August 16
1904
New York City and the Vanderbilts began building Grand Central Station. The building was the largest construction project in New York’s history up to that time. It’s 70-acre compound had 32 miles of track, which fed into 46 tracks and 30 passenger platforms. A technological marvel, it was one of the world’s first all-electric buildings.
1954
"Sports Illustrated," a new magazine dedicated to covering sports, appeared on American newsstands. The new magazine was the brainchild of Henry, Luce, creator of Time magazine. It was considered a joke by some and would not make money for most of its first decade. The magazine eventually became the undisputed leader in American sports media, the sporting magazine of record and one of the most recognizable media brands in the world. Sports Illustrated started making a profit in the 1960s and by the 1970s it became a go-to source for American sports news, retaining its strong brand and reputation for sterling journalism well into the age of ESPN and digital media.
1977
Elvis Presley, "The King of Rock and Roll," died of a heart attack in Memphis, Tennessee at 42. His death brought legions of mourning fans to Graceland, his mansion in Memphis. Doctors said he died of a heart attack, likely brought on by his addiction to prescription barbiturates. By the mid 1970s, Elvis was in declining physical and mental health. In the last two years of his life, he made erratic stage appearances and lived nearly as a recluse. He was buried on the grounds of Graceland, which continues to attract fans and has been turned into a highly successful tourist attraction.
August 17
1978
The Double Eagle II completed the first transatlantic balloon flight when it lands in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours after lifting off from Presque Isle, Maine. The helium-filed balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-day odyssey. Human flight first became a reality in the early 1780s with the successful development of the hot-air balloon by French paper-making brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier. Soon balloons were being filled with lighter-than-air gas, such as helium or hydrogen, to provide buoyancy. In 2002, American adventurer Steve Fossett became the first man in history to fly around the world solo in a hot-air balloon.
1998
President Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to testify before the Office of Independent Counsel as the subject of a grand-jury investigation. The testimony came after a four-year investigation into Clinton and his wife Hillary's alleged involvement in several scandals, including accusations of sexual harassment, potentially illegal real-estate deals and suspected “cronyism” involved in the firing of White House travel-agency personnel. The independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, then uncovered an affair between Clinton and a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. When questioned about the affair, Clinton denied it, which led Starr to charge the president with perjury and obstruction of justice, which in turn prompted his testimony on August 17.
2008
The US team of Michael Phelps, Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen & Jason Lezak won the 4 x 100m men's medley relay at the Beijing Olympics. They set a new world record time of 3:29.34. This was Phelps' 8th gold medal of the Games, breaking Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven. He would compete in five Summer Olympics, retiring after the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. Michael Phelp's 23 Olympic gold medals is the most won by a single person. He is considered the greatest swimmer of all time and arguably the greatest athlete of all time.
August 18
1590
John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony in present-day North Carolina, returned from a supply-trip to England to find the settlement deserted. White and his men found no trace of the 100 or so colonists he left behind, and there was no sign of violence. The colony continues to be known as "The Lost Colony" and only theories remain to what actually happened to the colonists. In 1998, archaeologists studying tree-ring data from Virginia found that extreme drought conditions persisted between 1587 and 1589. These conditions undoubtedly contributed to the demise of the so-called Lost Colony, but where the settlers went after they left Roanoke remains a mystery. One theory has them being absorbed into a Native American tribe known as the Croatans.
1920
The 19th amendment, which guarantees all American women the right to vote, is ratified. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of woman suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change of the Constitution. Few early supporters lived to see final victory in 1920. Despite the ratification of the amendment and the decades-long contributions of Black women to achieve suffrage, poll taxes, local laws and other restrictions continued to block women—and men—of color from voting. It would take more than 40 years for all women to achieve voting equality.
1992
Celebrated Boston Celtics forward and future multi-time Hall of Famer Larry Bird retired. Bird entered the NBA in 1979 and had an immediate impact on the league, winning Rookie of the Year. The Celtics would win NBA titles in '81, '84 and '86, with Byrd winning NBA MVP '85-'86. As his career progressed, though, Bird began to suffer from chronic back pain that, by the 1990s, limited both his playing time and his effectiveness. After winning gold in Barcelona with The Dream Team, Bird retired. He remained with the Celtics as a special assistant until becoming the Pacers head coach in 1997. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998, the same year he was named NBA Coach of the Year.
August 19
1812
The U.S. Navy frigate USS Constitution defeated the British frigate Guerrière in a furious engagement off the coast of Nova Scotia during the War of 1812. Witnesses claimed that the British shot merely bounced off the Constitution‘s sides, as if the ship were made of iron rather than wood. By the war’s end, “Old Ironsides” destroyed or captured seven more British ships. The success of the USS Constitution against the supposedly invincible Royal Navy provided a tremendous boost in morale for the young American republic. After the war, Old Ironsides served as the flagship of the navy’s Mediterranean squadron and in 1828 was laid up in Boston. In 1855, the Constitution retired from active military service, but the famous vessel continued to serve the United States, first as a training ship and later as a touring national landmark.
