Today is Friday, Aug. 21, the 233rd day of 2009. There are 132 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
Fifty years ago, on Aug. 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state as President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order, five months after signing the Hawaiian statehood bill.
ON THIS DATE
In 1609, Galileo Galilei demonstrated his new telescope, capable of magnifying images of objects ninefold, to a group of officials atop the Campanile in Venice.
In 1807, Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat set off from Albany on its return trip to New York, arriving some 30 hours later.
In 1831, Nat Turner led a violent slave rebellion in Virginia resulting in the deaths of at least 55 white people. (He was later executed.)
In 1858, the first of seven debates between Illinois senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took place.
In 1878, the American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y.
Associated Press
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