Today in history

Today is Saturday, Aug. 22, the 235th day of 2020. There are 131 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On August 22, 1972, President Richard Nixon was nominated for a second term of office by the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.

On this date:

In 1846, Gen. Stephen W. Kearny proclaimed all of New Mexico a territory of the United States.

In 1851, the schooner America outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that came to be known as the America’s Cup.

In 1862, French composer Claude Debussy (deh-byooSEE’) was born in SaintGermain-en-Laye.

In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.

In 1978, President Jomo Kenyatta, a leading figure in Kenya’s struggle for independence, died; Vice President Daniel arap Moi (ehruhp MOY’) was sworn in as acting president.

In 1986, Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit. The Rob Reiner coming-of-age film “Stand By Me” was put into wide release by Columbia Pictures.

In 1989, Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, California. (Gunman Tyrone Robinson was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.)

In 1992, on the second day of the Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho, an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver, the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver (the sharpshooter later said he was targeting the couple’s friend Kevin Harris, and didn’t see Vicki Weaver).

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.

In 2003, Alabama’s chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse.