TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Aug. 23, 1926

Legendary silent film star Rudolph Valentino died in New York at age 31. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1305

Scottish rebel leader Sir William Wallace was executed by the English for treason.

1775

Britain’s King George III proclaimed the American colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.”

1858

“Ten Nights in a Bar-room,” a play by Timothy Shay Arthur about the perils of alcohol, opened in New York.

1913

Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story, was unveiled in the harbor of the Danish capital.

1914

Japan declared war against Germany in World War I.

1927

Amid protests, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery.