Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On August 18, 1963, James Meredith became the first black student to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
On this date:
1587: Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born in present-day America, on what is now Roanoke Island in North Carolina. However, the Roanoke colony ended up mysteriously disappearing.
1862: Dakota Indians began an uprising in Minnesota. The revolt was crushed by U.S. forces some six weeks later.
1894: Congress established the Bureau of Immigration.
1914: President Woodrow Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.
1920: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing all American women’s right to vote, was ratified as Tennessee became the 36th state to approve it.
1969: The Woodstock
Music and Art Fair in
Bethel, New York, wound to a close after three nights with a mid-morning set by Jimi Hendrix.
1976: Two U.S. Army officers were killed in Korea’s demilitarized zone as a group of North Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attacked U.S. and South Korean soldiers.
1983: Hurricane Alicia slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 21 dead and causing more than a billion dollars’ worth of damage.
1993: A judge in Sarasota, Florida, ruled that Kimberly Mays, the 14-year-old girl who had been switched at birth with another baby, need never again see her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, in accordance with her stated wishes. However, Kimberly later moved in with the Twiggs.
1995: Shannon Faulkner, who’d won a 212-year legal battle to become the first female cadet at The Citadel, quit the South Carolina military college after less than a week, most of it spent in the infirmary.
2004: In Athens, Paul Hamm won the men’s gymnastics all-around Olympic gold medal by the closest margin ever in the event; controversy followed after it was discovered a scoring error cost Yang Tae-young of South Korea the title.
Ten years ago: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, during his first visit to Washington in five years, offered lavish praise for President Barack Obama; for his part, Obama spoke of an “extraordinary opportunity” for making peace in the Middle East.
Five years ago: Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered the National Guard to Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis convulsed by protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen.
One year ago: Kofi Annan, the first black African to become United Nations secretary-general, died at the age of 80. Pakistan’s cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan was sworn in as the country’s prime minister despite protests by opposition parties, which accused the security services of intervening on his behalf in the July elections.
CELEB BIRTHDAYS: Former first lady Rosalynn Carter is 92. Movie director Roman Polanski is 86. Olympic gold medal decathlete Rafer Johnson is 84. Actor-director Robert Redford is 83. Actor Henry G. Sanders is 77. Actor-comedian Martin Mull is 76. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sarah Dash (LaBelle) is 74. Rock musician Dennis Elliott is 69. Country singer Jamie O’Hara is 69. Comedian Elayne Boosler is
67. Country singer Steve Wilkinson (The Wilkinsons) is
64. Actor Denis Leary is 62. Actress Madeleine Stowe is 61. Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is
58. ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff is 58. Actor Adam Storke is 57. Actor Christian Slater is 50. Actor Edward Norton is 50. Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is 49. Actorcomedian Andy Samberg (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is
41. Country musician Brad Tursi (Old Dominion) is 40. Actress Mika Boorem is 32. Actress Maia Mitchell is 26.