TODAY IN HISTORY

Brought to you by:

Click the banner to go to the Shelby County Historical Museum website

A trusted resource of/for the history of Shelby County that instills pride while educating and inspiring all generations.

The Shelby County Historical Society & Museum is open Monday through Friday from 8 to 4. They’re ready to take you back in time, located on the corner of Morse Avenue and Pine Street in Harlan.  Call 755-2437 for more information

August 5th - 217th Day of the Year

1391
Castilian sailors in Barcelona, Spain set fire to a Jewish ghetto, killing 100 people and setting off four days of violence against Jews.

1762
Russia, Prussia and Austria sign a treaty agreeing on the partition of Poland.

1763
Colonel Henry Bouquet decisively defeats the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run in Pennsylvania during Pontiac's rebellion.

1815
A peace treaty with Tripoli--which follows treaties with Algeria and Tunis--brings an end to the Barbary Wars.

1858
The first transatlantic cable is completed.

1861
Congress adopts the nation's first income tax to finance the Civil War.

1864
The Union Navy captures Mobile Bay in Alabama.

1892
Harriet Tubman receives a pension from Congress for her work as a nurse, spy and scout during the Civil War.

1914
- The first electric traffic signal lights are installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
- The British Expeditionary Force mobilizes for World War I.

1915
The Austro-German Army takes Warsaw, in present-day Poland, on the Eastern Front.

1916
The British navy defeats the Ottomans at the naval battle off Port Said, Egypt.

1921
Mustafa Kemal is appointed virtual ruler of the Ottoman Empire.

1941
The German army completes taking 410,000 Russian prisoners in the Uman and Smolensk pockets in the Soviet Union.

1951
The United Nations Command suspends armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas.

1962
Actress Marilyn Monroe dies under mysterious circumstances.

1964
President Lyndon Johnson begins bombing North Vietnam in retaliation for the Gulf of Tonkin incident and asks Congress to go to war against North Vietnam.

1974
President Richard Nixon admits he ordered a cover-up for political as well as national security reasons.

1981
President Ronald Reagan fires 11,500 striking air traffic controllers.

1992
Four police officers are indicted on civil rights charges in the beating of Rodney King.

1995
Croatian forces capture the city of Knin, a Serb stronghold, during Operation Storm.

1997
The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, goes on trial.

2002
​the rusty iron gun turret of the U.S.S. Monitor broke from the water and into the daylight for the first time in 140 years. The ironclad warship was raised from the floor of the Atlantic, where it had rested since it went down in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, during the Civil War.

2012
A gunman in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, opens fire in a Sikh temple, killing six before committing suicide.

The Shelby County Historical Society would like to thank the following area businesses for their support:
​KNOD, Harlan Newspaper, Hy-Vee, Milk & Honey, Farm Table Delivery, Nelson Farm Supply, Shelby County Physical Therapy, Shelby County State Bank, State Farm-EJ Leinen, Town & Country Credit Union, Ouren Real Estate, and ThinkSpace IT.