Today in history

On Aug. 16, 1777, American troops led by Gen. John Stark defeated a Hessian force under British command near Bennington, Vt., in the Revolutionary War.

In 1812 Detroit fell to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812.

In 1829 the original “Siamese twins,” Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston to be exhibited.

In 1858 a telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan was transmitted over the newly laid trans-Atlantic cable.

In 1861 President Abraham Lincoln prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding states of the Confederacy.

In 1948 baseball great Babe Ruth died in New York; he was 53.

In 1954 Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.

In 1956 Adlai E. Stevenson II was nominated for president at the Democratic convention in Chicago. In 1960 Britain granted independence to Cyprus. In 1977 Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis; he was 42. In 1978 James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill hearing that he did not commit the crime, saying he had been set up by a mysterious man called “Raoul.”

In 1987 a Northwest Airlines jet crashed on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing 156 people. The sole survivor was a 4-year-old girl. Also in 1987 thousands of people worldwide began a two-day celebration of the “harmonic convergence,” which believers called the start of a new, purer age of humankind.

In 1989 a rare “prime time” lunar eclipse occurred over most of the United States, although clouds spoiled the view for many.

In 1990 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein issued a statement in which he repeatedly called President George H.W. Bush a “liar’’ and said the outbreak of war could result in “thousands of Americans wrapped in sad coffins.”

Also in 1993 New York police rescued business executive Harvey Weinstein from a covered 14-foot-deep pit, where he had been held nearly two weeks for ransom.

In 1995 the federal government more than doubled its estimate of rapes or attempted rapes in the United States each year to 310,000, a finding praised by leaders of women’s groups.

In 1997 two cosmonauts just returned from Mir, Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin, held a news conference in which they rejected criticism that they were to blame for troubles aboard the aging, problem-plagued space station.

In 1999, four months after two gunmen sent them fleeing in horror, students returned to Columbine High School in Colorado for the start of the school year. Also in 1999 Vladimir Putin won confirmation as Russia’s prime minister, the fifth since early 1998.

In 2001 Paul Burrell, trusted butler of Princess Diana for many years, was charged with the theft of hundreds of royal family items, a charge he denied.

In 2002 Major League Baseball players set a strike deadline of Aug. 30; the two sides reached an agreement with just six hours to spare. Also in 2002 terror mastermind Abu Nidal reportedly was found shot to death in Baghdad; he was 65.

In 2013 Christopher Lane, 22, of Australia, who attended East Central University on a baseball scholarship, was shot to death while jogging in Duncan, Okla. One of three teens charged in the case said they did it for the thrill. Also in 2013 at least 50 people died when the ferry MV Thomas Aquinas collided with a cargo ship near Cebu city in the central Philippines.

In 2014 Pope Francis beatified 124 martyrs during a five-day trip to South Korea.