What Happened This Day In History

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Today in History
August 7

1782 General George Washington authorizes the award of the Purple Heart for soldiers wounded in combat.
1864 Union troops capture part of Confederate General Jubal Early's army at Moorefield, West Virginia.
1888 Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia receives a patent for the revolving door.
1906 In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders."
1916 Persia forms an alliance with Britain and Russia.
1922 The Irish Republican Army cuts the cable link between the United States and Europe at Waterville landing station.
1934 In Washington, the U.S. Court of Appeals rules that the govenment can neither confiscate nor ban James Joyce's novel Ulysses.
1936 The United States declares non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War.
1942 The U.S. 1st Marine Division under General A. A. Vandegrift lands on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon islands. This is the first American amphibious landing of the war.
1944 German forces launch a major counter attack against U.S. forces near Mortain, France.
1964 Congress overwhelmingly passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing the president to use unlimited military force to prevent attacks on U.S. forces.
1966 The United States loses seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in the war up to this point.
1971 Apollo 15 returns to Earth. The mission to the moon had marked the first use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle.
1973 A U.S. plane accidentally bombs a Cambodian village, killing 400 civilians.
1976 US Viking 2 spacecraft goes into orbit around Mars.
1981 The Washington (D.C.) Star ceases publication after 128 years.
1984 Japan defeats the United States to win the Olympic Gold in baseball.
1987 Presidents of five Central American nations sign a peace accord in Guatemala.
1990 Operation Desert Shield begins as US troops deploy to Saudi Arabia to discourage Iraq's Saddam Hussein from invading that country as he had Kuwait.
2007 Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks Hank Aaron's record with his 756th home run. Bonds' accomplishments were clouded by allegations of illegal steroid use and lying to a grand jury.

Born on August 7

1876 Mata Hari, [Margaretha G. Macleod] who passed secrets to the Germans in World War I.
1903 Louis Leakey, anthropologist, archeologist and paleontologist, believed Africa was the cradle of mankind.
1904 Ralph Bunche, U.S. diplomat and the first African-American Nobel Prize winner.
1927 Edwin Edwards, governor of Louisiana.
1932 Abebe Bikila, barefoot runner from Ethiopia, winner of the 1960 Olympic marathon.
1942 Garrison Keillor, American humorist and writer, creator of the long-running PBS program A Prairie Home Companion.
1950 Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter ("Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight," "Ain't Living Long Like This") and author (Chinaberry Sidewalks) Rodney Crowell.
1963 Patrick Kennedy, son of President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy; dies 39 hours later.
1966 Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.
1975 Charlize Theron, model and Academy Award-winning actress (Monster).

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Today in History
August 8

1306 King Wenceslas of Poland is murdered.
1570 Charles IX of France signs the Treaty of St. Germain, ending the third war of religion and giving religious freedom to the Huguenots.
1636 The invading armies of Spain, Austria and Bavaria are stopped at the village of St.-Jean-de-Losne, only 50 miles from France.
1648 Ibrahim, the sultan of Istanbul, is thrown into prison, then assassinated.
1786 Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michael-Gabriel Baccard become the first men to climb Mont Blanc in France.
1844 Brigham Young is chosen to head the Mormon Church, succeeding Joseph Smith.
1863 Confederate President Jefferson Davis refuses General Robert E. Lee's resignation.
1876 Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph.
1899 The first household refrigerating machine is patented.
1925 The first national congress of the Ku Klux Klan opens.
1937 The Japanese Army occupies Beijing.
1940 The German Luftwaffe attacks Great Britain for the first time, begining the Battle of Britain.
1942 U.S. Marines capture the Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal.
1944 U.S. forces complete the capture of the Marianas Islands.
1945 The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
1950 U.S. troops repel the first North Korean attempt to overrun them at the battle of Naktong Bulge, which continued for 10 days.
1963 England's "Great Train Robbery;" 2.6 million pounds ($7.3 million) is stolen
1974 President Richard Nixon resigns from the presidency as a result of the Watergate scandal.
1978 Pioneer-Venus 2 launched to probe the atmosphere of Venus.
1979 Iraq's president Saddam Hussein executes 22 political opponents.
1983 Brigadier General Efrain Rios Montt is deposed as president of Guatemala in the country's second military coup in 17 months.
1988 Angola, Cuba and South Africa sign cease-fire treaty in the border war that began in 1966.
1989 NASA Space Shuttle Columbia begins its eighth flight, NASA's 30th shuttle mission.
1990 Iraq annexes the state of Kuwait as its 19th province, six days after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait.
2000 Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley raised to surface, 136 years after it sank following its successful attack on USS Housatonic in the outer harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
2007 An EF2 tornado hits Brooklyn, New York, the first in that borough since 1889.
2008 Georgia invades South Ossetia, touching off a five-day war between Georgia and Russia.

