• 1 On Aug. 1, 1873, inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco. - In 1790 the first U.S. census was completed, showing a population of nearly 4 million people.- In 1876 Colorado was admitted as the 38th state. - In 1936 Adolf Hitler opened the Olympic games in Berlin. - In 1943 race-related rioting erupted in New York's Harlem section, resulting in several deaths. - In 1944 an uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation. The revolt lasted two months before collapsing. - In 1946 President Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Sen. William J. Fulbright. The Atomic Energy Commission was established. - In 1957 the U.S. and Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). - In 1966 Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, shot and killed 15 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned down by police. - In 1978 Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds, who had tied the National League record of hitting in 44 consecutive games, saw his streak end in a game against the Atlanta Braves. - Ten years ago the Revolutionary Justice Organization, a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon which had threatened to kill American hostage Joseph Cicippio, extended its deadline a day after another group released a videotape showing a body said to be that of hostage William R. Higgins. - Five years ago supporters of Haiti's military rulers declared their intention to fight back in the face of a U.N. resolution paving the way for a U.S.-led invasion. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirmed they had secretly married eleven weeks earlier. - One year ago, dismissing as "an empty promise" GOP-backed legislation to create a patients' bill of rights, President Clinton in his Saturday radio address pressed Congress to pass a measure that would allow patients to sue their health insurers.*Happy Birthday* ----------------- Actor Arthur Hill is 77. - Actor-director Geoffrey Holder is 69.- Singer Ramblin' Jack Elliott is 68. - Cartoonist Tom Wilson ("Ziggy") is 68.- Actor-comedian Dom DeLuise is 66. - Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent is 63. - Former Republican Sen. Alfonse d'Amato is 62.- Actor Giancarlo Giannini is 57. - Blues singer-musician Robert Cray is 46. - Rock musician Robert Buck (10,000 Maniacs) is 41.- Singer Michael Penn is 41. - Rock singer Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) is 40. - Rock singer-musician Suzi Gardner (L7) is 39. - Rapper Chuck D (Public Enemy) is 39.- Rapper Coolio is 36. - Country singer George Ducas is 33. - Country musician Charlie Kelley (Buffalo Club) is 31. - Actress Taylor Fry is 18.
  • 2 On Aug. 2, 1776, members of the Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. - In 1876 frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, S.D. - In 1923 the 29th president of the U.S., Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco. - In 1934 German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover. - In 1939 Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. - In 1943 a Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being sheared in two by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands. (Kennedy was credited with saving members of the crew.) - In 1945 President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee concluded the Potsdam conference. - In 1964 the Pentagon reported the first of two attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. - In 1980 85 people were killed when a bomb exploded at the train station in Bologna, Italy. - In 1985 137 people were killed when a Delta Air Lines jumbo jet crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. - In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were driven out in Operation Desert Storm.) - Ten years ago abortion rights advocates gained a surprising victory in the U.S. House of Representatives, which voted against including abortion curbs in a spending bill for the District of Columbia. - Five years ago Serbia threatened to cut all aid to the Bosnian Serbs if they didn't approve an international peace plan. - One year ago cyclist Marco Pantani of Italy won the Tour de France, which had been marred by a doping scandal. Ventriloquist Shari Lewis died in Los Angeles at age 65.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Actress Beatrice Straight is 81.- Former Republican Sen. Paul Laxalt is 77. - Actor Carroll O'Connor is 75.- Actor Peter O'Toole is 67. - Country singer Hank Cochran is 64. - Rock musician Garth Hudson (The Band) is 62.- Movie director Wes Craven is 60. - Singer Edward Patten (Gladys Knight & The Pips) is 60. - Singer Doris Kenner-Jackson (The Shirelles) is 58.- Actor Max Wright is 56. - Actress Joanna Cassidy is 54.- Actress Kathryn Harrold is 49. - Singer Andrew Gold is 48.- Singer Mojo Nixon is 42. - Actress Victoria Jackson is 40.- Actress Apollonia is 38. - Actress Cynthia Stevenson is 36.- Actress Mary-Louise Parker is 35. - Rock musician John Stanier (Helmet) is 31.- Actor Edward Furlong is 22.
  • 3 On Aug. 3, 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed. - In 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas. - In 1914 Germany declared war on France. - In 1923 Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S., following the death of Warren G. Harding. - In 1936 the State Department urged Americans in Spain to leave because of that country's civil war. - In 1943 Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton was later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a similar episode.) - In 1948 Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist underground, a charge Hiss denied. - In 1958 the nuclear-powered submarine "Nautilus" became the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water. - In 1981 U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Reagan they would be fired. - In 1988 the Soviet Union released Mathias Rust, the young West German pilot who had landed a light plane in Moscow's Red Square in May 1987. - In 1993 the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg. - Ten years ago Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon suspended their threat to execute another American hostage, three days after the purported hanging of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins. Hashemi Rafsanjani was sworn in as president of Iran. - Five years ago President Clinton told a prime-time news conference he would sign either of two Democratic health care plans before Congress. Arkansas carried out the nation's first triple execution in 32 years. Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as the Supreme Court's newest justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's Vermont summer home. - One year ago the White House played down the possibility that President Clinton would reverse previous statements and admit to a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky when he testified before a grand jury.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Author P.D. James is 79.- Broadway composer Richard Adler is 78. - Singer Gordon Stoker (The Jordanaires) is 75.- Author Leon Uris is 75. - Singer Tony Bennett is 73.- Actor Alex Cord is 68.- Actor Martin Sheen is 59. - Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is 58. - Singer Beverly Lee (The Shirelles) is 58.- Movie director John Landis is 49. - Actress JoMarie Payton is 49.- Actor Jay North ("Dennis the Menace") is 47. - Actor John C. McGinley is 40.- Rock singer James Hetfield (Metallica) is 36. - Rock singer-musician Ed Roland (Collective Soul) is 36. - Country musician Dean Sams (Lonestar) is 33.
  • 4 On Aug. 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass. Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden's daughter from a previous marriage, was accused and acquitted. - In 1735, a jury acquitted John Peter Zenger of the "New York Weekly Journal" of seditious libel. - In 1790, the Coast Guard had its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service. - In 1830, plans for the city of Chicago were laid out. - In 1914, Britain declared war on Germany while the United States proclaimed its neutrality. - In 1916, the United States purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million. - In 1944, Nazi police raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested eight people - including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a famous document of the Holocaust. (Anne died at Bergen-Belsen.) - In 1964, the bodies of missing civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi. - In 1977, President Carter signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy. - In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues. - In 1991, the Greek luxury liner "Oceanos" sank in heavy seas off South Africa's southeast coast; all 402 passengers and 179 crew survived. - Ten years ago: Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to help end the hostage crisis in Lebanon, prompting President Bush to say he was "encouraged." - Five years ago: Serb-dominated Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs, sealing the 300-mile border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia. - One year ago: Turning aside an urgent White House appeal, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist cleared the way for prosecutors to question White House lawyers about their advice to President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 299.43 points, the third-biggest point drop to that time (since then, the fifth-biggest to date), finishing at 8,487.31 *Happy Birthday*----------------- The Queen Mother Elizabeth is 99. - The dean of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas of United Press International, is 79.- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is 70. - Singer Frankie Ford is 59.- Actor-comedian Richard Belzer is 55. - Actor-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton is 44. - Track star Mary Decker Slaney is 41.- Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens is 37. - Rock musician Rob Cieka (Boo Radleys) is 31.- Actor Michael DeLuise is 30. - Rhythm-and-blues singer-actor Marques Houston (Immature) is 18. - Actors Dylan and Cole Sprouse ("Grace Under Fire") are seven.
