Today is Thursday, Aug. 13, the 226th day of 2020. There are 140 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On August 13, 1961, East Germany sealed off the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years.
On this date:
In 1521, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (teh-natch-teet-LAHN’), present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs.
In 1704, the Battle of Blenheim was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English-led forces over French and Bavarian soldiers.
In 1846, the American flag was raised in Los Angeles for the first time.
In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Conn., received a patent for a coin-operated telephone.
In 1910, Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, died in London at age 90.
In 1913, British metallurgist Harry Brearley developed an alloy that came to be known as “stainless steel.” (Although Brearley is often credited as the “inventor” of stainless steel, he was hardly alone in working to create steel that resisted corrosion.)
In 1932, Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out “for all or nothing.”
In 1967, the crime caper biopic “Bonnie and Clyde,” starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, had its U.S. premiere; the movie, directed by Arthur Penn, was considered shocking as well as innovative for its graphic portrayal of violence.
In 1989, searchers in Ethiopia found the wreckage of a plane that had disappeared almost a week earlier while carrying Rep. Mickey Leland, D-Texas, and 14 other people — there were no survivors.
In 1995, baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer; he was 63.
In 2003, Iraq began pumping crude oil from its northern oil fields for the first time since the start of the war. Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.
In 2017, in a statement, the White House said President Donald Trump “very strongly” condemned individual hate groups such as “white supremacists, KKK and neo-Nazis;” the statement followed criticism of Trump for blaming the previous day’s deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on “many sides.” Protesters decrying hatred and racism converged around the country, saying they felt compelled to respond to the white supremacist rally in Virginia.
