August 19th, 1991:
In the Soviet Union, Communist hardliners announced that Mikhail Gorbachev had been removed from power.
But the coup against Gorbachev during his vacation collapsed days later.
The Soviet Union dissolved by the end of the year.
1934:
Voters in Germany overwhelmingly ratified Adolf Hitler's powers as their fuhrer, or absolute ruler.
A plebiscite capped the Nazi leader's rise to power, a path that led to World War II and the Holocaust.
1960:
During the Cold War, a Soviet tribunal convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
Powers was sentenced to 10 years in jail, but was exchanged for a Soviet spy as a quid pro quo nearly 2 years later.
1906:
Philo T. Farnsworth, one of the pioneering inventors of television, was born in Beaver County, Utah.
1977:
"One morning I saw an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas? I dunno."
Comedian Groucho Marx, star of silver screen, radio and TV, passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 86.
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