This Day in History – August 19, 2011

1812 US warship Constitution defeats British warship Guerriere 1909 1st race at the Indianapolis 500 Speedway 1942 1st American offensive in Pacific in WW2, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands 1950 ABC begins Saturday morning kid shows (Animal Clinic & Acrobat Ranch) 1951 Bill Veeck (Browns) sends Eddie Gaedel, a 3’7″ midget, to pinch-hit 1955 Hurricane Diane kills 200 & 1st billion $ damage storm (N.E. US) 1957 NY Giants vote to move their franchise to SF in 1958 1958 NAACP Youth Council begin sit-ins at Oklahoma City Lunch counters 1960 Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR (U-2 incident) 1960 Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 3 mice into orbit (later recovered alive) 1962 Homer Blancos plays the finest round in golf, shooting a 55 1967 Beatles’ “All You Need is Love,” single goes #1 1976 Pres Gerald R Ford won Republican pres nomination at KC convention 1982 Renaldo Nehemiah of US sets record for 110 m hurdles, 12.93 sec 1991 Coup in Russia deposes Mikhail Gorbachev]]]]> ]]>