  • 5 On Aug. 5, 1962, actress Marilyn Monroe, 36, was found dead in her Los Angeles home; her death was ruled a "probable suicide" from an overdose of sleeping pills. - In 1861, the federal government levied an income tax for the first time. - In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Adm. David G. Farragut is said to have given his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" as he led his fleet against Mobile Bay, Alabama. - In 1884, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor. - In 1914, the first electric traffic lights were installed, in Cleveland, Ohio.- In 1924, the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," by Harold Gray, made its debut. - In 1957, "American Bandstand," hosted by Dick Clark, made its network debut on ABC. - In 1963, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in space and under water. - In 1969, the U.S. space probe "Mariner VII" flew by Mars, sending back photographs and scientific data. - In 1981, the federal government began firing air traffic controllers who had gone out on strike. - In 1984, actor Richard Burton died at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 58. - Ten years ago: Five Central American presidents began meeting in Honduras to discuss a timetable for dismantling Nicaraguan Contra bases. - Five years ago: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington chose Kenneth W. Starr to take over the Whitewater investigation from Robert Fiske. - One year ago: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein broke off cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors and demanded the commission monitoring the weapons be reorganized. Marie Noe of Philadelphia was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, accused of smothering eight of her children to death between 1949 and 1968. (Noe later received 20 years' probation.)*Happy Birthday* ----------------- Former astronaut Neil A. Armstrong is 69. - Country singer Vern Gosdin is 65. - Actress Cammie King ("Gone with the Wind") is 65.- Actor John Saxon is 64. - Actor Zakes Mokae is 64. - Country songwriter Bobby Braddock ("D-I-V-O-R-C-E") is 59. - Country singer Sammi Smith is 56.- Actress Loni Anderson is 53. - Actress Erika Slezak is 53.- Rock singer Rick Derringer is 52. - Actress Holly Palance is 49.- Singer Samantha Sang is 46. - Actress-singer Maureen McCormick is 43.- Rock musician Pat Smear is 40. - Actress Tawney Kitaen is 38.- Country musician Mark O'Connor is 38. - Rapper MCA (The Beastie Boys) is 35.- Actor Jonathan Silverman is 33. - Country singer Terri Clark is 31.- Actor Brendon Ryan Barrett is 13.
  • 6 On Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. - In 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia began to debate the articles contained in a draft of the United States Constitution. - In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis I abdicated.- In 1825, Bolivia declared its independence from Peru. - In 1890, convicted murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in the electric chair as he was put to death at Auburn State Prison in New York. - In 1926, Gertrude Ederle of New York became the first American woman to swim the English Channel, in about 14-1/2 hours. - In 1926, Warner Brothers premiered its "Vitaphone" sound-on-disc movie system in New York. - In 1962, Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth. - In 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. - In 1978, Pope Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo at age 80. - In 1986, William J. Schroeder died after living 620 days with the "Jarvik Seven" artificial heart. - Ten years ago: Jaime Paz Zamora was inaugurated as president of Bolivia. - Five years ago: In Wedowee, Ala., an apparent arson fire destroyed Randolph County High School, which had been the focus of tensions over the principal's stand against interracial dating. - One year ago: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8-1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with President Clinton. The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee voted to cite Attorney General Janet Reno for contempt of Congress for her refusal to turn over reports recommending that she seek an independent counsel to investigate campaign fund-raising. *Happy Birthday*----------------- Movie director Charles Crichton is 89. - Entrepreneur Sir Freddie Laker is 77.- Actress-singer Abbey Lincoln is 69. - Actor-director Paul Bartel is 61.- Actor-director Peter Bonerz is 61. - Actor Michael Anderson Jr. is 56.- Actor Dorian Harewood is 49. - Actress Catherine Hicks is 48.- Rock singer Pat McDonald (Timbuk 3) is 47. - Actress Stepfanie Kramer is 43.- Rhythm-and-blues singer Randy DeBarge is 41. - Country singers Peggy and Patsy Lynn are 35. - Country singer Lisa Stewart is 31. - Singer Geri Halliwell (formerly of the Spice Girls) is 27. - Actress Soleil Moon Frye is 23.
  • 7 On Aug. 7, 1782, George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. - In 1789, the U.S. War Department was established by Congress. - In 1912, the Progressive Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president. - In 1942, U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II. - In 1947, the balsa wood raft "Kon-Tiki," which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago. - In 1959, the United States launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth. - In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces. - In 1974, French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. - In 1976, scientists in Pasadena, Calif., announced that the Viking I spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars. - In 1987, the presidents of five Central American nations, meeting in Guatemala City, signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their region. - In 1990, President Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. - Ten years ago: A small plane carrying Congressman Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 15 others disappeared during a flight in Ethiopia. (The wreckage of the plane was found six days later; there were no survivors.) - Five years ago: The 10th International Conference on AIDS opened in Yokohama, Japan. - One year ago: Terrorist bombs at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. The Federal Aviation Administration, in a follow-up to the probe of the 1996 explosion that destroyed TWA Flight 800, ordered the inspection of Boeing 747 fuel tanks.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Songwriter Felice Bryant is 74.- Writer-producer Stan Freberg is 73. - Bluesman Magic Slim is 62.- Actress Verna Bloom is 60. - Humorist Garrison Keillor is 57.- Singer B.J. Thomas is 57. - Singer Lana Cantrell is 56.- Actor John Glover is 55. - Actor David Rasche is 55.- Country singer Rodney Crowell is 49. - Actress Caroline Aaron is 45.- Actor Wayne Knight is 44. - Rock singer Bruce Dickinson is 41.- Marathon runner Alberto Salazar is 41. - Actor David Duchovny is 39.- Jazz musician Marcus Roberts is 36. - Country singer Raul Malo (The Mavericks) is 34. - Actress Charlotte Lewis is 32.- Actress Sydney Penny is 28. - Actress Charlize Theron is 24.
  • 8 On Aug. 8, 1974, President Nixon announced he would resign following new damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal. - In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile. - In 1876, Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his mimeograph. - In 1942, six convicted Nazi saboteurs who'd landed in the United States were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others were sentenced to life imprisonment. - In 1945, President Truman signed the United Nations Charter; The Soviet Union declared war against Japan during World War II. - In 1953, the United States and South Korea initialed a mutual security pact. - In 1963, in what became known as Britain's Great Train Robbery, thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in bank notes. - In 1968, Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Miami Beach, Fla. - In 1973, Vice President Agnew branded as "damned lies" reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland and vowed not to resign - which he eventually did. - In 1978, the United States launched Pioneer Venus II, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus. - Ten years ago: The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a secret, five-day military mission. - Five years ago: Israel and Jordan opened the first road link between the two once-warring countries. - One year ago: President Clinton, in his Saturday radio address, vowed the bombers of two U.S. embassies in Africa would be brought to justice, "no matter how long it takes or where it takes us." *Happy Birthday*----------------- Jazz musician Benny Carter is 92. - Actress Rosetta LeNoire is 88.- Producer Dino DeLaurentiis is 80. - Actress Esther Williams is 76.- Actor Richard Anderson is 73. - Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, is 69. - Actress Nita Talbot is 69.- Singer Mel Tillis is 67. - Actor Dustin Hoffman is 62.- Actress Connie Stevens is 61. - Country singer Phil Balsley (The Statler Brothers) is 60. - Movie director Peter Weir is 55.- North Dakota Gov. Edward T. Schafer is 53. - Actor Larry Wilcox is 52.- Actor Keith Carradine is 50. - Country singer Jamie O'Hara is 49.- Movie director Martin Brest is 48. - Actor Donny Most is 46.- Rock musician Dennis Drew (10,000 Maniacs) is 42. - TV personality Deborah Norville is 41.- Actor-singer Harry Crosby is 41. - Rock musician The Edge (U2) is 38. - Rock musician Rikki Rockett (Poison) is 38.- Rapper Kool Moe Dee is 37. - Country singer Mark Wills is 26.- Singer JC Chasez ('N Sync) is 23. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Drew Lachey (98 Degrees) is 23. - Britain's Princess Beatrice Elizabeth Mary is 11.
