History for August 5

History for August 5 - On-This-Day.com:
Guy DeMaupassant 1850, Conrad Aiken 1889, Neil A. Armstrong 1930


Loni Anderson 1946 - Actress ("WKRP in Cincinnati"), Maureen McCormick 1956 - Actress ("The Brady Bunch"), David Baldacci 1960 - Author


1861 - The U.S. federal government levied its first income tax. The tax was 3% of all incomes over $800. The wartime measure was rescinded in 1872.


1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Adm. David G. Farragut were led into Mobile Bay, Alabama.


1921 - The cartoon "On the Road to Moscow", by Rollin Kirby, was published in the "New York World". It was the first cartoon to win a Pulitzer Prize.


1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.


1953 - During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom. The exchange was labeled Operation Big Switch.


1964 - U.S. aircraft bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.


1966 - In New York, groundbreaking for the construction of the original World Trade Center began.


2011 - Standard & Poor's Financial Services lowered the United States' AAA credit rating by one notch to AA-plus.