Aug. 21
Today in history
Today is Aug. 21. On this date in:
1831: Believing that God had chosen him to lead his people to freedom, enslaved minister Nat Turner began the deadliest slave revolt in the United States. The rebellion killed 60 people and required a 3,000-man militia to stop it. Afterward, scores of Black people who did not revolt were lynched.
1858: Illinois Senate candidates Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln began the first of seven debates. They focused largely on the extension of slavery into the central and western territories, an issue with importance far beyond Illinois. Douglas called Lincoln a dangerous radical, while Lincoln said slavery was a moral wrong.
1897: On Aug. 10, German chemist Felix Hoffmann first synthesized
aspirin. On this day, he re-synthesize heroin for Bayer, with the two compounds having profound, and profoundly different, effects on society.
1911: A man stole the Mona Lisa by taking it off the wall and tucking it under his clothes. The theft was discovered the next day when an amateur painter set up his easel next to where the painting was supposed to be. The painting was not recovered for two years, and the media sensation made the work famous.
1912: Arthur R. Eldred of Oceanside, New York, became the first person to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest in the organization then known as the Boy Scouts of America. In the same month, he saved two fellow Scouts from drowning. He had to wait until Sept. 2 for the physical badge to be made.
1944: Representatives from the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union began meeting at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, to lay out the principles for an organization to succeed the League of Nations. China joined the second set of conversations in September. They outlined a security council with veto power but did not figure out the specifics of voting or the status of Soviet republics.
1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii as the 50th state. He also ordered a new American flag with 50 stars in staggered rows. Approval among Hawaiians was overwhelming; not as much in the House of Representatives, where the statehood bill passed 323-89.
1970: Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, published a statement supporting the women’s and gay liberation movements as fellow revolutionaries. The move was controversial, with the party’s education minister feeling it would alienate young Black people.
1974: The Equal Educational Opportunities Act was enacted, prohibiting schools from discriminating against students based on race, color, gender or nationality. It restated that segregated schools were illegal and required schools “to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation.”
1980: Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco incorporated People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The organization undertook its first high-profile advocacy effort the following year by exposing the cruel treatment of monkeys in a Maryland research lab.
1983: Philippine opposition leader and presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was assassinated on the tarmac at Manila International Airport just minutes after he returned from exile.
1987: No one puts Baby in a corner! The movie “Dirty Dancing” opened in the United States.
2017: The continental United States experienced a total solar eclipse for the first time in almost 40 years.
– USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in history, August 21
