WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2009

Today is Wednesday, August 12, the 224th day of 2009. There are 141 days left in the year.

1553 _ Pope Julius III orders confiscation and burning of the Talmud

1851 _ Isaac Singer granted patent for his sewing machine

1877 _ Thomas Edison invents the Edisonphone, a sound recording device

1915 _ ``Of Human Bondage," by William Somerset Maugham, published

1936 _ Diver Marjorie Gestring is youngest Olympic gold medallist (13 years and 268 days)

1953 _ Soviet Union conducts secret test of its first hydrogen bomb

1955 _ President Eisenhower raises minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour

1981 _ IBM introduces the PC and PC-DOS version 1.0

1985 _ Japanese Boeing 747 crashes, 520 die (worst in-flight toll)

1988 _ Movie ``Last Temptation of Christ" is released