This day in history

[August 09, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Tuesday, Aug. 9, the 221st day of 2011. There are 144 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Aug. 9, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt received British Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard the USS Augusta off Newfoundland; although the two had once met briefly years earlier, this was their first encounter as the leaders of their respective countries. (The next day, Roosevelt visited Churchill aboard his ship, the HMS Prince of Wales.) The talks resulted in the Atlantic Charter defining goals for a post-war world.

On this date:

In 1842, the United States and Canada resolved a border dispute by signing the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau's "Walden," which described Thoreau's experiences while living near Walden Pond in Massachusetts, was first published.

In 1902, Edward VII was crowned king of Britain following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

In 1910, the U.S. Patent Office granted Alva J. Fisher of the Hurley Machine Co. a patent for an electrically powered washing machine.

In 1936, Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics as the United States took first place in the 400-meter relay.

In 1944, 258 African-American sailors based at Port Chicago, Calif., refused to load a munitions ship following an explosion on another ship that killed 320 men, many of them black. (Fifty of the sailors were convicted of mutiny, fined and imprisoned.)

In 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people.

In 1969, actress Sharon Tate and four other people were found brutally slain at Tate's Los Angeles home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his followers were later convicted of the crime.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon and his family left the White House as his resignation took effect. Vice President Gerald R. Ford became the nation's 38th chief executive.

In 1995, Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead, died in Forest Knolls, Calif., of a heart attack at age 53.

Ten years ago: A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a central Jerusalem pizzeria, killing himself and 15 other people. President George W. Bush approved federal funding only for existing lines of embryonic stem cells.

Five years ago: The White House said neither Israel nor Hezbollah should escalate their month-old war, as Israel decided to widen its ground invasion in southern Lebanon. Physicist James A. Van Allen, discoverer of the radiation belts surrounding the Earth that now bear his name, died in Iowa City, Iowa, at age 91.

One year ago: Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, 86, the longest serving Republican in the U.S. Senate, was killed in a plane crash in the southwestern part of his state while on his way to a fishing trip (four others also died in the crash outside Dillingham). A fed-up JetBlue flight attendant, Steven Slater, cursed out a passenger he said had treated him rudely, grabbed a beer and slid down the emergency chute of an Embraer 190 at New York's Kennedy Airport.

Today's birthdays: Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Cousy is 83. Tennis Hall of Famer Rod Laver is 73. Jazz musician Jack DeJohnette is 69. Comedian-director David Steinberg is 69. Boxing Hall-of-Famer Ken Norton is 68. Actor Sam Elliott is 67. Singer Barbara Mason is 64. Former MLB pitcher Bill Campbell is 63. College Football Hall of Famer John Cappelletti is 59. College Football Hall of Famer Doug Williams is 56. Actress Melanie Griffith is 54. Actress Amanda Bearse is 53. Rapper Kurtis Blow is 52. Singer Whitney Houston is 48. Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull is 47. TV host Hoda Kotb (HO'-duh KAHT'-bee) is 47. Actor Pat Petersen is 45. Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is 44. Actress Gillian Anderson is 43. Actor Eric Bana is 43. Producer-director McG (aka Joseph McGinty Nichol) is 43. NHL player-turned-assistant coach Rod Brind'Amour is 41. TV anchor Chris Cuomo is 41. Actor Thomas Lennon is 41. Rock musician Arion Salazar is 41. Rapper Mack 10 is 40. Actress Nikki Schieler Ziering is 40. Latin rock singer Juanes is 39. Actress Liz Vassey is 39. Actress Rhona Mitra (ROH'-nuh MEE'-truh) is 36. Actor Texas Battle is 35. Actress Jessica Capshaw is 35. Actress Anna Kendrick is 26.

Thought for today: "Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college." -- Lillian Smith, American writer-social critic (1897-1966)

[Associated Press]

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