel and Casion Resorts announced plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

August 9, 2014

1792 - King Louis XVI was taken into custody by mobs during the French Revolution. He was executed the following January after being put on trial for treason.

1809 - Ecuador began its fight for independence from Spain.

1821 - Missouri became the 24th state to join the Union.

1846 - The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the U.S. Congress. The "Nation's Attic" was made possible by $500,000 given by scientist Joseph Smithson.

1859 - In Boston, MA, the first milk inspectors were appointed.

1869 - The motion picture projector was patented by O.B. Brown.

1881 - Thomas Edison's exhibit opened the Paris Electrical Exhibition.

1885 - The first electric streetcar, to be used commercially, was operated in Baltimore, MD, by Leo Daft.

1914 - Austria-Hungary invaded Russia.

1921 - Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio.

1927 - Mount Rushmore was formally dedicated. The individual faces of the presidents were dedicated later.

1944 - U.S. forces defeated the remaining Japanese resistance on Guam.

1945 - The day after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan announced they would surrender. The only condition was that the status of Emperor Hirohito would remain unchanged.

1947 - William Odom completed an around-the-world flight. He set the solo record by completing the flight in 73 hours and 5 minutes.

1948 - On ABC, "Candid Camera" made its TV debut. The original title was "Candid Microphone."

1949 - In the U.S., the National Military Establishment had its name changed to the Department of Defense.

1954 - Construction began on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

1965 - In Austin, TX, a fire burned part of the 20th floor of the 27-story University of Texas main building. A collection that contained items once owned by escape artist Harry Houdini and circus magnate P. T. Barnum were damaged by smoke and water.

1973 - Arnold Palmer did not make the cut for the final two rounds of the PGA Golf Championship. It was the first time in his career.

1981 - Pete Rose hit a single and broke the National League all-time hit record with his 3,630 hit.

1988 - U.S. President Reagan signed a measure that provided $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans who were interned by the U.S. government during World War II.

1993 - A massive deficit-reduction bill was signed into law by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton claimed presidential immunity when he asked a federal judge to dismiss, at least for the time being, a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin Jones.

1995 - Norma McCorvey, "Jane Roe" of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, announced that she had joined the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

1999 - Near an India-Pakistan border area an Indian fighter jet shot down a Pakistani naval aircraft. Sixteen people were killed.

2003 - Ekaterina Dmitriev and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were married. Malenchenko was about 240 miles above the earth in the international space station. It was the first-ever marriage from space.

August 11, 2014

1860 - The first successful silver mill in America began operations. The mill was in Virginia City, NV.

1874 - A patent for the sprinkler head was given to Harry S. Parmelee.

1877 - The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. He named them Phobos and Deimos.

1896 - Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain.

1909 - The American ship Arapahoe became the first to ever use the SOS distress signal off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.

1924 - Newsreel pictures were taken of U.S. presidential candidates for the first time.

1934 - Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, received federal prisoners for the first time.

1941 - The Atlantic Charter was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

1942 - During World War II, Pierre Laval publicly announced "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."

1945 - The Allies informed Japan that they would determine Emperor Hirohito's future status after Japan's surrender.

1951 - The first major league baseball game to be televised in color was broadcast. The Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves 8-1.

1954 - Seven years of fighting came to an end in Indochina. A formal peace was in place for the French and the Communist Vietminh.

1962 - Andrian Nikolayev, of the Soviet Union, was launched on a 94-hour flight. He was the third Russian to go into space.

1965 - The U.S. conducted a second launch of "Surveyor-SD 2" for a landing on the Moon surface test.

1971 - Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins got his 500th and 501st home runs of his major league baseball career.

1975 - The U.S. vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations. The Security Counsel had already refused to consider South Korea's application.

1984 - Carl Lewis won his fourth gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

1984 - The Cincinnati Reds honored major league All-Star and Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench by retiring his uniform (#5).

1988 - Dick Thornburgh was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the next attorney general. He succeeded Edwin Meese III.

1990 - Egyptian and Moroccan troops joined U.S. forces in Saudia Arabia to help protect from a possible Iraqi attack.

1991 - The space shuttle Atlantis ended its nine-day journey by landing safely.

1992 - In Bloomington, MN, the Mall of America opened. It was the largest shopping mall in the United States.

1994 - The Tenth International Conference on AIDS ended in Japan.

1994 - A U.S. federal jury awarded $286.8 million to about 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

1995 - All U.S. nuclear tests were banned by President Clinton.

1997 - U.S. President Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills.

1998 - British Petroleum became No. 3 among oil companies with the $49 billion purchase of Amoco. It was the largest foreign takeover of a U.S. company.

2002 - US Airways announced that it had filed for bankruptcy.

2002 - Jason Priestly crashed his car during practice for a race in the Infiniti Pro Series. He suffered a spinal fracture, a moderate concussion, a broken nose, facial lacerations and broken bones in both feet.

2003 - Charles Taylor, President of Liberia, flew into exile after ceding power to his vice president, Moses Blah.

2003 - In Kabul, NATO took command of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

August 11, 2014

1676 - "King Phillip's War" came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years.

1851 - Isaac Singer was issued a patent on the double-headed sewing machine.

1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister.

1867 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

1877 - Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.

1879 - The first National Archery Association tournament took place in Chicago, IL.

1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.

1915 - "Of Human Bondage", by William Somerset Maugham, was first published.

1918 - Regular airmail service began between Washington, DC, and New York City.

