Today is Friday, Aug. 5, the 218th day of 2016. There are 148 days left in the year.
on this date:
In 1884, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal was laid on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor.
In 1924, the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” by Harold Gray made its debut.
In 1936, Jesse Owens of the United States won the 200- meter dash at the Berlin Olympics, collecting the third of his four gold medals.
In 1957, the teenage dance show “American Bandstand,” hosted by Dick Clark, made its network debut on ABC-TV.
In 1962, actress Marilyn Monroe, 36, was found dead in her Los Angeles home; her death was ruled a probable suicide from “acute barbiturate poisoning.” South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela was arrested; it was the beginning of 27 years of imprisonment.
In 1974, the White House released transcripts of subpoenaed tape recordings showing that President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, had discussed a plan in June 1972 to use the CIA to thwart the FBI’s Watergate investigation; revelation of the tape sparked Nixon’s resignation.
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