Today in History for Aug. 4: Britain declares war on Germany in WW1; 3 civil rights workers slain in Miss.

Headline Surfer YouTube download / AP video / Highlights of this day in history: Nazi police arrest Anne Frank and family; Britain declares war on Germany in World War I; Three civil rights workers found slain in Mississippi; The Bordens axed to death; Jazz great Louis Armstrong born. (Aug. 4)
 
Today in History:
  • 1730 Crown prince Frederick of Prussia escapes to England
  • 1791 The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars
  • 1862 US government collects its 1st income tax
  • 1900 An allied expeditionary force, made up of Japanese, Russian, British, French and American troops, sets off from Tientsin for Peking, China, to put down Boxer rebellion
  • 1914 WWI: Germany declares war on Belgium; Britain declares war on Germany
  • 1936 American athlete Jesse Owens wins his 2nd gold medal at the Berlin Olympics; beats German Luz Long in the long jump final with an Olympic record
  • 1944 Anne Frank arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified
  • 1955 Eisenhower authorizes $46 million for construction of CIA headquarters
  • 1956 Elvis Presley releases "Hound Dog"
  • 1964 Bodies of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E Chaney discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam
  • 1964 North Vietnam torpedos US ships Gulf of Tonkin
  • 1977 US President Carter establishes Department of Energy
  • 1980 John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin recording "Double Fantasy"
  • 1984 Prince's "Purple Rain" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 24 weeks
  • 1985 Tom Seaver of Chicago White Sox becomes 17th pitcher to win 300 MLB career games, beating New York, 4-1; 54,032 at Yankee Stadium
  • 1991 The Greek cruise ship Oceanos sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa
  • 2002 Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire
  • 2015 Muppets Missy Piggy and Kermit the Frog announce the end to their relationship on Twitter

Birthdays:

 

  • 1901 Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter and singer (Hello Dolly), born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1971)
  • 1934 Dallas Green, baseball manager (Phillies, Yankees), born in Newport, Delaware (d. 2017)
  • 1949 John Riggins, NFL running back (NY Jets, Wash Redskins)
  • 1955 Billy Bob Thornton, American actor (Sling Blade), born in Hot Springs, Arkansas
  • 1960 Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
  • 1961 Barack Obama, 44th United States President (Democrat: 2009-17) and the first African-American president, born in Honolulu, Hawaii
  • 1962 Roger ClemensMLB pitcher (Red Sox, Blue Jays, 7 Cy Youngs, MVP), born in Dayton, Ohio
  • 1971 Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
  • 1981 [Rachel] Meghan Markle, American former actress, Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, born in Los Angeles, California

Deaths:

  • 1875 Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author of 150 fairy tales (The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen), dies at 70
  • 1984 Walter Burke, American actor (Jack the Giant Killer), dies at 75 of emphysema
  • 1995 J. Howard Marshall [James Howard Marshall II], American businessman and husband of Anna Nicole Smith, dies at 90
  • 1997 Jeanne Calment, world's oldest person (Feb 21 1875), dies at 122
  • 2007 Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1929)

Source: On This Day

-- Henry Frederick, Headline Surfer, Orlando, FL