Boris Yeltsin (right) with Mikhail Gorbachev after the failure of the
August 21, 1991 coup.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev returns to Moscow from the
Crimea on August 22, 1991 after a hardline coup failed.

It was on this day in 1940.

Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in Virginia on
this day in 1831. He was later executed.

Hawaii became the 50th state on this day in 1959. President Dwight
D. Eisenhower (second from left) also issued the order for the 50
star flag.

After signing Executive Order adding 50th star to US flag, for Hawaii, President Eisenhower (third from left) holds up the new flag.

Kenneth Ray Rogers is 80 years old today. He was born in Houston,
TX.

Country icon Kenny Rogers has sold more than 100 million albums over
the course of his career. His 1970s albums The Gambler and Kenny went
5x platinum and 3x platinum, respectively. In 2013, he was inducted into
the Country Music Hall of Fame.

                            
                          Monica Samille Lewinsky turned 45 in July.

On this day in 1896, the Klondike gold rush
was set off by George Carmack (above) 
discovering on Rabbit Creek in Alaska.

Robert Fulton’s "North River Steam Boat" (known as the "Clermont") began heading up New York’s Hudson River on its successful round-
trip to Albany on this day in 1807.

It was on this day in 1987

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess(April 26, 1894 – August 17, 1987)  
                                            
                                             

Actor Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. is 75 today.

Legendary actor Robert De Niro won an Academy Award for
Best Actor for his role as Jake LaMotta in the 1980 boxing film 
Raging Bull and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
for his role as Vito Corleone in the 1974 classic The Godfather
Part II. His many other celebrated films include Taxi Driver
(1976), Cape Fear (1991), and The Deer Hunter (1979).

CAMILLE BOHANNON

It was announced by President Truman on this day in 1945, Japan
had surrendered unconditionally. The surrender ended World War II.

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the 
their  Instrument of Surrender on board USS Missouri as General
Richard K. Sutherland watches, September 2, 1945.

It was on this day in 2003.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into
law on this day in 1935. The act created unemployment insurance
and pension plans for the elderly.

On this day in 1969, British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to
intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman
Catholics.

Lech Walesa

Stephen Glenn Martin is 73 years old today. Born in Waco, Texas.

Comedian, actor and musician Steve Martin is best known films include 
The Jerk (1979), Father of the Bride (1991), Roxanne (1987), Three Amigos
(1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 
(1987). He hosted the Academy Awards in 2001, 2003 and 2010 and he has
hosted NBC’s Saturday Night Live on a number of occasions. 

While he has played banjo since an early age, and included music in his
comedy routines from the beginning of his professional career, he has
increasingly dedicated his career to music since the 2000s, acting less
and spending much of his professional life playing banjo, recording,
and touring with various bluegrass acts, including Earl Scruggs.

CARLATA BRADLEY

Last U.S. combat troops leave Vietnam on this day in 1972.

It was on this day in 1944 during World War 11.

Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. perished in one of the first American 
fatalities associated with a pilotless aircraft, which we usually know today
as a drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The older brother of future
president, John F. Kennedy, was taking part in an extraordinary secret war
being waged across the English Channel with new generations of exotic
weapons.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (July 25, 1915 – August 12, 1944)

New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey resigned on this day in 2004,
declaring he’s gay.

James Edward McGreevey turned 61 on August 6th.

The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank and its 118-man
crew died during naval exercises in the Barents Sea on this
day in 2000.

Following salvage operations, analysts concluded that 23 sailors in the
sixth through ninth compartments had survived the two explosions. They
took refuge in the small ninth compartment and survived more than six
hours. When the oxygen ran low, crew members attempted to replace a
volatile potassium superoxide chemical oxygen cartridge when it contacted
oily sea water that had seeped into the compartment. A resulting explosion
killed several crew members and triggered a flash fire that consumed the
remaining oxygen, suffocating the remaining survivors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the monument to the sailors who died in the Kursk disaster. 

CAMILLE BOHANNON

On this day in 1984, President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, "My fellow Americans, I am
pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw
Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

In Bloomington, MN, the Mall of America opened on this day in 1992. It
was the largest shopping mall in the United States.