Today in History – 08/21/2011

1680 - The Pueblo Indians drove the Spanish out and took possession of Santa Fe, NM.

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

1841 - A patent for venetian blinds was issued to John Hampton.

1878 - The American Bar Association was formed by a group of lawyers, judges and law professors in Saratoga, NY.

1888 - The adding machine was patented by William Burroughs.

1912 - Arthur R. Eldred became the first American boy to become an Eagle Scout. It is the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.

1940 - Exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky died in Mexico City from wounds that had inflicted by an assassin.

1943 - Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.

1945 - U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped about $50 billion in aid to America's Allies during World War II.

1959 - Hawaii became the 50th state. U.S. President Eisenhower also issued the order for the 50 star flag.

1963 - In South Vietnam, martial law was declared. Army troops and police began to crackdown on the Buddhist anti-government protesters.

1971 - Laura Baugh, at the age of 16, won the United States Women's Amateur Golf tournament. She was the youngest winner in the history of the tournament.

1983 - Philippine politician Benigno Simeon Aquino was assassinated as he deplaned in Manila.

1984 - Victoria Roche, a reserve outfielder, became the first girl to ever compete in a Little League World Series game.

1986 - In Cameroon, a nation in West Africa, toxic gas erupted from a volcanic lake. The gas killed more than 1,700 people.

1987 - A U.S. Marine was convicted for spying for the first time. Sergeant Clayton Lonetree was giving secrets to the KGB while working as a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He served eight years in a military prison.

1988 - An earthquake on the Nepal-India border killed over 1,000 people.

1991 - The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended. The uprising that led to the collapse was led by Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin.

1992 - Randall Weaver, a neo-Nazi leader, opened fire on U.S. marshals from his home in Idaho. Weaver surrendered 11 days later ending the standoff. During the standoff a deputy marshal, Weaver's wife and his son were killed.

1997 - Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it had recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in U.S. history.

1998 - Samuel Bowers, a 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klan leader, was convicted in Hattiesburg, MS, of ordering a firebombing that killed civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer in 1966.