Today in History
Today is Wednesday, Aug. 31, the 244th day of 2016. There are 122 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 31, 1886, an
earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.3 devastated Charleston,
South Carolina, killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S.
Geological Survey. On this date: In 1881, the first U.S. tennis
championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1916,
the musical revue "The Big Show," featuring the song "Poor Butterfly"
by Raymond Hubbell and John Golden, opened at New York's Hippodrome. In
1939, the first issue of Marvel Comics, featuring the Human Torch, was
published by Timely Publications in New York. In 1941, the radio
program "The Great Gildersleeve," a spinoff from "Fibber McGee and
Molly" starring Harold Peary, debuted on NBC. In 1954, Hurricane Carol
hit the northeastern Atlantic states; Connecticut, Rhode Island and
part of Massachusetts bore the brunt of the storm, which resulted in
some 70 deaths. In 1965, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the
Senate in voting to establish the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development. In 1972, at the Munich Summer Olympics, American swimmer
Mark Spitz won his fourth and fifth gold medals in the 100-meter
butterfly and 800-meter freestyle relay; Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut won
gold medals in floor exercise and the balance beam. In 1980, Poland's
Solidarity labor movement was born with an agreement signed in Gdansk
(guh-DANSK') that ended a 17-day-old strike. In 1986, 82 people were
killed when an Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane collided
over Cerritos, California. The Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov
collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both to sink;
up to 448 people reportedly died. In 1991, Uzbekistan
(ooz-bek-ih-STAHN') and Kyrgyzstan (keer-gih-STAHN') declared their
independence, raising to ten the number of republics seeking to secede
from the Soviet Union. In 1996, three adults and four children drowned
when their vehicle rolled into John D. Long Lake in Union, South
Carolina; they had gone to see a monument to the sons of Susan Smith,
who had drowned the two boys in Oct. 1994. In 1997, a car crash in
Paris claimed the lives of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver,
Henri Paul. Ten years ago: Iran defied a U.N. deadline to stop
enriching uranium. President George W. Bush, addressing an American
Legion convention in Salt Lake City, predicted victory in the war on
terror, likening the struggle against Islamic fundamentalism with the
fight against Nazis and communists. Police in Norway recovered the
Edvard Munch (AYD'-vart moongk) masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna"
two years after masked gunmen grabbed the national art treasures in
front of stunned visitors at an Oslo museum. Five years ago: The
Wartime Contracting Commission issued a report saying the U.S. had lost
billions of dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan and
stood to repeat that in future wars without big changes in how the
government awarded and managed contracts for battlefield support and
reconstruction projects. Betty Skelton Erde (ur-dee), 85, an aviation
and auto racing pioneer once called the fastest woman on Earth, died in
The Villages, Florida. One year ago: President Barack Obama, opening a
three-day visit to Alaska, painted a doomsday scenario for the Arctic
and beyond if climate change wasn't dealt with fast: entire nations
submerged underwater, cities abandoned and refugees fleeing in droves
as conflict broke out across the globe. The State Department released
roughly 7,000 pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails, including about
150 emails that were censored because they contained information deemed
classified. Frazier Glenn Miller, a white supremacist who admitted
killing three people at two suburban Kansas City Jewish sites, gave
jurors in Olathe, Kansas, a Nazi salute after they convicted him of
murder and other charges for the shootings. (The same jury sentenced
Miller to death.) Today's Birthdays: Japanese monster movie actor
Katsumi Tezuka is 104. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson is 81.
Actor Warren Berlinger is 79. Rock musician Jerry Allison (Buddy Holly
and the Crickets) is 77. Actor Jack Thompson is 76. Violinist Itzhak
Perlman is 71. Singer Van Morrison is 71. Rock musician Rudolf Schenker
(The Scorpions) is 68. Actor Richard Gere is 67. Olympic gold medal
track and field athlete Edwin Moses is 61. Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook
(Squeeze) is 59. Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go's) is 59. Singer
Tony DeFranco (The DeFranco Family) is 57. Rhythm-and-blues musician
Larry Waddell (Mint Condition) is 53. Actor Jaime P. Gomez is 51.
Baseball pitcher Hideo Nomo is 48. Rock musician Jeff Russo (Tonic) is
47. Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 46. Rock musician Greg Richling
(Wallflowers) is 46. Actor Zack Ward is 46. Golfer Padraig Harrington
is 45. Actor Chris Tucker is 44. Actress Sara Ramirez is 41.
Rhythm-and-blues singer Tamara (Trina & Tamara) is 39. Thought for
Today: "Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as
good someone else. William Saroyan, American author (1908-1981).