Born on August 8

1865 Matthew A. Henson, explorer with Robert Peary who first reached the North Pole (Though some recent scholarship disputes this claim).
1883 Emilano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary leader.
1896 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling.
1901 Ernest Orlando Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron and winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize for physics.
1908 Arthur J. Goldburg, labor lawyer instrumental in the merger of the Amercian Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
1937 Dustin Hoffman, American actor.
1948 Svetlana Y Savitskaya, Soviet cosmonaut, the first woman to walk in space (July 25, 1984).
1964 M. Ashman, author, co-editor of Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey, and a founding member of TED Global, the international organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.

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Today in History
August 9

480 BC The Persian army defeats Leonidas and his Spartan army at the battle Thermopylae, Persia.
48 BC Julius Caesar defeats Gnaius Pompey at Pharsalus.
1483 Pope Sixtus IV celebrates the first mass in the Sistine Chapel, which is named in his honor.
1549 England declares war on France.
1645 Settlers in New Amsterdam gain peace with the Indians after conducting talks with the Mohawks.
1805 Austria joins Britain, Russia, Sweden and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the third coalition against France.
1814 Andrew Jackson and the Creek Indians sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving the whites 23 million acres of Creek territory.
1842 The Webster-Ashburn treaty fixes the border between Maine and Canada's New Brunswick.
1859 The escalator is patented. However, the first working escalator appeared in 1900. Manufactured by the Otis Elevator Company for the Paris Exposition, it was installed in a Philadelphia office building the following year.
1862 At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson repels an attack by Union forces.
1910 The first complete, self-contained electric washing machine is patented.
1930 First appearance of the animated character Betty Boop ("Dizzy Dishes").
1936 Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in track and field events at the Berlin Olympics.
1941 President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The meeting produces the Atlantic Charter, an agreement between the two countries on war aims, even though the United States is still a neutral country.
1944 Fictional character Smokey the Bear ("Only you can prevent forest fires") created by US Forest Service and the Ad Council.
1945 The B-29 bomber Bock's Car drops a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.
1965 Singapore expelled from Malaysia following economic disagreements and racial tensions; becomes independent republic.
1969 Charles Manson's followers kill actress Sharon Tate and her three guests in her Beverly Hills home.
1971 Le Roy (Satchel) Paige inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame.
1974 Gerald Ford is sworn in as president of the United States after the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
1975 First NFL game in Louisiana Superdome; Houston Oilers defeat New Orleans Saints 13-7.
1979 England's first major nude beach established, at the seaside resort of Brighton.
1992 Twenty-fifth Olympic Summer Games closes in Barcelona, Spain.
1999 Russian president Boris Yeltsin fires his prime minister and, for the fourth time, fires the entire cabinet.
1999 The Diet of Japan establishes the country's official national flag, the Hinomaru, and national anthem, "Kimi Ga Yo.".

Born on August 9

1387 Henry V, British king famous for his victory at Agincourt, France.
1631 John Dryden, the first official Poet Laureate of Great Britain (1668 to1700).
1633 Isaak Walton, author of the classic The Compleat Angler.
1896 Jean Piaget, psychologist who did pioneering work on the development of children"s intellectual faculties.
1899 P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books.
1927 Robert Shaw, actor and writer.
1928 Bob Cousey, Hall of Fame basketball player and coach of the Boston Celtics.
1933 Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese actress and bestselling children's author (Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window); established Japan's first TV talk show, Tetsuko no Heya (Tetsuko's Room), breaking with traditional subservient depiction of Japanese women.
1945 Ken Norton, heavyweight boxing champ.
1945 Rosemary Elizabeth "Posy" Simmonds, award-winning British newspaper cartoonist (The Silent Three, Gemma Bovery, Tamara Drewe) and author / illustrator of children's books (Fred, The Chocolate Wedding).
1957 Melanie Griffith, film and TV actress (Working Girl, Milk Money).
1958 Amanda Bearse, film and TV actress (Married with Children).
1961 Amy Stiller, stand-up comedian, film and TV actress (Little Fokkers, The King of Queens).
1963 Whitney Houston, model, singer ("Saving All My Love for You"), actress (The Bodyguard); listed in 2009 Guinness World Records as most awarded female act of all time.
1964 Hoda Kotb, Daytime Emmy-winning TV news anchor and host.
1968 Gillian Anderson, film and TV actress (The X-Files).
1970 Chris Cuomo, TV journalist and anchor.
1983 Ashley Johnson, film (The Help) and TV actress (Growing Pains), video game voiceovers (The Last of Us).

