August third

Today's Highlight in History:
On August third, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.

On this date:
In 1914, Germany declared war on France.

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

In 1936, the State Department urged Americans in Spain to leave because of that country's civil war.

In 1949, the National Basketball Association was formed.

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

In 1980, closing ceremonies were held in Moscow for the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, which had been boycotted by dozens of countries, including the United States.

In 1981, US air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Reagan they would be fired.

In 1988, the Soviet Union released Mathias Rust (muh-TEE'-uhs rust), the young West German pilot who had landed a light plane in Moscow's Red Square in May 1987.

In 1993, the Senate voted 96-to-3 to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

In 1994, Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as the Supreme Court's newest justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's Vermont summer home.

Ten years ago: A day after Iraq invaded Kuwait, thousands of Iraqi soldiers pushed to within a few miles of the border with Saudi Arabia, heightening world concerns that the invasion could spread.

Five years ago: A Palestinian, Eyad Ismoil, was flown to the United States from Jordan to face charges he'd driven a bomb-laden van into New York's World Trade Center. (The 1993 explosion killed six people and injured more than one-thousand; Ismoil is serving a life sentence.)

One year ago: Congressional Republicans, shrugging off a presidential veto threat, nailed down the details of an agreement for a ten-year, $792 billion tax cut. Arbitrators ruled the government had to pay the heirs of Dallas dressmaker Abraham Zapruder $16 million for his movie film that captured the assassination of President Kennedy. The first issue of Talk magazine hit newsstands.

"When (Columbus) started out he didn't know where he was going; when he got there he didn't know where he was; and when he got back he didn't know where he had been."

-- Anonymous.