TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2021. There are 137 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History: On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 42.
On this date:
In 1777, American forces won the Battle of Bennington in what was considered a turning point of the Revolutionary War.
In 1812, Detroit fell to British and Native American forces in the War of 1812.
In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 86, which prohibited the states of the Union from engaging in commercial trade with states that were in rebellion — i.e., the Confederacy.
In 1954, Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.
In 1962, the Beatles fired their original drummer, Pete Best, replacing him with Ringo Starr.
In 1977, a judge in New York ruled that Renee Richards, a male-to-female transgender, had the right to compete in the U.S. Open without having to pass a sex chromosome test. (In the opening round of the Open, Richards lost to Virginia Wade in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4).
In 1978, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill hearing he did not commit the crime, saying he'd been set up by a mysterious man called "Raoul."
In 1987, 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from Detroit; the sole survivor was 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan.
In 1991, Pope John Paul II began the first-ever papal visit to Hungary.
In 2002, terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal reportedly was found shot to death in Baghdad, Iraq; he was 65.
In 2014, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where police and protesters repeatedly clashed in the week since a Black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer.
In 2018, Aretha Franklin, the undisputed "Queen of Soul," died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama, on a Midwest bus tour, implored Iowans during a stopover in Peosta to share ideas with him about how leaders could give an economic jolt to the nation's heartland. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, meeting in Paris, called for greater economic discipline and unity among European nations but declined to take immediate financial measures.