This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to secure our independence and our liberties
that remain the foundation of our nation today.” Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
August 17-23, 2026
August 17
1859 – The first airmail flight took off from Lafayette, Indiana, in a hot air balloon.
1903 – Journalist and publisher Joseph Pulitzer donated $1 million to Columbia University to begin the Pulitzer Prizes. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917 to Herbert Bayard Swope of the New York World newspaper for his articles entitled “Inside the German Empire” and the biography Julia Ward Howe by Laura E. Richards and Maude Howe Elliott. The New York Tribune received an award for an editorial on the first anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania.
1945 – At the end of World War II North and South Korea were divided along the 38th parallel, also known as the DMZ, or demilitarized zone. The U.S. occupied the area south of the 150-mile-long 38th parallel and the Soviet Union occupied the area north of the parallel.
1960 – The U-2 spy trial of downed American pilot Francis Gary Powers began in Moscow. Powers pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to three years in prison and seven years hard labor. He served 21 months and was exchanged for convicted KGB spy Rudolph Abel in February 1962, who served 4 years of his 45-year sentence. Watch a report including interviews with Powers.
1992 – Actor Woody Allen admits to being romantically involved with 21-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow, who is Allen’s longtime companion. Allen and Previn were married in 1997 and are still married. Allen is now 89 and Previn is 54 years old.
1996 – Ross Perot is announced as the Reform Party’s first-ever presidential candidate. He garnered 19 percent of the popular vote in the November election. Perot died in 2019 at age 89.
1998 – President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an “improper physical relationship” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He admitted before the nation that he “misled people” about his relationship with her. Watch an ABC news report. Pres. Clinton admits “inappropriate relationship”
2017 – The US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) witnesses the first collision of two neutron stars.
August 18
1735 – The Boston Evening Post newspaper began publishing in Boston, Massachusetts. It is among the oldest newspapers published in America. The last issue was published in April of 1775.
1872 – Aaron Montgomery Ward issued the first mail-order catalog from his Chicago-based company. It offered 163 products. In 1875, Ward announced his products come with “satisfaction guaranteed.” All Montgomery Ward stores were closed by 2001, but relaunched as an online business in 2004.
1914 – President Woodrow Wilson issued the “Proclamation of Neutrality.” Wilson declared that the U.S. would remain “impartial in thought as well as in action,” an attempt at keeping the U.S. out of World War I.
1920 – The 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. A women’s suffrage amendment was first introduced in the Senate in 1872 by Aaron Sargent (R-CA).
1956 – Elvis Presley’s double-sided record “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” reached #1 and #2 on the music charts and stay there for over a year.
1997 – Beth Ann Hogan became the first female coed in the Virginia Military Institute’s 158-year history. Hogan dropped out of VMI in January 1998.
2000 – A Federal jury found the EPA guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later inspiring passage of the No FEAR Act. The No FEAR (Federal Antidiscrimination and Retaliation) Act is intended to reduce the incidence of workplace discrimination within the federal government by making agencies and departments more accountable.
2004 – Donald Trump re-released his board game (TRUMP the Game) where players bid on real estate, buy big-ticket items, and make billion-dollar business deals. Watch the original 1989 commercial for the game featuring the future president.
August 19
1791 – Benjamin Banneker, born a free black in Maryland, published his first almanac. He published the Farmer’s Almanac from 1792 to 1797. He was a self-taught astronomer and mathematician.
1812 – The U.S. warship Constitution defeated the British warship Guerriere 400 miles southeast of the British base at Halifax, earning the nickname “Old Ironsides.”
1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby was held in Dayton, Ohio. The following year the race was moved to Akron because of the central location and hilly terrain. The Derby has run continuously except during World War II. Watch a short film about the first derby.
1940 – The new Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license #1 to 68-year-old Orville Wright.
1984 – Ronald Reagan was nominated for president for a second term at the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas. He was re-elected in November, winning 49 of the 50 states (all but Walter Mondale’s home state of Minnesota), and the most electoral votes in history (525).
2004 – Google Inc. stock began selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The initial price is set at $85 and ends the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares traded. Google reorganized in 2015 to become Alphabet.
2011 – The West Memphis Three were released from prison after 18 years when they negotiated Alford plea deals. The Alford plea allows a defendant to admit the prosecution has enough evidence for a conviction without admitting guilt. In 2007, DNA evidence and jury misconduct accusations led to a retrial. Then teenagers Damien Echols (now 51), Jessie Misskelley, Jr. (now 51), and Jason Baldwin (now 40) were convicted in 1993 of murdering three 2nd grade students. No one else was ever arrested for the crime.
