Aug. 7
1789: The U.S. Department of War was established by Congress.
1942: U.S. and other allied forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.
1974: Philippe Petit performed an unapproved tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers, over 1,300 feet up; it was featured in the Oscar-winning “Man on Wire.”
Aug. 8
1814: During the War of 1812, peace talks between the United States and Britain began in Ghent, Belgium.
1876: Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric pen—the forerunner of the mimeograph machine.
1908: Wilbur Wright made the Wright Brothers’ first public flying demonstration at Le Mans racecourse in France.
1963: Britain’s “Great Train Robbery” took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.
Aug. 9
1173: Construction began on the campanile of Pisa Cathedral—better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
1854: Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” was first published.
1936: Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics.
1945: Three days after Hiroshima, a U.S. B-29 dropped a nuclear device on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people from the bombing and radiation.
1969: Actor Sharon Tate and four others were found murdered at her Los Angeles home; cult leader Charles Manson and his followers were later convicted.
Aug. 10
1792: During the French Revolution, mobs in Paris attacked the Tuileries Palace, where King Louis XVI resided.
1821: Missouri became the 24th state admitted to the Union.
1945: A day after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Imperial Japan conveyed its willingness to surrender provided the status of Emperor Hirohito remained unchanged.
1969: Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson’s cult, one day after actor Sharon Tate and four other people were slain.
1993: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Aug. 11
1919: Germany’s Weimar Constitution was signed by President Friedrich Ebert.
1934: The first federal prisoners arrived at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
1956: Abstract painter Jackson Pollock died in an automobile accident at age 44.
1965: Rioting that claimed 34 lives and lasted six days broke out in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.
2014: Academy Award-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams died at age 63.
Aug. 12
1898: Fighting in the Spanish-American War came to an end.
1909: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500, first opened.
1953: The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.
1981: IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150, at a press conference in New York.4
Aug. 13
1521: Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City), from the Aztecs.
1792: French revolutionaries arrested and imprisoned King Louis XVI; he would be executed by guillotine the following January.
1952: Big Mama Thornton first recorded the song “Hound Dog,” four years before Elvis Presley’s famous version was released.
1995: Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at age 63.
