On this day: August 10
Magellan sets sail, "Candid Camera" moves to TV, the "Son of Sam" is arrested and Michael Phelps earns his first gold in Beijing, all on this day.
1519: Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second in command Sebastian Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan's death in the Philippines.
1519: Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to circumnavigate the globe. The Basque second in command Sebastian Elcano will complete the expedition after Magellan's death in the Philippines.
1743: The earliest recorded prize fighting rules are introduced by champion Jack Broughton (pictured) to protect fighters in the ring. Under Broughton's rules, if a man went down and could not continue after a count of 30 seconds, the fight was over. Hitting a downed fighter and grasping below the waist were prohibited. Broughton also invented and encouraged the use of "mufflers," a form of padded gloves, which were used in training and exhibitions.
1776: Word of the United States' Declaration of Independence reaches London.
1792: Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody as his Swiss Guards are massacred by the Parisian mob when they storm the Tuileries Palace during the French Revolution.
1793: The Musée du Louvre is officially opened in Paris, France, with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property.
1814: Henri Nestlé, a German confectioner and founder of Nestlé, is born in Frankfurt, Germany.
1821: Missouri is admitted as the 24th U.S. state.
1846: The Smithsonian Institution is chartered by the United States Congress thanks to a $500,000 bequest from the estate of British scientist James Smithson.
1874: Herbert Hoover, who would go on to become the 31st president of the United States, is born in West Branch, Iowa.
1897: Dr. Felix Hoffmann successfully creates a chemically pure and stable form of acetylsalicylic acid. His success will be trademarked as Aspirin.
1920: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres that divides up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies.
1927: Mount Rushmore is formally dedicated by President Calvin Coolidge before construction begins. The individual faces of the presidents will be dedicated later.
1928: Singer-actor Eddie Fisher is born in Philadelphia.
1932: The original Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in 23 Hollywood films, dies at the age of 13.
1948: The hidden camera/practical joke reality television series "Candid Camera," created and produced by Allen Funt, makes its television debut after being on radio for a year as "Candid Microphone."
1949: President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act Amendment, streamlining the defense agencies of the United States government, and replacing the Department of War with the United States Department of Defense.
1950: The movie "Sunset Boulevard," directed by Billy Wilder and starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson, premieres in New York City. The movie would go on to earn 11 Academy Award nominations, winning three of them.
1960: Actor Antonio Banderas ("Evita," "Philadelphia," "The Mask of Zorro") is born in Málaga, Andalucía, Spain.
1966: The first Lunar Orbiter is launched by the United States. The program was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions.
1977: In Yonkers, N.Y., 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz is arrested for the "Son of Sam" series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year. Shortly after his arrest, Berkowitz confesses to killing six people and wounding several others in the course of eight shootings. He later claims that he was commanded to kill by a demon that possessed his neighbor's dog. He is eventually sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each murder, to be served consecutively, making his maximum term 365 years.
1984: The action movie "Red Dawn," starring Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey, premieres in theaters. It is the first movie to receive the new PG-13 rating.
1985: Madonna's "Like A Virgin" becomes the first album by a female to be certified for 5 million sales.
1988: President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.
1993: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second female Supreme Court justice.
1995: Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh are indicted for the Oklahoma City Bombing. Michael Fortier pleads guilty in a plea-bargain for his testimony.
1996: Bob Dole picks Jack Kemp as his Republican vice presidential running mate.
2003: Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Ekaterina Dmitriev are married in the first ever marriage from space. Malenchenko was about 240 miles above the earth in the international space station. Dmitriev is seen here with a cardboard cutout of Malenchenko at a press conference following the wedding.
2008: Singer-songwriter and actor Isaac Hayes ("Theme from Shaft," "South Park") dies from a stroke at age 65 in Memphis, Tenn. Hayes is seen here performing at the International Amphitheater in Chicago at the 1973 PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) Black Expo.
2008: Michael Phelps wins the first of a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.
