By Today is Monday, Aug. 26, the 239th day of 2024. There are 127 days left in the year.
On Aug. 26, 1944, French Gen. Charles de Gaulle braved the threat of German snipers as he led a victory march in Paris, which had just been liberated by the Allies from Nazi occupation.
In 1939, the first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS: a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the first game, 5-2, the Dodgers the second, 6-1.
In 1958, Alaskans went to the polls to overwhelmingly vote in favor of statehood.
In 1968, the Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago; the four-day event that resulted in the nomination of Hubert H. Humphrey for president was marked by a bloody police crackdown on antiwar protesters in the streets.
In 1972, the summer Olympics opened in Munich, West Germany.
In 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani (al-BEE’-noh loo-CHYAH’-nee) of Venice was elected pope following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff, who took the name Pope John Paul I, died just over a month later.
In 1980, the FBI inadvertently detonated a bomb planted at Harvey’s Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada while attempting to disarm it. (The hotel had been evacuated and no injuries were reported.)
In 1985, 13-year-old AIDS patient Ryan White began “attending” classes at Western Middle School in Kokomo, Indiana via a telephone hook-up at his home, as school officials had barred White from attending classes in person due to his illness.
In 2009, kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard was discovered alive in California after being missing for more than 18 years.
In 2022, an affidavit released by the FBI showed that 14 of the 15 boxes recovered from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate contained classified documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence.
Today’s Birthdays: John Tinniswood, the world’s oldest verified living man, is 112. Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is 79. R&B singer Valerie Simpson (Ashford & Simpson) is 78. Broadcast journalist Bill Whitaker is 73. Puzzle creator/editor Will Shortz is 72. Jazz musician Branford Marsalis is 64. Actor-singer Shirley Manson (Garbage) is 58. Actor Melissa McCarthy is 54. Latin pop singer Thalia is 53. Actor Macaulay Culkin is 44. Actor Chris Pine is 44. Comedian/actor/writer John Mulaney is 42. Country musician Brian Kelley (Florida Georgia Line) is 39. NBA guard James Harden is 35. Actor Dylan O’Brien is 33. Actor Keke Palmer is 31.
