Today is Friday, Aug. 14, the 227th day of 2020. There are 139 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 14, 1997, an unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing. (McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001.)
On this date:
In 1900, international forces, including U.S. Marines, entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreign influence.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, a statement of principles that renounced aggression.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.
In 1948, the Summer Olympics in London ended; they were the first Olympic games held since 1936.
In 1973, U.S. bombing of Cambodia came to a halt.
In 1980, workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk (guh-DANSK’), Poland, in a job action that resulted in creation of the Solidarity labor movement.
In 1992, the White House announced that the Pentagon would begin emergency airlifts of food to Somalia to alleviate mass deaths by starvation.
In 2008, President George W. Bush signed consumer-safety legislation that banned lead from children’s toys, imposing the toughest standard in the world.
In 2009, Charles Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, 60, convicted of trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, was released from a Texas prison hospital after more than three decades behind bars.
Today’s Birthdays: Broadway lyricist Lee Adams (“Bye Bye Birdie”) is 96. College Football Hall of Famer John Brodie is 85. Singer Dash Crofts is 82. Rock singer David Crosby is 79. Country singer Connie Smith is 79. Comedian-actor Steve Martin is 75. Actor Susan Saint James is 74. Author Danielle Steel is 73. “Far Side” cartoonist Gary Larson is 70. Actor Jackee Harry is 64. Actor Marcia Gay Harden is 61. Basketball Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson is 61. Actor Halle Berry is 54.
