TODAY IN HISTORY

THURSDAY AUG 12, 2021 1985

The world’s worst singleaircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Airlines Boeing 747on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people.

1867

President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, with whom he had clashed over Reconstruction policies.

1902

International Harvester Co. was formed by a merger of Mccormick Harvesting Machine Co., Deering Harvester Co. and several other manufacturers.

1909

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500, first opened.

1939

The MGM movie musical “The Wizard of Oz,” starring Judy Garland, had its world premiere at the Strand Theater in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, three days before opening in Hollywood.

1953

The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.

1960

The first balloon communications satellite — the Echo 1 _ was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral.

1964

Author Ian Fleming, 56, the creator of James Bond, died in Canterbury, Kent, England.

1981

IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150, at a press conference in New York.

1994

In baseball’s eighth work stoppage since 1972, players went on strike rather than allow team owners to limit their salaries.

2000

The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.