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

What company made the first washing machine? can not believe how people made it to 1910 with out a washer

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

http://www.ask.com/question/who-inve...ashing-machine

[Hobbitess Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hobbitess]

can not believe how people made it to 1910 with out a washer

They weren't washers as we think of them -- they washed, but didn't spin the clothes, so all the clothes would have to be run through the wringer. Also known as a mangler, for good reason -- the early electrical ones, particularly, could cause serious damage if someone's fingers got caught in them (pretty easy to do, since you have to arrange the clothes just so to go through). And even after they were invented, electricity wasn't common nationwide until the 1930s -- my dad remembers the excitement of getting electricity out to the farm when he was a kid.

My mom's mom thought wringer washers were better than more modern ones. After my grandpa died, my grandmother still had the modern washer, but tracked down a wringer washer and used that until she was in the nursing home. My aunt lived across the street and thought grandma was too old to be working that hard (sopping wet clothes are heavy!), but my aunt didn't like working with the wringer (it was safe in the sense that it wouldn't break your fingers, but it could still pinch), and grandma didn't think she put the clothes through right anyhow, so while the washer didn't whirl, the two of them would go round and round about it.

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WORKING 80 YEAR OLD WASHING MACHINE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPOpCrFv7Y8

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WORKING 80 YEAR OLD WASHING MACHINE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPOpCrFv7Y8

Now that is a 1926 maytag washer a dryer and a presser all in one. That has to sell for at least double the price as it was when it was new.

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Today in History
August 12

1099 At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, route an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem, which had already fallen to the Crusaders.
1687 At the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeats the Turks.
1762 The British capture Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.
1791 Black slaves on the island of Santo Domingo rise up against their white masters.
1812 British commander the Duke of Wellington occupies Madrid, Spain, forcing out Joseph Bonaparte.
1863 Confederate raider William Quantrill leads a massacre of 150 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.
1864 After a week of heavy raiding, the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee claims six Union ships captured.
1896 Gold is discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. After word reaches the United States in June of 1897, thousands of Americans head to the Klondike to seek their fortunes.
1898 The Spanish American War officially ends after three months and 22 days of hostilities.
1908 Henry Ford's first Model T rolls off the assembly line.
1922 The home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. is dedicated as a memorial.
1935 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill.
1941 French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announces full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
1961 The erection of the Berlin Wall begins, preventing access between East and West Germany.
1969 American installations at Quan-Loi, Vietnam, come under Viet Cong attack.
1972 As U.S. troops leave Vietnam, B-52's make their largest strike of the war.
1977 Steven Biko, leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, is arrested.
1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes its first free flight and landing.
1978 Tel al-Zaatar massacre at Palestinian refuge camp during Lebanese Civil War.
1979 Massive book burnings by press censors begin in Iran.
1981 Computer giant IBM introduces its first personal computer.
1985 Highest in-flight death toll as 520 die when Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Mount Takamagahara.
1992 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is concluded between the United States, Canada and Mexico, creating the world's wealthiest trade bloc.
2000 Russian Navy submarine K-141 Kursk explodes and sinks with all hands during military exercises in the Bering Sea.
2005 An LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) sniper mortally wounds Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, at the minister's home.
2012 Summer Olympics come to a close in London.

