HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Monday, August 21, the 233rd day of 2017. There are 132 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1942 – World War II: The Guadalcanal Campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.

1957 – The Soviet Union successfully conducts a longrange test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.

1959 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii’s admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day.

1968 – Nicolae Ceausescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.

1969 – An Australian, Denis Michael Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire, a major catalyst of the formation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

1971 – A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several antiMarcos political candidates injured.

1982 – Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization’s withdrawal from Lebanon.

1983 – Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor).

1988 – The 6.9 Mw Nepal earthquake shakes the Nepal– India border with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 709–1,450 people killed and thousands injured.

1991 – Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union. 1991 – Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.

1993 – NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

2001 – NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

2001 – The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

2013 – Hundreds of people are reported killed by chemical attacks in the Ghouta region of Syria.