1937 - Red Skelton appeared on network radio for the first time on the "Rudy Vallee Show" on NBC.

1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Oconomowoc, WI. Judy Garland became famous for the movie's song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The movie premiered in Hollywood on August 15th.

1944 - In France, Pierre Laval released Edouard Herriot.

1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb.

1960 - The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was the first communications satellite.

1962 - The Soviet Union launched Pavel Popovich into orbit. Popovich and Andrian Nikolayev, who was launch a day before, both landed on August 15.

1964 - Mickey Mantle set a major league baseball record when he hit home runs from both the left and ride sides of the plate in the same game.

1969 - The Boston Celtics were sold for $6 million. At the time it was the highest price paid for a pro basketball team.

1973 - jack Nicklaus won his 14th major golf title. The win broke the record that had been held by Bobby Jones for 50 years.

1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test.

1981 - IBM unveiled its first PC.

1985 - A Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashed into a mountain killing 520 people.

1986 - It was announced by NASA that they had selected a new rocket design for the space shuttle. The move was made in an effort at correcting the flaws that were believed to have been responsible for the Challenger disaster.

1986 - Rod Carew became the first player in the history of the California Angels franchise to have his uniform (#29) retired.

1988 - "The Last Temptation of Christ" opened.

1992 - The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.

1993 - U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981.

1994 - Major league baseball players went on strike rather than allow team owners to limit their salaries. The strike lasted for 232 days. As a result, the World Series was wiped out for the first time in 90 years.

1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims.

1999 - Hang Thu Thi Ngyuen shot an arrow from a bow with her feet on "Guinness World Records: Primetime" and hit a target that was 16 feet and 5 inches away.

August 13, 2014

1521 - Present day Mexico City was captured by Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez from the Aztec Indians.

1704 - The Battle of Blenheim was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces.

1792 - French revolutionaries took the entire French royal family and imprisoned them.

1784 - The United States Legislature met for the final time in Annapolis, MD.

1846 - The American Flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles, CA.

1867 - "Under the Gaslight", by Augustin Daly, opened in New York City, NY.

1876 - The Reciprocity Treaty between the U.S. and Hawaii was ratified.

1889 - A patent for a coin-operated telephone was issued to William Gray.

1912 - The first experimental radio license was issued to St. Joseph's College in Philadelphia, PA.

1931 - The first community hospital in the U.S. was dedicated in Elk City, OK.

1932 - Adolf Hitler refused to take the post of vice-chancellor of Germany. He said he was going to hold out "for all or nothing."

1934 - Al Capp's comic strip "L'il Abner" made its debut in newspapers.

1942 - Henry Ford unveiled his "Soybean Car." It was a plastic-bodied car that weighed about 1000 lbs. less than a steel car.

1942 - Walt Disney's "Bambi" opened at Radio City music Hall in New York City, NY.

1959 - In New York, ground was broken on the $320 million Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

1960 - "Echo I," a balloon satellite, allowed the first two-way telephone conversation by satellite to take place.

1961 - Berlin was divided by a barbed wire fence to halt the flight of refugees. Two days later work on the Berlin Wall began.

1979 - Lou Brock (St. Louis Cardinals) got his 3,000th career hit.

1985 - The engagement of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenagger was announced.

1986 - United States Football League standout Herschel Walker signed to play with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League.

1990 - Iraq transferred $3-4 billion in bullion, currency, and other goods seized from Kuwait to Baghdad.

1992 - Woody Allen began legal action to win custody of his three children. A judge ruled against Allen in 1993.

1994 - It was reported that aspirin not only helps reduce the risk of heart disease, but also helps prevent colon cancer.

August 14, 2014

1248 - The rebuilding of the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, began after being destroyed by fire.

1805 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tunis was signed on board the USS Constitution.

1848 - The Oregon Territory was established.

1880 - The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany was completed after 632 years of rebuilding.

1888 - A patent for the electric meter was granted to Oliver B. Shallenberger.

1896 - Gold was discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory. Within the next year more than 30,000 people rushed to the area to look for gold.

1900 - An international force, consisting of eight nations, lifted the siege of Peking. It was the end to the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners.

1917 - China declared war on Germany and Austria during World War I.

1919 - About 1 million tons of ice and rock broke off of a glacier near Mont Blanc, France. Nine people were killed in the incident.

1935 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. The act created unemployment insurance and pension plans for the elderly.

1936 - The first basketball competition was held at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. The U.S. defeated Canada, 19-8.

1941 - The U.S. Congress appropriated the funds to construct the Pentagon (approximately $83 million). The building was the new home of the U.S. War Department.

1941 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter. The charter was a statement of principles that renounced aggression.

1944 - The federal government allowed the manufacture of certain domestic appliances to resume on a limited basis.

1945 - It was announced by U.S. President Truman that Japan had surrendered unconditionally. The surrender ended World War II.

1947 - Pakistan became independent from British rule.

1953 - The whiffle ball was invented.

1959 - The first meeting was held to organize the American Football League.

1962 - A U.S. mail truck was held up in Plymouth, MA. The robbers got away with more that $1.5 million dollars.

1969 - British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

1973 - The U.S. bombing of Cambodia ended. The halt marked the official end to 12 years of combat in Indochina by the U.S.

1976 - A charity softball game began for the Community General Hospital in Monticello, NY. The game was eventually called off due to weather after 30 hours. The final score was Gager's Diner's 491 to Bend 'n Elbow Tavern's 467.

1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was incorporated.

