TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Aug. 16, 1987

156people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255crashed while trying to take off from Detroit; the sole survivor was 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1812

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

1858

A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid transAtlantic cable.

1861

President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 86, which prohibited the states of the Union from engaging in commercial trade with states that were in rebellion - i.e., the Confederacy.

1954

Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.

1956

Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1962

The Beatles fired their original drummer, Pete Best, replacing himwith Ringo Starr.

1987

People worldwide began a two-day celebration of the “harmonic convergence,” which heralded what believers called the start of a new, purer age of humankind.

1991

Pope John Paul II began the first-ever papal visit to Hungary.

2013

In a spacewalk lasting seven hours and 29minutes, Russian cosmonauts rigged cable outside the International Space Station for a new lab that was due to arrive in a few months.

2017

The University of Florida denied a request by white supremacist Richard Spencer to rent space on the campus for a September event.