On this date

216 B.C. — During the Second Punic War, Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal defeated the Roman army in the Battle of Cannae. 1876 — Frontiersman “Wild Bill” Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, by Jack McCall, who was later hanged. 1892 — Movie producer Jack L. Warner was born in London, Ontario, Canada. 1923 — The 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president. 1927 — President Calvin Coolidge issued a written statement to reporters: “I do not choose to run for President in nineteen twenty-eight.” 1939 — Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. President Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act, which prohibited civil service employees from taking an active part in political campaigns. 1943 — During World War II, U.S. Navy boat PT109, commanded by Lt. (jg) John F. Kennedy, sank after being rammed in the middle of the night by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri off the Solomon Islands. Two crew members were killed. 1967 — The crime drama “In the Heat of the Night,” starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, premiered in New York. 1974 — Former White House counsel John W. Dean III was sentenced to one to four years in prison for obstruction of justice in the Watergate cover-up. (Dean ended up serving four months.) 1985 — Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport killing 137 people. 1990 — Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.)

Thought for today ‘The trouble with this country is that there are too many people going about saying, “The trouble with this country is...”’ American author (1885-1951) Sinclair Lewis