This day in history

[August 12, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, Aug. 12, the 224th day of 2010. There are 141 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 12, 1960, the first balloon communications satellite -- the Echo 1 -- was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral.

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 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 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act that abolished the U.S. Post Office Department in favor of the independently run United States Postal Service.

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

In 1980, during the Democratic national convention in New York, Sen. Edward Kennedy dropped his White House bid and threw his support to President Jimmy Carter.

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. (Four people survived.)

Ten years ago: The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. Evander Holyfield won a 12-round unanimous decision over John Ruiz in Las Vegas for the vacant WBA heavyweight title. Actress Loretta Young died at age 87.

Five years ago: A NASA spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, began a seven-month voyage to the Red Planet. Sri Lanka's foreign minister (Lakshman Kadirgamar), an ethnic Tamil, was shot to death by snipers in Colombo.

One year ago: Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., heard a fresh chorus of taunts from opponents of health care reform at Penn State University; Specter said they were "not necessarily representative of America" but should be heard.

Today's birthdays: Former Senator Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., is 85. Actor George Hamilton is 71. Actress Dana Ivey is 69. Actress Jennifer Warren is 69. Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 61. Actor Jim Beaver is 60. Singer Kid Creole is 60. Jazz musician Pat Metheny is 56. Actor Sam J. Jones is 56. Actor Bruce Greenwood is 54. Country singer Danny Shirley is 54. Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club) is 49. Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is 47. Actor Peter Krause (KROW'-zuh) is 45. Tennis player Pete Sampras is 39. Actor-comedian Michael Ian Black is 39. Actress Yvette Nicole Brown is 39. Actress Rebecca Gayheart is 39. Actor Casey Affleck is 35. Rock musician Bill Uechi (Save Ferris) is 35. Actress Maggie Lawson is 30. Actress Dominique Swain is 30. Actress Imani Hakim ("Everybody Hates Chris") is 17.

Thought for today: "Bigotry has no head, and cannot think; no heart, and cannot feel." -- Daniel O'Connell, Irish political leader (1775-1847)

[Associated Press]

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