TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, AUG. 14, the 226th day of 2017. There are 139 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1947, Pakistan became independent of British rule.
In 1848, the Oregon Territory was created.
In 1900, international forces, including U.S. Marines, entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreign influence.
In 1917, China declared war on Germany and Austria during World War I.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.
In 1951, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, 88, died in Beverly Hills, Calif.
In 1967, folk singer Joan Baez performed a free concert on the grounds of the Washington Monument a day after she’d been denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution because of her opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
In 1969, British troops went to Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics. In 1973, U.S. bombing of Cambodia came to a halt.
In 1980, workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in a job action that resulted in creation of the Solidarity labor movement. Actress-model Dorothy Stratten, 20, was shot to death by her estranged husband and manager, Paul Snider,
who then killed himself. In 1992, the White House announced that the Pentagon would begin emergency airlifts of food to Somalia to alleviate mass deaths by starvation. Federal judge John J. Sirica, who had presided over the Watergate trials, died in Washington at age 88.
In 1997, an unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Broadway lyricist Lee Adams (“Bye Bye Birdie”) is 93. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Russell Baker is 92. College Football Hall-of-Famer John Brodie is 82. Singer Dash Crofts is 79. Rock singer David Crosby and country singer Connie Smith are 76. Comedianactor Steve Martin and movie director Wim Wenders are 72. Actor Antonio Fargas, singer-musician Larry Graham, actress Susan Saint James and actor David Schramm are 71. Author Danielle Steel is 70. Rock singer-musician Terry Adams (NRBQ) is 69. “Far Side” cartoonist Gary Larson is 67. Actor Carl Lumbly is 66. Olympic gold medal swimmer Debbie Meyer is 65. Actress Jackee Harry is 61. Actress Marcia Gay Harden and Basketball Hall-of-Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson are 58. Singer Sarah Brightman is 57. Actress Susan Olsen is 56. Actress-turned-fashion/interior designer Cristi Conaway and rock musician Keith Howland (Chicago) are 53. Actress Halle Berry is 51. Actor Ben Bass, actress Catherine Bell and country musician Cody McCarver (Confederate Railroad) are 49. Rock musician Kevin Cadogan is 47. Actor Scott Michael Campbell is 46. Actress Lalanya Masters is 45. Actor Christopher Gorham is 43. Actress Mila Kunis, actor Lamorne Morris and TV personality Spencer Pratt are 34. NFL quarterback-turned-baseball player Tim Tebow is 30.