[Sirius]

On This Day: August 21

Today is Thursday, August 21, 2008. This is the 234th day of the year, with 132 days remaining in 2008.

Fact of the Day: Hawaii

Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. The islands have an area of 6,459 square miles (16,729 square kilometers). The name is thought to derive from Hawaiki, the former name of Raiatea, one of the Society Islands, from which Polynesians sailed in voyaging canoes to settle after AD 1000.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Pius X, pope, St. Abraham of Smolensk, St. Sidonius Apollinaris, Saints Bonosus and Maximian, and Saints Cisellus and Camerinus.

Events

1680 - The Pueblo Indians drove the Spanish out and took possession of Santa Fe, NM.

1831 - Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in Virginia. He was later executed.

1841 - A patent for venetian blinds was issued to John Hampton.

1878 - The American Bar Association was formed by a group of lawyers, judges and law professors in Saratoga, NY.

1888 - The adding machine was patented by William Burroughs.

1901 - The Cadillac Motor Company was formed in Detroit, Michigan, named after the French explorer, Antoine Cadillac.

1911 - Leonardo da Vinci's painting, the "Mona Lisa," was stolen from the Louvre in Paris; it was recovered two years later.

1912 - Arthur R. Eldred became the first American boy to become an Eagle Scout. It is the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.

1923 - In Kalamazoo, Michigan, an ordinance was passed forbidding dancers from gazing into the eyes of their partner.

1929 - The Chicago Cardinals traveled out of town for training camp. They were the first professional football team to do this.

1940 - Exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky died in Mexico City from wounds that had inflicted by an assassin.

1943 - Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.

1945 - U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped about $50 billion in aid to America's Allies during World War II.

1959 - Hawaii became the 50th state. U.S. President Eisenhower also issued the order for the 50 star flag.

1963 - In South Vietnam, martial law was declared. Army troops and police began to crackdown on the Buddhist anti-government protesters.

1971 - Laura Baugh, at the age of 16, won the United States Women's Amateur Golf tournament. She was the youngest winner in the history of the tournament.

1982 - A group of Palestinian guerrillas left Lebanon by ship under an evacuation plan mediated by the United States.

1983 - Philippine politician Benigno Simeon Aquino was assassinated as he deplaned in Manila.

1984 - Victoria Roche, a reserve outfielder, became the first girl to ever compete in a Little League World Series game.

1984 - Clint Eastwood was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1986 - In Cameroon, a nation in West Africa, toxic gas erupted from a volcanic lake. The gas killed more than 1,700 people.

1987 - A U.S. Marine was convicted for spying for the first time. Sergeant Clayton Lonetree was giving secrets to the KGB while working as a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He served eight years in a military prison.

1988 - An earthquake on the Nepal-India border killed over 1,000 people.

1989 - Voyager 2, a U.S. space probe, got close to the Neptune moon called Tritan.

1989 - In Columbia, The estates of drug lords were raided in a crackdown that occurred after the killing of a presidential candidate.

1991 - The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended. The uprising that led to the collapse was led by Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin.

1991 - Latvia declared independence.

1992 - Randall Weaver, a neo-Nazi leader, opened fire on U.S. marshals from his home in Idaho. Weaver surrendered 11 days later ending the standoff. During the standoff a deputy marshal, Weaver's wife and his son were killed.

1992 - NBC News fired Authur Kent two weeks after he refused an assignment to war-torn Croatia.

1993 - NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. The fate of the spacecraft was unknown. The mission cost $980 million.

1994 - Ernesto Zedillo won the Mexican presidential election.

1995 - In Jerusalem, Israel, a bus bombing by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) killed four and wounded more than 100.

1995 - Nine people died in a plane crash in Georgia.

1996 - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was signed by U.S. President Clinton. The act made it easier to obtain and keep health insurance.

1997 - Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it had recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in U.S. history.

1997 - Afghanistan suspended its embassy operations in the United States.

1997 - Cicely Tyson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Samuel Bowers, a 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klan leader, was convicted in Hattiesburg, MS, of ordering a firebombing that killed civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer in 1966.

1998 - Wesley Snipes received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2002 - In Pakistan, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf unilaterally amended the Pakistani constitution. He extended his term in office and granted himself powers that included the right to dissolve parliament.

2003 - In Ghana, businessman Gyude Bryant was selected to oversee the two-year power-sharing accord between Liberia's rebels and the government. The accord was planned to guide the country out of 14 years of civil war.

2006 - Police raided the official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents. Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah guerrillas during a clash in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa.

Births

1904 - (William) Count Basie, American bandleader, composer.

1906 - Fritz Freleng, American movie animator.

1936 - Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball Hall-of-Famer.

Deaths

1983 - Benigno Aquino, Philippine politician, assassinated.