On This Day in History - August 3rd - Almanac

Today is Friday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2018 with 150 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.

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; singer Tony Bennett in 1926 (age 92); football Hall of Fame member Lance Alworth in 1940 (age 78); actor Martin Sheen in 1940 (age 78); TV personality/lifestyle consultant Martha Stewart in 1941 (age 77); film director John Landis in 1950 (age 68); hockey Hall of Fame member Marcel Dionne in 1951 (age 67); Metallica singer James Hetfield in 1963 (age 55); actor Isaiah Washington in 1963 (age 55); actor Melissa Ponzio in 1972 (age 46); actor Michael Ealy in 1973 (age 45); pro football quarterback Tom Brady in 1977 (age 41); actor Evangeline Lilly in 1979 (age 39); actor Hannah Simone in 1980 (age 38); Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte in 1984 (age 34); model Karlie Kloss in 1992 (age 26).

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 1923, by the dim light of a flickering oil lamp in a little farmhouse at Plymouth, Vt., his birthplace, Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office as president of the United States following the unexpected death President Warren G. Harding.

In 1943, Gen. George Patton slapped Private Charles Kuhl, who was in a military hospital in Sicily. Kuhl was the first of two privates hospitalized for shock that Patton slapped and berated that month, accusing them of cowardice. The general was later forced to apologize.

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 ill for years.

In 2008, People magazine published the first photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's newborn twins, Vivienne and Knox, after paying up to $14 million, the most ever paid for baby pictures.

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.

In 2017, voters re-elected Hassan Rouhani to be president of Iran for a second term.

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