A Blast from the Past

Today is Aug. 23.

Berlin once again became the capital of Germany for the first time since World War II on this date in 1999 when Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder moved to the city. Bonn had been serving as the capital.

It was on this date in 1939 that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact. Moscow should have known better. Less than two years later, Germany launched an all-out attack on Russia.

Voters in Lebanon elected Beirut Christian leader Beshir Gemayel as their president on this date in 1982. Gemayel would not get the chance to prove himself: he would be assassinated less than one month later (ironically, on the same day that Princess Grace of Monaco would die in a car accident).

Worldwide demonstrations in support of their innocence failed to change the guilty verdict and on this date in 1927, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed for murder.

And it was on this date in 1926 that silent screen idol Rudolph Valentino died, sending his fans into hysterical mourning. He was only 31.

We now return you to the present, already in progress.