Today in History: Aug. 12

In 1944, during World War II, 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. FILE – In this 1938 file photo, John F. Kennedy, right, poses aboard an ocean liner with his father Joseph P. Kennedy, center, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, and brother Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., left. Monday, May 29, 2017 marks the 100-year anniversary of the birth of John F. Kennedy, who went on to become the 35th President of the United States. (AP Photo, File)
The new IBM Personal Computer system for home and school use is shown in Aug. 1981.  The expandable system includes a monitor screen, printer and disk drives.  (AP Photo)
In 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150, at a press conference in New York. The new IBM Personal Computer system for home and school use is shown in Aug. 1981. The expandable system includes a monitor screen, printer and disk drives. (AP Photo)
In 1992, after 14 months of negotiations, the United States, Mexico and Canada announced in Washington that they had concluded the North American Free Trade Agreement. FILE – In this April 21, 2008 file photo, national flags representing the United States, Canada, and Mexico fly in the breeze in New Orleans where leaders of the North American Free Trade Agreement met. Mexico, the United States and Canada have begun a second round of talks Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, on re-negotiating the NAFTA, in Mexico City. The first round of talks took place in Washington in mid-August. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)
In 2013, James “Whitey” Bulger, the feared Boston mob boss who became one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives, was convicted in a string of 11 killings and dozens of other gangland crimes, many of them committed while he was said to be an FBI informant. (Bulger is now serving a life sentence in federal prison.) FILE – This file booking photograph, obtained by WBUR 90.9 – NPR Radio Boston, shows Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger. Bulger had some advice for three Massachusetts high school girls who wrote to him for a history project: Crime doesn’t pay. The 85-year-old sent the handwritten letter, dated Feb. 24, from federal prison in Florida where he is serving two life sentences, The Boston Globe reported Sunday, June 28, 2015. “My life was wasted and spent foolishly, brought shame and suffering on my parents and siblings and will end soon,” Bulger wrote. MANDATORY CREDIT (WBUR 90.9 via AP Photo)
In 2017, a car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally in the Virginia college town of Charlottesville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and hurting more than a dozen others. (The attacker, James Alex Fields, was sentenced to life in prison on 29 federal hate crime charges, and life plus 419 years on state charges.) President Donald Trump condemned what he called an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides;” Democrats and some Republicans called on him to specifically denounce white supremacy. Two Virginia state policemen were killed in a helicopter crash while monitoring the Charlottesville protests. FILE – In this Aug. 12, 2017, photo by Ryan Kelly of The Daily Progress, people fly into the air as a car drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. The photo won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography, announced Monday, April 16, 2018, at Columbia University in New York. Kelly is the latest in a series of newspaper employees who have won journalism’s top honor only to leave the once-thriving industry, which has been destabilized and weakened by the internet. (Ryan Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP)
Air Disaster - Rescue workers search for survisors of the Japan Air Lines 747 jetliner that crashed Monday night, August 12, 1985 into a mountain in central Japan. The plane crashed into remote mountains making rescue efforts difficult. The AP-Photo shows rescue operations conducted by the Japan Self Defense Forces on August 13th. (AP-Photo)
In 1985, the world’s worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people. (Four people survived.) Air Disaster – Rescue workers search for survivors of the Japan Air Lines 747 jetliner that crashed Monday night, August 12, 1985 into a mountain in central Japan. The plane crashed into remote mountains making rescue efforts difficult. The AP-Photo shows rescue operations conducted by the Japan Self Defense Forces on August 13th. (AP-Photo)
FILE -  this is an in Aug. 1962 file photo of Soviet Cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev, left, and Pavel Popovich seen after landing their space ships in Russia following record dual orbital flight in Aug. 1962. Pavel Popovich, the sixth man to go into orbit, has died at age 78 on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 of a stroke in Gurzuf, a resort city on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. (AP Photo/ ITAR-TASS, File)
In 1962, one day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely Aug. 15. FILE – this is an in Aug. 1962 file photo of Soviet Cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev, left, and Pavel Popovich seen after landing their space ships in Russia following record dual orbital flight in Aug. 1962. Pavel Popovich, the sixth man to go into orbit, has died at age 78 on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 of a stroke in Gurzuf, a resort city on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. (AP Photo/ ITAR-TASS, File)
(1/7)
The new IBM Personal Computer system for home and school use is shown in Aug. 1981.  The expandable system includes a monitor screen, printer and disk drives.  (AP Photo)
Air Disaster - Rescue workers search for survisors of the Japan Air Lines 747 jetliner that crashed Monday night, August 12, 1985 into a mountain in central Japan. The plane crashed into remote mountains making rescue efforts difficult. The AP-Photo shows rescue operations conducted by the Japan Self Defense Forces on August 13th. (AP-Photo)
FILE -  this is an in Aug. 1962 file photo of Soviet Cosmonauts Andrian Nikolayev, left, and Pavel Popovich seen after landing their space ships in Russia following record dual orbital flight in Aug. 1962. Pavel Popovich, the sixth man to go into orbit, has died at age 78 on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009 of a stroke in Gurzuf, a resort city on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. (AP Photo/ ITAR-TASS, File)