1984 - Patricia Ann Reagan and Paul Grilley were married on a movie set in California.

1986 - U.S. officials announced that a U.S. Drug Enforcement agent had been abducted, interrogated and tortured by Mexican police.

1987 - Mark McGwire set the record for major league home runs by a rookie when he connected for his 49th home run of the season.

1992 - The U.S. announced that emergency airlifts of food to Somalia would begin. The action was being taken to stop mass deaths due to starvation.

1995 - Shannon Faulkner became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel, South Carolina's state military college. She quit the school less than a week later.

1997 - William Friedkin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - A U.S. federal appeals court in Richmond, VA, ruled that the Food and Drug Administration had no authority to regulate tobacco. The FDA had established rules to make it harder for minors to buy cigarettes.

2000 - Valujet was ordered to pay $11 million in fines and restitution for hazardous waste violations in the crash that killed 110 people in 1996.

2000 - It was announced that Charles Grodin would be joining CBS' "60 Minutes II" as a commentator.

August 15, 2014

1057 - Macbeth, the King of Scotland, was killed by the son of King Duncan.

1848 - The dental chair was patented by M. Waldo Hanchett.

1877 - Thomas Edison wrote to the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, PA. The letter stated that the word, "hello" would be a more appropriate greeting than "ahoy" when answering the telephone.

1911 - The product Crisco was introduced by Procter & Gamble Company.

1914 - The Panama Canal was officially opened to commercial traffic as an American ship sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

1918 - Diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Russia were severed.

1935 - Will Rogers and Wiley Post were killed in an airplane crash in near Point Barrow, AK.

1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Hollywood, CA. Judy Garland became famous for the movie's song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

1943 - Because of his special talent to use food scraps in both unusual and appetizing recipes, the U.S. War Department awarded Sgt. Edward Dzuba the Legion of Merit.

1944 - The Allied forces of World War II landed in southern France.

1945 - The Allies proclaimed V-J Day a day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.

1947 - India became independent from Britain and was divided into the countries of India and Pakistan. India had been under British about 200 years.

1948 - The Republic of Korea was proclaimed.

1948 - CBS-TV inaugurated the first nightly news broadcast with anchorman Douglas Edwards.

1949 - In San Francisco, a stunt leap off the Golden Gate Bridge was performed for the first time.

1961 - East German workers began construction of the Berlin Wall.

1970 - Mrs. Pat Palinkas became the first woman to ‘play’ in a pro football game when she held the ball for the Orlando, FL, Panthers.

1971 - U.S. President Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, rents and prices.

1983 - Six-month-old Lisa Harap of Queens Village, NY became the youngest identifiable living person to appear on a cover of "TIME" magazine.

1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a package of economic sanctions against South Africa. The ban included the importing of steel, uranium, textiles, coal, and produce from South Africa.

1992 - Vietnam blamed Hollywood for creating the "myth" concerning the issue of U.S. servicemen still being held prisoner in Indochina.

1994 - The U.S. Social Security Administration became an independent government agency. It had been a part of the Department of Health and Human Services agency.

1997 - The U.S. Justice Department decided not to prosecute FBI officials in connection with the deadly 1992 Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho. The investigation dealt with an alleged cover-up.

2000 - A group of 100 people from North Korea arrived in South Korea for temporary reunions with relatives they had not seen for half a century. Also, a group of 100 South Koreans visited the North.

2001 - Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own. They had discovered two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.

August 16, 2014

1777 - During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Bennington took place. New England's minutemen routed the British regulars.

1812 - Detroit fell to Indian and British troops in the War of 1812.

1829 - The "Siamese twins," Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston, MA. They had come to the Western world to be exhibited. They were 18 years old and joined at the waist.

1858 - A telegraphed message from Britain's Queen Victoria to U.S. President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.

1861 - U.S. President Lincoln prohibited the Union states from trading with the states of the Confederacy.

1923 - Carnegie Steel Corporation put into place the eight-hour workday for its employees.

1930 - The first British Empire Games were held at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The event is now called the British Commonwealth Games.

1937 - Harvard University became the first school to have graduate courses in traffic engineering and administration.

1954 - Sports Illustrated was published for the first time. It was claimed that 250,000 subscriptions had been sold before the first issue came off of the presses.

1954 - jack Paar replaced Walter Cronkite as host of "The Morning Show" on CBS-TV.

1960 - Cyprus was granted independence by Britain.

1960 - The free-fall world record was set by Joseph Kittinger. He fell more than 16 miles (about 84,000 feet) before opening his parachute over New Mexico.

1978 - Xerox was fined for excluding Smith-Corona Mfg. from the copier market. The fine was $25.6 million.

1984 - The U.S. Jaycees voted to admit women to full membership in the organization.

1995 - Voters in Bermuda rejected independence from Great Britain.

1999 - In Russia, Vladimir V. Putin was confirmed as prime minister by the lower house of parliament.

August 16, 2014

1790 - The capital city of the U.S. moved to Philadelphia from New York City.

1807 - Robert Fulton's "North River Steam Boat" (known as the "Clermont") began heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful round-trip to Albany.

1815 - Napoleon began serving his exile when he arrived at the island of St. Helena.

1859 - A hot air balloon was used to carry mail for the first time. John Wise left Lafayette, IN, for New York City with 100 letters. He had to land after only 27 miles.

1863 - Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC, harbor during the Civil War.

1894 - John Wadsworth of Louisville set a major league record when he gave up 28 base hits in a single game.

