AUGUST 12TH

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Today is Tuesday, August 12, the 225th day of 2008.
There are 141 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On August 12, 1944, during World War II, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England.

On this date:

• In 1867, President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
• In 1898, fighting in the Spanish-American War came to an end.
• In 1953, the Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.
• In 1960, the first balloon satellite, the Echo 1, was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
• In 1962, one day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely Aug. 15.
• In 1978, Pope Paul VI, who had died Aug. 6 at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.
• In 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150.
• In 1985, the world's worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people.
• In 1988, the controversial movie "The Last Temptation of Christ," directed by Martin Scorsese, opened in nine cities despite objections by some Christians who felt the film was sacrilegious.
• In 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea.

Ten years ago:

• Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.2 billion as restitution to Holocaust survivors to settle claims for their assets.

Five years ago:

• Liberia's leading rebel movement agreed to lift its siege of the capital and vital port, allowing food to flow to hundreds of thousands of hungry people.

One year ago:

• A gunman opened fire in the sanctuary of a southwest Missouri church, killing a pastor and two worshippers. (Suspect Eiken Elam Saimon is charged with murder.)
• Crooner, talk show host and game show producer Merv Griffin died in Los Angeles at age 82.
• Tiger Woods captured the PGA Championship to win at least one major for the third straight season and run his career total to 13.

Today's Birthdays:

• Former Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., is 83.
• Actor George Hamilton is 69.
• Actress Jennifer Warren is 67.
• Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 59.
• Singer Kid Creole is 58.
• Jazz musician Pat Metheny is 54.
• Actor Sam J. Jones is 54.
• Actor Bruce Greenwood is 52.
• Country singer Danny Shirley is 52.
• Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club) is 47.
• Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is 45.
• Actor Peter Krause is 43.
• Tennis player Pete Sampras is 37.
• Actor Michael Ian Black is 37.
• Actress Rebecca Gayheart is 36.
• Actor Casey Affleck is 33.
• Rock musician Bill Uechi (Save Ferris) is 33.
• Actress Maggie Lawson is 28.
• Actress Dominique Swain is 28.
• Actress Imani Hakim ("Everybody Hates Chris") is 15.

Thought for Today:

"Regrets are as personal as fingerprints."
Margaret Culkin Banning, American writer (1891-1982).

"Let's all be careful out there!"