On Aug. 16, 1812, Detroit fell to British and Indian forces in the War of 1812.
In 1845 Gabriel Lippman, inventor of color photography, was born in Luxembourg.
In 1858 a telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan was transmitted over the newly laid trans-Atlantic cable.
In 1896 gold was discovered at Bonanza Creek in the Yukon (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
In 1923 Israeli statesman Shimon Peres was born in Wolozyn, Poland.
In 1928 actress Ann Blyth was born in Mt. Kisco, N.Y.
In 1956 Adlai E. Stevenson II was nominated for president at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
In 1960 Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus in the Mediterranean.
In 1977 singer Elvis Presley died in his Graceland mansion in Memphis at 42.
In 1982 the Saturday Review literary magazine ended publication after 58 years.
In 1983 the U.S. expressed “deep regrets” that the Army had hidden Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie after World War II and employed him as a spy.
In 1984 a federal jury in Los Angeles acquitted automaker John DeLorean of cocaine conspiracy charges.
In 1987 a Northwest Airlines jet crashed on takeoff from Detroit’s airport, killing 156 people. The sole survivor was a 4-year-old girl.
In 1989 a rare lunar eclipse could be seen across most of the United States.
In 1993 actor Stewart Granger died in Santa Monica, Calif., at 80.
