Today is Thursday, Aug. 13, the 226th day of 2020. There are 140 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 13, 1961, East Germany sealed off the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years.
On this date:
In 1521, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan, present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs.
In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Conn., received a patent for a coin-operated telephone.
In 1910, Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90.
In 1913, British metallurgist Harry Brearley developed an alloy that came to be known as “stainless steel.” (Although Brearley is often credited as the “inventor” of stainless steel, he was hardly alone in working to create steel that resisted corrosion.)
In 1932, Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out “for all or nothing.”
In 1967, the crime caper biopic “Bonnie and Clyde,” starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, had its U.S. premiere.
In 1995, baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer; he was 63.
In 2003, Iraq began pumping crude oil from its northern oil fields for the first time since the start of the war. Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.
In 2017, in a statement, the White House said President Donald Trump “very strongly” condemned individual hate groups such as “white supremacists, KKK and neo-Nazis;” the statement followed criticism of Trump for blaming the previous day’s deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on “many sides.” Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the country, saying they felt compelled to respond to the white supremacist rally in Virginia.
Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 87. Actor Kevin Tighe is 76. Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is 74. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke is 71. Golf Hall of Famer Betsy King is 65. Movie director Paul Greengrass is 65. Actor Danny Bonaduce is 61. Actor John Slattery is 58. Actor Debi Mazar is 56. Actor Quinn Cummings is 53. Actor Seana Kofoed is 50. Country singer Andy Griggs is 47.Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is 38.
