Aug. 16 (UPI) – On this date in history:
In 1812, British forces thwarted plans for a U.S. invasion of Canada by capturing the city of Detroit.
In 1896, the North Country Gold Rush began with the discovery of gold in the Klondike region of Canada’s Yukon Territory.
In 1948, baseball legend Babe Ruth died of cancer in New York at the age of 53.
The first issue of Sports Illustrated was published in 1954.
File photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI
In 1977, Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, died of heart failure at his home in Memphis at the age of 42.
In 1987, a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Phoenix crashed on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 156 people were killed. Four-year-old girl Celia Cichan was the only survivor.
In 2005, a West Caribbean Airways plane from Colombia crashed in a remote area of northwestern Venezuela, killing 160 people.
In 2008, American swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal in a single Olympic Games at the Summer Games in Beijing – his record.
File photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI
In 2009, John Yettaw, a man from Missouri, was allowed to leave the country. He had been convicted in Myanmar for illegally visiting opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and was serving a long prison sentence under house arrest.
In 2012, the Ecuadorian government announced it was granting political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in an investigation into sexual assault and to the United States for allegedly publishing classified material. Ecuador withdrew its offer of asylum in April 2019 and London police arrested him.
In 2013, the ferry MV Thomas Aquinas, carrying nearly 700 passengers, collided with a cargo ship and sank off the Philippines. Authorities later said about 60 people were killed in the accident and many more were reported missing.
Japan reported a 27.8% decline in its gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2020, the sharpest economic contraction ever.
In 2021, the U.S. government declared a water shortage in the Colorado River basin for the first time ever, leading to mandatory water cuts across the Southwest. Over the course of the following year, water levels in Lake Mead dropped enough to uncover several skeletal remains.
File photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
