August seventh

Today's Highlight in History:
On August seventh, 1942, US forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War Two.

On this date:
In 1782, George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers.

In 1789, the US War Department was established by Congress.

In 1912, the Progressive Party nominated Theodore Roosevelt for president.

In 1947, the balsa wood raft "Kon-Tiki," which had carried a six-man crew 4300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago.

In 1959, the United States launched "Explorer Six," which sent back a picture of the Earth.

In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on US forces.

In 1970, an attempt by black militant James David McClain to escape his trial in Marin County, California, ended in a shootout with police that claimed the lives of McClain, two of three cohorts, and Judge Harold J. Daley, one of several hostages.

In 1976, scientists in Pasadena, California, announced that the "Viking One" spacecraft had found the strongest indications to date of possible life on Mars.

In 1989, a plane carrying Congressman Mickey Leland (Democrat, Texas) and 15 others disappeared over Ethiopia. (The wreckage of the plane was found six days later -- there were no survivors.)

In 1998, terrorist bombs at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

Ten years ago: President Bush ordered US troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq.

Five years ago: Ten days before he was to be put to death for the murder of a police officer, black activist and radio reporter Mumia Abu-Jamal won a reprieve from the original trial judge in Philadelphia.

One year ago: President Clinton, during a visit to his home state of Arkansas, promised to devote the rest of his presidency to erasing poverty. The Southern Party held its inaugural rally in Flat Rock, North Carolina, pledging to work peacefully for a separate Southern nation. Wade Boggs became the first player to homer for his three-thousandth hit.

"Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor."

-- Arnold Toynbee, English historian (1889-1975).