Today in History
Published 9:50 pm Sunday, August 9, 2009
Today is Monday, Aug. 10, the 222nd day of 2009. There are 143 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Aug. 10, 1999, a gunman opened fire at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles, wounding three boys, a teenage girl and a woman; hours later, a gunman shot and killed letter carrier Joseph Ileto. White supremacist Buford O. Furrow, who lived for a while in Lynnwood, later pleaded guilty to the shootings and is serving two life sentences.
ON THIS DATE
In 1792, during the French Revolution, mobs in Paris attacked the Tuileries Palace, where King Louis XVI resided. (The king was later arrested, put on trial for treason and executed the following January.)
In 1821, Missouri became the 24th state.
In 1846, President James Polk signed a measure establishing the Smithsonian Institution, named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest of half a million dollars had made it possible.
In 1921, Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello.
In 1949, the National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense.
In 1968, 35 people were killed in the crash of a Piedmont Airlines Fair-child FH-227 at Kanawha County Airport in West Virginia; two survived.
In 1969, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson’s cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain.
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a measure providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans who’d been interned by the U.S. government during World War II.
In 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2004, President George W. Bush chose Porter Goss, a Republican congressman and one-time spy, to lead the CIA. A boat carrying Dominican migrants seeking a better life in Puerto Rico drifted back to almost the same spot where the voyage began nearly two weeks earlier; at least 55 of the 86 people on board had died. The 20-year-old woman who’d accused Kobe Bryant of rape filed a federal lawsuit in Denver against the NBA star. (The lawsuit was later settled out of court.) Barry Bonds became the first player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in 13 consecutive seasons, connecting in San Francisco’s 8-7 loss to Pittsburgh.
In 2008, at the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps began his long march toward eight gold medals by winning the 400- meter individual medley in 4:03.84 — smashing his own world record. The U.S. women’s 400-meter freestyle relay team, anchored by 41-year-old Dara Torres, took the silver behind the Netherlands. Padraig Harrington rallied from three shots behind to win the PGA Championship in Bloomfield Township, Mich. Soul crooner Isaac Hayes died in Memphis, Tenn., at age 65.
Associated Press