  • 9 On Aug. 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people. - In 1790, the Columbia returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage, becoming the first ship to carry the American flag around the world. - In 1842, the United States and Canada resolved a border dispute by signing the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. - In 1848, the Free-Soil Party nominated Martin Van Buren for president at its convention in Buffalo, N.Y. - In 1854, Henry David Thoreau published "Walden," which described his experiences while living near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. - In 1902, Edward VII was crowned king of England following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. - In 1936, Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics as the United States took first place in the 400-meter relay. - In 1965, Singapore proclaimed its independence from the Malaysian Federation. - In 1969, actress Sharon Tate and four other people were found murdered in Tate's Los Angeles home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his disciples were later convicted of the crime. - In 1988, President Reagan nominated Lauro Cavazos as secretary of education, the first Hispanic to serve in the Cabinet. - In 1995, Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead, died in San Francisco at age 53. - Ten years ago: Toshiki Kaifu was elected prime minister of Japan, succeeding Sousuke Uno. In Mexico, a train fell into the San Rafael River after a bridge collapsed, killing 112 people. - Five years ago: A divided Senate opened formal debate on legislation to provide health insurance for millions of Americans without it. - One year ago: Americans, Kenyans and Tanzanians held church and memorial services to mourn those killed in bombing attacks on two U.S. embassies. In China, engineers dynamited levees along the Yangtze River to ease the worst floods in 44 years.*Happy Birthday* ----------------- Former Georgia Sen. Herman Talmadge is 86. - Former baseball manager Ralph Houk is 80. - Country singer-songwriter Merle Kilgore is 65. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Billy Henderson (The Spinners) is 60. - Jazz musician Jack DeJohnette is 57.- Comedian-director David Steinberg is 57. - Actor Sam Elliott is 55.- Boxing Hal of Famer Ken Norton is 54. - Singer Barbara Mason is 52.- Rock singer Benjamin Orr (The Cars) is 44. - Actress Melanie Griffith is 42.- Actress Amanda Bearse is 41. - Rapper Kurtis Blow is 40.- Singer Aimee Mann is 39. - Singer Whitney Houston is 36.- Actor Pat Petersen is 33. - Football player Deion Sanders is 32.- Actress Gillian Anderson is 31. - Rapper Mack 10 is 28.- Actress Liz Vassey is 27.
  • 10 On Aug. 10, 1846, Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution, named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest of $500,000 had made it possible. - In 1809, Ecuador struck its first blow for independence from Spain. - In 1821, Missouri became the 24th state. - In 1874, Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, was born in West Branch, Iowa. - In 1885, Leo Daft opened America's first commercially operated electric streetcar, in Baltimore. - In 1944, during World War II, American forces overcame remaining Japanese resistance on Guam. - In 1949, the National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense. - In 1969, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain. - In 1977, postal employee David Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, N.Y., accused of being New York City's "Son of Sam," the gunman responsible for six slayings and seven woundings. - In 1988, President Reagan signed a measure providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II. - In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second woman on the Supreme Court. - Ten years ago: Poland's Roman Catholic church suspended an agreement to move nuns from a convent on the edge of Auschwitz, blaming Jewish groups for creating what it called an "atmosphere of aggressive demands." - Five years ago: President Clinton claimed presidential immunity in asking a federal judge to dismiss, at least for the time being, a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin Jones, a former Arkansas state employee. - One year ago: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced a $2 million reward for information leading to the conviction of terrorists who bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Actor Jeff Corey is 85.- Singer Al Alberts (The Four Aces) is 77. - Actress Rhonda Fleming is 76.- Bluegrass singer-songwriter Jimmy Martin is 72. - Singer Jimmy Dean is 71.- Singer Eddie Fisher is 71. - Actress Kate O'Mara is 60. - Singer Bobby Hatfield (The Righteous Brothers) is 59. - Singer Ronnie Spector is 56. - Rock singer-musician Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) is 52. - Singer Patti Austin is 51.- Country musician Gene Johnson (Diamond Rio) is 50. - Actor Daniel Hugh Kelly is 47.- Actress Rene Russo is 45. - Actress Rosanna Arquette is 40.- Actor Antonio Banderas is 39. - Rock musician Jon Farriss (INXS) is 38.- Singer Julia Fordham is 37. - Singer Neneh Cherry is 35.- Singer Aaron Hall is 35. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Lorraine Pearson (Five Star) is 32. - Rock musician Todd Nichols (Toad The Wet Sprocket) is 32. - Singer-producer Michael Bivins is 31. - Actress Angie Harmon ("Law & Order") is 27. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Nikki Bratcher (Divine) is 19.
  • 11 On Aug. 11, 1965, rioting and looting broke out in the predominantly black Watts section of Los Angeles; in the week that followed 34 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. - In 1860 the nation's first successful silver mill began operation near Virginia City, Nev. - In 1909 the SOS distress signal was first used by an American ship, the "Arapahoe," off Cape Hatteras, N.C. - In 1934 the first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. - In 1942 during World War II, Vichy government official Pierre Laval publicly declared "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war." - In 1954 a formal peace took hold in Indochina, ending more than seven years of fighting between the French and Communist Vietminh. - In 1956 abstract artist Jackson Pollock died in a car crash East Hampton, N.Y. - In 1962 the Soviet Union launched cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev on a 94-hour flight.- In 1984 President Reagan joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address that he had "signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." - In 1993 President Clinton named Army Gen. John Shalikashvili as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, succeeding Gen. Colin Powell. - In 1997 President Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. - Ten years ago Poland's Solidarity-dominated Senate adopted a resolution expressing sorrow for the nation's participation in the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. - Five years ago a federal jury awarded $286.8 million to some 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Tenth International Conference on AIDS concluded in Yokohama, Japan. - One year ago one of the boys in the Jonesboro, Ark., schoolyard massacre pleaded guilty and the other was convicted. The boys, ages 12 and 14, got the maximum penalty - confinement to a juvenile center, perhaps until they are 21. British Petroleum announced it was buying Amoco for $49 billion.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Actress Jean Parker is 87.- Former TV talk show host Mike Douglas is 74. - Newspaper columnist Carl Rowan is 74.- Actress Arlene Dahl is 71. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell is 66.- Actress Anna Massey is 62. - Country singer John Conlee is 53.- Singer Eric Carmen is 50. - Wrestler-actor Hulk Hogan is 46.- Singer Joe Jackson is 45. - Rock guitarist Charlie Sexton is 31. - Rhythm-and-blues musician Chris Dave (Mint Condition) is 31. - Rap DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad is 29. - Actor Will Friedle ("Boy Meets World") is 23. - Rapper Chris Kelly (Kris Kross) is 21.
  • 12 On Aug. 12, 1867, President Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. - In 1851 Isaac Singer was granted a patent on his sewing machine. - In 1898 the peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed. Hawaii was formally annexed to the U.S. - In 1944 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England. - In 1953 the Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb. - In 1960 the first balloon satellite, the Echo One, was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, Fla. - In 1972 the last American combat ground troops left Vietnam. - In 1977 the space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating, then touching down in California's Mojave Desert. - In 1978 Pope Paul VI, who had died Aug. 6 at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica. - In 1985 the world's worst single aircraft disaster killed 520 people when a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain. - Ten years ago the Pentagon said it was stepping up efforts to find missing Texas Rep. Mickey Leland and 15 companions in Ethiopia. (The wreckage of the group's airplane, with no survivors, was found the next day.) - Five years ago in baseball's eighth work stoppage since 1972, players went on strike rather than allowing team owners to limit their salaries. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, already sworn in during a private ceremony, took a public oath at the White House. - One year ago Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to Holocaust survivors to settle claims for their assets.*Happy Birthday* ----------------- Choreographer Michael Kidd is 80. - Former Arkansas Sen. Dale Bumpers is 74.- Country singer Porter Wagoner is 72. - Singer-musician Buck Owens is 70.- Actor George Hamilton is 60. - Actress Jennifer Warren is 58. - Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 50. - Singer Kid Creole is 49.- Jazz musician Pat Metheny is 45. - Actor Sam J. Jones is 45. - Country singer Danny Shirley (Confederate Railroad) is 43. - Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club) is 38.- Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is 36. - Tennis player Pete Sampras is 28.- Actor Casey Affleck is 24. - Rock musician Bill Uechi (Save Ferris) is 24.- Actress Dominique Swain is 19.
