1820 – 1st US eye hospital, the NY Eye Infirmary, opens in NYC.
1846 – Henry David Thoreau jailed for refusing to pay taxes.
1862 – Abraham Lincoln receives the first group of African Americans to confer with a US president.
1901 – SS Islander hits iceberg near Alaska & sinks killing 70.
1912 – 2,500 US marines invade Nicaragua; US remains until 1925.
1932 – Philips makes 1 millionth radio.
1935 – Social Services Act becomes law.
1937 – Appalachian Trail is formally completed, traversing 2,000 miles and 14 US States, Georgia to Maine.
1941 – US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issue the joint declaration that later becomes known as the Atlantic Charter.
1945 – V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)
1947 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias gives up amateur status for $300,000.
1962 – US mail truck in Plymouth, Massachusetts. robbed of more than $1.5 million.
1968 – Montreal Expos officially become a member of National League.
1973 – US ends secret bombing of Cambodia.
1974 – Congress authorizes US citizens to own gold.
1980 – Democratic Convention in NYC nominates Jimmy Carter & Walter Mondale.
1991 – Twins Dave Winfield is 23rd to hit 400 HRs.
1995 – Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reports that Iran has been unable to sell 200 million barrels per day of crude oil since the imposition of a unilateral oil embargo by the US.
1997 – Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh formally sentenced to death by Oklahoma Court of Appeals.
2015 – Most extensive face transplant surgery ever performed on Patrick Hardison by Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez at New York University Langone Medical Center.
2017 – US President Donald Trump condemns racist violence at the White House after criticism of his earlier response to Charlottesville violence.