1896 - The Klondike gold rush was set off by George Carmack discovering gold on Rabbit Creek in Alaska.

1903 - Joseph Pulitzer donated a million dollars to Columbia University. This started the Pulitzer Prizes in his name.

1915 - Charles F. Kettering received a patent for the first electric ignition device.

1939 - The movie "Wizard of Oz" premiered in New York. It had premiered in Hollywood on August 15.

1943 - The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.

1945 - The nationalists of Indonesia declared their independence from the Netherlands.

1961 - The Communist East German government completed the construction of the Berlin Wall.

1973 - Lee Trevino got the first hole in one of his career at the U.S.I. Golf Classic, in Sutton, MA.

1977 - Florists Transworld Delivery (FTD) reported that in one day the number of orders for flowers to be delivered to Graceland had surpassed the number for any other event in the company's history.

1978 - Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman became the first to land after a successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight. The voyage began in Presque Isle, ME and ended in Miserey, France.

1982 - The U.S. Senate approved an immigration bill that granted permanent resident status to illegal aliens who had arrived in the United States before 1977.

1985 - A year-long strike began when 1,400 Geo. A. Hormel and Co. meat packers walked off the job.

1987 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 2,700 for the first time.

1992 - Woody Allen admitted to being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn. The girl was the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow, Allen's longtime companion.

1996 - A military cargo plane crashed in Wyoming killing eight crewmembers and a Secret Service employee. The plane was carrying gear for U.S. President Clinton.

1996 - Ross Perot was announced to be the Reform Party's presidential candidate. It was the party's first-ever candidate.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton admitted to having an improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.

1998 - NationsBank and BankAmerica merge to create the largest U.S. bank.

1998 - Russia devalued the ruble.

2002 - In Santa Rosa, CA, the Charles M. Schulz Museum opened to the public.

August 18, 2014

1227 - The Mongol conqueror Ghengis Khan died.

1587 - Virginia Dare became the first child to be born on American soil of English parents. The colony that is now Roanoke Island, NC, mysteriously vanished.

1735 - The "Evening Post" of Boston, MA, was published for the first time.

1840 - The American Society of Dental Surgeons was founded in New York City, NY.

1846 - Gen. Stephen W. Kearney and his U.S. forces captured Santa Fe, NM.

1894 - The Bureau of Immigration was established by the U.S. Congress.

1914 - The "Proclamation of Neutrality" was issued by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. It was aimed at keeping the U.S. out of World War I.

1916 - Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was made into a national shrine.

1919 - The "Anti-Cigarette League of America" was formed in Chicago IL.

1920 - Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Amendment guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.

1937 - The first FM radio construction permit was issued in Boston, MA. The station went on the air two years later.

1938 - The Thousand Islands Bridge was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The bridge connects the U.S. and Canada.

1940 - Canada and the U.S. established a joint defense plan against the possible enemy attacks during World War II.

1958 - Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita" was published.

1963 - James Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi. He was the first black man to accomplish this feat.

1966 - The first pictures of earth taken from moon orbit were sent back to the U.S.

1980 - George Brett (Kansas City Royal) had his batting average reach the .400 mark.

1981 - Herschel Walker of the University of Georgia took out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London. The all-American was insured for one million dollars.

1982 - The volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped the 100-million level for the first time at 132.69 million shares traded.

1982 - The longest baseball game played at Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL, went 21 innings before the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cubs 2-1.

1987 - Earl Campbell announced his retirement from the National Football League (NFL).

1990 - The first shots were fired by the U.S. in the Persian Gulf Crisis when a U.S. frigate fired rounds across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker.

1991 - An unsuccessful coup was attempted in against President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The Soviet hard-liners were responsible. Gorbechev and his family were effectively imprisoned for three days while vacationing in Crimea.

1992 - Larry Bird, after 13 years with the Boston Celtics, announced his retirement.

1997 - Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in the Virginia Military Institute's 158-year history.

1997 - Patrick Swayze received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Mrs. Field's Original Cookies announced that they would acquire the Great American Cookie Co.

2004 - Donald Trump unveiled his board game (TRUMP the Game) where players bid on real estate, buy big ticket items and make billion-dollar business deals.

August 19, 2014

1812 - "Old Ironsides" (the USS Constitution) won a battle against the British frigate Guerriere east of Nova Scotia.

1848 - The discovery of gold in California was reported by the New York Herald.

1856 - Gail Borden received a patent for his process of condensing milk by vacuum.

1909 - The first car race to be run on brick occurred at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1917 - Team managers John McGraw and Christy Matthewson were arrested for breaking New York City's blue laws. The crime was their teams were playing baseball on Sunday.

1919 - Afghanistan gained independence from Britain.

1929 - "Amos and Andy," the radio comedy program, made its debut on NBC starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.

1934 - Adolf Hitler was approved for sole executive power in Germany as Fuehrer.

1940 - The new Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license #1 to Orville Wright.

1942 - About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France. They suffered about 50 percent casualties.

1960 - Francis Gary Powers, an American U-2 pilot, was convicted of espionage in Moscow.

1960 - Two dogs were launched in a satellite into Earth's orbit by the Soviet Union.

1962 - Homero Blancas shot a 55 at the Premier Invitational Golf Tournament held in Longview, TX. It was the lowest score in U.S. competitive golf history.

1974 - During an anti-American protest in Nicosia, Cyprus, U.S. Ambassador Rodger P. Davies was fatally wounded by a bullet while in the American embassy.

1981 - Two Libyan SU-22s were shot down by two U.S. Navy F-14 fighters in the Gulf of Sidra.

