Today in history

On Aug. 5, 1305, Sir William Wallace, who unsuccessfully led Scottish resistance to the English in 1298, was captured near Glasgow by the English; he was executed for treason on Aug. 23, 1305.

In 1833 Chicago was incorporated as a village with a population of 200.

In1835 a new Chicago ordinance outlawed as a fire hazard the stacking of feed hay in the downtown area.

In 1850 novelist Guy de Maupassant was born near Dieppe, France.

In 1861 the U.S. government levied an income tax for the first time. Incomes of more than $800 were taxed at the

rate of 3 percent.

In 1864 Adm. David Farragut is said to have given his famous order, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” as he led his Union fleet against Confederate forces in Alabama’s Mobile Bay.

In 1884 the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s (now Liberty) Island near the entrance to New York Harbor.

In 1906 film director and actor John Huston was born in Nevada, Mo.

In 1914 the first electric traffic lights were installed, in Cleveland.

In 1924 the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” by Harold Gray made its debut.

In 1930 Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon (in July 1969), was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio.

In 1953 Operation Big Switch was under way as prisoners taken during the Korean War were exchanged at Panmunjom.

In 1957 “American Bandstand” with Dick Clark made its network debut on ABC-TV.

In 1962 actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home; she was 36.