August first

Today's Highlight in History:
On August first, 1946, President Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Senator J. William Fulbright.

On this date:
In 1790, the first United States census was completed, showing a population of nearly four million people.

In 1873, inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.

In 1876, Colorado was admitted as the 38th state.

In 1936, the Olympic games opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.

In 1943, race-related rioting erupted in New York's Harlem section, resulting in several deaths.

In 1944, an uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation, a revolt that lasted two months before collapsing.

In 1946, the Atomic Energy Commission was established.

In 1957, the United States and Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

In 1966, 25-year-old Charles Joseph Whitman shot and killed 15 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned down by police.

In 1975, a 35-nation summit in Helsinki, Finland, concluded with the signing of an accord dealing with European security, human rights and East-West contacts.

Ten years ago: In Trinidad, dozens of Muslim militants surrendered and freed 42 hostages they had seized six days earlier in a failed bid to overthrow the government.

Five years ago: In the second TV network takeover in as many days, Westinghouse Electric Corporation struck a deal to buy CBS for $5.4 billion. (A day earlier, Walt Disney had agreed to acquire Capital Cities-ABC for $19 billion.)

One year ago: A heat wave that had gripped the nation since mid-July finally broke; authorities attributed nearly 200 deaths to the heat and humidity.

"People say law but they mean wealth."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, poet and philosopher (1803-1882).