Aug. 22
1851: The schooner “America” outraced more than a dozen British vessels off the English coast to win a trophy that would later become the America’s Cup.
1910: Japan annexed Korea, which remained under Japanese control until the end of World War II.
1965: A 14-minute brawl ensued between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers after Giants pitcher Juan Marichal struck Dodgers catcher John Roseboro in the head with a baseball bat.
Aug. 23
1305: Scottish rebel leader Sir William Wallace was executed by the English for treason.
1775: Britain’s King George III proclaimed the American colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.”
1914: Japan declared war against Germany in World War I.
1927: Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery.
1970: The Salad Bowl strike began, organized by farm labor leader Cesar Chavez. Between 5,000 and 10,000 laborers left the job, leading to the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history.
Aug. 24
1814: During the War of 1812, British forces invaded Washington, D.C., setting fire to the still-under-construction Capitol and the White House, as well as other public buildings.
1932: Amelia Earhart embarked on a 19-hour flight from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, making her the first woman to fly solo, nonstop, from coast to coast.
1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.
1992: Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida; the storm resulted in 65 deaths and caused more than $26 billion in damage across Florida, Louisiana and the Bahamas.
Aug. 25
1875: Capt. Matthew Webb became the first to swim across the English Channel from Dover, England, to Calais, France.
1944: During World War II, Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.
2018: Sen. John McCain of Arizona died at the age of 81.
Aug. 26
55 B.C.: Roman forces under Julius Caesar invaded Britain with limited success.
1910: Thomas Edison demonstrated to reporters an improved version of his Kinetophone, a device for showing a movie with synchronized sound.
1939: The first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS: a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
1944: French Gen. Charles de Gaulle braved the threat of German snipers as he led a victory march in Paris, which the Allies had just liberated from Nazi occupation.
Aug. 27
1883: The island volcano Krakatoa erupted with cataclysmic explosions; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait killed some 36,000 people in Java and Sumatra.
Aug. 28
1922: The first radio commercial aired on station WEAF in New York City. The 10-minute advertisement was for the Queensboro Realty Co.
1963: More than 200,000 people listened as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.