Born on August 12

1762 George IV, named Prince Regent in 1810 when his father, George III, is declared insane.
1774 Robert Southey, English poet laureate (1813-1843).
1781 Robert Mills, architect and engineer whose designs include the Washington Monument, the National Portrait Gallery and the U.S. Treasury Building.
1859 Katherine Bates, composer of "America the Beautiful."
1881 Cecil B. DeMille, American film director, producer and screenwriter, famous for epic productions.
1889 Zerna Sharp, creator and co-author, with William S. Gray, of the Dick and Jane reading primer series.
1911 Cantinflas, Mexican circus clown, acrobat and actor.
1925 Norris and Ross McWhirter, wrote and updated Guinness Book of World Records, 1955–1975; following Ross' assassination by the IRA, Norris continued writing and updating the Guinness Book until 1985.
1927 Ralph Waite, actor (The Waltons, Roots).
1927 Porter Wagoner, country singer, TV show host.
1929 Buck Owens, country singer, a leader in establishing the "Bakersfield Sound.".
1936 Vice-Admiral John Poindexter, Security Adviser to Pres. Ronald Reagan (Dec 1985–Nov 1986); convicted on 5 felonies arising from the Iran/Contra affair, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.
1937 Walter Dean Myers, award-winning author of books for young readers (Hoops, The Scorpion).
1939 George Hamilton, Golden Globe-winning actor (Crime & Punishment, USA), producer (Love at First Bite).
1954 Pat Metheny, multiple-award winning jazz guitarist, including unprecedented 7 Grammys for 7 consecutive recordings.

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Today in History
August 13

1521 Cortes captures the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, and sets it on fire.
1630 Emperor Ferdinand II dismisses Albert Eusebius van Wallenstein, his most capable general.
1680 War starts when the Spanish are expelled from Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Indians under Chief Pope.
1704 The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Austria defeat the French Army at the Battle of Blenheim.
1787 The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.
1862 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1881 The first African-American nursing school opens at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
1889 The first coin-operated telephone is patented by William Gray.
1892 The first issue of the Afro American newspaper is published in Baltimore, Maryland.
1898 Manila, the capital of the Philippines, falls to the U.S. Army.
1910 British nurse Florence Nightingale, famous for her care of British soldiers during the Crimean War, dies.
1932 Adolf Hitler refuses to serve as Franz Von Papen's vice chancellor.
1948 During the Berlin Airlift, the weather over Berlin becomes so stormy that American planes have their most difficult day landing supplies. They deem it 'Black Friday.'
1961 Construction begins on Berlin Wall during the night.
1963 A 17 year-old Buddhist monk burns himself to death in Saigon, South Vietnam.
1978 Bomb attack in Beirut during Second Lebanese Civil War kills more than 150 people.
1989 The wreckage of a plane that carried U.S. congressman Mickey Leland and others on a humanitarian mission is found on a mountain side in Ethiopia; there are no survivors.
1993 US Court of Appeals rules Congress must save all emails.

Born on August 13

1655 Johann Christoph Denner, inventor of the clarinet.
1818 Lucy Stone, woman's rights activist, founder of Woman's Journal.
1860 Phoebe Anne Moses, later known as Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter and entertainer.
1899 Alfred Hitchcock, director of over 50 films including Rebecca, Rear Window, Psycho and North by Northwest.
1902 Felix Wankel, inventory of the rotary engine which bears his name.
1912 Ben Hogan, American golfer.
1916 Daniel Schorr, radio and television correspondent.
1926 Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary leader and president.
1930 Don Ho, Hawaii's best-known musician and singer ("Tiny Bubbles").
1933 Jocelyn Elders, first African American US Surgeon General (Sept 1993–Dec 1994).
1940 Ann Armstrong Daily, founder of Children's Hospice international.
1942 Robert Lee Stewart, US Army brigadier general and astronaut.
1951 Dan Fogelberg, multiple-platinum singer-songwriter.
1952 Herb Ritts, photographer who revolutionized fashion photography in the 1980s and created many iconic photos of celebrities.