1991 - Soviet hard-liners announced that President Mikhail Gorbachev had been removed from power. Gorbachev returned to power two days later.

1998 - The first piece of the 351 foot bronze statue of Christopher Columbus arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1999 - Lorne Michaels received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - In Belgrade, thousands of Serbs attended a rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic.

2004 - Google Inc. stock began selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The initial price was set at $85 and ended the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares traded.

August 20, 2014

1741 - Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering discovered Alaska.

1862 - Horace Greeley's "The Prayer of Twenty Millions" was published.

1866 - The National Labor Union in the U.S. advocated an eight-hour workday.

1866 - It was formally declared by U.S. President Andrew Johnson that the American Civil War was over. The fighting had stopped months earlier.

1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow.

1885 - "The Mikado", by Gilbert and Sullivan, opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City.

1914 - German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.

1918 - The British opened its Western Front offensive during World War I.

1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," was launched in Lakehurst, NJ. The ship began its maiden voyage from the same location on September 4.

1939 - The National Bowling Association was founded in Detroit, MI. It was the first bowling association in the U.S. for African-Americans.

1940 - France fell to the Germans during World War II.

1945 - Tommy Brown (Brooklyn Dodgers) became the youngest player to hit a home run in a major league ball game. Brown was 17 years, 8 months and 14 days old.

1949 - Cleveland’s Indians and Chicago’s White Sox played at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland before the largest crowd, 78,382 people, to see a nighttime major-league baseball game.

1953 - It was announced by the Soviet Union that they had detonated a hydrogen bomb.

1955 - In Morocco and Algeria hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting.

1955 - Colonel Horace A. Hanes, a U.S. Air Force pilot, flew to an altitude of 40,000 feet. Hanes reached a speed of 822.135 miles per hour in a Super Sabrejet.

1964 - A $1 billion anti-poverty measure was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

1967 - The New York Times reported about a noise reduction system for album and tape recording developed by technicians R. and D.W. Dolby. Elektra Record's subsidiary, Checkmate Records became the first label to use the new Dolby process in its recordings.

1968 - The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization.

1977 - Voyager 2 was launched by the United States. The spacecraft was carrying a 12 inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

1985 - The original Xerox 914 copier was presented to the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History. Chester Carlson was the man who invented the machine.

1991 - A rally of more that 100,000 people occurred outside the Russian parliament building to protest the coup that removed Gorbachev from power.

1997 - NATO troops seized six police stations in Banja Luka that had been held by troops controlled by former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic.

1997 - Britain began voluntary evacuation of its Caribbean island of Montserrat due to the volcanic activity of the Soufriere Hills.

1998 - Canada's Supreme Court announced that Quebec could not secede without the federal government's consent.

1998 - U.S. military forces attacked a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan. Both targets were chosen for cruise missile strikes due to their connection with Osama bin Laden.

1998 - The U.N. Security Council extended trade sanctions against Iraq for blocking arms inspections.

August 21, 2014

1680 - The Pueblo Indians drove the Spanish out and took possession of Santa Fe, NM.

1831 - Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in Virginia. He was later executed.

1841 - A patent for venetian blinds was issued to John Hampton.

1878 - The American Bar Association was formed by a group of lawyers, judges and law professors in Saratoga, NY.

1888 - The adding machine was patented by William Burroughs.

1912 - Arthur R. Eldred became the first American boy to become an Eagle Scout. It is the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.

1923 - In Kalamazoo, Michigan, an ordinance was passed forbidding dancers from gazing into the eyes of their partner.

1943 - Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.

1945 - U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped about $50 billion in aid to America's Allies during World War II.

1959 - Hawaii became the 50th state. U.S. President Eisenhower also issued the order for the 50 star flag.

1963 - In South Vietnam, martial law was declared. Army troops and police began to crackdown on the Buddhist anti-government protesters.

1971 - Laura Baugh, at the age of 16, won the United States Women's Amateur Golf tournament. She was the youngest winner in the history of the tournament.

1984 - Victoria Roche, a reserve outfielder, became the first girl to ever compete in a Little League World Series game.

1984 - Clint Eastwood was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1989 - Voyager 2, a U.S. space probe, got close to the Neptune moon called Triton.

1991 - The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended. The uprising that led to the collapse was led by Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin.

1992 - NBC News fired Authur Kent two weeks after he refused an assignment to war-torn Croatia.

1993 - NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. The fate of the spacecraft was unknown. The mission cost $980 million.

1994 - Ernesto Zedillo won the Mexican presidential election.

1996 - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was signed by U.S. President Clinton. The act made it easier to obtain and keep health insurance.

1997 - Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it had recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in U.S. history.

1997 - Afghanistan suspended its embassy operations in the United States.

1997 - Cicely Tyson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Wesley Snipes received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2002 - In Pakistan, President General Pervez Musharraf unilaterally amended the Pakistani constitution. He extended his term in office and granted himself powers that included the right to dissolve parliament.

2003 - In Ghana, businessman Gyude Bryant was selected to oversee the two-year power-sharing accord between Liberia's rebels and the government. The accord was planned to guide the country out of 14 years of civil war.

August 22, 2014

1485 - The War of the Roses ended with the death of England's King Richard III. He was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field. His successor was Henry V II.

1567 - The "Council of Blood" was established by the Duke of Alba. This was the beginning of his reign of terror in the Netherlands.

1642 - The English Civil War began when Charles I called Parliament and its soldiers traitors.

