Today in History

Today in History

Today is Saturday, Aug. 13, the 226th day of 2016. There are 140 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Aug. 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 1624, King Louis XIII of France appointed Cardinal Richelieu his first minister.

In 1792, French revolutionaries imprisoned the royal family.

In 1846, the American flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles.

In 1910, Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90.

In 1923, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was again elected Speaker of Turkey's Grand Assembly.

In 1934, the satirical comic strip "Li'l Abner," created by Al Capp, made its debut.

In 1946, author H.G. Wells, 79, died in London.

In 1960, the first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1. The Central African Republic became totally independent of French rule.

In 1979, Lou Brock of the St. Louis Cardinals became the 14th player in major league baseball history to reach the 3,000th career hit plateau as his team defeated the Chicago Cubs, 3-2.

In 1981, in a ceremony at his California ranch, President Ronald Reagan signed a historic package of tax and budget reductions.

In 1989, searchers in Ethiopia found the wreckage of a plane which had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 14 other people -- there were no survivors.

In 1995, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer; he was 63.

Ten years ago: Israel's Cabinet became the final party to sign on to a U.N. cease-fire deal with Hezbollah. Fidel Castro sent Cubans a sober greeting on his 80th birthday, saying he faced a long recovery from surgery.

Five years ago: Seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair during a powerful storm just before a concert was to begin. In the Republican presidential race, Rep. Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll; Texas Gov. Rick Perry officially declared his candidacy. In eastern Pakistan, al-Qaida gunmen kidnapped an American development expert, Warren Weinstein. (Weinstein was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Jan. 2015.)

One year ago: In one of the deadliest single attacks in postwar Baghdad, a truck bomb shattered a popular fruit-and-vegetable market in a teeming Shiite neighborhood, killing dozens of people. The New York Times reported that DNA testing had proved that President Warren G. Harding fathered a child with long-rumored mistress Nan Britton, according to AncestryDNA, a division of Ancestry.com.

Today's Birthdays: Former Cuban President Fidel Castro is 90. Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 83. Actor Kevin Tighe is 72. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is 70. Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 68. High wire aerialist Philippe Petit is 67. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke is 67. Golf Hall of Famer Betsy King is 61. Movie director Paul Greengrass is 61. Actor Danny Bonaduce is 57. TV weatherman Sam Champion is 55. Actress Dawnn Lewis is 55. Actor John Slattery is 54. Actress Debi Mazar is 52. Actress Quinn Cummings is 49. Actress Seana Kofoed is 46. Country singer Andy Griggs is 43. Actor Gregory Fitoussi is 40. Country musician Mike Melancon (Emerson Drive) is 38. Actress Kathryn Fiore is 37. Actor Sebastian Stan is 34. Pop-rock singer James Morrison is 32. Actress Lennon Stella is 17.

Thought for Today: "Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe... Yet, clumsily or smoothly, the world, it seems, progresses and will progress." -- H.G. Wells (1866-1946).