On Aug. 12, 1898, the peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed.
On Aug. 12, 1881, Cecil B. DeMille, a leading American movie producer and director for over 40 years, was born. Following his death on Jan. 21, 1959, his obituary appeared in The Times.
On This Date
| 1851 | Isaac Singer was granted a patent on his sewing machine. |
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| 1880 | Baseball Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson was born in Factoryville, Pa. |
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| 1898 | The peace protocol ending the Spanish-American War was signed. |
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| 1898 | Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States. |
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| 1944 | Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed when an explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England during World War II. |
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| 1953 | The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb. |
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| 1960 | The first balloon satellite, Echo 1, was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral, Fla. |
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| 1966 | John Lennon apologized at a news conference in Chicago for saying "the Beatles are more popular than Jesus." |
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| 1977 | The space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California's Mojave Desert. |
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| 1981 | IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150. |
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| 1998 | Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to Holocaust survivors to settle claims for their assets. |
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| 2000 | The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. |
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| 2004 | New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation and proclaimed himself "a gay American." |
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| 2004 | The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco earlier in the year. |
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| 2008 | Russia halted its devastating five-day assault on Georgia that left homes in smoldering ruins and uprooted 100,000 people. |
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Current Birthdays
New York Jets wide receiver Plaxico Burress turns 34 years old today.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez
Actress Rebecca Gayheart turns 39 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
| 1925 | Dale Bumpers, Former U.S. senator, D-Ark., turns 86 |
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| 1939 | George Hamilton, Actor, turns 72 |
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| 1941 | Dana Ivey, Actress, turns 70 |
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| 1949 | Mark Knopfler, Rock singer, musician (Dire Straits), turns 62 |
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| 1950 | Kid Creole, Singer, turns 61 |
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| 1954 | Pat Metheny, Jazz guitarist, turns 57 |
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| 1956 | Bruce Greenwood, Actor, turns 55 |
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| 1963 | Sir Mix-A-Lot, Rapper, turns 48 |
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| 1965 | Peter Krause, Actor ("Six Feet Under"), turns 46 |
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| 1971 | Michael Ian Black, Actor, comedian ("Ed"), turns 40 |
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| 1971 | Yvette Nicole Brown, Actress ("Community"), turns 40 |
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| 1971 | Pete Sampras, Tennis player, turns 40 |
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| 1975 | Casey Affleck, Actor, turns 36 |
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| 1980 | Maggie Lawson, Actress, turns 31 |
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| 1980 | Dominique Swain, Actress, turns 31 |
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Video: On Race and Hollywood
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