Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Aug. 16. This is the day "The King" died. On this date in 1977, paramedics found the body of Elvis Presley on the floor of an upstairs bathroom at his Graceland mansion in Memphis. Attempts to revive him at the hospital failed and Presley was declared dead at age 42. The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but the musician had been abusing prescription drugs for years and that likely contributed to his untimely demise. Presley was re-interred on the grounds of Graceland after vandals tried to steal his casket from a local cemetery. Thousands of fans flock to Graceland every year to mark the anniversary of his death. To them, Elvis has not left the building. Advertisement Baseball great Babe Ruth also passed away on this date, succumbing in 1948 to cancer at the age of 53. The legendary slugger's body lay in state at the entrance of Yankee Stadium, where people waited for hours to pay their final respects. Ruth's funeral mass was held Aug. 19 at St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was on this date in 1896 that the North Country gold rush began with the discovery of gold -- in Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River -- in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory. Advertisement And British forces foiled plans for an American invasion of Canada by capturing the city of Detroit in the Michigan territory on this date in 1812. This happened during the War of 1812. We now return you to the present, already in progress.
