TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, AUG. 20, the 232nd day of 2018. There are 133 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1953, the Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.
In 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, months after fighting had stopped.
In 1910, a series of forest fires swept through parts of Idaho, Montana and Washington, killing at least 85 people and burning some 3 million acres.
In 1914, German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.
In 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force before the House of Commons, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Coyoacan, Mexico by Ramon Mercader. Trotsky died the next day.
In 1955, hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
In 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” liberalization drive.
In 1977, the United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch, gold-plated copper phonograph record containing images, greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.
In 1986, postal employee Patrick Henry Sherrill went on a deadly rampage at a post office in Edmond, Okla., shooting
14 fellow workers to death before killing himself.
In 1988, a cease-fire in the war between Iraq and Iran went into effect.
In 1989, entertainment executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were shot to death in their Beverly Hills mansion by their sons, Lyle and Erik. Fifty-one people died when a pleasure boat sank in the River Thames in London after colliding with a dredger.
In 2000, Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship in a playoff over Bob May, becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in one year.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Writerproducer-director Walter Bernstein is 99. Boxing promoter Don King is 87. Former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, is 85. Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is 83. Former MLB All-Star Graig Nettles is 74. Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 72. Musician Jimmy Pankow (Chicago) and actor Ray Wise are 71. Actor John Noble and rock singer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) are 70. Country singer Rudy Gatlin and singer-songwriter John Hiatt are 66. Actor-director Peter Horton is 65. TV weatherman Al Roker is 64. Actor Jay Acovone is 63. Actress Joan Allen is 62. Movie director David O. Russell is 60. TV personality Asha Blake is 57. Actor James Marsters is 56. Actor Colin Cunningham is 52. Rock singer Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) and actor Jonathan Ke Quan are 48. Rock musician Brad Avery is 47. Actor Misha Collins is 44. Jazz/pop singer-pianist Jamie Cullum is 39. Actor Ben Barnes is 37. Actress Meghan Ory is 36. Actor Andrew Garfield is 35. Actor Brant Daugherty is 33. Actress-singer Demi Lovato is 26.