This day in history

[August 03, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Monday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2009. There are 150 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 3, 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

On this date:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr went on trial before a federal court in Richmond, Va., charged with treason. (He was acquitted less than a month later.)

In 1914, Germany declared war on France at the onset of World War I.

In 1923, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, following the death of Warren G. Harding.

In 1943, Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton was later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode.)

In 1948, former Communist Whittaker Chambers, testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist cell, a charge Hiss denied.

In 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater.

In 1980, closing ceremonies were held in Moscow for the Summer Olympic Games, which had been boycotted by dozens of countries, including the United States.

In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were.

In 1994, Arkansas carried out the nation's first triple execution in 32 years. Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as the Supreme Court's newest justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's Vermont summer home.

Ten years ago: Congressional Republicans, shrugging off a presidential veto threat, nailed down the details of an agreement for a 10-year, $792 billion tax cut. Arbitrators ruled the government had to pay the heirs of Dallas dressmaker Abraham Zapruder $16 million for his movie footage that captured the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The first issue of Talk magazine hit newsstands. (The magazine folded in January 2002.)

Five years ago: Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge defended the decision to tighten security in New York and Washington even though the intelligence behind the latest terror warnings was as much as four years old. The Statue of Liberty pedestal in New York City reopened to the public for the first time since the 9/11 attacks. French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson died at age 95.

One year ago: Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn died near Moscow at age 89. Al-Qaida confirmed the death of a top commander (Abu Khabab al-Masri), apparently in a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan; he was accused of training the suicide bombers who killed 17 American sailors on the USS Cole in 2000. At least 145 people were killed in a stampede of pilgrims at a remote mountaintop Hindu temple in India.

Today's birthdays: Author P.D. James is 89. Broadway composer Richard Adler is 88. Singer Gordon Stoker (The Jordanaires) is 85. Football Hall-of-Fame coach Marv Levy is 84. Singer Tony Bennett is 83. Sen. Roland W. Burris, D-Ill., is 72. Actor Martin Sheen is 69. Football Hall of Famer Lance Alworth is 69. Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is 68. Singer Beverly Lee (The Shirelles) is 68. Rock musician B.B. Dickerson is 60. Movie director John Landis is 59. Actress JoMarie Payton is 59. Actor Jay North ("Dennis the Menace") is 58. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Marcel Dionne is 58. Country musician Randy Scruggs is 56. Actor John C. McGinley is 50. Rock singer-musician Lee Rocker (The Stray Cats) is 48. Rock singer James Hetfield (Metallica) is 46. Rock singer-musician Ed Roland (Collective Soul) is 46. Actor Isaiah Washington is 46. Country musician Dean Sams (Lonestar) is 43. Rock musician Stephen Carpenter (Deftones) is 39. Hip-hop artist Spinderella (Salt-N-Pepa) is 38. Actress Brigid Brannagh is 37. Country musician Jimmy De Martini (Zac Brown Band) is 33. St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Troy Glausis 33. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is 32. Actress Evangeline Lilly (TV: "Lost") is 30. Country singer Whitney Duncan is 25. Actor Jon Foster is 25. Singer Holly Arnstein (Dream) is 24. Pop-rock musician Brent Kutzle (OneRepublic) is 24.

Thought for today: "The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides." -- Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss critic (1821-1881)

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.