  • 13 One hundred years ago, on Aug. 13, 1899, movie director Alfred Hitchcock was born in London. - In 1521 Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured present-day Mexico City from the Aztec Indians. - In 1624 French King Louis XIII named Cardinal Richelieu his first minister. - In 1704 the Battle of Blenheim was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces. - In 1846 the American flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles. - In 1932 Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out "for all or nothing." - In 1934 the satirical comic strip "Li'l Abner," created by Al Capp, made its debut. - In 1942 Walt Disney's animated feature "Bambi" premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York. - In 1960 the first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo One. - In 1961 Berlin was divided when East Germany sealed off the border between the city's eastern and western sectors to stem the flight of refugees.- In 1995 baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of liver cancer; he was 63. - Ten years ago the space shuttle Columbia returned from a secret military mission. - Five years ago, in his weekly radio address, President Clinton put Congress on notice that he wouldn't give up an assault weapons ban as the price to revive a crime bill stalled on Capitol Hill. NATO Secretary-General Manfred Woerner died at age 59. - One year ago President Clinton led the nation in mourning 12 Americans killed in a pair of U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. Standing before black hearses carrying 10 of the bodies, the president pledged to seek justice "for these evil acts."*Happy Birthday* ----------------- TV evangelist Rex Humbard is 80. - Cuban President Fidel Castro is 73.- Actor Pat Harrington is 70. - Singer Don Ho is 69.- Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 66. - Blues singer-musician Son Seals is 57.- Actor Kevin Tighe is 55. - Actress Gretchen Corbett is 52.- Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 51. - Singer Dan Fogelberg is 48.- Actor Danny Bonaduce is 40. - Actress Quinn Cummings is 32.- Country singer Andy Griggs is 26.
  • 14 On Aug. 14, 1945, President Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II. - In 1848 the Oregon Territory was established. - In 1900 international forces, including U.S. Marines, entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners. - In 1917 China declared war on Germany and Austria in World War I. - In 1935 the Social Security Act became law, creating unemployment insurance and pension plans for the elderly. - In 1941 President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, a statement of principles that renounced aggression. - In 1947 Pakistan became independent of British rule. - In 1951 newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst died in Beverly Hills, Calif. - In 1969 British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics. - In 1973 the U.S. bombing of Cambodia came to a halt. - In 1995 Shannon Faulkner officially became the first woman cadet at The Citadel, South Carolina's state military college. Faulkner quit the school less than a week later. - Ten years ago South African President P.W. Botha announced his resignation after losing a bitter power struggle within his National Party. - Five years ago eight children who were left alone died in an early morning house fire in Carbondale, Ill. - One year ago a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled that the Food and Drug Administration had no authority to regulate tobacco, striking down FDA rules making it harder for minors to buy cigarettes; the Clinton administration said it would appeal.*Happy Birthday* ----------------- Newspaper columnist Russell Baker is 74. - Singer Buddy Greco is 73.- Actress Alice Ghostley is 73. - Singer Dash Crofts is 59.- Rock singer David Crosby is 58. - Country singer Connie Smith is 58.- Jockey Robyn Smith Astaire is 55. - Comedian-actor Steve Martin is 54.- Actress Susan Saint James is 53. - Singer-musician Larry Graham is 53.- Actor Antonio Fargas is 53. - Author Danielle Steel is 52.- "Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson is 49. - Rock singer-musician Terry Adams (NRBQ) is 49. - Film composer James Horner is 46.- Actress Jackee Harry is 43. - Former basketball player Magic Johnson is 40. - Actress Susan Olsen ("The Brady Bunch") is 38. - Actress Emmanuelle Beart is 34.- Actress Catherine Bell ("JAG") is 31. - Actress Halle Berry is 31.- Actress Mila Kunis ("That 70's Show") is 16.
  • 15 Aug. 15, 1945, was proclaimed "V-J Day" by the Allies, a day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally. - In 1769 Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica. - In 1888 T.E. Lawrence, the British soldier who gained fame as "Lawrence of Arabia," was born in Tremadoc, Wales. - In 1935 humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska. - In 1939 the MGM musical "The Wizard of Oz" premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. - In 1944 during World War II Allied forces landed in southern France. - In 1947 India became independent after some 200 years of British rule. - In 1948 the Republic of Korea was proclaimed. - In 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York. - In 1971 President Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents. - In 1974 South Korean President Park Chung-hee escaped an assassination attempt in which his wife was killed. - Ten years ago F.W. de Klerk was sworn in as acting president of South Africa, one day after P.W. Botha resigned as the result of a power struggle within the National Party. - Five years ago Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the terrorist better known as "Carlos the Jackal," was jailed in France after his capture in Sudan. - One year ago 29 people were killed by a car bomb that tore apart the center of Omagh, Northern Ireland; a splinter group calling itself the Real IRA claimed responsibility.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Cooking expert Julia Child is 87.- Actress Dame Wendy Hiller is 87. - Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly is 75.- Actor Mike Connors is 74. - Jazz musician Oscar Peterson is 74. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Bill Pinckney (The Drifters) is 74. - Actress Janice Rule is 68.- Actress Abby Dalton is 67. - Actress Lori Nelson is 66.- Singer-producer Bobby Byrd is 65. - Civil rights activist Vernon Jordan is 64.- Actor Jim Dale is 64. - Actress Pat Priest is 63.- Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 61. - Musician Pete York (Spencer Davis Group) is 57. - Author-journalist Linda Ellerbee is 55.- Songwriter Jimmy Webb is 53. - Britain's Princess Anne is 49.- Actress Tess Harper is 49. - Actor Larry Mathews ("The Dick Van Dyke Show") is 44. - Actor Zeljko Ivanek is 42.- Actress Debra Messing ("Will and Grace") is 31. - Actor Ben Affleck is 27.- Actress Natasha Henstridge is 25.
  • 16 Today is Monday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 1999. There are 137 days left in the year. - On Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42. - In 1777 American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vt. - In 1812 Detroit fell to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812. - In 1858 a telegraphed message from Britain's Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. - In 1861 President Lincoln prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding states of the Confederacy. - In 1894 George Meany, first president of the AFL-CIO, was born in New York City.- In 1948 baseball legend Babe Ruth died in New York at age 53. - In 1954 "Sports Illustrated" was first published by Time Inc. - In 1956 Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic national convention in Chicago. - In 1960 Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus. - In 1987 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from Detroit. - Ten years ago a rare "prime time" lunar eclipse occurred over most of the U.S., although clouds spoiled the view for many. - Five years ago President Clinton and other top Democrats were scouring the House of Representatives for converts in hopes of reviving a stalled anti-crime bill. - One year ago, a day before President Clinton was to face a criminal grand jury about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, his lawyer said, "The truth is the truth, and that's how the president will testify." *Happy Birthday*----------------- Singer Al Hibbler is 84. - Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres is 76.- Actor Fess Parker is 74. - Actress Ann Blyth is 71.- Actor Robert Culp is 69. - Sportscaster Frank Gifford is 69.- Actor John Standing is 65. - Actress Julie Newmar is 64.- Actress Anita Gillette is 63. - Actress Carole Shelley is 60.- Country singer Billy Joe Shaver is 60. - Movie director Bruce Beresford is 59.- Actor Bob Balaban is 54. - Ballerina Suzanne Farrell is 54.- Actress Lesley Ann Warren is 53. - Rock singer-musician Joey Spampinato (NRBQ) is 49. - Actor Reginald VelJohnson is 47.- TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford is 46. - Rhythm-and-blues singer J.T. Taylor is 46. - Movie director James Cameron is 45.- Rock musician Tim Farriss (INXS) is 42. - Singer Madonna is 41.- Actress Angela Bassett is 41. - Actress Laura Innes is 40.- Actor Timothy Hutton is 39. - Actor Donovan Leitch is 31. - Country singer Emily Erwin (The Dixie Chicks) is 27.
