Today in History

Today is Monday, Aug. 3, the 216th day of 2020. There are 150 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On August 3, 1993, the Senate voted 96-to-three to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

On this date:

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr went on trial before a federal court in Richmond, Virginia, charged with treason. (He was acquitted less than a month later.)

In 1811, Elisha Otis, founder of the elevator company that still bears his name, was born in Halifax, Vt.

In 1863, the first thoroughbred horse races took place at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.

In 1921, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to reinstate the former Chicago White Sox players implicated in the "Black Sox" scandal, despite their acquittals in a jury trial.

In 1936, Jesse Owens of the United States won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100-meter sprint.

In 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

In 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.

In 1972, the U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. (The U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in 2002.)

In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were.

In 1994, Arkansas carried out the nation's first triple execution in 32 years. Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as the Supreme Court's newest justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's Vermont summer home.

In 2014, Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip in an apparent winding down of a nearly monthlong operation against Hamas that had left more than 1,800 Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis dead.

In 2018, Las Vegas police said they were closing their investigation into the Oct. 1 shooting that left 58 people dead at a country music festival without a definitive answer for why Stephen Paddock unleashed gunfire from a hotel suite onto the concert crowd.

Ten years ago: Engineers began pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well in an attempt to permanently plug the leak. A warehouse driver killed eight co-workers and himself in a shooting rampage at a Manchester, Connecticut, beer distributorship.

Five years ago: Seeking to clamp down on power plant emissions, President Barack Obama unveiled a federal plan that would attempt to slow global warming by dramatically shifting the way Americans get and use electricity; opponents denounced the proposal as an egregious federal overreach that would send power prices surging, and vowed lawsuits and legislation to try to stop it.

One year ago: A gunman opened fire at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, leaving 22 people dead; prosecutors said Patrick Crusius targeted Mexicans in hopes of scaring Latinos into leaving the U.S., and that he had outlined the plot in a screed published online shortly before the attack. (Crusius has pleaded not guilty to state murder charges; he also faces federal hate crime and gun charges.)

Today's Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy is 95. Singer Tony Bennett is 94. Actor Martin Sheen is 80. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Lance Alworth is 80. Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is 79. Singer Beverly Lee (The Shirelles) is 79. Rock musician B.B. Dickerson is 71. Movie director John Landis is 70. Actor JoMarie Payton is 70. Actor Jay North (TV: "Dennis the Menace") is 69. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Marcel Dionne is 69. Actor Philip Casnoff is 66. Actor John C. McGinley is 61. Rock singer-musician Lee Rocker (The Stray Cats) is 59. Actor Lisa Ann Walter is 59. Rock singer James Hetfield (Metallica) is 57. Rock singer-musician Ed Roland (Collective Soul) is 57. Actor Isaiah Washington is 57. Country musician Dean Sams (Lonestar) is 54. Rock musician Stephen Carpenter (Deftones) is 50. Hip-hop artist Spinderella (Salt-N-Pepa) is 49. Actor Brigid Brannagh is 48. Actor Michael Ealy is 47. Country musician Jimmy De Martini (Zac Brown Band) is 44. NFL quarterback Tom Brady is 43. Actor Evangeline Lilly is 41. Actor Mamie Gummer is 37. Olympic gold medal swimmer Ryan Lochte is 36. Country singer Whitney Duncan is 36. Actor Jon Foster is 36. Actor Georgina Haig is 35. Singer Holly Arnstein (Dream) is 35. Actor Tanya Fischer is 35. Pop-rock musician Brent Kutzle (OneRepublic) is 35. Rapper D.R.A.M. is 32.