This day in history

[August 12, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Wednesday, Aug. 12, the 224th day of 2009. There are 141 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 12, 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500, first opened.

On this date:

In 1859, poet and English professor Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to "America the Beautiful," was born in Falmouth, Mass.

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

In 1898, fighting in the Spanish-American War came to an end.

In 1944, during World War II, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England.

In 1953, the Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.

In 1960, the first balloon satellite -- the Echo 1 -- was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral.

In 1962, one day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely Aug. 15.

In 1978, Pope Paul VI, who had died Aug. 6 at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.

In 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150.

In 1985, the world's worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people.

Ten years ago: Los Angeles County prosecutors charged white supremacist Buford O. Furrow with murder and five counts of attempted murder, all filed as hate crimes, in the wounding of five people at a Jewish community center and the shooting death of a Filipino-American mail carrier. (Federal prosecutors also charged Furrow in the postman's slaying.)

Five years ago: In a stunning declaration, New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation and acknowledged that he'd had an extramarital affair with another man. The California Supreme Court voided nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco between February 12 and March 11, 2004.

One year ago: Declaring "the aggressor has been punished," the Kremlin ordered a halt to Russia's devastating assault on Georgia -- five days of air and ground attacks that had left homes in smoldering ruins and uprooted 100,000 people. Michael Phelps won the 200-meter freestyle for his third gold medal at the Beijing Games.

Today's birthdays: Former Senator Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., is 84. Actor George Hamilton is 70. Actress Dana Ivey is 68. Actress Jennifer Warren is 68. Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 60. Singer Kid Creole is 59. Jazz musician Pat Metheny is 55. Actor Sam J. Jones is 55. Actor Bruce Greenwood is 53. Country singer Danny Shirley is 53. Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club) is 48. Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is 46. Actor Peter Krause is 44. Tennis player Pete Sampras is 38. Actor-comedian Michael Ian Black is 38. Actress Rebecca Gayheart is 38. Actor Casey Affleck is 34. Rock musician Bill Uechi (Save Ferris) is 34. Former NBA all-star Antoine Walker is 33. Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is 32. Canada women's hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser is 31. Actress Maggie Lawson is 29. Actress Dominique Swain is 29. Actress Imani Hakim ("Everybody Hates Chris") is 16.

Thought for today: "Wisdom is born, stupidity is learned." -- Russian proverb

[Associated Press]

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