Today is Tuesday, August 13, the 226th day of 2024. There are 140 days left in the year.
Today in History:
On August 13, 1961, on what would become known as Barbed Wire Sunday, East Germany sealed the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years.
Also this date:
In 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (teh-natch-teet-LAHN’), present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs.
In 1792, French revolutionaries arrested and imprisoned King Louis XVI; he was to be executed by guillotine the following January.
In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut, received a patent for the first coin-operated telephone.
In 1918, Opha May Johnson became the first woman to join the US Marine Corps.
In 1952, Big Mama Thornton recorded the song “Hound Dog”, four years before Elvis Presley’s famous version was released.
In 1969, New York City held a ticket-tying parade for Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins.
In 1995, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died in a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer at the age of 63.
In 2011, seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair during a heavy storm just before a concert was to start.
In 2020, in an interview on Fox Business Network, President Donald Trump recognized that he is starving the US Postal Service of money to make it harder to handle an expected increase in mail-in ballots.
Today’s birthdays:
- Former American surgeon Joycelyn Elders is 91 years old.
- US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is 78 years old.
- Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 76 years old.
- High-wire flyer Philippe Petit is 75 years old.
- Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke is 75 years old.
- Golf Hall of Famer Betsy King is 69 years old.
- Film director Paul Greengrass is 69 years old.
- Actor Danny Bonaduce is 65 years old.
- TV weatherman Sam Champion is 63 years old.
- Actor Dawnn Lewis is 63 years old.
- Actor John Slattery is 62 years old.
- The actor Debi Mazar is 60 years old.
- Figure skater Midori Ito is 55.
- Country singer Andy Griggs is 51 years old.
- White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is 50 years old.
- Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is 42 years old.
- Actor Sebastian Stan is 42.
- Actor Lennon Stella is 25 years old.