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.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

U.S. military forces attacked a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan on this day in 1998. Both targets were
chosen for cruise missile strikes due to their connection with
Osama bin Laden.

In a speech to the nation, President Bill Clinton detailed strikes
against terrorist-related facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan.

On this day in 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization.

Voyager 2 was launched by the United States on this day in 1977 and
aboard was a copper 12 inch phonograph record containing greetings
in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

A photo of the 12 inch copper record that was sent into
space on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.

Robert Anthony Plant is 70 years old today.

Iconic rock star Robert Plant gained fame as the vocalist and songwriter
of the classic rock band Led Zeppelin, known for such hits as "Stairway
to Heaven" and "When the Levee Breaks." He was named the #1 Lead
Singer of All Time by Rolling Stone Magazine in 2011. Plant was once 
training as a chartered accountant, but quit to become part of the
English Midlands blues scene. 

In front of some 12,000 spectators, automotive engineer Louis H.
Schwitzer wins the two-lap, five-mile inaugural race at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana.

On this day in 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,
now the home of the world’s most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.

Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana,
the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing facility for
Indiana’s growing automobile industry.

 In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched
Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles
per hour. The track’s surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster,
breaking up in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers,
two mechanics and two spectators.

The surface was soon replaced with 3.2 million paving bricks, laid in a bed
of sand and fixed with mortar. Dubbed “The Brickyard,” the speedway
reopened in December 1909.

The above photo showing the bricks that were used to resurface
the speedway track.

Louis Schwitzer (center) and crew.

Louis H Schwitzer
(February 29, 1880 – May 9, 1967)

CAMILLE BOHANNON

The Mongol conqueror Ghengis Khan (Temüjin Borjigin) died on
this day in 1227.

Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on
this day in 1920. The Amendment guaranteed the right of all women 
in America to vote. 

James Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi on this
day in 1963. He was the first black man to accomplish this feat.

James Howard Meredith turned 85 in June.

Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel "Lolita" was published
on this day in 1958.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (April 22, 1899 – July 2, 1977)

Charles Robert Redford Jr. is 82 years old today. He was born in
Santa Monica, California.

Actor and director Robert Redford founded the Sundance Film Festival. He
starred in classics such as All the President’s Men (1976), The Sting (1973),
and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). His directorial debut,
Ordinary People (1980) received the Academy Award for Best Picture and
earned him the Academy Award for Best Director.
 

Robert Redford as seen in season 3, episode 81 of The Twilight
Zone (‘’Nothing in the Dark”). It first aired January 5, 1962. 

                            
                          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).