August 16th
Today is Thursday, August 16, the 228th day of 2007. There are 137 days left in the year.
Not only was I born.
Highlights in history on this date
1570 - John Sigismund Zapolya of Transylvania signs secret treaty with Holy Roman Empire to achieve independence from Turkey, but renounces control over much of Hungary.
1717 - Army under Savoy’s Prince Eugene defeats Turks at Belgrade, which he occupies.
1777 - American forces win Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vermont.
1812 - Detroit falls to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812.
1827 - Sultan of Turkey rejects note of Russia, France and Britain demanding truce in war with Greece.
1858 - A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to U.S. President James Buchanan is transmitted over the new trans-Atlantic cable.
1896 - British protectorate in Ashanti, West Africa, is proclaimed.
1944 - More than 1,000 U.S. bombers from Britain attack aircraft bases and factories in Germany. Thirty-two German planes are shot down and 23 bombers go missing.
1956 - Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser boycotts first London conference to discuss Suez Canal.
1960 - Britain grants independence to Crown Colony of Cyprus, with Archbishop Makarios as President.
1964 - Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khan takes over presidency of South Vietnam, ousting Maj. Gen. Duong van Minh.
1972 - Morocco’s King Hassan II escapes assassination attempt by Moroccan Air Force jets in a military coup attempt.
1974 - Turkish invaders of Cyprus complete division of island into two areas.
1977 - Elvis Presley, known as the King of rock ‘n’ roll, is found dead at his home in Memphis, Tennessee.
1987 - An American Northwest Airlines flight crashes while trying to take off from a Detroit airport, killing 156 people. Four-year-old Cecelia Cichan is the only survivor.
1989 - Palestinian activists in Gaza Strip call for two-week boycott of jobs in Israel to protest computerized identity cards for day laborers.
1990 - Men hack their way through a train station in Soweto, South Africa with spears and axes, killing at least nine people; Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev restores citizenship of exiled writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
1991 - United Nations and South African government agree on amnesty terms for political exiles, clearing the way for an estimated 40,000 refugees to return to South Africa.
1996 - France takes a tough position on African immigrants, saying those who arrive illegally _ including 10 on the 43rd day of a hunger strike _ will not be allowed to stay.
1999 - Russia’s lower house of parliament approves Vladimir Putin as the country’s new president.
2001 - NATO allows British servicemen and women to head to Macedonia for a mission to collect and destroy rebel arms.
2002 - Monsoon floods in South Asia kill more than 900 people and displace or maroon some 25 million more over the next two months.
2003 - Ugandan military ruler Idi Amin, 78, who presided over an eight-year reign of terror from 1971-1979, where an estimated 300,000 people were killed and tortured to death; dies of multiple organ failure.
2004 - Venezuelans vote to keep President Hugo Chavez in office in a popular referendum, following a long and bitter campaign by his opposition to oust him.
2005 - A chartered jet filled with tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashes in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.
2006 - The Israeli army begins its withdrawal from southern Lebanon, handing over some of their positions to a U.N force.
Today’s Birthdays
Jean de la Bruyere, French essayist-novelist (1645-1696); Menachem Begin, Israeli prime minister (1913-1992); Shimon Peres, Israeli prime minister (1923—); Eydie Gorme, U.S. singer (1932—); Bruce Beresford, Australian film director (1940—); Suzanne Farrell, U.S. ballerina (1945—); Madonna, U.S. pop singer (1958—).
Thought For Today
If you’re strong enough, there are no precedents _ F. Scott Fitzgerald, American author (1896-1940).
thanks to everyone that wished me a happy birthday!
