Today In History

Today is Friday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2013.  There are 137 days left in the year. 

Today’s highlight:

On Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tenn., at age 42. 

On this date:

In 1777, American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington. 

In 1812, Detroit fell to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812. 

In 1858, a telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. 

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 86, which prohibited the states of the Union from engaging in commercial trade with states in rebellion — i.e., the Confederacy. 

In 1913, future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin was born in Brest in present-day Belarus. 

In 1937, the American Federation of Radio Artists was chartered. 

In 1948, baseball legend Babe Ruth died in New York at age 53. 

In 1954, Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc.

In 1956, Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic national convention in Chicago. 

In 1962, The Beatles fired their original drummer, Pete Best, replacing him with Ringo Starr. 

In 1987, 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from Detroit; the sole survivor was 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan.  People worldwide began a two-day celebration of the “harmonic convergence,” which heralded what believers called the start of a new, purer age of humankind. 

In 1993, New York police rescued business executive Harvey Weinstein from a covered 14-foot-deep pit, where he’d been held nearly two weeks for ransom.  Actor Stewart Granger died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 80. 

Ten years ago: The Midwest and Northeast were almost fully recovered from the worst power outage in U.S. history.  A car driven by U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow ran a stop sign on a rural road in South Dakota and collided with motorcyclist Randy Scott, who died.  Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda, died in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia; he was believed to have been about 80. 

Five years ago: At the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps touched the wall a hundredth of a second ahead of Serbia’s Milorad Cavic to win the 100-meter butterfly, giving Phelps his seventh gold medal of the Games, tying Mark Spitz’s performance in the 1972 Munich Games.  Usain Bolt of Jamaica ran the 100-meter dash in a stunning world-record time of 9.69 seconds.  Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi were married at their Beverly Hills home. 

One year ago: Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney declared he had paid at least 13 percent of his income in federal taxes every year for the previous decade; President Barack Obama’s campaign shot back in doubt: “Prove it.”  A U.S. military helicopter crashed during a firefight with insurgents in southern Afghanistan, killing seven Americans and four Afghans.  Ecuador decided to identify WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a refugee and give him asylum in its London embassy.  Character actor William Windom, 88, died in Woodacre, Calif.