TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, AUG. 22, the 234th day of 2018. There are 131 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1972, President Richard Nixon was nominated for a second term of office by the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
In 1787, inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
In 1851, the schooner America outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that came to be known as the America’s Cup.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln responded to Horace Greeley’s call for more drastic steps to abolish slavery; Lincoln replied that his priority was saving the Union, but he also repeated his personal wish “that all men everywhere could be free.”
In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.
In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corp. conducted its first experimental television broadcast, using a 30-line mechanical system.
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were nominated for second terms in office by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
In 1972, John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile took seven employees hostage at a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Brooklyn, N.Y., during a botched robbery; the siege, which ended with Wojtowicz’s arrest and Naturile’s killing by the FBI, inspired the 1975 movie “Dog Day Afternoon.”
In 1978, President Jomo Kenyatta, a leading figure in Kenya’s struggle for independence, died; Vice President Daniel arap Moi was sworn in as acting president.
In 1985, 55 people died when fire broke out aboard a British Airtours charter jet on a runway at Manchester Airport in England.
In 1986, Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit. The Rob Reiner coming-of-age film “Stand By Me” was put into wide release by Columbia Pictures.
In 1989, Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, Calif. (Gunman Tyrone Robinson was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.)
In 1992, on the second day of the Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho, an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver, the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver (the sharpshooter later said he was targeting the couple’s friend Kevin Harris, and didn’t see Vicki Weaver).
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Broadcast journalist Morton Dean and author Annie Proulx are 83. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Carl Yastrzemski and actress Valerie Harper are 79. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells is 77. Writer-producer David Chase and CBS newsman Steve Kroft are 73. Actress Cindy Williams is 71. Pop musician David Marks is 70. International Swimming Hall-of-Famer Diana Nyad is 69. Baseball Hall-ofFamer Paul Molitor is 62. Rock musician Vernon Reid is 60. Country singer Ricky Lynn Gregg is 59. Country singer Collin Raye and actress Regina Taylor are 58. Rock singer Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears) and rock musician Debbi Peterson (The Bangles) are 57. Rock musician Gary Lee Conner (Screaming Trees) is 56. Singer Tori Amos, country singer Mila Mason and rhythm-andblues musician James DeBarge are 55. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Mats Wilander is 54. Actress Brooke Dillman and rapper GZA/The Genius are 52. Actors Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Ty Burrell are 51. Celebrity chef Giada DeLaurentiis is 48. Actress Melinda Page Hamilton and actor Rick Yune are 47. Rock musician Paul Doucette (Matchbox Twenty) is 46. Rap-reggae singer Beenie Man, singer Howie Dorough (Backstreet Boys) and comedian-actress Kristen Wiig are 45. Actress Jenna Leigh Green and rock musician Bo Koster are 44. Rock musician Dean Back (Theory of a Deadman) is 43. Talk show host James Corden and rock musician Jeff Stinco (Simple Plan) are 40. Actor Brandon Adams is 39. Actress Aya Sumika is 38. Actor Ari Stidham is 26.