Today is Tuesday, Aug. 22, the 234th day of 2017. There are 131 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 22, 1851, the schooner America outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that came to be known as the America’s Cup.
On this date:
In 1485, England’s King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, effectively ending the War of the Roses.
In 1787, inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
In 1846, Gen. Stephen W. Kearny proclaimed all of New Mexico a territory of the United States.
In 1910, Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.
In 1922, Irish revolutionary Michael Collins was shot to death, apparently by Irish Republican Army members opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty that Collins had co-signed.
In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corp. conducted its first experimental television broadcast, using a 30-line mechanical system.
In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were nominated for second terms in office by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to South America.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon was nominated for a second term of office by the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach. John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile took seven employees hostage at a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Brooklyn, New York, during a botched robbery; the siege, which ended with Wojtowicz’s arrest and Naturile’s killing by the FBI, inspired the 1975 movie “Dog Day Afternoon.”
In 1985, 55 people died when fire broke out aboard a British Airtours charter jet on a runway at Manchester Airport in England.
In 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. The Rob Reiner coming-of-age film “Stand By Me” was put into wide release by Columbia Pictures.
In 1992, on the second day of the Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho, an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver, the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver (the sharpshooter later said he was targeting the couple’s friend Kevin Harris, and didn’t see Vicki Weaver).
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush, addressing a Veterans of Foreign Wars conference in Kansas City, Missouri, offered a fresh endorsement of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (NOO’-ree ahl-MAHL’-ih-kee), calling him “a good guy, good man with a difficult job.” A Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers. Hurricane Dean slammed into Mexico for the second time in as many days. The Texas Rangers became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting an American League record in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles in the first game of a doubleheader. (Texas won the second game, 9-7.) Poet and short story writer Grace Paley died in Thetford Hill, Vermont, at age 84.
Five years ago: Ousted Penn State president Graham Spanier and his lawyers attacked a university-backed report on the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, calling it a “blundering and indefensible indictment.” (Spanier was later convicted of child endangerment for failing to report a child sexual abuse allegation against Sandusky.) Nina Bawden, 87, a British author who wrote children’s classics, including the World War II story “Carrie’s War,” died in London.
One year ago: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, appearing on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” pushed back against charges that she was physically unfit for the White House, saying the accusations were part of a “wacky strategy” by GOP rival Donald Trump and an “alternative reality” that was not focused on the kinds of issues that were most important to voters.
Today’s Birthdays: Broadcast journalist Morton Dean is 82. Author Annie Proulx is 82. Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski is 78. Actress Valerie Harper is 78. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells is 76. Writer-producer David Chase is 72. CBS newsman Steve Kroft is 72. Actress Cindy Williams is 70. Pop musician David Marks is 69.
International Swimming Hall of Famer Diana Nyad is 68. Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor is 61. Rock musician Vernon Reid is 59. Country singer Ricky Lynn Gregg is 58. Country singer Collin Raye is 57. Actress Regina Taylor is 57. Rock singer Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears) is 56. Rock musician Debbi Peterson (The Bangles) is 56. Rock musician Gary Lee Conner (Screaming Trees) is 55. Singer Tori Amos is 54. Country singer Mila Mason is 54. Rhythm-and-blues musician James DeBarge is 54. International Tennis Hall of Famer Mats Wilander is 53. Actress Brooke Dillman is 51. Rapper GZA (JIHZ’-ah)/The Genius is 51.
Actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is 50. Actor Ty Burrell is 50. Celebrity chef Giada DeLaurentiis is 47. Actress Melinda Page Hamilton is 46. Actor Rick Yune is 46. Rock musician Paul Doucette (Matchbox Twenty) is 45. Rap-reggae singer Beenie Man is 44. Singer Howie Dorough (Backstreet Boys) is 44. Comedian-actress Kristen Wiig is 44. Actress Jenna Leigh Green is 43. Rock musician Bo Koster is 43. Rock musician Dean Back (Theory of a Deadman) is 42. Talk show host James Corden is 39. Rock musician Jeff Stinco (Simple Plan) is 39. Actor Brandon Adams is 38. Actress Aya Sumika is 37.
Thought for Today: “Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.” — Claude Debussy, French composer (born this date in 1862, died 1918).