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Today in History
August 14

1457 The first book ever printed is published by a German astrologer named Faust. He is thrown in jail while trying to sell books in Paris. Authorities concluded that all the identical books meant Faust had dealt with the devil.
1559 Spanish explorer de Luna enters Pensacola Bay, Florida.
1605 The Popham expedition reaches the Sagadahoc River in present-day Maine and settles there.
1756 French commander Louis Montcalm takes Fort Oswego, New England, from the British.
1793 Republican troops in France lay siege to the city of Lyons.
1900 The European allies enter Beijing, relieving their besieged legations from the Chinese Boxers.
1917 The Chinese Parliament declares war on the Central Powers.
1942 Dwight D. Eisenhower is named the Anglo-American commander for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.
1945 Japan announces its unconditional surrender in World War II.
1947 Pakistan becomes an independent country.
1969 British troops arrived Northern Ireland in response to sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1973 The United States ends the "secret" bombing of Cambodia.
1987 Mark McGwire hits his 49th home run of the season, setting the major league home run record for a rookie.
1995 Shannon Faulker becomes the first female cadet in the long history of South Carolina's state military college, The Citadel. Her presence was met with intense resistance, reportedly including death threats, and she left the school a week later.
2007 Four co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks in Yazidi towns near Mosul, Iraq, kill more than 400 people.
2010 First-ever Summer Youth Olympic Games open, in Singapore. Athletes must be 14–18 years old.

Born on August 14

1777 Hans Christian Oersted, Danish scientist who discoverd electromagnetism.
1863 Ernest L. Thayer, author of the poem "Casey at the Bat."
1925 Russell Baker, author and columnist for The New York Times.
1938 Niara Shudarkasa, educator and first woman president of Lincoln University.
1945 Steve Martin, American comedian, actor, musician and screenwriter, his many awards include a Lifetime Achievement in Comedy (American Comedy Awards, USA), several Emmys, and Grammys for Best Comedy Album (1977, 1979) and Best Bluegrass Album (2009, 2013)
1947 Danielle Steel, the fourth-bestselling author of all time.
1950 Gary Larson, cartoonist (The Far Side).
1966 Halle Berry, actress, her many awards include a Golden Globe (Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, TV movie) and and an Oscar (Monster's Ball).

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Today in History
August 15

1261 Constantinople falls to Michael VIII of Nicea and his army.
1385 John of Portugal defeats John of Castile at the Battle of Aljubarrota.
1598 Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, leads an Irish force to victory over the British at Battle of Yellow Ford.
1760 Frederick II defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Liegnitz.
1864 The Confederate raider Tallahassee captures six Federal ships off New England.
1872 The first ballot voting in England is conducted.
1914 The Panama Canal opens to traffic.
1935 American comedian and "cowboy philosopher" Will Rogers dies in an airplane accident, along with American aviation pioneer Wiley Post.
1942 The Japanese submarine I-25 departs Japan with a floatplane in its hold which will be assembled upon arriving off the West Coast of the United States, and used to bomb U.S. forests.
1944 American, British and French forces land on the southern coast of France, between Toulon and Cannes, in Operation Dragoon.
1945 Gasoline and fuel oil rationing ends in the United States.
1947 Britain grants independence to India and Pakistan.
1950 Two U.S. divisions are badly mauled by the North Korean Army at the Battle of the Bowling Alley in South Korea, which rages on for five more days.
1969 Over 400,000 young people attend a weekend of rock music at Woodstock, New York.
1971 US President Richard Nixon announces a 90-day freeze on wages and prices in an attempt to halt rapid inflation.
1986 Ignoring objections from President Ronald Reagan's Administration, US Senate approves economic sanctions against South Africa to protest that country's apartheid policies.
1994 US Social Security Administration, previously part of the Department of Health and Human Services, becomes an independent government agency.
1994 Infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal captured in Khartoum, Sudan.
2001 Astronomers announce the first solar system discovered outside our own; two planets had been found orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.
2007 An earthquake of 8.0 magnitude kills over 500 and injures more than 1,000 in Peru.

Born on August 15

1769 Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (1804-1815) and military leader.
1771 Sir Walter Scott, Scottish novelist who wrote Ivanhoe and Rob Roy.
1888 T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia for his military exploits against the Turks in World War I.
1912 Julia Child, American chef and television personality.
1924 Robert Bolt, English screenwriter and playwright best known for A Man for all Seasons.
1938 Maxine Waters, congresswoman from California, second African-American woman to be elected to congress.
1938 Stephen Breyer, US Supreme Court justice.
1946 Jimmy Webb, songwriter ("MacArthur Park," "By the Time I Get to Phoenix").
1961 Ed Gilllespie, US Republican political strategist and White House counsel to President George W. Bush.
1964 Melinda French Gates, businesswoman, philanthropist; co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with her husband, Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft).
1965 Rob Thomas, television writer (Veronica Mars, 90210).