1909
The first race was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world’s most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500. Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing facility for Indiana’s growing automobile industry. Since 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has been held every year, with the exception of 1917-18 and 1942-45, when the United States was involved in the two world wars. With an average crowd of 400,000, the Indy 500 is the best-attended event in U.S. sports. The last of the speedway’s original bricks were covered in 1961, except for a three-foot line of bricks left exposed at the start-finish line as a nostalgic reminder of the track’s history.
1964
More than six months after taking the East Coast by storm during their historic television appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles kicked off first U.S. tour at San Francisco’s Cow Palace. Within the first few seconds of the first song that night, at least one journalist had been trampled and a female fan had broken a leg in the building pandemonium. Though John, Paul, George and Ringo were uninjured, they left the Cow Palace that night by ambulance after their limousine was swarmed by berserk fans. It was a scene that would become familiar to them as they continued on their first historic tour of America in the months ahead.
August 20
1911
A dispatcher in the New York Times office sent the first telegram around the world via commercial service. The Times decided to send the telegram in order to determine how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world by telegraph cable. The message, reading simply, “This message sent around the world,” left the dispatch room on the 17th floor of the Times building in New York at 7 p.m. on August 20. After it traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different operators, through San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon and the Azores–among other locations–the reply was received by the same operator 16.5 minutes later.
1920
Professional football was born when seven men, including legendary all-around athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, met to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in Canton, Ohio. The meeting led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), the forerunner to the hugely successful National Football League. On September 17, the league met again, changing its short-lived name to the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and officially electing Jim Thorpe as the league’s first president.
1982
U.S. Marines were deployed to Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War as part of a multinational force with France, Italy, and Great Britain. 800 U.S. Marines land in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. It was the beginning of a problem-plagued mission that would stretch into 17 months and leave 262 U.S. servicemen dead. On October 23, Lebanese terrorists evaded security measures and drove a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. On February 7, 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the end of U.S. participation in the peacekeeping force.
August 21
1858
Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Abraham Lincoln, a Kentucky-born lawyer and one-time U.S. representative from Illinois, began a series of famous public encounters on the issue of slavery. The two politicians, the former a Northern Democrat and the latter a Republican, were competing for Douglas’ U.S. Senate seat. In the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates—all about three hours long—Lincoln argued against the spread of slavery while Douglas maintained that each territory should have the right to decide whether it would become free or allow slavery. Lincoln lost the Senate race, but his campaign brought national attention to the young Republican Party. Lincoln would go on to win the presidency in 1860, which signaled the secession of the Southern states.
1959
The modern United States received its crowning star when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state. The president also issued an order for an American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became official July 4, 1960. Many in Congress opposed the formal annexation of Hawaii, and it was not until 1898, following the use of the naval base at Pearl Harbor during the Spanish-American War, that Hawaii’s strategic importance became evident and formal annexation was approved. During World War II, Hawaii became firmly ensconced in the American national identity following the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
1980
Animal rights advocates Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco founded People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA has been criticized from all sides—many believe them to be extremists and find their methods distasteful, while other activists criticize PETA’s willingness to work with corporations in industries like fast food or fashion to make incremental improvements to animal welfare. Nonetheless, PETA has achieved a litany of animal-rights reforms: convincing some of the world’s largest fashion brands not to use fur, animal-testing bans by thousands of personal-care companies, ending the use of animals in automobile crash tests, closing the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus and exposing thousands of instances of animal cruelty across the world are just a few of the organization’s accomplishments.
August 22
1851
The U.S.-built schooner America bested a fleet of Britain’s finest ships in a race around England’s Isle of Wight. The ornate silver trophy won by the America was later donated to the New York Yacht Club on condition that it be forever placed in international competition. Today, the “America’s Cup” is the world’s oldest continually contested sporting trophy and represents the pinnacle of international sailing yacht competition. Since the 1920s, the America’s Cup race has been between one defending vessel and one challenging vessel, both of which are determined by separate elimination trials. In 1983, the United States lost the trophy for the first time in 132 years when Australia II defeated Liberty off Newport, Rhode Island.
1950
Officials of the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) accepted Althea Gibson into their annual championship at Forest Hills, New York, making her the first African American player to compete in a U.S. national tennis competition. In the early 1960s, Gibson became the first Black player to compete on the women’s golf tour, though she never won a tournament. She was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971. Though she once brushed off comparisons to Jackie Robinson, the trailblazing Black baseball player, Gibson has been credited with paving the way for African American tennis champions such as Arthur Ashe and, more recently, Venus and Serena Williams. After a long illness, she died in 2003 at the age of 76.
1989
Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers became the first pitcher in major league history to register 5,000 career strikeouts. Ryan would go on to rack up a total of 5,714 strikeouts, over 1,500 more than his closest competition. Ryan had requested before the game that play not be stopped to honor him. Instead, after the fifth inning, Ryan was saluted by President George H. W. Bush in a videotaped message. (The president’s son George W. Bush was then the owner of the Rangers.) Ryan is most famous for his record seven no-hitters; the last came in 1991 when he was 44 years old. Ryan retired in 1993 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 after a record 27 year career.