Today is Monday, Aug. 12, the 224th day of 2019.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On August 12, 2017, a car plowed into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white nationalist rally in the Virginia college town of Charlottesville, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and hurting more than a dozen others. (The attacker, James Alex Fields, was sentenced to life in prison on 29 federal hate crime charges, and life plus 419 years on state charges.) President Donald Trump condemned what he called an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides;” Democrats and some Republicans called on him to specifically denounce white supremacy. Two Virginia state policemen were killed in a helicopter crash while monitoring the Charlottesville protests.

On this date:

In 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500, first opened.

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Hugo Black to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 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.

In 1944, during World War II, 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 1962, one day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely Aug. 15.

In 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150, at a press conference in New York.

In 1985, the world’s worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people. (Four people survived.)

In 1992, after 14 months of negotiations, the United States, Mexico and Canada announced in Washington that they had concluded the North American Free Trade Agreement. Avant-garde composer John Cage died in New York at age 79.

In 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.

In 2004, New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation and acknowledged that he’d had an extramarital affair with another man.

In 2013, James “Whitey” Bulger, the feared Boston mob boss who became one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives, was convicted in a string of 11 killings and dozens of other gangland crimes, many of them committed while he was said to be an FBI informant. (Bulger was sentenced to life; he was fatally beaten at a West Virginia prison in 2018, hours after being transferred from a facility in Florida.)

Ten years ago: Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, a 23-year-old Georgia man, was convicted of aiding terrorist groups by sending videotapes of U.S. landmarks overseas and plotting to support “violent jihad” after a federal jury in Atlanta rejected his arguments that it was empty talk. (Sadequee was sentenced to 17 years in prison.) Guitar virtuoso Les Paul died in White Plains, New York, at 94.

Five years ago: Lauren Bacall, 89, the slinky, sultry-voiced actress who created on-screen magic with Humphrey Bogart in “To Have and Have Not” and “The Big Sleep” and off-screen magic in one of Hollywood’s most storied marriages, died in New York. Steve Ballmer officially became the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers; the sale closed after a California court confirmed the authority of Shelly Sterling, on behalf of the Sterling Family Trust, to sell the franchise. (Her husband, Donald Sterling, had unsuccessfully fought the sale of the team he owned since 1981 in court.)

One year ago: Fewer than two dozen white nationalists showed up for a rally near the White House, where thousands of counterdemonstrators had gathered to send a message that racism is unwelcome. A year after the violence at a rally of white supremacists and other extremists in Charlottesville, Virginia, the mother of Heather Heyer, the woman killed while protesting against that rally, visited the site of the attack and said the country’s racial wounds had not healed. Brooks Koepka wins the PGA Championship in St. Louis; Tiger Woods finished second after a final-round score of 64. A NASA spacecraft, the Parker Solar Probe, lifted off on a mission intended to bring it within 3.8 million miles of the surface of the sun. (The craft made its first close approach, to within 15 million miles, just two and a-half months after liftoff.)

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Federal News Network Logo
Log in to your WTOP account for notifications and alerts customized for you.

Sign up