As the 1992-93 NBA season approached, Larry Bird decided
he could not continue. On Aug. 18, 1992 he announced his
retirement as a player.

After 897 games Bird retired with 21,791 points, 8,974 rebounds
and 5,695 assists. During his career he shot .496 from the floor
and .886 from the free-throw line, retiring as the fifth all-time free-
throw shooter behind Mark Price, Rick Barry, Calvin Murphy and
Scott Skiles.

Bird was named a special assistant in the Celtics’ front office,
with limited duties that included some scouting and player
evaluation. In reality, he spent most of the next five years in
Florida, playing golf and taking it easy.

Larry Joe Bird is 68 years old.

Former New York Yankees star Mickey Mantle died of liver
cancer at the age of 63. While he patrolled center field and
batted clean-up between 1951 and 1968, the Yankees won
12 American League pennants and seven World Series
championships.

On August 10, 1939, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland
and featuring words and music by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and
Harold Arlen, received its world premiere in Green Bay,
Wisconsin. It opened widely in U.S. theaters some two
weeks later.

   
CAMILLE BOHANNON

On August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb is dropped on
Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally
in Japan’s unconditional surrender.

On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union officially declared war on
Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers the following
day into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to
take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army.