Today<$> is Wednesday, August 21, the 233rd day of 2002. There are 132 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1680, Pueblo Indians took possession of Santa Fe, New Mexico, after driving out the Spanish.

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

In 1858, the famous debates between US Senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas began.

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

In 1944, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China opened talks at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington that helped pave the way for establishment of the United Nations.

In 1945, President Truman ended the Lend-Lease programme that had shipped some $50 billion in aid to America’s allies during the SecondWorld War.

In 1986, more than 1,700 people died when toxic gas erupted from a volcanic lake in the West African nation of Cameroon.

In 1991, the hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

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