Today In History

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 21, the 233rd day of 2019. There are 132 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 2000: Rescue efforts to reach the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk ended with divers announcing none of the 118 sailors had survived.

ON THIS DATE

› 1609: Galileo Galilei demonstrated his new telescope to a group of officials atop the Campanile in Venice.

› 1831: Nat Turner launched a violent slave rebellion in Virginia resulting in the deaths of at least 55 whites. (Turner was later executed.)

› 1911: Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. (The painting was recovered two years later in Italy.)

› 1912: The Boy Scouts of America named its first Eagle Scout, Arthur Rose Eldred of Troop 1 in Rockville Centre, New York.

› 1991: The hardline coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

› 1993: In a serious setback for NASA, engineers lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft as it was about to reach the red planet on a $980 million mission.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Former NFL player and general manager Pete Retzlaff is 88. Actor-director Melvin Van Peebles is 87. Playwright Mart Crowley is 84. Singer Harold Reid (The Statler Brothers) is 80. Singer Jackie DeShannon is 78. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Willie Lanier is 74. Actress Patty McCormack is 74. Pop singer-musician Carl Giammarese is 72. Actress Loretta Devine is 70. NBC newsman Harry Smith is 68. Singer Glenn Hughes is 67. Actress Cleo King is 57. Retired MLB All-Star John Wetteland is 53. Rock singer Serj Tankian (System of a Down) is

52. Figure skater Josee Chouinard is 50. Actress Carrie-Anne Moss is 49. MLB player-turned-manager Craig Counsell is

49. Rock musician Liam Howlett (Prodigy) is 48. Actress Alicia Witt is 44. Singer Melissa Schuman is 35. Olympic gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt is 33. Actor Carlos Pratts is 33. Actor Cody Kasch is 32. Country singer Kacey Musgraves is 31. Actress Hayden Panettiere is

30. Actor RJ Mitte is 27. Actor Maxim Knight is

20.