TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, AUG. 3,

the 215th day of 2017. There are 150 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:

On this date in 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.

In 1807,

former Vice President Aaron Burr went on trial in Richmond, Va., charged with treason. (He was acquitted less than a month later.)

In 1921,

baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to reinstate the former Chicago White Sox players implicated in the “Black Sox” scandal, despite their acquittals in a jury trial.

In 1936,

Jesse Owens of the United States won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint.

In 1949,

the National Basketball Association was formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

In 1958,

the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.

In 1972,

the U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. (The U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in 2002.)

In 1981,

U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were.

In 1987,

the Iran-Contra congressional hearings ended, with none of the 29 witnesses tying President Ronald Reagan directly to the diversion of arms sales profits to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1994,

Arkansas carried out the nation’s first triple execution in 32 years.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Football Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy is 92. Singer Tony Bennett is 91. Actor Martin Sheen is 77. Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and singer Beverly Lee (The Shirelles) are 76. Country musician Randy Scruggs is 64. Rock singer-musician Lee Rocker (The Stray Cats) is 56. Rock singer James Hetfield (Metallica) and actor Isaiah Washington are 54. Country musician Dean Sams (Lonestar) is 51.