Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On August 22, 1972, President Richard Nixon was nominated for a second term of office by the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
On this date:
1846: Gen. Stephen W. Kearny proclaimed all of New Mexico a territory of the United States.
1851: The schooner America outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that came to be known as the America’s Cup.
1862: French composer Claude Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
1910: Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.
1914: Austria-Hungary declared war against Belgium.
1978: President Jomo Kenyatta, a leading figure in Kenya’s struggle for independence, died; Vice President Daniel arap Moi was sworn in as acting president.
1986: Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit. The Rob Reiner comingof-age film “Stand By Me” was put into wide release by Columbia Pictures.
1989: Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, California. Gunman Tyrone Robinson was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.
1992: On the second day of the Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho, an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver, the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver. The sharpshooter later said he was targeting the couple’s friend Kevin Harris, and didn’t see Vicki Weaver.
1996: President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.
2003: Alabama’s chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse. Texas Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 people arrested in the 1999 Tulia drug busts and convicted on the testimony of a lone undercover agent. The agent, Tom Coleman, was later found guilty of aggravated perjury and sentenced to 10 years’ probation.
2007: A Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers.
Ten years ago: A proposed mosque near ground zero drew hundreds of fever-pitch demonstrators, with opponents carrying signs associating Islam with blood and supporters shouting, “Say no to racist fear!”
Five years ago: A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy traveling through a crowded neighborhood in Afghanistan’s capital, killing at least 12 people, including four American civilian contractors. A military jet taking part in a British airshow crashed into a busy main road near Brighton in southern England, killing 11 people.
One year ago: Attorneys general from all 50 states and the District of Columbia pledged to do more to fight robocalls from scammers, telemarketers, debt collectors and others; the move came as Congress worked on anti-robocall bills.