  • 17 On Aug. 17, 1969, Hurricane Camille killed 248 people when it slammed into the Gulf Coast. - In 1807 Robert Fulton's North River Steam Boat began heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful round-trip to Albany. - In 1863 Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor during the Civil War. - In 1896 a prospecting party discovered gold in Alaska, a finding that would touch off the Klondike gold rush. - In 1943 the Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina. - In 1945 Indonesian nationalists declared independence from the Netherlands. - In 1978 the first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman set down in their Double Eagle II outside Paris. - In 1987 Rudolf Hess, 93, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a Berlin hospital near Spandau Prison, apparently a suicide. - In 1988 Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in a plane crash. - Ten years ago the Commerce Department reported the U.S. trade deficit had shrunk to $8.7 billion in June. - Five years ago Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman resigned under pressure, the latest Clinton administration official felled by the Whitewater controversy. - One year ago President Clinton gave grand jury testimony via closed-circuit TV from the White House regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; he then delivered a TV address in which he denied previously committing perjury, admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong," and criticized Kenneth Starr's investigation. Russia allowed the ruble's value to drop by up to 34%. The Federal Reserve Board approved the megamerger of NationsBank and BankAmerica. *Happy Birthday*----------------- Actress Maureen O'Hara is 79. - Actor Robert DeNiro is 56.- Movie director Martha Coolidge is 53. - Rock musician Sib Hashian is 50.- Actor Robert Joy is 48. - Rock singer Kevin Rowland (Dexy's Midnight Runners) is 46. - Rock musician Colin Moulding (XTC) is 44. - Country singer-songwriter Kevin Welch is 44.- Singer Belinda Carlisle is 41. - Actor Sean Penn is 39.- Actor Bruce Penhall is 39. - Jazz musician Everette Harp is 38.- Rock musician Gilby Clarke is 37. - Singer Maria McKee is 35. - Rock musician Steve Gorman (The Black Crowes) is 34. - Rock musician Jill Cunniff (Luscious Jackson) is 33. - Actor David Conrad is 32.- Singer Donnie Wahlberg is 30. - Rapper Posdnuos is 30.- Tennis player Jim Courier is 29. - Actor Bryton McClure is 13.
  • 18 On Aug. 18, 1587, Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, N.C. - In 1227 the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan died. - In 1846 U.S. forces led by Gen. Stephen W. Kearney captured Santa Fe, N.M. - In 1894 Congress established the Bureau of Immigration. - In 1914 President Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the U.S. out of World War I. - In 1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American women to vote.- In 1958 the novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov was published. - In 1963 James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi. - In 1983 Hurricane Alicia slammed into the Texas coast, leaving 22 dead and causing more than $1 billion in damage. - In 1991 Soviet hard-liners launched a coup aimed at toppling President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who was vacationing in the Crimea. (The coup collapsed three days later.) - In 1997 Beth Ann Hogan became the first coed in Virginia Military Institute's 158-year history. - Ten years ago the Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price Index rose only 0.2% in July 1989, easing fears of a recession. In Colombia, leading presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galan was assassinated outside Bogota; the Medellin drug cartel was strongly suspected. - Five years ago Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles declared an immigration emergency and demanded federal help to cope with the largest surge of Cuban refugees since the 1980 Mariel boat-lift. - One year ago, a day after his grand jury testimony, President Clinton left Washington on a vacation with his family. Meanwhile, some lawmakers called for Clinton to resign in the wake of his admissions concerning Monica Lewinsky while a spokeswoman for Hillary Rodham Clinton said the first lady "believes in this marriage." *Happy Birthday*---------------- - Former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger is 82. - Actress Shelley Winters is 79.- Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter is 72. - Movie director Roman Polanski is 66.- Actress Gail Fisher is 64. - Actor Robert Redford is 62.- Singer Johnny Preston is 60. - Actor Christopher Jones is 58.- Actor-comedian Martin Mull is 56. - Singer Nona Hendryx is 54.- Actor Patrick Swayze is 47. - Actress Madeleine Stowe is 41. - Rock singer-musician Zac Maloy (The Nixons) is 31. - Hip-hop artist Everlast is 30.- Actor Christian Slater is 30. - Actor Edward Norton is 30.- Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is 29. - Actor Mika Boorem is 11.
  • 19 On Aug. 19, 1848, the New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California. - In 1812 the USS Constitution defeated the British frigate Guerriere east of Nova Scotia during the War of 1812. - In 1929 the comedy program "Amos and Andy," starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, made its network radio debut on NBC. - In 1934 a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler. - In 1942 about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering about 50% casualties. - In 1955 severe flooding in the Northeast claimed some 200 lives. - In 1960 a tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage. - In 1974 U.S. Ambassador Rodger P. Davies was shot and killed at the American embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, during a protest by Greek Cypriots. - In 1976 President Ford won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Kansas City. - In 1977 comedian Groucho Marx died in Los Angeles at age 86. - In 1980 301 people aboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency landing at the Riyadh airport. - Ten years ago Polish President Wojciech Jaruzelski formally nominated Tadeusz Mazowiecki to become Poland's first non-Communist prime minister in four decades. - Five years ago President Clinton abruptly halted the nation's three-decade open-door policy for Cuban refugees. - One year ago President Clinton spent a quiet 52nd birthday with his family on Martha's Vineyard as controversy continued to swirl over his admissions to a grand jury concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Author Ring Lardner Jr. is 84.- Actor L.Q. Jones is 72. - Former jockey Willie Shoemaker is 68.- Actress Debra Paget is 66. - Tennis coach Renee Richards is 65.- Actress Diana Muldaur is 61. - Rock musician Ginger Baker (Cream, Blind Faith) is 60. - Singer Johnny Nash is 59.- Actress Jill St. John is 59. - Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., is 57.- Singer Billy J. Kramer is 56. - Country singer-songwriter Eddy Raven is 55.- President Clinton is 53. - Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, is 51. - Actor Gerald McRaney is 51.- Rock musician John Deacon (Queen) is 48. - Actor Jonathan Frakes is 47.- Political consultant Mary Matalin is 46. - Actor Peter Gallagher is 44.- Actor Adam Arkin is 43. - Singer-songwriter Gary Chapman is 42.- Actor Eric Lutes is 37. - Actor John Stamos is 36.- Actress Kyra Sedgwick is 34. - Actor Kevin Dillon is 34.- Country singer Lee Ann Womack is 33. - TV reporter Tabitha Soren is 32.- Actor Matthew Perry is 30. - Country singer Clay Walker is 30.- Tennis player Mary Joe Fernandez is 28. - Actor J. Evan Bonifant is 14.
