Today In History

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 12, the 225th day of 2020. There are 141 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1867: President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, with whom he had clashed over Reconstruction policies. (Johnson was acquitted by the Senate.)

ON THIS DATE

› 1902: International Harvester Co. was formed by a merger of McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., Deering Harvester Co. and several other manufacturers.

› 1909: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500, first opened.

› 1939: The MGM movie musical “The Wizard of Oz,” starring Judy Garland, had its world premiere at the Strand Theater in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, three days before opening in Hollywood.

› 1953: The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.

› 1981: IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150, at a press conference in New York.

› 1985: The world’s worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people. (Four people survived.)

› 2000: The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor George Hamilton is 81. Actor Dana Ivey is 79. Actor Jennifer Warren is 79. Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 71. Actor Jim Beaver is 70. Singer Kid Creole is 70. Jazz musician Pat Metheny is 66. Actor Sam J. Jones is 66. Actor Bruce Greenwood is 64. Country singer Danny Shirley is 64. Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club) is 59. Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is

57. Actor Peter Krause is

55. Actor Brent Sexton is 53. Actor-comedian Michael Ian Black is

49. Actor Yvette Nicole Brown is 49. Actor Rebecca Gayheart is 49. Rock musician Bill Uechi is 45. Actor Maggie Lawson is 40. Actor Dominique Swain is 40. Actor Leah Pipes is 32. Actor Lakeith Stanfield is 29. NBA AllStar Khris Middleton is

29. Actor Cara Delevingne is 28. Actor Imani Hakim is 27.