TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 14. TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT

On August 14, 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.

ON THIS DATE

In 1900, international forces, including U.S. Marines, entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreign influence.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, a statement of principles that renounced aggression.

In 1948, the Summer Olympics in London ended; they were the first Olympic games held since 1936.

In 1969, British troops went to Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

In 1980, actress-model Dorothy Stratten, 20, was shot to death by her estranged husband and manager, Paul Snider, who then killed himself.

In 1992, the White House announced that the Pentagon would begin emergency airlifts of food to Somalia to alleviate mass deaths by starvation.

In 1997, an unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

In 2003, a huge blackout hit the northeastern United States and part of Canada; 50 million people lost power.

In 2008, President George W. Bush signed consumer-safety legislation that banned lead from children’s toys, imposing the toughest standard in the world.

In 2017, under pressure from right and left, President Donald Trump condemned white supremacist groups by name, declaring them to be “repugnant to everything that we hold dear as Americans.” The CEO of Merck, the nation’s thirdlargest pharmaceutical company, resigned from a federal advisory council, citing Trump’s failure to explicitly condemn white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Kenneth Frazier was one of the few African Americans to head a Fortune 500 company. The CEOs of Intel and Under Armour also resigned from the American Manufacturing Council later in the day.)

Ten years ago: Charles Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, 60, convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, was released from a Texas prison hospital after more than three decades behind bars.

Five years ago: Nouri al-Malaki, Iraq’s prime minister for eight years, relinquished the post to his nominated successor, ending a political deadlock. One year ago: A highway bridge collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa during a storm, sending vehicles plunging nearly 150 feet and leaving 43 people dead. Vermont Democrats chose the nation’s first transgender gubernatorial nominee, Christine Hallquist. (Hallquist would get 40% of the vote in November against Republican Phil Scott, who won with 55%.)

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.” — James Thurber, American author and cartoonist (18941961).