August second

Today's Highlight in History:
Ten years ago, on August second, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. President Bush condemned the incursion as an act of "naked aggression." (The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.)

On this date:
In 1776, members of the Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

In 1876, frontiersman "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota.

In 1921, opera singer Enrico Caruso died in Naples, Italy.

In 1923, the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco.

In 1934, German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler's complete takeover.

In 1939, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.

In 1943, a Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, sank after being sheared in two by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands. (Kennedy was credited with saving members of the crew.)

In 1945, President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee concluded the Potsdam conference.

In 1964, the Pentagon reported the first of two attacks on US destroyers by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin.

In 1980, 85 people were killed when a bomb exploded at the train station in Bologna, Italy.

In 1985, 137 people were killed when a Delta Air Lines jetliner crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Five years ago: Hurricane "Erin" came ashore near Vero Beach, Florida; the storm was blamed for eleven deaths. China ordered the expulsion of two US Air Force officers it said were caught spying on military sites.

One year ago: Launching another salvo in a war of nerves with rival Taiwan, China announced it had test-fired a new long-range missile. A train collision in India claimed 286 lives.

"A man who does not lose his reason over certain things has none to lose."

-- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German dramatist (1729-1781).