Today in History: August 13, East Germany closes Berlin border
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 13, the 226th day of 2024. There are 140 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Aug. 13, 1961, on what would become known as Barbed Wire Sunday, East Germany sealed the border between Berlin’s eastern and western sectors before building a wall that would divide the city for the next 28 years.
Also on this date:
In 1521, Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured Tenochtitlan (teh-natch-teet-LAHN’), present-day Mexico City, from the Aztecs.
In 1792, French revolutionaries arrested and imprisoned King Louis XVI; he would be executed by guillotine the following January.
In 1889, William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut, received a patent for the first coin-operated telephone.
In 1918, Opha May Johnson became the first woman to join the U.S. Marine Corps.
In 1952, Big Mama Thornton first recorded the song “Hound Dog,” four years before Elvis Presley’s famous version was released.
In 1969, New York City held a ticket-tape parade for Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins.
In 1995, Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died at a Dallas hospital of rapidly spreading liver cancer at age 63.
In 2011, seven people were killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair during a powerful storm just before a concert was to begin.
In 2020, in an interview on Fox Business Network, President Donald Trump acknowledged that he was starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots.
Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is 91. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is 78. Opera singer Kathleen Battle is 76. High wire aerialist Philippe Petit is 75. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Clarke...