August 15th
Today in 1877,Thomas Edison coined the telephone greeting “Hello.”In a letter addressed to the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, Edison suggested that “Hello” was better than “Ahoy," which had been suggested by inventor Alexander Graham Bell.
Today in 1984,America's Olympic medal winners were honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York, an event marred when a scaffold rail collapsed, injuring about a hundred spectators.
Today in 1992,Vietnam blamed Hollywood for creating the "myth" that U.S. servicemen were still being held in Indochina.
Today in 1993,Pope John Paul II conducted mass for up to 400,000 people at the World Youth Day festival south of Denver.
Today in 1999,Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship– becoming the youngest player to win two majors since Steve Ballesteros.
Today in 2001,astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own (dubbed an exo-solar system) when they discovered two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.
Today in 2007,an 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastated various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring more than 1,300.
Today in 2017,Barack Obama's August 12th tweet in response to Charlottesville violence– a picture with him greeting children with the caption “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion...”became the most-liked tweet ever.
Today in 2017, President Donald Trump said “there is blame on both sides”about violence in Charlottesville,at a press conference at Trump Tower, provoking widespread condemnation.
Today in 2018,it was revealed that a record 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017 in new figures by Centers for Disease Control – up 10% from the year previous.
Today in 2018,President Donald Trump revoked the security clearance of former CIA Director and Trump critic John Brennan.