Today’s highlight in history
On Aug. 2, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany for invading Belgium; the United States proclaimed its neutrality in the mushrooming world conflict.
On this date
In 1790, the U.S. Coast Guard had its beginnings as President George Washington signed a measure authorizing a group of revenue cutters to enforce tariff and trade laws and prevent smuggling. In 1830, plans for the city of Chicago were laid out. In 1892, businessman Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, were axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass. Lizzie Borden, Andrew’s daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, but acquitted at trial.
In 1936, Jesse Owens of the U.S. won the second of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he prevailed in the long jump over German Luz Long, who was the first to congratulate him.
In 1942, the Irving Berlin musical “Holiday Inn,” starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds, and featuring the song “White Christmas,” premiered in New York. In 1944, 15-year-old diarist Anne Frank was arrested with her sister, parents and four others by the Gestapo after hiding for two years inside a building in Amsterdam. (Anne and her sister, Margot, died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.) In 1964, the bodies of missing civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.
In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to abolish the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.
Ten years ago: NASA launched the Phoenix Mars Lander, a robotic dirt and ice digger, toward the red planet (it arrived in May 2008).
Five years ago: The United States set a world record to win the 4-by-100-meters women’s medley relay in swimming at the London Games.
One year ago: Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, President Barack Obama denied that a $400 million cash payment to Iran was ransom to secure the release of four Americans jailed in Tehran.