Today In History

Other Notable Events, August 13

Today is Monday Aug 13,the 225th day of 2007 with 140 to follow.The moon is waning.The morning stars are Mars,Uranus,Mercury & Neptune.

The evening stars are Jupiter,Venus and Saturn.

In 1913,Harry Brearly invented stainless steel.

In 1889, William Gray patented the coin-operated telephone.

In 1930, Capt. Frank Hawkes set an air speed record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 12 hours, 25 minutes.

In 1961, East Germany closed the Brandenburg Gate and prepared to start building the Berlin Wall.

In 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter was nominated for a second term by the Democratic National Convention in New York but lost in November to Ronald Reagan.

In 1990, singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield was left paralyzed when he was hit by a wind-blown lighting rig on an outdoor stage in New York. He died in 1999.

In 1992, a gunman dressed in military fatigues went on a shooting spree in a plant nursery in Watsonville, Calif., killing three and wounding four others before killing himself.

In 1993, Israel agreed for the first time to negotiate with a Palestinian delegation whose members belonged officially to the PLO.

In 1994, North Korea agreed to allow U.N. monitors to inspect a secret nuclear laboratory. In 2002, U.S. President George Bush told an economic forum that he was concerned but optimistic about the future of the U.S. economy.

In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the removal of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from all positions of influence was the key to Middle East peace.

In 2004, Hurricane Charley slammed into Florida's West Coast with winds of up to 145 mph, striking Punta Gorda and offshore islands, causing around 30 deaths and destroying or damaging 16,000 homes. The massive storm earlier hit Jamaica and Cuba, killing seven.

In 2004 sports, the Summer Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece, with a record 202 countries and 10,500 athletes taking part.

In 2005, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States decided not to allow homosexuals into the clergy.

Also in 2005, U.S. troops in Mosul, Iraq, found a suspected chemical-weapons factory containing 1,500 gallons of chemicals.

In 2006, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who spent his 80th birthday in a Havana hospital after surgery for gastro-intestinal bleeding, urged optimism but warned he might not recover. He promised Cubans he would "fight for it."