  • 20 On Aug. 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime. - In 1833 Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the U.S., was born in North Bend, Ohio. - In 1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, even though the fighting had stopped months earlier. - In 1914 German forces occupied Brussels during World War I. - In 1918 Britain opened its offensive on the Western front during World War I. - In 1940 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." - In 1953 the Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb. - In 1955 hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria. - In 1964 President Johnson signed a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure. - In 1977 the U.S. launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph recording of greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature. - In 1979 Diana Nyad succeeded in her third attempt to swim from the Bahamas to Florida. - Ten years ago video executive Jose Menendez and his wife, Kitty, were shot to death in their Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion by their sons, Lyle and Erik. British conservationist George Adamson, 83, was shot and killed by bandits in Kenya. Fifty-one people died when a pleasure boat sank in the Thames River in London. - Five years ago Benjamin Chavis Junior was fired as head of the NAACP after a turbulent 16-month tenure. - One year ago, retaliating 13 days after the deadly embassy bombings in East Africa, U.S. forces launched cruise missile strikes against alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan and what was described as a chemical plant in Sudan. Monica Lewinsky went before a grand jury for a second round of explicit testimony about her White House trysts with President Clinton.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Writer-producer-director Walter Bernstein is 80. - Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, is 66. - Singer-musician Isaac Hayes is 57.- Broadcast journalist Connie Chung is 53. - Musician Jimmy Pankow (Chicago) is 52. - Rock singer Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) is 51. - Country singer Rudy Gatlin is 47.- Singer-songwriter John Hiatt is 47. - Actor-director Peter Horton is 46.- "Today" show weatherman Al Roker is 45. - Actor Jay Acovone is 44.- Actress Joan Allen is 43.- Rapper KRS-One is 34. - Actor Jonathan Ke Quan is 28.- Rock singer Monique Powell (Save Ferris) is 24.
  • 21 On Aug. 21, 1959, President Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. - In 1680, Pueblo Indians took possession of Santa Fe, N.M., after driving out the Spanish. - In 1831, former slave Nat Turner led a violent insurrection in Virginia; He was later executed. - In 1858, the famous debates began between senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. - In 1878, the American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y. - In 1940, exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky died in Mexico City from wounds inflicted by an assassin. - In 1945, President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some $50 billion in aid to U.S. allies during World War II. - In 1983, Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., ending a self-imposed exile in the United States, was shot dead moments after stepping off a plane at Manila International Airport. The musical play "La Cage Aux Folles" opened on Broadway. - In 1986, more than 1,700 people died when toxic gas erupted from a volcanic lake in the West African nation of Cameroon. - In 1991, the hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian federation President Boris N. Yeltsin. - Ten years ago: The U.S. space probe Voyager 2 fired its thrusters to bring it closer to Neptune's mysterious moon Triton. Colombian soldiers and police raided the estates of drug lords as part of a crackdown that followed the shooting death of a presidential candidate. - Five years ago: The House, by a vote of 235-195, passed a $30 billion crime bill that banned certain assault-style firearms. Mexico held its presidential election, which was won by Ernesto Zedillo. - One year ago: Samuel Bowers, a 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klan leader, was convicted in Hattiesburg, Miss., of ordering a 1966 firebombing that killed civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer.*Happy Birthday* ----------------- Jazz musician Art Farmer is 71. - Britain's Princess Margaret is 69.- Actor-director Melvin Van Peebles is 67. - Basketball Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain is 63.- Singer Kenny Rogers is 61. - Actor Clarence Williams III is 60.- Rock-and-roll musician James Burton is 60. - Singer Harold Reid (The Statler Brothers) is 60. - Singer Jackie DeShannon is 55.- Actress Patty McCormack is 54. - TV host Harry Smith is 48.- Rock musician Joe Strummer (The Clash) is 47. - Country musician Nick Kane (The Mavericks) is 45.- Actress Kim Cattrall is 43. - Actress Carrie-Anne Moss is 29.- Rock musician Liam Howlett (Prodigy) is 28. - Actress Alicia Witt is 24.- Actress Hayden Panettiere is 10.
  • 22 On Aug. 22, 1775, England's King George III proclaimed the American colonies in a state of open rebellion. - In 1485, England's King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the War of the Roses. - In 1787, inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates of the Continental Congress. - In 1846, the United States annexed New Mexico. - In 1851, the schooner America outraced the Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup. - In 1893, author, poet, critic and wit Dorothy Parker was born in West Bend, N.J. - In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to ride in an automobile, in Hartford, Conn. - In 1911, it was announced in Paris that Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" had been stolen from the Louvre Museum the night before; it turned up two years later, in Italy. - In 1956, President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were nominated for second terms by the Republican national convention in San Francisco. - In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin America. - In 1978, President Jomo Kenyatta, a leading figure in Kenya's struggle for independence, died; Vice President Daniel Arap Moi was sworn in as acting president. - Ten years ago: Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, Calif.; Tyrone Robinson was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison. - Five years ago: Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico's ruling party declared his victory as president, a day after his leading opponents charged the election was unfair. - One year ago: President Clinton, in his Saturday radio address, announced he had signed an executive order putting Osama bin Laden's Islamic Army on a list of terrorist groups.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Nazi-era filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl ("Triumph of the Will") is 97. - Blues singer John Lee Hooker is 82.- Author Ray Bradbury is 79. - Heart surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley is 79.- Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf is 65. - ABC newsman Morton Dean is 64.- Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski is 60. - Actress Valerie Harper is 59.- Football coach Bill Parcells is 58. - Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 57. - CBS newsman Steve Kroft is 54.- Actress Cindy Williams is 52. - Musician David Marks (The Beach Boys) is 51.- Country singer Holly Dunn is 42. - Rock musician Vernon Reid (Living Colour) is 41. - Country singer Collin Raye is 39. - Rock singer Roland Orzabal (Tears for Fears) is 38. - Rock musician Debbie Peterson (The Bangles) is 38. - Rock musician Gary Lee Connor (Screaming Trees) is 37. - Singer Tori Amos is 36.- Country singer Mila Mason is 36. - Rhythm-and-blues musician James DeBarge is 36. - Tennis player Mats Wilander is 35. - Rock singer Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) is 32. - Singer Howie Dorough (Backstreet Boys) is 26.
  • 23 On Aug. 23, 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery. - In 1754 Louis XVI, king of France, was born at Versailles. - In 1838 the first class graduated from Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Mass., one of the first colleges for women. - In 1914 Japan declared war on Germany in World War I. - In 1926 film star Rudolph Valentino died in New York at age 31. - In 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty. - In 1944 Ion Antonescu was dismissed as prime minister by King Michael, paving the way for Romania to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies. - In 1960 Broadway librettist Oscar Hammerstein II died in Doylestown, Pa. - In 1972 the Republican national convention, meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., nominated Vice President Spiro T. Agnew for a second term. - In 1979 Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New York. - In 1982 Lebanon's parliament elected Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel as president; Gemayel was assassinated three weeks later. - Ten years ago in a case that inflamed racial tensions in New York City, Yusuf Hawkins, a black teen-ager, was shot dead after white youths confronted he and his friends in a Brooklyn neighborhood. - Five years ago Republican senators threatened to thwart a $30 billion anti-crime bill unless Democrats accepted changes in the House-passed measure; President Clinton appealed for bipartisan cooperation. - One year ago Boris Yeltsin again dismissed the Russian government, replacing his prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko, with Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Soviet-style leader he'd fired five months before. *Happy Birthday*----------------- Movie director Robert Mulligan is 74. - Actress Vera Miles is 69.- Political satirist Mark Russell is 67. - Actress Barbara Eden is 65.- Actor Ronny Cox is 61. - Actor Richard Sanders is 59.- Ballet dancer Patricia McBride is 57. - Former Surgeon General Antonia Novello is 55. - Country singer Rex Allen Jr. is 52.- Actress Shelley Long is 50. - Actor-singer Rick Springfield is 50. - Country singer-musician Woody Paul (Riders in the Sky) is 50. - Queen Noor of Jordan is 48. - Actor-producer Mark Hudson (The Hudson Brothers) is 48. - Rock musician Dean DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots) is 38.- Actor Jay Mohr is 28.
  • 24 On Aug. 24, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty went into effect. - In A.D. 79 long-dormant Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash; an estimated 20,000 people died. - In 1572 the slaughter of French Protestants at the hands of Catholics began in Paris. - In 1814 British forces invaded Washington, setting fire to the Capitol and the White House. - In 1899 Argentine poet and author Jose Luis Borges was born in Buenos Aires. - In 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly nonstop across the U.S., traveling from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in just over 19 hours. - In 1954 the Communist Control Act went into effect, virtually outlawing the Communist Party in the U.S. - In 1959, three days after Hawaiian statehood, Sen. Hiram L. Fong and Rep. Daniel K. Inouye were sworn in. Fong became the first Chinese-American senator, and Inouye the first Japanese-American congressman. - In 1968 France exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific, becoming the world's fifth thermonuclear power. - In 1981 Mark David Chapman was sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for slaying rock star John Lennon. - In 1992 Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida. - Ten years ago Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti banned Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose from major league baseball for gambling. Colombian drug lords declared "total war" on the government. The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Neptune, sending back striking photographs. - Five years ago Israeli and PLO negotiators agreed on an accord to give the Palestinians control of health care, taxation, education and other services in West Bank areas still controlled by Israel. - One year ago the U.S. and Britain agreed to allow two Libyan suspects in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 to be tried by a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. A federal court rejected the Census Bureau's plans to use statistical sampling for the 2000 census, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court. Actor E.G. Marshall died in Mount Kisco, N.Y., at age 84.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - TV personality Durward Kirby is 87. - Former education secretary Shirley Hufstedler is 74. - Actor Kenny Baker ("Star Wars") is 65. - Composer-musician Mason Williams is 61. - Rock musician Jim Capaldi (Traffic) is 55. - Rock musician Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep) is 54.- Actor Joe Regalbuto is 50. - Boxer Gerry Cooney is 43.- Actor Stephen Fry is 42. - Actor Steve Guttenberg is 41.- Baseball's Cal Ripken Jr. is 39. - Talk show host Craig Kilborn ("The Late Late Show") is 37. - Rock singer John Bush (Anthrax) is 36.- Actress Marlee Matlin is 34. - Country singer Kristyn Osborn (SheDaisy) is 29. - Actor-comedian Dave Chappelle is 26.
  • 25 On Aug. 25, 1944, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation. - In 1718 hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, some settling in present-day New Orleans. - In 1825 Uruguay declared independence from Brazil. - In 1875 Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel, from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours. - In 1916 the National Park Service was established as part of the Interior Department.- In 1921 the U.S. signed a peace treaty with Germany. - In 1943 U.S. forces overran New Georgia in the Solomon Islands during World War II.- In 1944 Romania declared war on Germany. - In 1950 President Truman ordered the Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike. - In 1984 author Truman Capote was found dead in a Los Angeles mansion; he was 59. - In 1985 Samantha Smith, the schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov led to her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union, died with her father in an plane crash in Maine. - Ten years ago Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., acknowledged hiring a male prostitute as a personal employee, then firing him after suspecting the aide was selling sex from Frank's apartment. - Five years ago the Senate passed a $30 billion crime bill, a major victory for President Clinton. - One year ago retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell died in Richmond, Va., at age 90.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Former U.S. arms control director Eugene V. Rostow is 86. - Actor Van Johnson is 83.- Actor-producer Mel Ferrer is 82. - Game show host Monty Hall is 76.- Actor Sean Connery is 69. - Actor Page Johnson is 69.- Talk show host Regis Philbin is 68. - Actor Tom Skerritt is 66.- Jazz musician Wayne Shorter is 66. - Movie director Hugh Hudson is 63.- Actor David Canary is 61. - Movie director John Badham is 60.- Filmmaker Marshall Brickman is 58. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Walter Williams (The O'Jays) is 57. - Actor Anthony Heald is 55.- Actress Anne Archer is 52. - Rock singer-actor Gene Simmons is 50.- Actor John Savage is 50. - Country singer-musician Henry Paul (Blackhawk) is 50. - Rock singer Rob Halford is 48.- Rock singer Elvis Costello is 45. - Movie director Tim Burton is 41.- Actress Ally Walker is 38. - Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus is 38. - Rock musician Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard) is 37. - Actress Joanne Whalley-Kilmer is 35.- Actor Blair Underwood is 35. - Rap DJ Terminator X (Public Enemy) is 33. - Country singer Jo Dee Messina is 30.
  • 26 On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th amendment to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote, was declared in effect. - In 55 B.C. Roman forces under Julius Caesar invaded Britain. - In 1847 Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic. - In 1883 the island volcano Krakatoa began erupting with increasingly large explosions. - In 1939 the first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS when the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers split a doubleheader at Ebbets Field. - In 1957 the Soviet Union announced a successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. - In 1961 the International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto. - In 1964 President Johnson was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the Democratic national convention in Atlantic City, N.J. - In 1974 Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly the Atlantic solo nonstop, died at his home in Hawaii at age 72. - In 1978 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Paul VI; he took the name Pope John Paul I. - Ten years ago a team from Trumbull, Conn., became the first American team since 1983 to win the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. - Five years ago congressional leaders and White House officials all but conceded that a health reform bill was dead. - One year ago Attorney General Janet Reno reopened the investigation of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., focusing on two allegations of a conspiracy beyond James Earl Ray. Hurricane Bonnie drifted ashore in North Carolina and began creeping up the coast, packing heavy rains and high winds.*Happy Birthday* ---------------- - Benjamin C. Bradlee, former Washington Post executive editor, is 78. - Author Ben J. Wattenberg is 66. - Former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro is 64. - Singer Vic Dana is 57.- Pop singer Bob Cowsill is 50. - Actor Michael Jeter is 47.- Actor Brett Cullen is 43. - Jazz musician Branford Marsalis is 39. - Country musician Jimmy Olander (Diamond Rio) is 38.- Actor Chris Burke is 34. - Rock musician Adrian Young (No Doubt) is 30.- Actor Macaulay Culkin is 19.
  • 27 On Aug. 27, 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa erupted, with resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda Strait killing some 36,000 people in Java and Sumatra. - In 1770 German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart.- In 1859 Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful U.S. oil well near Titusville, Pa. - In 1892 fire seriously damaged New York's original Metropolitan Opera House, on Broadway at 39th Street. - In 1894 Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act, providing for a graduated income tax that was later struck down by the Supreme Court. - In 1908 Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the U.S., was born near Stonewall, Texas. - In 1928 the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed in Paris, outlawing war and providing for the peaceful settlement of disputes. - In 1945 American troops began landing in Japan after the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II. - In 1962 the U.S. launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December. - In 1967 Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was found dead in his London flat from an overdose of sleeping pills. - In 1979 British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed in a boat explosion off the coast of Ireland; the Irish Republican Army claimed it was responsible. - Ten years ago the first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite. - Five years ago the State Department said the U.S. and Cuba had agreed to resume talks on Cuban migration, with the hope of stemming the flow of refugees headed toward Florida. - One year ago two suspects in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya were sent to the U.S. to face charges.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Cajun-country singer Jimmy C. Newman is 72.- Actor Tommy Sands is 62. - Bluegrass singer-musician J.D. Crowe is 62. - Musician Daryl Dragon (The Captain and Tennille) is 57. - Actress Tuesday Weld is 56.- Rock singer-musician Tim Bogert is 55. - Actress Marianne Sagebrecht is 54.- Actress Barbara Bach is 52. - Ex-porn star Harry Reems is 52.- Country musician Jeff Cook (Alabama) is 50. - Actor Paul Reubens is 47.- Singer Willy DeVille is 46. - Rock musician Alex Lifeson (Rush) is 46.- Actress Diana Scarwid is 44. - Writer-producer Dean Devlin is 37. - Rock musician Mike Johnson (Dinosaur Jr.) is 34. - Rap musician Bobo (Cypress Hill) is 31. - Rock musician Tony Kanal (No Doubt) is 29.- Actress Sarah Chalke is 23. - Rock musician Jon Siebels (Eve 6) is 20.
