TIM MAGUIRE

1993

2005

1971

George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998)
1998

1996

In this Sept. 2, 1945 file photo, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, left, watches as the foreign minister of Japan, Mamoru Shigemitsu,
signs the surrender document aboard the USS Missouri on Tokyo
Bay. Lt. General Richard K. Sutherland, center, witnesses the
ceremony marking the end of World War II, with other American
and British officers in the background. (Source: AP Photo)

Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrendered to the
Allies (above) bringing an end to World War II.

By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of
Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and
its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured
Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion
of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was
put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named “Operation Olympic”
and set for November 1945.

The West Nile virus quickly spread across the United States after the
first reported cases in Queens, New York on this day in 1999. The
virus was believed to have entered in an infected bird or mosquito,
although there was no clear evidence. The disease spread quickly
through infected birds. Mosquitoes spread the disease to mammals.

The first human cases usually followed within three months of the
first appearance of infected birds in the area except where cold
weather interrupted the mosquito vectors.

President Eisenhower signs the official proclamation admitting
Hawaii into the Union.

The modern United States receives its crowning star when President
Dwight D. Eisenhower signs 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.

The first known settlers of the Hawaiian Islands were Polynesian
voyagers who arrived sometime in the eighth century. In the early
18th century, American traders came to Hawaii to exploit the islands’
sandalwood, which was much valued in China at the time. In the
1830s, the sugar industry was introduced to Hawaii and by the mid
19th century had become well established. American missionaries
and planters brought about great changes in Hawaiian political,
cultural, economic, and religious life. In 1840, a constitutional
monarchy was established, stripping the Hawaiian monarch of
much of his authority.

A dramatic battle in the Tennessee House of Representatives ends with
the state ratifying the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution
on August 18, 1920. After decades of struggle and protest by suffragettes
across the country, the decisive vote was cast by a young representative
who reputedly changed his vote after receiving a note from his mother.