Friday, August 17, 2012

TODAY IN HISTORY


AUGUST 17

 1962:Eighteen-year-old Peter Fechter is gunned down while trying to scale the newly erected Berlin Wall to escape East Berlin. He is left to bleed to death beside the wall, one of the first individuals to die while attempting to flee into West Berlin.

1933: New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig sets a new Major League Baseball record for playing in 1,308 consecutive games, breaking Everett Scott's record. Gehrig would go on to play in 2,130 consecutive games, a mark that would stand for more than 50 years until broken by Cal Ripken Jr.

1959: Trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis and his ensemble release Kind of Blue on Columbia Records. It would become certified quadruple-platinum and the best-selling jazz album of all time.

1982: CD's first released in Germany

1907:Pike Place Market in Seattle first opens

1960:Decolonization: West African country of Gabon: independence from France.

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