  • 28 On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during a peaceful civil rights rally of some 200,000 people in Washington. - In 1609, Henry Hudson discovered Delaware Bay. - In 1749, German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt. - In 1916, Italy's declaration of war against Germany took effect during World War I. - In 1947, legendary bullfighter Manolete was mortally wounded during a fight in Linares, Spain; he died the next day at age 30. - In 1955, Emmett Till, a black teen-ager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., by white men after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman; he was found murdered three days later. - In 1968, police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic national convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president. - In 1973, more than 520 people died in an earthquake in central Mexico. - In 1981, John W. Hinckley Jr. pleaded innocent to charges of attempting to kill President Reagan; he was later acquitted by reason of insanity. - In 1987, movie director John Huston died in Middletown, R.I., at age 81. - In 1996, the 15-year marriage of Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana ended with the issuing of a divorce decree. - Ten years ago: Former televangelist Jim Bakker's fraud and conspiracy trial opened in Charlotte, N.C.; Bakker was convicted of all counts the next October. - Five years ago: A Drug Enforcement Administration plane crashed in a remote area of Peru's cocaine-producing jungle, killing five U.S. agents.- One year ago: President Clinton, speaking in Oak Bluffs, Mass., said he'd become such an expert in asking forgiveness in recent days that it was now "burned in my bones." But he still stopped short of offering a direct apology for the Monica Lewinsky affair. *Happy Birthday*------------------------ Actor-dancer Donald O'Connor is 74. - Country singer Billy Grammer is 74.- Actor Ben Gazzara is 69. - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen is 59.- Actor David Soul is 56. - Baseball manager Lou Piniella is 56.- Actress Alice Playten is 52. - Singer Wayne Osmond (The Osmonds) is 48.- Actor Daniel Stern is 42. - Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton is 41. - Actress Emma Samms is 39.- Country singer Shania Twain is 34. - Actor Jason Priestley is 30.- Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans is 28. - Rock singer-musician Max Collins (Eve 6) is 21. - Country singer LeAnn Rimes is 17.- Actor Michael Galeota is 15.
  • 29 On Aug. 29, 1944, some 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis. - In 1533, Atahualpa, Peru's last Incan king, was killed on orders from Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro. - In 1632, philosopher John Locke was born in Somerset, England. - In 1877, the second president of the Mormon Church, Brigham Young, died in Salt Lake City. - In 1896, chop suey, the Chinese-American dish, was created in New York City by the chef to visiting Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang. - In 1943, responding to a clampdown by Nazi occupiers, Denmark managed to scuttle most of its naval fleet. - In 1957, South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, then a Democrat, ended a filibuster against a civil rights bill after talking for more than 24 hours. - In 1965, Gemini 5 carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space. - In 1966, the Beatles concluded their fourth American tour with their last public concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. - In 1975, Irish statesman Eamon de Valera died at age 92. - In 1981, broadcaster Lowell Thomas died in Pawling, N.Y., at age 89. - Ten years ago: Seven bombs believed set off by drug traffickers exploded in Medellin and Bogota, Colombia. - Five years ago: At the end of a weekend referendum, Bosnian Serbs overwhelmingly rejected what was billed as a last-chance peace plan. - One year ago: A Cuban airliner crashed during takeoff from Quito's international airport in Ecuador, killing 80 people. Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike after their union rejected a last-minute company offer.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Actor George Montgomery is 83.- Actor Charles White is 79. - Actor-director Lord Richard Attenborough is 76. - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is 63.- Actor Elliott Gould is 61. - Movie director William Friedkin is 60.- TV personality Robin Leach is 58. - Actress Deborah Van Valkenburgh is 47. - Dancer-choreographer Mark Morris is 43. - Country musician Dan Truman (Diamond Rio) is 43. - Singer Michael Jackson is 41.- Singer Me'Shell NdegeOcello is 30. - Singer Carl Martin (Shai) is 29.- Actress Carla Gugino is 28. - Rapper A+ is 17.
  • 30 Today is Monday, Aug. 30, the 242nd day of 1999. There are 123 days left in the year. - On Aug. 30, 1862, Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va. - In 30 B.C. Cleopatra, the seventh and most famous queen of ancient Egypt, committed suicide. - In 1797 the creator of "Frankenstein," Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, was born in London. - In 1893 Huey P. Long, "The Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, was born in Winn Parish, La. - In 1941 in World War II, German forces began the siege of Leningrad. - In 1945 Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan and set up Allied occupation headquarters. - In 1963 the "Hot Line" communications link between Washington and Moscow went into operation. - In 1967 the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice on the Supreme Court. - In 1979 Hurricane David devastated the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica as it began a rampage through the Caribbean and up the eastern U.S. seaboard, killing 1,100 people. - In 1983 Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black astronaut in space, blasting off aboard the Challenger. - In 1997 word spread of the deaths of Princess Diana, her companion and their chauffeur in a car crash in Paris. (It was Aug. 31 in Paris.) - Ten years ago a federal jury in New York found "hotel queen" Leona Helmsley guilty of income tax evasion but acquitted her of extortion. (Helmsley served 18 months behind bars, a month at a halfway house and two months under house arrest.) - Five years ago Rosa Parks, who helped touch off the civil rights movement in 1955 by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., was robbed and beaten in her Detroit apartment. (Joseph Skipper later pleaded guilty to assault and robbery and was sentenced to prison.) - One year ago the largest union of U S West, the regional telephone service, ended a 15-day strike with a tentative agreement on a three-year contract.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Baseball Hall of Fame's Ted Williams is 81.- Country singer Kitty Wells is 80. - Opera singer Regina Resnik is 77.- Actor Bill Daily is 71. - Singer John Phillips is 64.- Actress Elizabeth Ashley is 60. - Actor Ben Jones is 58.- Cartoonist R. Crumb is 56. - Skier Jean-Claude Killy is 56.- Actress Peggy Lipton is 52. - Actor Timothy Bottoms is 48.- Actor David Paymer is 45. - Actor Michael Chiklis is 36.- Actress Michael Michele is 33. - Country singer Sherrie Austin is 28.- Actress Cameron Diaz is 27. - TV personality Lisa Ling ("The View") is 26. - Rock singer-musician Aaron Barrett (Reel Big Fish) is 19.
  • 31 Today is Tuesday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 1999. There are 122 days left in the year. - On Aug. 31, 1980, Poland's Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk that ended a 17-day strike. - In 1886 an earthquake rocked Charleston, S.C., killing up to 110. - In 1887 Thomas A. Edison received a patent for his "Kinetoscope," a device which produced moving pictures. - In 1888 Mary Ann Nicholls was found murdered in London's East End, generally regarded as the first victim of "Jack the Ripper." - In 1935 President Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to nations at war. - In 1941 the radio program "The Great Gildersleeve" debuted on NBC. - In 1954 Hurricane Carol hit the northeastern U.S., resulting in nearly 70 deaths. - In 1969 boxer Rocky Marciano died in the crash of a light plane in Iowa, a day before his 46th birthday. - In 1985 Richard Ramirez, later convicted of California's "Night Stalker" killings, was captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.- In 1986 82 people were killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided over Cerritos, Calif. - Ten years ago Britain's Princess Anne and husband Mark Phillips announced they were separating. - Five years ago the Irish Republican Army declared a cease-fire. Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltics after a half-century. - One year ago prices on the New York Stock Exchange plunged amid news of political chaos in Russia and North Korea's apparent firing of a missile over part of Japan.*Happy Birthday*---------------- - Broadcast journalist Daniel Schorr is 83.- Comedian Buddy Hackett is 75. - Actor James Coburn is 71.- Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson is 64. - Actor Warren Berlinger is 62. - Rock musician Jerry Allison (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) is 60. - Actor Jack Thompson is 59.- Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 54. - Singer Van Morrison is 54.- Actor Richard Gere is 50. - Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 42. - Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go's) is 42. - Singer Tony DeFranco (The DeFranco Family) is 40.- Singer Chris Whitley is 39. - Rhythm-and-blues musician Larry Waddell (Mint Condition) is 36. - Rock musician Jeff Russo (Tonic) is 30.- Singer-composer Debbie Gibson is 29. - Rhythm-and-blues singer Tamara (Trina & Tamara) is 22.