Monday, August 03rd
The 215th day of 2009.
There are 150 days left in the year.
Go to a previous date.
Go to lesson
Today's Highlights in History
On Aug. 3, 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. (Go to article.)
On Aug. 3, 1900, Ernie Pyle, the famous World War II American war correspondent, was born. Following his death on April 18, 1945, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On August 3, 1878, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about famed agnostic Robert Ingersoll. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1492 Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that would take him to the present-day Americas.
1778 The opera house La Scala opened in Milan, Italy, with a performance of Antonio Salieri's "Europa riconosciuta."
1852 America's first intercollegiate athletic event was held as Yale and Harvard met for a crew race on Lake Winnipesaukee in Center Harbor, N.H.
1914 Germany declared war on France.
1914 At the outbreak of World War I, British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey remarked: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
1923 Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, one day after President Warren G. Harding died of a heart attack.
1943 Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.
1948 Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist underground, a charge Hiss denied.
1949 The National Basketball Association was formed.
1981 U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan that they would be fired.
1987 The Iran-Contra congressional hearings ended with none of the 29 witnesses tying President Ronald Reagan directly to the diversion of arms-sales profits to Nicaraguan rebels.
1993 The Senate voted 96-3 to confirm Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court.
1994 Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice.
2003 Golfer Annika Sorenstam completed a career Grand Slam by winning the Women's British Open.
2004 The Statue of Liberty pedestal in New York City reopened to the public for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
2007 A jury at Camp Pendleton, Calif., sentenced Marine Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III to 15 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi civilian during a fruitless search for an insurgent.
2008 Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn died at age 89.
Current Birthdays
James Hetfield turns 46 years old today.
AP Photo/Jack Plunkett Rock musician James Hetfield (Metallica) turns 46 years old today.
89 P.D. James
Author
88 Richard Adler
Film composer
85 Gordon Stoker
Singer (The Jordanaires)
84 Marv Levy
Hall of Fame football coach
83 Tony Bennett
Singer
72 Roland Burris
U.S. senator, D-Ill.
69 Martin Sheen
Actor ("The West Wing")
68 Beverly Lee
Singer (The Shirelles)
68 Martha Stewart
Lifestyle guru
60 B.B. Dickerson
Rock musician (War)
59 John Landis
Director
59 JoMarie Payton
Actress ("Family Matters")
58 Marcel Dionne
Hockey Hall of Famer
58 Jay North
Actor ("Dennis the Menace")
56 Randy Scruggs
Country musician
50 John C. McGinley
Actor ("Scrubs")
48 Lee Rocker
Rock musician (The Stray Cats)
46 Ed Roland
Rock singer, musician (Collective Soul)
46 Isaiah Washington
Actor
43 Dean Sams
Country musician (Lonestar)
39 Stephen Carpenter
Rock musician
38 Spinderella
Hip-hop artist (Salt-N-Pepa)
37 Brigid Brannagh
Actress
33 Jimmy De Martini
Country musician (Zac Brown Band)
33 Troy Glaus
Baseball player
32 Tom Brady
Football player
30 Evangeline Lilly
Actress ("Lost")
25 Whitney Duncan
Country singer ("Nashville Star")
25 Jon Foster
Actor
24 Holly Arnstein
Singer (Dream)
24 Brent Kutzle
Rock musician (OneRepublic)
Historic Birthdays
Ernie Pyle
8/3/1900 - 4/18/1945
American journalist and World War II correspondent
(Go to obit.)
63 Sir Joseph Paxton
8/3/1801 - 6/8/1865
English landscape gardener and hothouse designer
85 Hamilton Fish
8/3/1808 - 9/6/1893
American secretary of state (1869-77)
49 Elisha Graves Otis
8/3/1811 - 4/8/1861
American inventor
40 Henry Cuyler Bunner
8/3/1855 - 5/11/1896
English poet
80 Stanley Baldwin
8/3/1867 - 12/14/1947
British Conservative; three times prime minister (1923-1937)
27 Rupert Brooke
8/3/1887 - 4/23/1915
English poet, novelist and editor
89 Maggie Kuhn
8/3/1905 - 4/22/1995
American activist; formed the Gray Panthers
87 Alexandre Trauner
8/3/1906 - 12/5/1993
Hungarian-born French art film director
88 Ernesto Geisel
8/3/1908 - 9/12/1996
Brazilian army general and vice-president (1974- 1979)
Go to a previous date.
SOURCE: The Associated Press
Front Page Image Provided by UMI