Today in History....August 3

On this day in …


* 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas. You should read "1421, The Year China Discovered the World" by Gavin Menzies......verrrrry interesting.

* 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr went on trial before a federal court in Richmond, Va., charged with treason. (He was acquitted less than a month later.)

* 1914, Germany declared war on France at the onset of World War I

* 1923, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, following the death of Warren G. Harding

* 1943, Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice. (Patton was later ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode.)

* 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League

* 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater

* 1980, closing ceremonies were held in Moscow for the Summer Olympic Games, which had been boycotted by dozens of countries, including the U.S.

* 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan they would be fired, which they were

* 2002, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian declared in a speech that Taiwan was "not someone else's province" but rather an independent country separate from China. (Chen's comments sparked an uproar both in China and at home, prompting him to back away from his pointed
rhetoric.)