TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT August 13, 1961

East Germany sealed off the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1846

The American flag was raised in Los Angeles for the first time.

1860

Legendary sharpshooter Annie Oakley was born in Darke County, Ohio.

1889

William Gray of Hartford, Conn., received a patent for a coin-operated telephone.

1910

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90.

1932

Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out “for all or nothing.”

1960

The first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1. The Central African Republic became totally independent of French rule.

1967

The crime caper biopic “Bonnie and Clyde,” starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, had its U.S. premiere; the movie, directed by Arthur Penn, was considered shocking as well as innovative for its graphic portrayal of violence.

1989

Searchers in Ethiopia found the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 14 other people _ there were no survivors.

1995

Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer; he was 63.

2003

Iraq began pumping crude oil from its northern oil fields for the first time since the start of the war. Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.