Today in HistoryToday is Monday, August 21, the 233rd day of 2006. There are 132 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1831, former slave Nat Turner led a violent insurrection in Virginia. (He was later executed.)

In 1940, exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky died in Mexico City from axe wounds inflicted by an assassin.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man.” — Leon Trotsky (1879-1940).