TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, Aug. 14.
Today’s highlight:
On Aug. 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.
On this date:
In 1848, the Oregon Territory was created.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, a statement of principles that renounced aggression.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.
In 1948, the Summer Olympics in London ended; they were the first Olympic games held since 1936.
In 1973, U.S. bombing of Cambodia came to a halt.
In 1975, the cult classic movie musical “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick, had its world premiere in London.
In 1980, workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in a job action that resulted in creation of the Solidarity labor movement.
In 1992, the White House announced that the Pentagon would begin emergency airlifts of food to Somalia to alleviate mass deaths by starvation.
In 1995, Shannon Faulkner officially became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel, South Carolina’s state military college. (However, Faulkner quit the school less than a week later, citing the stress of her court fight, and her isolation among the male cadets.)
In 1997, an unrepentant Timothy Mcveigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing. (Mcveigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001.)
In 2009, 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.
In 2015, the Stars and Stripes rose over the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Cuba after a half century of often-hostile relations; U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry celebrated the day, but also made an extraordinary, nationally broadcast call for democratic change on the island.
Ten years ago: Syria used gunboats for the first time to crush the uprising against Bashar Assad’s regime, hammering parts of the Mediterranean coastal city of Latakia after thousands marched there to demand the president’s ouster. Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship after staging an amazing comeback to force a threehole playoff and beat Jason Dufner at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Five years ago: At the Rio Olympics, U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte and three teammates reported being robbed at gunpoint; police later said the men were not robbed, and instead vandalized a gas station bathroom. (Lochte was charged with filing a false robbery report, but a Brazilian court dismissed the case.) Actor Fyvush Finkel, 93, died in New York City.