Today in History
Important Events
- 43 BC Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul
- 1839 Details of Louis Daguerre's 1st practical photographic process are released in Paris
- 1942 World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers killed, wounded or captured raiding Dieppe, France
- 1988 Iran-Iraq begin a cease-fire in their 8-year-old war (11 PM EDT)
- 1991 Conservative members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union attempt to depose Mikhail Gorbachev in a coup d'état
- 2010 Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait
Today in Film & TV
- 1950 ABC begins Saturday morning kid shows (Animal Clinic & Acrobat Ranch)
Today in Music
Today in Sport
- 1909 Indianapolis 500 race track opens
Orville Wright
Coco Chanel
Bill Clinton
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
Benjamin Harrison
Slobodan MilosevicFamous Weddings
- 1800 Social reformer Elizabeth Fry (20) weds tea dealer Joseph Fry (23) at the Norwich Quaker Meeting House in Norwich, England
- 1935 French singer Édith Piaf (19) weds Andrew Johnseppe in Belleville, Paris
- 1956 Actor Christopher Plummer (26) weds actress Tammy Grimes (22) at Cherokee Castle in Sedalia, Colorado
Famous Divorces
Augustus Caesar
Blaise Pascal
Linus Pauling
Hua Guofeng
Phyllis Diller
Jerry LewisThis Month in History
America's Last Public Hanging
The last man to be publicly hanged in the United States met his fate on this day in history. It was a squalid affair watched by about 10,000 people.
August 14, 1936First Faltering Steps of Jane Eyre
With hope, pride – and some subterfuge – Charlotte Brontë sent her hefty manuscript of Jane Eyre to publishers in London on this day, then crossed her fingers.
August 15, 1847A Kiss For Adolf Hitler
A woman spectator leaned over and kissed Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympic Games on this day. Hitler pretended to be amused, but his guards were to suffer.
August 15, 1936The 17 Year-Old Witness to the Eruption of Vesuvius
17 year-old Pliny the Younger's account of the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii made the event famous long after Pompeii was buried and forgotten.
August 24, 79 AD
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