1762 - Ann Franklin became the editor of the Mercury of Newport in Rhode Island. She was the first female editor of an American newspaper.

1770 - Australia was claimed under the British crown when Captain James Cook landed there.

1775 - The American colonies were proclaimed to be in a state of open rebellion by England's King George III.

1846 - The U.S. annexed New Mexico.

1851 - The schooner America outraced the Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup.

1865 - A patent for liquid soap was issued to William Sheppard.

1902 - In Hartford, CT, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first president of the United States to ride in an automobile.

1906 - The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, NJ began to manufacture the Victrola. The hand-cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sold for $200.

1910 - Japan formally annexed Korea.

1911 - It was announced that Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" had been stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. The painting reappeared two years later in Italy.

1932 - The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) began its first TV broadcast in England.

1938 - Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.

1941 - Nazi troops reached the outskirts of Leningrad during World War II.

1950 - Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to be accepted into a national competition.

1951 - 75,052 people watched the Harlem Globetrotters perform. It was the largest crowd to see a basketball game.

1959 - Stephen Rockefeller married Anne Marie Rasmussen. Anne had once been a maid for the powerful and wealthy Rockefeller family.

1968 - Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin America.

1972 - Due to its racial policies, Rhodesia was asked to withdraw from the 20th Olympic Summer Games.

1973 - Henry Kissinger was named Secretary of State by U.S. President Nixon. Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.

1984 - The last Volkswagen Rabbit rolled off the assembly line in New Stanton, PA.

1986 - Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million to settle a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.

1989 - Nolan Ryan became the first major league pitcher to strike out 5000 batters. (MLB)

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed an order for calling reservists to aid in the build up of troops in the Persian Gulf.

1990 - The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait would not be closed under President Saddam Hussein's demand.

1990 - Angry smokers blocked a street in Moscow to protest the summer-long cigarette shortage.

1991 - It was announced by Yugoslavia that a truce ordered on August 7th with Croatia had collapsed.

1991 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev returned to Moscow after the collapse of the hard-liners' coup. On the same day he purged the men that had tried to oust him.

1992 - In Rostock, Germany, neo-Nazi violence broke out against foreigners.

1996 - U.S. President Clinton signed legislation that ended guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanded work from recipients.

1998 - "The Howard Stern Radio Show" premiered on CBS to about 70% of the U.S.

2004 - In Oslo, Norway, a version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and his work "Madonna" were stolen from the Munch Museum. This version of "The Scream," one of four different versions, was a tempera painting on board.

August 23, 2014

1838 - The first class graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, MA. It was one of the first colleges for women.

1839 - Hong Kong was taken by the British in a war with China.

1858 - "Ten Nights in a Barroom" opened in New York City at the National Theater. It was a melodrama about the evils of drinking.

1892 - The printed streetcar transfer was patented by John H. Stedman.

1902 - Fannie Merrit Farmer opened her cooking school, Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery, in Boston, MA.

1904 - Hard D. Weed patented the grip-tread tire chain for cars.

1914 - Tsingtao, China, was bombarded as Japan declared war on Germany in World War I.

1939 - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty.

1944 - During World War II, Romanian prime minister Ion Antonescue was dismissed. Soon after the country would abandon the Axis and join the Allies.

1944 - Marseilles was captured by Allied troops during World War II.

1947 - Margaret Truman, U.S. President Truman's daughter, gave her first public performance as a singer. The event was at the Hollywood Bowl and had an audience of 15,000.

1952 - The security pact of the Arab League went into effect.

1959 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Sally debuted as an infant.

1962 - The first live TV program was relayed between the U.S. and Europe through the U.S. Telstar satellite.

1970 - U.S. swimmer Gary Hall broke three world records at the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) outdoor swimming meet, held in Los Angeles, CA.

1979 - Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New York City.

1982 - The parliament of Lebanon elected Bashir Bemayel president. He was assassinated three weeks later.

1982 - Gaylord Perry (Seattle Mariners) was tossed out of a game for throwing an illegal spitball.

1983 - The U.S. announced that it was nearly ready for a test flight of an anti-satellite missile.

1984 - South Fork Ranch, the home of the fictitious Ewing clan of the CBS-TV show, "Dallas," was sold. The ranch was to be transformed from a tourist site into a hotel.

1987 - Robert Jarvik and Marilyn Mach vos Savant were married. The event was called the "Union of Great Minds" since Savant had an IQ of 228 and Jarvik was the inventor of the artificial heart.

1990 - President Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi state television with a group of Western detainees that he referred to as "guests." He told the group that they were being held "to prevent the scourge of war."

1993 - It was confirmed by Los Angeles police that Michael Jackson was the subject of a criminal investigation.

1996 - U.S. President Clinton imposed limits on peddling cigarettes to children.

1998 - Protestors in Sudan carried a sign that bore the resemblance of Monica Lewinsky and the words "No War for Monika." The anti-U.S. demonstration was in Khartoum, Sudan.

1998 - Boris Yeltsin dismissed the Russian government again.

1999 - Rescuers in Turkey found a young boy that had been buried in rubble from an earthquake for about a week.

1999 - Robert Bogucki was rescued after getting lost in the Great Sandy Desert of Australia on July 11. During the 43 day ordeal Bogucki lost 44 pounds.

2000 - Richard Hatch was revealed as the winning castaway on CBS' "Survivor." Hatch won $1,000,000 for his stay on the island of Pulau Tida in the South China Sea.

