Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 22, the 234th day of 2023. There are 131 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Aug. 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 1787, inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River to delegates from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

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 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to South America.

In 1972, John Wojtowicz (WAHT’-uh-witz) 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 1989, Black Panthers co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, California.

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.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation that ended guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanded work from recipients.

In 2000, Publishers Clearing House agreed to pay $18 million to 24 states and the District of Columbia to settle allegations it had used deceptive promotions in its sweepstakes mailings.

In 2003, Alabama’s chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse.

In 2007, A Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing all 14 U.S. soldiers aboard.

Ten years ago: Egypt’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak was released from prison and transported to a military hospital in a Cairo suburb to be held under house arrest. The day before, Mubarak was sentenced to up to 35 years in prison for leaking secrets. A mysterious glitch halted trading on the Nasdaq for three hours.

Five years ago: The bull market in U.S. stocks became the longest one on record; it had been 3,453 days since the S&P 500 index had seen a drop of 20 percent or more. Ohio State suspended football coach Urban Meyer for three games; investigators found that Meyer had protected an assistant coach for years through domestic violence allegations, a drug problem and poor job performance. A Democratic Party official said an attempt to break into the party’s massive voter database had been thwarted.

One year ago: Lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked a federal judge to prevent the FBI from continuing to review documents recovered from his Florida estate until a neutral special master could be appointed. The attorneys asserted in a court filing, their first since the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago two weeks earlier, that the sets of documents taken from the residence were “presumptively” covered by executive privilege. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert who became a household name — and the subject of partisan attacks — during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced he would leave the federal government in December. Great Britain's Prince William and his wife, Kate, announced they were relocating their family from central London to more rural dwellings in Windsor.

Today’s Birthdays: Broadcast journalist Morton Dean is 87. Author Annie Proulx (proo) is 87. Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski is 83. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells is 81. Writer-producer David Chase is 77. CBS newsman Steve Kroft is 77. Pop musician David Marks is 74. International Swimming Hall of Famer Diana Nyad is 73. Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor is 66. Rock musician Vernon Reid is 64. Country singer Ricky Lynn Gregg is 63. Country singer Collin Raye is 62. Actor Regina Taylor is 62. Rock singer Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears) is 61. Rock musician Debbi Peterson (The Bangles) is 61. Rock musician Gary Lee Conner (Screaming Trees) is 60. Singer Tori Amos is 59. Country singer Mila Mason is 59. R&B musician James DeBarge is 59. International Tennis Hall of Famer Mats Wilander (VEE’-luhn-dur) is 58. Actor Brooke Dillman is 56. Rapper GZA (JIHZ’-ah)/The Genius is 56. Actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (ah-day-WAH’-lay ah-kih-NOY’-yay ah-BAH’-jay) is 55. Actor Ty Burrell is 55. Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is 52. Actor Melinda Page Hamilton is 51. Actor Rick Yune is 51. Rock musician Paul Doucette (DOO’-set) (Matchbox Twenty) is 50. Rap-reggae singer Beenie Man is 49. Singer Howie Dorough (Backstreet Boys) is 49. Comedian-actor Kristen Wiig is 49. Actor Jenna Leigh Green is 48. Rock musician Bo Koster is 48. Rock musician Dean Back (Theory of a Deadman) is 47. Talk show host James Corden is 44. Rock musician Jeff Stinco (Simple Plan) is 44. Actor Brandon Adams is 43. Actor Aya Sumika is 42. Actor Ari Stidham is 30.