August 20
1619 – The first black slaves were brought by the Dutch to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia.
1920 – The American Professional Football Association (APFC) formed when Jim Thorpe and six others meet in Canton, Ohio, to organize a professional football league. Thorpe served as its first president. Canton is the location of the Football Hall of Fame.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act, a $1 billion anti-poverty measure.
1977 – NASA launched Voyager 2 toward the outer planets. It explored Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. After nearly 60 years, Voyager 1 and 2 are still in contact with the Deep Space Network. Voyager 2 is 13 billion miles from Earth, while Voyager 1 is 16 billion miles from Earth.
1998 – The U.S. military launched cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7th bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The attack instead destroyed the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum. The attack occurred during the President Clinton hearings on the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
2000 – Tiger Woods became the first and only golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three major golf tournaments in a calendar year after winning the PGA Championship. He also won the U.S. Open and British Open.
August 21
1831 – The Nat Turner slave revolt killed 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia. Nat Turner and 55 of his conspirators are captured and executed. Over the next few weeks, white militias and mobs in the area murdered about 120 slaves, most of whom were not involved in the revolt. Watch a short History.com video.
1947 – The first Little League World Series was held. The Maynard Midgets of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, defeated a team from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. The tournament was for baseball players age 11 to 13.
1959 – Hawaii became the 50th (and last) U.S. state. In 1778, Captain James Cook was the first European to discover the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii was annexed in 1897 during the McKinley administration.
1993 – NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer, just three days away from Mars. Attempts to re-establish communication with the spacecraft, which was launched on September 25, 1992, were unsuccessful.
1997 – Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in U.S. history to date. In 2008, Westland/Hallmark recalled 143 million pounds of processed frozen beef.
2018 – Paul Manafort was convicted in eight counts of bank and tax fraud in federal court as part of Robert Meuller’s special investigation. Manafort served only a few months of his 7 1/2-year sentence, being released to home confinement in May 2020 due to the Coronavirus.
August 22
1762 – Ann Franklin was the first female U.S. newspaper editor. She inherited the newspaper “Mercury” from her husband James Franklin, brother of Ben Franklin.
1906 – The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey, began to manufacture the Victrola. The hand-cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sold for $200.
1921 – J. Edgar Hoover became the assistant director of the FBI. He became the director in 1924 and led the FBI for 48 years until his death in 1972 at age 77.
1956 – Elvis Presley began filming his first movie, “Love Me Tender,” which was released in November. Watch Elvis sing the title song in the movie.
1962 – Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered ship, completed her maiden voyage from Yorktown, Virginia, to Savannah, Georgia. She was decommissioned in 1972 and in 1999 the Savannah was moved to the James River Merchant Marine Reserve Fleet near Newport News, Virginia.
1989 – Nolan Ryan became the first major league pitcher to strike out 5,000 batters. He finished his 27-year career (longest in baseball history) with 5,714 strikeouts. Ryan, now age 79, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. Watch Ryan make Rickey Henderson swing at the air.
1992 – An FBI sniper shot and killed Vicki Weaver, wife of white separatist Randy Weaver, during an 11-day siege at their home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. She was holding her infant daughter, who was unharmed. Fourteen-year-old Sammy Weaver and a U.S. Marshall were shot to death the day before. President Clinton fired his FBI director on July 19, 1993, one day before Vince Foster “committed suicide.”
2018 – Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index reported the longest ever bull market at 3,453 days (about 9 years).
August 23
1850 – The first U/S. National Women’s Rights Convention convened in Worchester. Massachusetts. It would be 70 years before women won the right to vote through the 19th Amendment.
1923 – Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling. Their flight in a De Havilland DH-4B set an endurance flight record of 37 hours.
1947 – President Truman’s daughter Margaret made her first public singing concert. A poor review after her third performance in 1950 caused the president to write a threatening letter to the Washington Post’s music critic. Listen to a 1950 audio recording of Margaret and judge for yourself.
1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photographs of Earth while orbiting the Moon.
1996 – Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda issued “A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.” In 2011, bin Laden was killed by Navy SEAL Team 6.
2004 – The U.S. swept the 400 meters medals and won gold in softball in the Athens Olympics. The U.S. ranked first in the medal count with 101 medals.
Image from: www.indystar.com