August 24, 2014

0079 - Mount Vesuvius erupted killing approximately 20,000 people. The cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum were buried in volcanic ash.

0410 - The Visigoths overran Rome. This event symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.

1572 - The Catholics began their slaughter of the French Protestants in Paris. The killings claimed about 70,000 people.

1814 - Washington, DC, was invaded by British forces that set fire to the White House and Capitol.

1853 - The first convention of the American Pharmaceutical Association was held.

1869 - A patent for the waffle iron was received by Cornelius Swarthout.

1891 - Thomas Edison applied patents for the kinetoscope and kinetograph (U.S. Pats. 493,426 and 589,168).

1912 - A four-pound limit was set for parcels sent through the U.S. Post Office mail system.

1932 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the U.S. non-stop. The trip from Los Angeles, CA to Newark, NJ, took about 19 hours.

1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) went into effect. The agreement was that an attack against on one of the parties would be considered "an attack against them all."

1954 - The Communist Party was virtually outlawed in the U.S. when the Communist Control Act went into effect.

1959 - Three days after Hawaiian statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative.

1963 - John Pennel pole-vaulted 17 feet and 3/4 inches becoming the first to break the 17-foot barrier.

1968 - France became the 5th thermonuclear power when they exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.

1975 - Davey Lopes of the Los Angeles Dodgers set a major league baseball record when he stole his 38th consecutive base.

1985 - 27 anti-apartheid leaders were arrested in South Africa as racial violence rocked the country.

1986 - Frontier Airlines shut down. Thousands of people were left stranded.

1989 - Pete Rose, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, was banned from baseball for life after being accused of gambling on baseball.

1989 - "Total war" was declared by Columbian drug lords on their government.

1989 - The U.S. space probe, Voyager 2, sent back photographs of Neptune.

1990 - Iraqi troops surrounded foreign missions in Kuwait.

1991 - Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the head of the Communist Party.

1992 - China and South Korea established diplomatic relations.

1995 - Microsoft's "Windows 95" went on sale.

1998 - U.S. officials cited a soil sample as part of the evidence that a Sudan plant was producing precursors to the VX nerve gas. And, therefore made it a target for U.S. missiles on August 20, 1998.

1998 - A donation of 24 beads was made, from three parties, to the Indian Museum of North America at the Crazy Horse Memorial. The beads are said to be those that were used in 1626 to buy Manhattan from the Indians.

2001 - In McAllen, TX, Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to settle out of court and pay a reported $7.5 million to a family in a rollover accident in their Ford Explorer.

2001 - The remains of nine American servicemen killed in the Korean War were returned to the U.S. The bodies were found about 60 miles north of Pyongyang. It was estimated that it would be a year before the identies of the soldiers would be known.

2001 - U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was randomly picked to take over the Microsoft monopoly case. The judge was to decide how Microsoft should be punished for illegally trying to squelch its competitors.

2001 - NASA announced that operation of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite would end by September 30th due to budget restrictions. Though the satellite is best known for monitoring a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, it was designed to provide information about the upper atmosphere by measuring its winds, temperatures, chemistry and energy received from the sun.

2005 - The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Pluto's status was changed due to the IAU's new rules for an object qualifying as a planet. Pluto met two of the three rules because it orbits the sun and is large enough to assume a nearly round shape. However, since Pluto has an oblong orbit and overlaps the orbit of Neptune it disqualified Pluto as a planet.

August 24, 2014

1718 - Hundreds of colonists from France arrived in Louisiana. Some settled in present-day New Orleans.

1814 - The U.S. Library of Congress was destroyed by British forces.

1825 - Uruguay declared independence from Brazil.

1840 - Joseph Gibbons received a patent for the seeding machine.

1875 - Captain Matthew Webb swam from Dover, England, to Calais, France making him the first person to swim the English Channel. The feat took about 22 hours.

1902 - "Al-Hoda" began publication in New York City making it the first Arabic daily newspaper in the U.S.

1916 - The National Park Service was established as part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

1920 - Ethelda Bleibtrey won the 100-meter freestyle swimming competition in Antwerp, Belgium. She was the first woman to win an Olympic competition for the U.S.

1920 - The first airplane to fly from New York to Alaska arrived in Nome.

1921 - The U.S. signed a peace treaty with Germany.

1939 - The movie "Wizard of Oz" opened around the United States.

1940 - Arno Rudolphi and Ann Hayward were married while suspended in parachutes at the World’s Fair in New York City.

1941 - Soviet and British troops invaded Iran. This was in reaction to the Shah's refusal to reduce the number of German residents.

1941 - Allied forces invaded Iran. Within four days the Soviet Union and England controlled Iran.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill appropriating funds for construction of the Pentagon.

1944 - Paris, France, was liberated by Allied forces ending four years of German occupation.

1944 - Romania declared war on Germany.

1946 - Ben Hogan won the PGA in Portland, OR. It was his first major golf title.

1949 - NBC Radio debuted "Father Knows Best." The show went to TV in 1954.

1950 - U.S. President Truman ordered the seizure of U.S. railroads to avert a strike.

1972 - In Great Britain, computerized axial tomography (CAT scan) was introduced.

1978 - The Turin shroud believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ went on display for the first time in 45 years.

1981 - The U.S. Voyager 2 sent back pictures and data about Saturn. The craft came within 63,000 miles of the planet.

1983 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a $10 billion grain pact.

1987 - Saudi Arabia denounced the "group of terrorists" that ran the Iranian government.

