Today’s highlight in history
On Aug. 1, 1981, the rock music video channel MTV made its debut.
On this date
In 1907, the U.S. Army Signal Corps established an aeronautical division, the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force.
In 1936, the Olympics opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
In 1944, an uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation; the revolt lasted two months before collapsing.
In 1957, the United States and Canada announced they had agreed to create the North American Air Defense Command, known as NORAD.
In 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, went on an armed rampage at the University of Texas in Austin that killed 14 people, most of whom were shot by Whitman while he was perched in the clock tower of the main campus building. (Whitman, who had also killed his wife and mother hours earlier, was finally gunned down by police.)
In 1975, a 35-nation summit in Finland concluded with the signing of a declaration known as the Helsinki Accords dealing with European security, human rights and East-West contacts.
In 1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirmed they’d been secretly married 11 weeks earlier. (Presley filed for divorce from Jackson in January 1996, citing irreconcilable differences.)
Ten years ago: The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people.
Five years ago: Four teams from China, South Korea and Indonesia were kicked out of the women’s badminton doubles at the London Olympics for trying to lose on purpose in order to earn an easier match-up in the knockout round.
One year ago: The United States launched multiple airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Libya, opening a new front against the group at the request of the United Nations-backed Libyan government.