August 5
1861 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861, which levied the first income tax on Americans (a flat tax of 3% on those making over $800/year) to help fund the Union’s Civil War effort.
1864 - During the Civil War, Union Adm. David G. Farragut led his fleet to victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay, Alabama.
1884 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
1914 - The nation's first electric traffic lights went into operation in Cleveland, Ohio.
1953 - Operation Big Switch began as remaining prisoners taken during the Korean War were exchanged at Panmunjom.
1957 - The music and dance show “American Bandstand,” hosted by Dick Clark, made its national network debut, beginning a 30-year run on ABC-TV.
1962 - Actress Marilyn Monroe, age 36, was found dead in her Los Angeles home; her death was ruled a probably suicide from acute barbiturate poisoning.
1962 - South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was arrested on charges of leaving the country without a passport and inciting workers to strike; it was the beginning of 27 years of imprisonment.
1963 - The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed the limited Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and underwater.
1964 - U.S. Navy pilot Everett Alvarez Jr. became the first American flier to be shot down and captured by North Vietnam; he was held prisoner until February 1973.
1969 - The U.S. space probe Marine 7 transmitted the first pictures of Mars back to Earth.
1974 - The White House released transcripts of subpoenaed tape recordings showing that President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, had discussed a plan in June 1972 to use the CIA to thwart the FBI’s Watergate investigation; revelation of the tape sparked Nixon’s resignation.
2002 - The gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised from the ocean floor.
2003 - The Rev. Gene Robinson was approved as the first openly gay bishop by the U.S. Episcopal Church.
2010 - Thirty-three workers were trapped in a copper mine in northern Chile after a tunnel caved in (all were rescued after being entombed for 69 days).
2011 - The sun-powered robotic explorer Juno rocketed toward Jupiter on a five-year quest to discover the secret recipe for making planets. (Juno reached Jupiter on July 4, 2016.)
2012 - The plutonium-powered rover Curiosity successfully landed on Mars, searching for evidence that conditions on the planet are fit for life.
Birthdays
22 - Bailey Spinn (singer)
23 - Josie Totah (actress)
26 - Mimi Keene (actress)
27 - Olivia Holt (actress/singer)
33 - Meegan Warner (actress)
38 - Brendon Ryan Barrett (actor)
44 - Jesse Williams (actor)
58 - Jonathan Silverman (actor)
58 - James Gunn (director)
61 - Mark Strong (actor)
62 - Patrick Ewing (basketball player/coach)
63 - Janet McTeer (actress)
68 - Maureen McCormick (actress)
73 - Samantha Sang (singer)
74 - Holly Palance (actress)
77 - Rick Derringer (singer)
78 - Erika Slezak (actress)
79 - Loni Anderson (actress)
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Today in Sports History - August 5
1921 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a baseball game was done by Harold Arlin. KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA described the action between the Pirates and Philadelphia.
1936 - Jesse Owens of the United States won the 200-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics, collecting the third of his four gold medals.
1960 - For the first time two major league baseball clubs traded managers. Detroit traded Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland's Joe Gordon.
1967 - In the first AFL vs. NFL game after the two leagues merged, the AFL's Denver Broncos defeated the NFL's Detroit Lions 13-7 in an exhibition game.
1979 - Willie Mays, Warren Giles, and Hack Wilson are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1984 - Toronto’s Cliff Johnson set a major league baseball record by hitting the 19th pinch-hit home run in his career.
1986 - Steve Carlton becomes the second pitcher in MLB history to record 4,000 strikeouts.
1999 - Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals becomes the 16th player in MLB history to hit 500 career home run and set a record for reaching the milestone in the fewest at-bats.
2001 - Cleveland Indians tie a MLB record in erasing a 12 run Seattle lead to win 15-14, also preventing the Mariners from reaching a record 117 season wins.
2005 - The NBA announces that Las Vegas will host the 2007 All-Star Game, the first time the event will be held in a city that is not home to an NBA franchise.
2005 - Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals becomes the first player in MLB history to hit 30 home runs in each of his first five seasons.
2006 - Warren Moon becomes the first black quarterback inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; he is joined in the class by Troy Aikman, John Madden, Rayfield Wright, Harry Carson and Reggie White.
2007 - Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine becomes the 23rd pitcher in MLB history with 300 career wins.
2012 - Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt wins the 100 meters at the London Olympic Games, breaking his own world record with a time of 9.63 seconds.
2013 - It was announced that 13 players had accepted 50-game suspensions for violation of MLB drug policies.
2013 - Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig issued a 211-game supsension to Alex Rodriguez (New York Yankees) for possession of banned performance-enhancing drugs. The number of games was reduced to 162 by an arbitrator in January 2014.
2016 - The Summer Olympic Games open in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