1988 - Iran and Iraq began talks in Geneva after ending their eight years of war.

1990 - Military action was authorized by the United Nations to enforce the trade embargo that had been placed on Iraq after their invasion of Kuwait.

1991 - Byelorussia declared independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 - It was reported by researchers that cigarette smoking significantly increased the risk of developing cataracts.

1993 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 3,652.09, an all-time high.

1995 - Harry Wu, human rights activist, returned to the United States. He said the spying case against him in China was "all lies."

1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.

1998 - A survey released said that 1/3 of Americans use the Internet.

August 26, 2014

55 B.C. - Britain was invaded by Roman forces under Julius Caesar.

1498 - Michelangelo was commissioned to make the "Pieta."

1842 - The first fiscal year was established by the U.S. Congress to start on July 1st.

1847 - Liberia was proclaimed as an independent republic.

1873 - The school board of St. Louis, MO, authorized the first U.S. public kindergarten.

1896 - In the Philippines, and insurrection began against the Spanish government.

1920 - The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in the voting booth.

1934 - Adolf Hitler demanded that France turn over their Saar region to Germany.

1937 - All Chinese shipping was blockaded by Japan.

1939 - The first televised major league baseball games were shown. The event was a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1939 - The radio program, "Arch Oboler’s Plays", presented the NBC Symphony for the first time.

1945 - The Japanese were given surrender instructions on the U.S. battleship Missouri at the end of World War II.

1947 - Don Bankhead became the first black pitcher in major league baseball.

1957 - It was announced that an intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully tested by the Soviet Union.

1957 - The first Edsel made by the Ford Motor Company rolled of the assembly line.

1961 - The International Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto opened.

1973 - A U.S. Presidential Proclamation was declared that made August 26th Women's Equality Day.

1978 - Sigmund Jahn blasted off aboard the Russian Soyuz 31 and became the first German in space.

1981 - The U.S. claimed that North Korea fired an antiaircraft missile at a U.S. Surveillance plane while it was over South Korea.

1987 - The Fuller Brush Company announced plans to open two retail stores in Dallas, TX. The company that had sold its products door to door for 81 years.

1990 - The 55 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait left Baghdad by car and headed for the Turkish border.

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised that national elections would be held.

1992 - A "no-fly zone" was imposed on the southern 1/3 of Iraq. The move by the U.S., France and Britain was aimed at protecting Iraqi Shiite Muslims.

1998 - The U.S. government announced that they were investigating Microsoft in an attempt to discover if they "bullied" Intel into delaying new technology.

August 27, 2014

1660 - The books of John Milton were burned in London due to his attacks on King Charles II.

1789 - The Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted by the French National Assembly.

1828 - Uruguay was formally proclaimed to be independent during preliminary talks between Brazil and Argentina.

1858 - The first cabled news dispatch was sent and was published by "The New York Sun" newspaper. The story was about the peace demands of England and France being met by China.

1859 - The first oil well was successfully drilled in the U.S. by Colonel Edwin L. Drake near Titusville, PA.

1889 - Charles G. Conn received a patent for the metal clarinet.

1889 - Boxer jack "Nonpareil" Dempsey was defeated for the first time of his career by George LaBlanche.

1892 - The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York was seriously damaged by fire.

1894 - The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. The provision within for a graduated income tax was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1921 - The owner of Acme Packing Company bought a pro football team for Green Bay, WI. J.E. Clair paid tribute to those who worked in his plant by naming the team the Green Bay Packers. (NFL)

1928 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 15 countries in Paris. Later, 47 other nations would sign the pact.

1938 - Robert Frost, in a fit of jealousy, set fire to some papers to disrupt a poetry recital by another poet, Archibald MacLeish.

1939 - Nazi Germany demanded the Polish corridor and Danzig.

1945 - American troops landed in Japan after the surrender of the Japanese government at the end of World War II.

1962 - Mariner 2 was launched by the United States. In December of the same year the spacecraft flew past Venus. It was the first space probe to reach the vicinity of another planet.

1972 - North Vietnam's major port at Haiphong saw the first bombings from U.S. warplanes.

1981 - Work began on recovering a safe from the Andrea Doria. The Andrea Doria was a luxury liner that had sank in 1956 in the waters off of Massachusetts.

1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the first citizen to go into space would be a teacher. The teacher that was eventually chosen was Christa McAuliffe. She died in the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986.

1984 - Diane Sawyer became the fifth reporter on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes."

1984 - The Menetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village opened. It was the first new off-Broadway theater to be built in 50 years in New York City.

1985 - The Space Shuttle Discovery left for a seven-day mission in which three satellites were launched and another was repaired and redeployed.

1986 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) earned his 250th career win against the Chicago Cubs.

1989 - The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched. A British communications satellite was onboard.

1990 - The U.S. State Department ordered the expulsion of 36 Iraqi diplomats.

1991 - The Soviet republic of Moldavia declared its independence.

1996 - California Governor Pete Wilson signed an order that would halt state benefits to illegal immigrants.

1998 - James Brolin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - "Titanic" became the first movie in North America to earn more than $600 million.

1999 - The final crew of the Russian space station Mir departed the station to return to Earth. Russia was forced to abandon Mir for financial reasons.

2001 - The U.S. military announced that an Air Force RQ-1B "Predator" aircraft was lost over Iraq. It was reported that the unmanned aircraft "may have crashed or been shot down."

2001 - Work began on the future site of a World War II memorial on the U.S. capital's historic national Mall. The site is between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

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