On Aug. 21, 1567, St. Francis de Sales, the Roman Catholic bishop of Geneva and doctor of the church, was born in Thorens-Glieres, France.
In 1680 Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe in present-day New Mexico after driving out the Spanish.
In 1831 ex-slave Nat Turner led a violent anti-slavery insurrection in Virginia’s Southampton County. (Captured, he was hanged that November.)
In 1858 Senate aspirants Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held the first of their seven famous debates.
In 1878 the American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y.
In 1904 jazz musician William “Count” Basie was born in Red Bank, N.J.
In 1940 exiled Bolshevik revolutionary Leon Trotsky died of ax wounds inflicted by an assassin in Mexico City; he was 61.
In 1945 President Harry Truman ended the massive Lend-Lease program that had shipped $50 billion in aid to the Allies during World War II.
In 1959 President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state.
In 1973 Greece’s new civilian government began freeing political prisoners under an amnesty granted by President George Papadopoulos.
In 1983 Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino was shot to death at Manila’s airport moments after stepping from a plane that had returned him to his native country after a self-imposed exile in the U.S.
In 1986 more than 1,700 people died in Cameroon as a result of a toxic gas cloud that escaped from a volcanic crater.
In 1987 Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine court-martialed for spying, was convicted in Quantico, Va., of passing secrets to the KGB. (Sentenced to 30 years at a military prison, he was released after 8.)
In 1991 the coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin.
In 1997 Hudson Foods Co. closed a plant in Nebraska, agreeing to destroy about 25 million pounds of hamburger after the largest meat recall in American history.
In 2002 a San Diego jury convicted David Westerfield of kidnapping 7-year-old Danielle van Dam from her home and killing her. (Westerfield was sentenced to death.)
In 2003 France acknowledged that as many as 10,000 people might have died in the country’s heat wave. Also, Paul Hamm put together a near-perfect routine on the high bar to become the first American man to win the all-around gold medal at the World Gymnastics Championship.
