Day: August 20, 2012

Updated August 19, 2012, 2:28 pm

On Aug. 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the ”Prague Spring” liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek’s regime.

Go to article »

On Aug. 20, 1833, Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, was born. Following his death on March 13, 1901, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1833	Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, was born in North Bend, Ohio.
1914	German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
1918	Britain opened an offensive on the Western front during World War I.
1940	British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
1953	The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
1955	Hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1964	President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
1977	The United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
1992	The Republican National Convention in Houston nominated President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term.
1998	Retaliating for deadly embassy bombings in East Africa, the United States launched cruise missile strikes against al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and what was described as a chemical plant in Sudan.
2006	Former Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising picture during World War II, died at age 94.
2009	Voting in Afghanistan’s presidential election was marred by rampant ballot-box stuffing. (Hamid Karzai was declared the winner in November.)
2009	The only man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 returned home to Libya after his release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

TV weatherman Al Roker (“Today”) turns 58 years old today.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer

Actress-singer Demi Lovato (“Sonny with a Chance”) turns 20 years old today.

AP Photo/Eric Risberg

1933	George Mitchell, Former Senate majority leader, turns 79
1946	Connie Chung, Broadcast journalist, turns 66
1947	Jimmy Pankow, Rock musician (Chicago), turns 65
1948	Robert Plant, Rock singer (Led Zeppelin), turns 64
1952	John Hiatt, Rock singer, songwriter, turns 60
1956	Joan Allen, Actress, turns 56
1962	James Marsters, Actor (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel”), turns 50
1965	KRS-One, Rapper, turns 47
1969	Billy Gardell, Actor (“Mike and Molly”), turns 43
1970	Fred Durst, Rock singer (Limp Bizkit), turns 42
1973	Todd Helton, Baseball player, turns 39

 

Historic Birthdays

Benjamin Harrison 8/20/1833 – 3/13/1901 23rd president of the United States.Go to obituary »

71	Jacopo Peri 8/20/1561 – 8/12/1633 Italian composer
70	Francis Asbury 8/20/1745 – 3/31/1816 English-born bishop of the American Methodist Episcopal Church
76	Eliel Saarinen 8/20/1873 – 7/1/1950 Finnish architect
77	Edgar Guest 8/20/1881 – 8/5/1959 English-born American poet
66	Salvatore Quasimodo 8/20/1901 – 6/14/1968 Italian Nobel Prize-winning poet, critic and translator
58	Jack Teagarden 8/20/1905 – 1/15/1964 American jazz trombonist
80	Valentin Glushko 8/20/1908 – 1/10/1989 Soviet rocket scientist
88	Kingsley Davis 8/20/1908 – 2/27/1997 American sociologist and demographer
51	Eero Saarinen 8/20/1910 – 9/1/1961 Finnish-born American architect
80	Roger Wolcott Sperry 8/20/1913 – 4/17/1994 American Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist (1981)

 

Updated August 19, 2012, 2:28 pm

On Aug. 19, 1934, a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer.

Go to article #187;

On Aug. 19, 1883, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, the influential French fashion designer, was born. Following her death on Jan. 10, 1971, her obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary #187; | Other birthdays #187;

 

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1929	The comedy “Amos ‘n’ Andy” made its network radio debut on NBC.
1960	A tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
1969	Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis began three days of recording sessions that yielded the album “Bitches Brew.”
1976	President Gerald R. Ford won the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s national convention in Kansas City.
1977	Comedian Groucho Marx died at age 86.
1994	President Bill Clinton halted the nation’s three-decade open-door policy for Cuban refugees.
1996	A judge sentenced former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker to four years’ probation for his Whitewater crimes.
2004	The Internet search engine Google went public.
2005	A Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable for the death of a man who’d taken the once-popular painkiller Vioxx.
2010	A federal grand jury indicted retired baseball player Roger Clemens for allegedly lying to Congress about steroid use. (Clemens’ trial this year ended in a mistrial.)
2010	The last American combat brigade exited Iraq, seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion began.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Actor Matthew Perry (“Friends”) turns 43 years old today.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini

Actress Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer”) turns 47 years old today.

AP Photo/Vince Bucci

1939	Ginger Baker, Rock musician (Cream, Blind Faith), turns 73
1940	Jill St. John, Actress, turns 72
1942	Fred Thompson, Actor, former U.S. senator, R-Tenn., turns 70
1946	Bill Clinton, Former president, turns 66
1948	Jim Carter, Actor (“Downton Abbey”), turns 64
1948	Tipper Gore, Wife of former Vice President Al Gore, turns 64
1948	Gerald McRaney, Actor (“Major Dad”), turns 64
1953	Mary Matalin, Political consultant, turns 59
1955	Peter Gallagher, Actor, turns 57
1956	Adam Arkin, Actor, turns 56
1960	Morton Andersen, Football player, turns 52
1963	John Stamos, Actor (“Full House’), turns 49
1965	Kevin Dillon, Actor (“Entourage”), turns 47
1966	Lee Ann Womack, Country singer, turns 46
1967	Tabitha Soren, MTV reporter, turns 45
1970	Fat Joe, Rapper, turns 42
1975	Tracie Thoms, Actress (“Cold Case”), turns 37
1982	Erika Christensen, Actress, turns 30
1989	Romeo, Rapper, turns 23

 

Historic Birthdays

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel 8/19/1883 – 1/10/1971 French dress designer.Go to obituary »

73	John Flamsteed 8/19/1646 – 12/31/1719 English founder of the Greenwich Observatory
50	Jeanne Becu du Barry 8/19/1743 – 12/8/1793 French mistress of Louis XV
73	Seth Thomas 8/19/1785 – 1/29/1859 American clock manufacturer; pioneered mass production
94	Bernard Baruch 8/19/1870 – 6/20/1965 American financier and adviser to United States presidents
73	Georges Enesco 8/19/1881 – 5/4/1955 Romanian violinist and composer
91	Ton Duc Thang 8/19/1888 – 3/30/1980 Vietnamese communist leader; succeeded Ho Chi Minh
84	Alfred Lunt 8/19/1892 – 8/3/1977 American actor
88	Colleen Moore 8/19/1900 – 1/25/1988 American actress
68	Ogden Nash 8/19/1902 – 5/19/1971 American poet
74	James Gould Cozzens 8/19/1903 – 8/9/1978 American novelist
70	Gene Roddenberry 8/19/1921 – 10/24/1991 American creator of the Star Trek series