Today in History....August 30

On this day in …

* 1861, Union Gen. John C. Fremont instituted martial law in Missouri and declared slaves there to be free. (However, Fremont's order was countermanded days later by President Lincoln)

* 1862, Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va.

* 1905, Ty Cobb made his major-league debut as a player for the Detroit Tigers, hitting a double in his first at-bat in a game against the New York Highlanders. (The Tigers won, 5-3.)

* 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan to set up Allied occupation headquarters

* 1963, the "Hot Line" communications link between Washington and Moscow went into operation

* 1987, a redesigned space shuttle booster, created in the wake of the Challenger disaster, roared into life in its first full-scale test-firing near Brigham City, Utah

* 1991, Azerbaijan declared its independence, joining the stampede of republics seeking to secede from the Soviet Union

* 1997, Philip Noel Johnson, an armored car driver who had stolen
$18.8 million, was arrested at the Texas border. (Johnson was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.)

* 2002, with just hours to spare, baseball averted a strike; it was the first time since 1970 that players and owners had agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement without a work stoppage