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Today in History
August 16

1513 Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian defeat the French at Guinegatte, France, in the Battle of the Spurs.
1777 France declares a state of bankruptcy.
1780 American troops are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
1812 American General William Hull surrenders Detroit without resistance to a smaller British force under General Issac Brock.
1858 U.S. President James Buchanan and Britain's Queen Victoria exchange messages inaugurating the first transatlantic telegraph line.
1861 Union and Confederate forces clash near Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri.
1863 Union General William S. Rosecrans moves his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
1896 Gold is discovered in the Klondike of Canada's Yukon Territory, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
1914 Liege, Belgium, falls to the German army.
1945 Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, is released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.
1965 The Watts riots end in south-central Los Angeles after six days.
1977 Elvis Presley dies of a heart attack in the upstairs bedroom suite area of his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
1984 The safe of the sunken ocean liner Andrea Doria is opened on TV after three decades, revealing cash and certificates but no other valuables.
1986 Sudanese rebels shoot down a Sudanese Airways plane, killing 57 people.
1987 Astrological alignment of sun, moon and six planets marks what believers maintain is the dawning of a New Age.
1988 IBM introduces artificial intelligence software.
1990 Iraq orders 2,500 Americans and 4,000 British nationals in Kuwait to Iraq, in the aftermath of Iraq's invasion of that country.
2012 In South Africa police fire on striking mine workers, killing at least 34.

Born on August 16

1645 Jean de la Bruyere, French writer and moralist famous for his work Characters of Theophratus.
1868 Bernard McFadden, publisher responsible for the magazine True Story.
1913 Menachem Begin, Israeli statesman and Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
1920 Charles Bukowski, poet and novelist.
1929 Bill Evans, jazz pianist.
1930 Ted Hughes, English poet.
1940 Bruce Beresford, Australian film director whose films include Breaker Morant and Driving Miss Daisy.
1945 Suzanne Farrel, ballerina.
1958 Madonna [Louise Veronica Ciccone], entertainer and singer.
1960 Timothy Hutton, youngest actor ever to receive an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Ordinary People).
1962 Steve Carell, actor and comedian (The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Office, Evan Almighty).
1967 Ulrika Jonsson, Swedish-born actress, model and UK television personality.
1972 Emily Robison, singer, musician, songwriter, member of the bestselling Country group Dixie Chicks.

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Today in History
August 17

1743 By the Treaty of Abo, Sweden cedes southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden's failed war with Russia.
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte's army defeats the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian retreat to Moscow.
1833 The first steam ship to cross the Atlantic entirely on its own power, the Canadian ship Royal William, begins her journey from Nova Scotia to The Isle of Wight.
1863 Union gunboats attack Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, for the first time.
1942 Marine Raiders attack Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands from two submarines.
1943 Allied forces complete the conquest of Sicily.
1944 The mayor of Paris, Pierre Charles Tattinger, meets with the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
1945 Upon hearing confirmation that Japan has surrendered, Sukarno proclaims Indonesia's independence.
1960 American Francis Gary Powers pleads guilty at his Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet Union in a U-2 plane.
1978 Three Americans complete the first crossing of the Atlantic in a balloon.
1987 93-year-old Rudolf Hess, former Nazi leader and deputy of Hitler, is found hanged to death in Spandau Prison.
1988 Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq is killed in an airplane crash suspected of being an assassination.
1998 President Bill Clinton admits to the American public that he had affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
1999 A 7.4-magnitude earthquake near Izmit, Turkey kills over 17,000 and injures nearly 45,000.
2005 Israel begins the first forced evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, as part of a unilateral disengagement plan.
2012 Moscow's top court upholds ban of gay pride events in Russia's capital city for 100 years.

Born on August 17

1786 Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and politician who died in the defense of the Alamo.
1882 Samuel Goldwyn, American movie mogul who helped start MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer).
1887 Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born black nationalist who advocated the departure of African-Americans back to Africa.
1890 Harry Hopkins, who organized the Works Projects Administration under President Roosevelt.
1892 Mae West, American actress in burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and movies.
1923 Larry Rovers, painter and sculptor.
1932 John (Red) Kerr, basketball coach.
1943 Robert DeNiro, American actor, won Oscars for his roles in The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull.
1944 Lawrence Joseph Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation.
1953 Judith Regan, controversial book publisher, editor, talk show host.
1960 Sean Penn, actor, screenwriter, director, political and social activist (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mystic River).
1965 Robert Manry, copy editor of Cleveland Plain Dealer who sailed solo in a sailboat from Falmouth, Massachusetts, to Falmouth, Cornwall, England.

