Today in History
Historical Events
Indonesia suffers a Massive Power Outage. Thought to be one of the biggest power outages in recent history, the Java-Bali outage affected about 100 million people. Electricity was restored to most areas within 6 hours.
Lolita is First Published in the US. The highly controversial novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabakov detailed an adult man’s obsession over 12-year-old Dolores Haze, who he secretly calls Lolita.
The State of Tennessee Passes the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This action by the Tennessee legislature brought the number of states passing the 19th amendment to 36 and provided the necessary majority to ratify the amendment, which extended universal suffrage to women.
Martian Moon Phobos is Discovered. One of the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos, was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall also discovered Deimos, the other Martian Moon. Named after the Greek God of fear, Phobos orbits only 3700 miles from the surface of Mars, making it the Moon to orbit closest to its planet in the Solar System. Because of this, Phobos completes an orbit around Mars in 7 hours and 39 minutes.
The Pendle witch trials begin. 11 people - 9 women and 2 men - are tried for practicing witch craft in one of UK's most well documented and followed witch trials. The trial lasts for two days and 10 of the accused are found guilty and executed on August 20.
Famous Births
Born on this day

Cameron White
1983
Australian cricketer

Felipe Calderón
1962
Mexican politician, 56th President of Mexico

Roman Polanski
1933
French/Polish director, producer, writer, actor

Herman Berlinski
1910
Polish/American composer

Antonio Salieri
1750
Italian composer
Famous Deaths
Died on this day

Kim Dae-jung
2009
South Korean politician, 8th President of South Korea Nobel laureate

B. F. Skinner
1990
American psychologist, author

Subhas Chandra Bose
1945
Indian politician, activist

Honoré de Balzac
1850
French author, playwright

Genghis Khan
1227
Emperor