Today in History
Aug 21, 2021, 9:00 PM | Updated: 9:38 pm
Today in History
Today is Sunday, Aug. 22, the 234th day of 2021. There are 131 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.
On this date:
In 1485, England’s King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, effectively ending the War of the Roses.
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 1910, Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.
In 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war against Belgium.
In 1922, Irish revolutionary Michael Collins was shot to death, apparently by Irish Republican Army members opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty that Collins had co-signed.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to South America.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon was nominated for a second term of office by the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
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 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.
In 2007, A Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers. Hurricane Dean slammed into Mexico for the second time in as many days.
Ten years ago: Hurricane Irene cut a destructive path through the Caribbean, raking Puerto Rico with strong winds and rain and then spinning just north of the Dominican Republic. Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson, died in New York at age 70. Lyricist Jerry Leiber, who with composer Mike Stoller wrote “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Yakety Yak” and other hits, died in Los Angeles at age 78.
Five years ago: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, appearing on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” pushed back against charges that she was physically unfit for the White House, saying the accusations were part of a “wacky strategy” by GOP rival Donald Trump and an “alternative reality” that was not focused on the kinds of issues that were most important to voters.
One year ago: Dueling demonstrations in Portland, Oregon by right-wing and left-wing protesters turned violent; federal authorities forced demonstrators away from a plaza near a federal building. Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was in a coma after a suspected poisoning, was flown from Siberia to Germany, where he would be treated at a hospital. (After five months recovering in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia, where he was arrested.) Officials in Peru said 13 people died in a stampede at a disco after a police raid to enforce the country’s lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.
Today’s Birthdays: Broadcast journalist Morton Dean is 86. Author Annie Proulx (proo) is 86. Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski (yah-STREM’-skee) is 82. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells is 80. Writer-producer David Chase is 76. CBS newsman Steve Kroft is 76. Actor Cindy Williams is 74. Pop musician David Marks is 73. International Swimming Hall of Famer Diana Nyad (NY’-ad) is 72. Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor is 65. Rock musician Vernon Reid is 63. Country singer Ricky Lynn Gregg is 62. Country singer Collin Raye is 61. Actor Regina Taylor is 61. Rock singer Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears) is 60. Rock musician Debbi Peterson (The Bangles) is 60. Rock musician Gary Lee Conner (Screaming Trees) is 59. Singer Tori Amos is 58. Country singer Mila Mason is 58. R&B musician James DeBarge is 58. International Tennis Hall of Famer Mats Wilander (VEE’-luhn-dur) is 57. Actor Brooke Dillman is 55. Rapper GZA (JIHZ’-ah)/The Genius is 55. Actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (ah-day-WAH’-lay ah-kih-NOY’-yay ah-BAH’-jay) is 54. Actor Ty Burrell is 54. Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is 51. Actor Melinda Page Hamilton is 50. Actor Rick Yune is 50. Rock musician Paul Doucette (DOO’-set) (Matchbox Twenty) is 49. Rap-reggae singer Beenie Man is 48. Singer Howie Dorough (Backstreet Boys) is 48. Comedian-actor Kristen Wiig is 48. Actor Jenna Leigh Green is 47. Rock musician Bo Koster is 47. Rock musician Dean Back (Theory of a Deadman) is 46. Talk show host James Corden is 43. Rock musician Jeff Stinco (Simple Plan) is 43. Actor Brandon Adams is 42. Actor Aya Sumika is 41. Actor Ari Stidham is 29.
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