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Today in History
August 18

1587 In the Roanoke Island colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare become parents of a baby girl whom they name Virginia, the first English child born in what would become the United States.
1590 John White, the leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returns from a trip to England to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers is ever found.
1698 After invading Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forces Frederick IV of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.
1759 The French fleet is destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle of Lagos Bay.
1782 Poet and artist William Blake marries Catherine Sophia Boucher.
1862 Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart's headquarters is raided by Union troops of the 5th New York and 1st Michigan cavalries.
1864 Union General William T. Sherman sends General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of communication outside Atlanta. The raid is unsuccessful.
1870 Prussian forces defeat the French at the Battle of Gravelotte during the Franco-Prussian War.
1898 Adolph Ochs takes over the New York Times, saying his aim is to give "the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is permissible in good society, and give it early, if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other medium."
1914 Germany declares war on Russia while President Woodrow Wilson issues his Proclamation of Neutrality.
1920 Tennessee becomes the thirty-sixth state to ratify the nineteenth amendment granting women's sufferage, completing the three-quarters necessary to put the amendment into effect.
1929 The first cross-country women's air derby begins. Louise McPhetride Thaden wins first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie finishes first in the lighter-plane category.
1939 The film The Wizard of Oz opens in New York City.
1942 Japan sends a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.
1943 The Royal Air Force Bomber Command completes the first major strike against the German missile development facility at Peenemunde.
1963 James Meredith, the first African American to attend University of Mississippi, graduates.
1965 Operation Starlite marks the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.
1966 Australian troops repulse a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan.
1969 Two concert goers die at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix.
1973 Hank Aaron makes his 1,378 extra-base hit, surpassing Stan Musial's record.
1974 Luna 24, the USSR's final major lunar exploration mission, soft-lands on moon.
1979 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini demands a "Saint War" against Kurds.
1982 Pete Rose sets record with his 13,941st plate appearance.
1987 Ohio nurse Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life terms for poisoning 24 patients.
1988 Republican Convention in New Orleans nominate the George H.W. Bush-Dan Quayle ticket.
1991 A group of hard-line communist leaders unhappy with the drift toward the collapse of the Soviet Union seize control of the government in Moscow and place President Mikhail S. Gorbachev under house arrest
1993 Historic Kapelbrug (chapel bridge) in Luzern, Switzerland, burns, destroying 147 of its decorative paintings. It was built in 1365.
1992 Dennis Rader, the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer receives 10 consecutive life sentences. He had terrorized Wichita, Kansas, murdering 10 people between 1974 and 1991.
2010 Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of Santiago, Nuevo Leon, is found handcuffed, blindfolded and dead following his abduction three days earlier. He had championed crackdowns on organized crime and police corruption.
2011 Gold hits a record price of $1,826 per ounce.

Born on August 18

1774 Meriwether Lewis, American explorer who led the Corps of Discovery with William Clark.
1792 Lord John Russel, Prime Minister of England from 1846 to 1852 and 1865 to 1866.
1807 Charles F. Adams, U.S. diplomat and public official whose father was John Quincy Adams.
1918 Elsa Morante, Italian writer (History: A Novel).
1922 Shelly Winters, actress who won an Academy Award for The Diary of Anne Frank.
1923 Jimmy Witherspoon, blues singer.
1932 Luc Montagnier, virologist who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
1933 Roman Polanski, Polish film director best known for Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown.
1934 Roberto Clemente, outfielder for Pittsburgh Pirates, first Latin American enshrined in National Baseball Hall of Fame; died in plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua, Dec. 31, 1972.
1936 Robert Redford, actor (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Great Gatsby).
1937 William George Rushton, London, actor, author, cartoonist; co-founder of Private Eye satire magazine.
1940 Frankie Avalon, singer ("Venus," 5 weeks at No. 1), actor (Beach Blanket Bingo); teen heartthrob of late 1950s–early 1960s.
1952 Patrick Swayze, actor/dancer (Dirty Dancing, Ghost).
1961 Robert Warren "Bob" Woodruff, journalist, TV news anchor; critically wounded by roadside bomb while reporting on the war in Iraq, January 2006.
1962 Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico 2006–2012.
1969 Christian Slater, actor (Heathers, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hard Rain).