This day in history - August 21

[seamusTX]

1831 - Nat Turner began a violent slave rebellion in Virginia that led to the deaths of nearly all involved and quite a few who weren't.

1858 - The first Lincoln-Douglas debate took place in Ottawa, Illinois. The two men were campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois.

1959 - Hawaii formally became a state.

1983 - Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated upon returning from the U.S. The outrage over his assassination never died. Three years later, Marcos and his wife fled, and Aquino's widow Corazon became president.

1991 - The attempted coup against USSR President Mikhail Gobachev collapsed. Russian President Boris Yeltsin emerged with tremendous popularity and political capital.

He failed to make good use of it. Maybe no one could have.

- Jim