Month: August 2012

Updated August 7, 2012, 2:28 pm

On Aug. 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal.

Go to article »

On Aug. 8, 1896, Marjorie Rawlings, the American author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book “The Yearling”, was born. Following her death on Dec. 14, 1953, her obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1815	Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to spend the remainder of his days in exile.
1844	Brigham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons following the killing of Joseph Smith.
1876	Thomas A. Edison received a patent for the mimeograph.
1945	President Harry S. Truman signed the United Nations Charter.
1945	The Soviet Union declared war against Japan during World War II.
1963	Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes from a train they stopped north of London.
1968	Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach and chose Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew to be his running mate.
1988	U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq.
2005	Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion facility after suspending activities for nine months to avoid U.N. sanctions.
2006	Sen. Joseph Lieberman lost the Connecticut Democratic primary to political newcomer Ned Lamont. (Lieberman won re-election as an independent).
2008	The Summer Olympic Games opened in Beijing.
2008	Former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards admitted having had an extramarital affair.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Tennis player Roger Federer turns 31 years old today.

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

Rock musician The Edge (U2) turns 51 years old today.

AP Photo/Charles Sykes

1921	Esther Williams, Actress, turns 91
1932	Mel Tillis, Country singer, turns 80
1937	Dustin Hoffman, Actor, turns 75
1938	Connie Stevens, Actress, turns 74
1947	Larry Wilcox, Actor (“CHiPS”), turns 65
1949	Keith Carradine, Actor, turns 63
1953	Donny Most, Actor (“Happy Days”), turns 59
1958	Deborah Norville, TV personality, turns 54
1962	Kool Moe Dee, Rapper, turns 50
1976	JC Chasez, Singer (‘N Sync), turns 36
1976	Tawny Cypress, Actress (“Heroes”), turns 36
1976	Drew Lachey, Singer (98 Degrees), turns 36

 

Historic Birthdays

Marjorie Rawlings 8/8/1896 – 12/14/1953 American short-story writer and novelist.Go to obituary »

52	Francis Hutcheson 8/8/1694 – ?/?/1746 Scottish-Irish moral philosopher
80	Charles Bulfinch 8/8/1763 – 4/4/1844 American architect
87	Esther Morris 8/8/1814 – 4/2/1902 American suffragist and public official
78	Charles Dana 8/8/1819 – 10/17/1897 American journalist and editor of the New York Sun
78	Henry Fairfield Osborn 8/8/1857 – 11/6/1935 American paleontologist and museum administrator
39	Emiliano Zapata 8/8/1879 – 4/10/1919 Mexican guerrilla in the Mexican Revolution of 1911-7
57	Ernest Lawrence 8/8/1901 – 8/27/1958 American Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1939)
81	Arthur, Jr. Goldberg 8/8/1908 – 1/19/1990 American lawyer, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1962-5) and United Nations representative (1965-8)
62	Rudi Gernreich 8/8/1922 – 4/21/1985 Austrian-born American fashion designer

 

Updated August 6, 2012, 2:28 pm

On Aug. 7, 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on United States forces.

Go to article »

On Aug. 7, 1904, Ralph Bunche, the American diplomat who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950, was born. Following his death on Dec. 9, 1971, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1912	The Progressive Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.
1942	U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.
1964	Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson broad powers to deal with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.
1971	Apollo 15 returned to Earth after a manned mission to the moon.
1974	French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.
1990	President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq.
2000	Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore chose Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, making him the first Jewish candidate on a major party ticket.
2002	Major league baseball players and owners agreed on the sport’s first tests for steroids.
2007	Barry Bonds became baseball’s career home run leader when he hit No. 756 during a home game in San Francisco, passing Hank Aaron’s mark.
2008	Georgia shelled the capital of breakaway republic South Ossetia. (Russia responded by occupying much of Georgia in a five-day war.)
2009	Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused President Barack Obama of proposing a “death panel” that would decide who receives treatment in his health care plan.
2010	Elena Kagan was sworn in as the 112th justice and fourth woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Actor David Duchovny (“The X Files,” “Californication”) turns 52 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

Actress Charlize Theron turns 37 years old today.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer

1942	Garrison Keillor, Writer, humorist (“A Prairie Home Companion”), turns 70
1942	B.J. Thomas, Singer, turns 70
1944	John Glover, Actor, turns 68
1955	Wayne Knight, Actor (“Seinfeld”), turns 57
1958	Alberto Salazar, Marathon runner, turns 54
1963	Harold Perrineau, Actor (“Lost”), turns 49
1982	Abbie Cornish, Actress, turns 30
1987	Sidney Crosby, Hockey player, turns 25

