Saturday, August 22nd
The 234th day of 2009.
There are 131 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
On August 22, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States chief executive to ride in an automobile in public... (Go to article.)
On Aug. 22, 1904, Deng Xiaoping, the powerful leader of the People's Republic of China from the late 1970's until his death in 1997, was born. Following his death on Feb. 19, 1997, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On August 22, 1874, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about publisher James Gordon Bennett Jr. and the appointment of the first Roman Catholic cardinal in America. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1485 England's King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the War of the Roses.
1846 The United States annexed New Mexico.
1851 The schooner America outraced the Aurora off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the America's Cup.
1893 Author, poet, critic and wit Dorothy Parker was born in West Bend, N.J.
1904 Chinese communist leader Deng Xiaoping was born in Sichuan province.
1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon were nominated for second terms by the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
1968 Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin America.
1986 Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.
1989 Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, Calif.
1996 President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.
2003 Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore, was suspended for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse.
2005 The last Jewish settlers left the Gaza Strip, ending decades of Israel's turbulent occupation.
2008 The U.S. carried out airstrikes in western Herat province in Afghanistan; according to a later U.S. estimate, the raid resulted in the deaths of 33 civilians and 22 militants. (The Afghan government and U.N. investigators said that 90 civilians had died.)
Current Birthdays
Steve Kroft turns 64 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini Broadcast journalist Steve Kroft ("60 Minutes") turns 64 years old today.
89 Ray Bradbury
Author
89 Denton Cooley
Heart surgeon
75 H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Retired general
74 Morton Dean
Broadcast journalist
74 Annie Proulx
Author
73 Dale Hawkins
Rockabilly singer
70 Carl Yastrzemski
Baseball Hall of Famer
69 Valerie Harper
Actress ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Rhoda")
68 Bill Parcells
Football executive
62 Cindy Williams
Actress ("Laverne and Shirley")
53 Paul Molitor
Baseball Hall of Famer
52 Holly Dunn
Country singer
51 Vernon Reid
Rock musician (Living Colour)
50 Ricky Lynn Gregg
Country singer
49 Collin Raye
Country singer
49 Regina Taylor
Actress ("The Unit")
48 Roland Orzabal
Rock singer (Tears For Fears)
48 Debbi Peterson
Rock musician (The Bangles)
47 Gary Lee Conner
Rock musician (Screaming Trees)
46 Tori Amos
Rock singer
46 James DeBarge
R&B musician
46 Mila Mason
Country singer
45 Mats Wilander
Tennis Hall of Famer
43 GZA/The Genius
Rapper (Wu-Tang Clan)
42 Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Actor ("Lost," "Oz")
38 Rick Yune
Actor
37 Paul Doucette
Rock musician (Matchbox Twenty)
36 Beenie Man
Rapper, reggae singer
36 Howie Dorough
Singer (Backstreet Boys)
35 Jenna Leigh Green
Actress
36 Kristen Wiig
Comedian, actress ("Saturday Night Live")
34 Dean Back
Rock musician (Theory of a Deadman)
31 Jeff Stinco
Rock musician (Simple Plan)
29 Aya Sumika
Actress ("Numb3rs")
Historic Birthdays
Deng Xiaoping
8/22/1904 - 2/19/1997
Chinese communist leader
(Go to obit.)
? Denis Papin
8/22/1647 - //c1712
French-born English physicist; invented the pressure cooker
71 Samuel Pierpont Langley
8/22/1834 - 2/27/1906
American astronomer, physicist and aeronautics pioneer
69 Mary Elizabeth Wood
8/22/1861 - 5/1/1931
American librarian and missionary
55 Claude Debussy
8/22/1862 - 3/25/1918
French composer
89 Willis Whitney
8/22/1868 - 1/9/1958
American chemist; founded General Electric research laboratory
73 Dorothy Parker
8/22/1893 - 6/7/1967
American short story writer and poet
85 Elizabeth Bergner
8/22/1900 - 5/12/1986
Austrian motion-picture and stage actress
73 Arthur M. Sackler
8/22/1913 - 5/26/1987
American physician, publisher and art collector
64 James Kirkwood
8/22/1924 - 4/21/1989
American librettist, actor and playwright
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SOURCE: The Associated Press
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