Today in History: August 19, “Old Ironsides” wins a battle

Today in History Today is Friday, Aug. 19, the 231st day of 2022. There are 134 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Aug. 19, 1960, a tribunal in Moscow convicted American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage. (Although sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, Powers was returned to the United States in 1962 as part of a prisoner exchange.) On this date: In A.D. 14, Caesar Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, died at age 76 after a reign lasting four decades; he was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius. In 1807, Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat arrived in Albany, two days after leaving New York. In 1812, the USS Constitution defeated the British frigate HMS Guerriere off Nova Scotia during the War of 1812, earning the nickname ‘œOld Ironsides.’� In 1814, during the War of 1812, British forces landed at Benedict, Maryland, with the objective of capturing Washington D.C. In 1848, the New York Herald reported the discovery of gold in California. In 1934, a plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler. In 1942, during World War II, about 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering more than 50-percent casualties. In 1955, torrential rains caused by Hurricane Diane resulted in severe flooding in the northeastern U.S., claiming some 200 lives. In 1980, 301 people aboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 died as the jetliner made a fiery emergency return to the Riyadh airport. In 1987, a gun collector ran through Hungerford, England, 60 miles west of London, killing 16 people, including his mother, before turning his gun on himself. In 2010, the last American combat brigade exited Iraq, seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion began. In 2020, Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president in a speech to the party’s virtual convention, cementing her place in history as the first Black woman on a major party ticket. Apple became the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion, just two years after becoming the first U.S. company with a $1 trillion market value. Ten years ago: Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, the conservative Republican U.S. Senate candidate, said in an interview on KTVI-TV in St. Louis that it was ‘œreally rare’� for women to become pregnant when they were raped. (Akin afterwards backed off his on-air comments, saying that he’d misspoken; Akin lost the November election to Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill.) Tony Scott, 68, director of such Hollywood hits as ‘œTop Gun,’� and ‘œDays of Thunder,’� died in Los Angeles after jumping from a suspension bridge. Five years ago: Thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-Nazi slogans and denouncing white nationalism upstaged a small group of conservatives in Boston who had gathered for a ‘œfree speech rally.’� In Dallas, police on horseback broke up a scuffle at a cemetery between people rallying against white supremacy and supporters of Confederate monuments. Duke University removed a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee after it was vandalized. Comedian and activist Dick Gregory, who broke racial barriers in the 1960s and later spread messages of social justice and nutritional health, died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 84.