 

Historic Birthdays

Ralph Bunche 8/7/1904 – 12/9/1971 American civil rights activist and diplomat awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950.Go to obituary »

61	Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga 8/7/1533 – 11/29/1594 Spanish soldier and poet
80	Carl Ritter 8/7/1779 – 9/28/1859 German geographer
77	John Heathcoat 8/7/1783 – 1/18/1861 English inventor of lace-making machinery
63	Paulina Kellogg Davis 8/7/1813 – 8/24/1876 American feminist and social reformer
71	Ellen Fitz Pendleton 8/7/1864 – 7/26/1936 American educator; president of Wellesley College (1911-36)
41	Mata Hari 8/7/1876 – 10/15/1917 Dutch dancer executed by the French for espionage during World War I
77	Alan Hazeltine 8/7/1886 – 5/24/1964 American electrical engineer and physicist
69	Louis S. B. Leakey 8/7/1903 – 10/1/1972 Kenyan archaeologist and anthropologist
67	Nicholas Ray 8/7/1911 – 6/16/1979 American film writer and director
41	Abebe Bikila 8/7/1932 – 10/25/1973 Ethiopian Olympic gold medal marathon winner (1960, 1964)

 

Updated August 5, 2012, 2:28 pm

On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, that instantly killed an estimated 66,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare.

Go to article »

On Aug. 6, 1911, Lucille Ball, the American radio, television and film comedic actress, was born. Following her death on April 26, 1989, her obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1825	Upper Peru became the autonomous republic of Bolivia.
1890	The electric chair was used for the first time, to execute a convicted murderer at Auburn State Prison in New York.
1890	Hall of fame pitcher Cy Young made his major league debut with the Cleveland Spiders of the National League.
1914	Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia, and Serbia declared war against Germany at the outbreak of World War I.
1962	Jamaica became an independent dominion within the Commonwealth of Nations.
1965	President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.
1978	Pope Paul VI died at age 80.
2007	The Crandall Canyon Mine in central Utah collapsed, trapping six coal miners. (All six miners died, along with three rescuers.)
2008	The government declared that Army scientist Bruce Ivins was solely responsible for the anthrax attacks that killed five in 2001. (Ivins had committed suicide on July 29.)
2008	A U.S. military jury convicted Osama bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, of supporting terrorism in the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay.
2009	Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice by a Senate vote of 68-31.
2011	Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the elite Navy commando unit that had slain Osama bin Laden; seven Afghan commandos also died.
2011	Violence erupted in London amid anger over the fatal police shooting of a 29-year-old father of four; rioting and looting spread to other parts of the city and other English cities over the next several days, leaving five dead.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Actress Vera Farmiga turns 39 years old today.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense”) turns 42 years old today.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer

1951	Catherine Hicks, Actress (“7th Heaven”), turns 61
1956	Stepfanie Kramer, Actress, turns 56
1957	Faith Prince, Actress, turns 55
1965	David Robinson, Basketball Hall of Famer, turns 47
1972	Geri Halliwell, Singer (Spice Girls), turns 40
1974	Ever Carradine, Actress, turns 38
1976	Soleil Moon Frye, Actress, turns 36

 

Historic Birthdays

Lucille Ball 8/6/1911 – 4/26/1989 American radio, film and television actress.Go to obituary »

53	Niccolo Salvi 8/6/1697 – 2/8/1751 Italian sculptor
83	Alfred Tennyson 8/6/1809 – 10/6/1892 English poet; raised to the peerage in 1884
89	Andrew Taylor Still 8/6/1828 – 12/12/1917 American founder of osteopathy
54	Frank Cobb 8/6/1869 – 12/21/1923 American journalist and editor of the New York World
73	Sir Alexander Fleming 8/6/1881 – 3/11/1955 Scottish bacteriologist; discovered penicillin in 1928
91	Louella Parsons 8/6/1881 – 12/9/1972 American journalist and movie columnist
33	Dutch Schultz 8/6/1902 – 10/24/1935 American bootlegger
67	Ronald Duncan 8/6/1914 – 6/3/1982 English playwright, poet and writer
54	Richard Hofstadter 8/6/1916 – 10/24/1970 American historian
79	Robert Mitchum 8/6/1917 – 7/1/1997 American motion-picture star
61	Jackie Presser 8/6/1926 – 7/9/1988 American Teamsters Union leader (1983-88)
58	Andy Warhol 8/6/1928 – 2/22/1987 American artist best known for initiating the Pop art movement