Today In History

Associated Press

On Aug. 26, 1920, The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect.

On this date in:
1847- Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.
1910- Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia.
1939- Major league baseball was televised for the first time when experimental station W2XBS broadcast a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
1957- The Soviet Union announced that it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
1961- The Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.
1964- President Lyndon B. Johnson was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J.
1974- Aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh died at age 72.
1978- Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and took the name John Paul I.
1986- In the so-called “preppie murder case,” 18-year-old Jennifer Levin was found strangled in New York’s Central Park. (Robert Chambers later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served 15 years in prison.)
2003- Investigators concluded that NASA’s overconfident management and inattention to safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as damage to the craft did.

Today’s Birthdays:
Actress Melissa McCarthy (“Mike and Molly”) turns 45 years old today.
Ben Bradlee, Former Washington Post executive editor, 94
Ben J. Wattenberg, Author, 82
Tom Heinsohn, Basketball Hall of Famer, 81
Tom Ridge, Former director of homeland security, 70
Valerie Simpson, R&B singer (Ashford and Simpson), 69
Branford Marsalis, Jazz saxophonist, 55
Chris Burke, Actor (“Life Goes On”), 50
Adrian Young, Rock musician (No Doubt), 46
Thalia, Singer, actress, 44
Macaulay Culkin, Actor (“Home Alone”), 35
Cassie, R&B singer, 29
Keke Palmer, Actress, 22
Actor Chris Pine (“Star Trek”) turns 35 years old today.

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