Today in HIstory.....August 10

On this day in …

1846, Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution, named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest of $500,000 had made it possible

1921, Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello

1944, during World War II, American forces overcame remaining Japanese resistance on Guam

1949, the National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense

1969, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain

1977, postal employee David Berkowitz was arrested in Yonkers, N.Y., accused of being "Son of Sam," the gunman responsible for six slayings and seven woundings

1981, the decapitated body of six-year-old Adam Walsh, who disappeared from a shopping mall two weeks earlier, is found in Hollywood, Florida. Two years later, serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole confessed-and then recanted-their involvement in the crime. Authorities believe that they were the killers. In the wake of Adam Walsh's kidnapping and murder, Congress passed the Missing Children's Act, giving the FBI greater authority to track the disappearance of children. John Walsh, Adam's father, became a national spokesman against crime. He went on to host America's Most Wanted, a television show that profiles fugitives whose capture is sought by the FBI. Since it debuted in 1988, over 150 criminals have been caught from viewer tips

1996, Cascading power outages hit parts of nine western states

2001, Britain stepped in to save Northern Ireland's power-sharing government by taking away its powers for a day --- a legal maneuver that removed a deadline to elect a new leader of the Catholic-Protestant government