Today in History
Today is Sunday, Aug. 13, the 225th day of 2023. There are 140 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Aug. 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.
On this date:
In 1521, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (teh-natch-teet-LAHN’), present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs.
In 1792, French revolutionaries imprisoned the royal family.
In 1846, the American flag was raised in Los Angeles for the first time.
In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut, received a patent for a coin-operated telephone.
In 1910, Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90.
In 1932, Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out “for all or nothing.”
In 1960, the first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place.
In 1995, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer at age 63.
In 2003, Iraq began pumping crude oil from its northern oil fields for the first time since the start of the war.
In 2004, TV chef Julia Child died in Montecito, California, two days short of her 92nd birthday.
In 2011, seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair during a powerful storm just before a concert was to begin.
In 2020, in an interview on Fox Business Network, President Donald Trump acknowledged that he was starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots.
Ten years ago: Israel released 26 Palestinian inmates, many convicted in grisly killings, on the eve of long-stalled peace talks, angering families of those killed by the prisoners. Tompall Glaser, a country music singer, publisher and studio owner best known for his association with the outlaw movement against record labels, died in Nashville at age 79.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump dared New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to challenge him in 2020, warning, “Anybody that runs against Trump suffers.” A lawyer for longtime FBI agent Peter Strzok, who’d been removed from the Russia investigation over anti-Trump text messages, said Strzok had been fired by the agency.
One year ago: A man accused in a stabbing attack on Salman Rushdie pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a “pre-planned” crime, as the 75-year-old author of “The Satanic Verses” remained hospitalized, on a ventilator and unable to speak, with a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye. Ukrainian officials said Russia’s military shelled residential areas across Ukraine while their own fighters damaged the last working bridge over a river in occupied southern Ukraine, hurting Russia’s ability to resupply its military.
Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 90. Actor Kevin Tighe is 79. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is 77. Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 75. High wire aerialist Philippe Petit is 74. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke is 74. Golf Hall of Famer Betsy King is 68. Movie director Paul Greengrass is 68. Actor Danny Bonaduce is 64. TV weatherman Sam Champion is 62. Actor Dawnn Lewis is 62. Actor John Slattery is 61. Actor Debi Mazar is 59. Actor Quinn Cummings is 56. Actor Seana Kofoed is 53. Country singer Andy Griggs is 50. Actor Gregory Fitoussi is 47. Country musician Mike Melancon (Emerson Drive) is 45. Actor Kathryn Fiore is 44. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is 41. Actor Sebastian Stan is 41. Actor Eme Ikwuakor (IK’-wah-ker) is 39. Pop-rock singer James Morrison is 39. Actor Lennon Stella is 24.
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