Today is Friday, August 21, the 233rd day of 2009. There are 132 days left in the year.
1680 _ Pueblo Indians took possession of Santa Fe from Spanish
1841 _ John Hampson patents venetian blind
1959 _ Hawaii becomes 50th U.S. state
1963 _ Martial law declared in S. Vietnam
1972 _ First hot air balloon flight over the Alps
1986 _ Lake Nios Volcanic eruption in Cameroon releases poison gas, killing 1,746
1988 _ Cease fire between Iran and Iraq takes effect after eight years of war
1989 _ Voyager 2 begins a flyby of the planet Neptune
1991 _ Communist coup is crushed in USSR in two days
2017 _ Next total solar eclipse visible from North America