This Day in History

On Aug. 13, 1961, East Germany sealed off the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years.

On this date:

In 1846, the American flag was raised in Los Angeles for the first time.

In 1860, legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley was born in Darke County, Ohio.

In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Conn., received a patent for a coin-operated telephone.

In 1910, Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90.

In 1932, Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out “for all or nothing.”

In 1960, the first twoway telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1. The Central African Republic became totally independent of French rule.

In 1967, the crime caper biopic “Bonnie and Clyde,” starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, had its U. S. premiere; the movie, directed by Arthur Penn, was considered shocking as well as innovative for its graphic portrayal of violence.

In 1989, searchers in Ethiopia found the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 14 other people — there were no survivors.

In 1995, baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer; he was 63.

In 2003, Iraq began pumping crude oil from its northern oil fields for the first time since the start of the war. Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.

In 2008, a man barged into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters in Little Rock and opened fire, killing state party chairman Bill Gwatney before speeding off in a pickup. ( Police later shot and killed the gunman, Timothy Dale Johnson.) Michael Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals.