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August 14, FDR signs the Social Security Act – JS
Today is Wednesday, August 14, the 227th day of 2024. There are 139 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, securing income for older Americans and creating a federal unemployment insurance program.
Also on this date:
In 1936, Rainey Bethea was hanged in front of an estimated 20,000 spectators in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, which outlined the two nations’ postwar goals.
In 1945, President Harry S. Truman announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II.
In 1947, Pakistan became independent from British rule.
In 1994, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the terrorist known as ‘Carlos the Jackal’, was captured by French agents in Sudan.
In 1995, Shannon Faulkner officially became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel, South Carolina’s state military college. (Faulkner, however, left the school less than a week later, citing the stress of her trial and her isolation among the male cadets.)
In 1997, an unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing. (McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001.)
In 2009, Charles Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, 60, convicted of attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, was released from a Texas prison hospital after more than three decades behind bars.
In 2016, Usain Bolt became the first athlete to win the 100 meters at three consecutive Olympic Games and took gold at the Summer Games in Rio.
In 2021, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Haiti, reducing thousands of structures to rubble; The earthquake killed more than 2,200 people and injured more than 12,000 others.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Broadway lyricist Lee Adams (“Bye Bye Birdie”) is 100.
- College Football Hall of Famer and NFL quarterback John Brodie is 89.
- Singer Dash Crofts is 84.
- Country singer Connie Smith is 83.
- Comedian-actor Steve Martin is 79.
- Film director Wim Wenders is 79.
- Singer-musician Larry Graham is 78.
- Actor Susan Saint James is 78.
- Author Danielle Steel is 77.
- “Far Side” cartoonist Gary Larson is 74.
- Actor Carl Lumbly is 73.
- Olympic gold medal swimmer Debbie Meyer is 72.
- Actor Jackee Harry is 68.
- NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace is 68.
- Actor Marcia Gay Harden is 65.
- Basketball Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson is 65.
- Singer Sarah Brightman is 64.
- Actor Susan Olsen (TV: “The Brady Bunch”) is 63.
- Actor Halle Berry is 58.
- Golfer Darren Clarke is 56.
- Actor Catherine Bell is 56.
- Actor Mila Kunis is 41.
- Actor Lamorne Morris is 41.
- Former NFL player Tim Tebow is 37.
- Actor Marsai Martin is 20.
Originally published:
