On This Day in History - August 3rd - Almanac

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 3, the 216th day of 2016 with 150 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars are Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include Elisha Graves Otis, inventor of the modern elevator, in 1811; World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle in 1900; "Monkey Trial" defendant John Scopes in 1900; orchestra leader Ray Bloch in 1902; Mexican actor Dolores del Rio in 1905; band leader Les Elgart in 1917; author P. D. James in 1920; author Leon Uris in 1924; football Hall of Fame Coach Marv Levy in 1925 (age 91); singer Tony Bennett in 1926 (age 90); football Hall of Fame member Lance Alworth in 1940 (age 76); TV personality/lifestyle consultant Martha Stewart in 1941 (age 75); actor Martin Sheen in 1940 (age 76); actor Jay North in 1951 (age 65); film director John Landis in 1950 (age 66); hockey Hall of Fame member Marcel Dionne in 1951 (age 65); pro football quarterback Tom Brady in 1977 (age 39); actor Evangeline Lilly in 1979 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain, seeking a western route to India, with a convoy of three small ships -- the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria -- and fewer than 100 crew. They reached land at Guanahani, an island in the Caribbean, on Oct. 12.

In 1914, Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium. The following day, Britain declared war on Germany and World War I was underway.

In 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus crossed under the North Pole.

In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike. The strikers were fired within one week.

In 1990, the prime ministers of East and West Germany agreed to move up unification to early fall and rescheduled all-German elections for Oct. 14.

In 2004, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor was opened to the public for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

In 2005, in the first emergency repair conducted in space, astronauts fixed a potentially dangerous problem by removing two strips of protruding cloth from the underside of the space shuttle Discovery.

In 2007, the U.S. Congress passed a bill allowing the National Security Agency to monitor email and telephone communications between the United States and foreign countries without a court warrant if terrorism was believed to be involved.

In 2008, once-exiled Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose works revealed the harshness of the Soviet penal system, died at the age of 89. The Nobel Prize-winning author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich had been reported ill for years.

In 2010, a Manchester, Conn., beer and wine distributorship driver who was allegedly caught stealing beer, went on a shooting rampage after a disciplinary hearing at the company, killing eight people and himself.

In 2013, incumbent Robert Mugabe, 89, was declared winner of Zimbabwe's presidential election. Opponents alleged the vote that gave Mugabe a seventh term was rigged.

In 2014, an earthquake in southern China's Yunnan province killed nearly 400 people, injured 1,800 and destroyed thousands of homes..

A thought for the day: "Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing." -- Tony Blair