Monday, August 22

This Day In History

• 1485   England's King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the War of the Roses.
  
• 1762   Ann Franklin became the first woman to hold the title of newspaper editor. She assumed those duties at "The Newport Mercury" in Newport, RI.
  
• 1770   Captain James Cook, having landed at Australia, claimed it for the British Crown.
  
• 1775   England's King George III proclaimed the American colonies in a state of open rebellion.
  
• 1846   The United States annexed New Mexico.
  
• 1851   The schooner America outraced the Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup.
  
• 1893   Author, poet, critic and wit Dorothy Parker was born in West End, N.J.
  
• 1911   Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, "Mona Lisa", was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris this night. Those who visited the Louvre stared at the blank space on the wall where the world’s most famous painting had hung. Was it the work of a madman? A professional thief couldn’t sell the world’s most famous painting ... so it must have been someone who had lost their mental faculties ... or was it? On December 13, 1913, "Mona Lisa" was found, undamaged, in the city of its origin. It seems that another Florence artist, this one of the 20th century, Vincenzo Perugia, had been arrested for stealing the painting. Vincenzo allegedly tried to sell the painting to an antique dealer.
  
• 1956   President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were nominated for second terms by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
  
• 1968   Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin America.
  
• 1986   Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.
  
• 1989   Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, Calif.
  
• 1996   President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.
  
• 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.
  

Happy Birthday To

• 1834   Samuel Langley (pioneer in aviation: Langley Air Force Base [in Virginia] bears his name; died in 1906)
  
• 1920   Ray Bradbury (writer: Fahrenheit 451, The Toynbee Convector, Martian Chronicles)
  
• 1920   Dr. Denton Cooley (heart surgeon: pioneered many techniques used in cardiovascular surgery)
  
• 1934   Norman Schwarzkopf (U.S. Army General: Desert Storm [1990-91]; author: It Doesn’t Take a Hero)
  
• 1940   Valerie Harper (Emmy Award-winning actress: Rhoda [1974-75], The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1970-71, 1971-72, 1972-73]; City, Valerie)
  
• 1947   Cindy Williams (actress: Laverne & Shirley, Normal Life, Getting By, The Funny Side, American Graffiti, Rude Awakening)