Friday, August 5

This Day In History

• 1861   The federal government levied an income tax for the first time.
  
• 1844   The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid at Bedloe’s Island (now called Liberty Island), New York. The actual statue was accepted as a gift to the United States from the people of France by U.S. President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886. The statue became a symbol of freedom to the European immigrants who passed it on their way to Ellis Island and their admittance to the United States. It remains today as a symbol of liberty for all.
  
• 1864   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, Ala., during the Civil War.
  
• 1884   The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
  
• 1914   The first electric traffic lights were installed, in Cleveland.
  
• 1924   The comic strip ''Little Orphan Annie'' by Harold Gray made its debut.
  
• 1936   Jesse Owens won his third gold medal by running a 200-meter race in 20.7 seconds at the Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany.
  
• 1957   ''American Bandstand,'' hosted by Dick Clark, made its network debut on ABC-TV.
  
• 1962   Actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home at age 36. Her death was ruled a probable suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills.
  
• 1966   The album ''Revolver'' by the Beatles was released.
  
• 1969   The U.S. space probe Mariner 7 flew by Mars, sending back photographs and scientific data.
  
• 1981   The federal government began firing air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.
  
• 1992   Federal civil rights charges were filed against four Los Angeles police officers acquitted of state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King; two were later convicted.
  
• 1994   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.
  
• 1998   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.
  
• 2000   Actor Alec Guinness died at age 86.
  
• 2001   Afghanistan's ruling Taliban jailed eight foreign aid workers, including two Americans, for allegedly preaching Christianity.
  
• 2002   The coral-encrusted gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised from the floor of the Atlantic.
  

Happy Birthday To

• 1850   Guy de Maupassant (author: The Tellier House, Yvette, Toine, The Horla, The Diamond Necklace, The Umbrella, The Piece of String, A Woman’s Life, Bel-Ami, Peter and John; died July 6, 1893)
  
• 1911   Robert Taylor (Spangler Brugh) (actor)
  
• 1930   Neil Armstrong (NASA astronaut: command pilot of Gemini 8 [launched Mar 16, 1966], performed first successful docking of two vehicles in space; commander of Apollo 11 [1969], first manned lunar landing mission: Armstrong was first man to land a craft on the Moon and first man to step on its surface)
  
• 1946   Loni Anderson (actress: WKRP in Cincinnati)