Astronauts carry out first emergency repair spacewalk

Aug. 3 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain, seeking a western route to India, with a convoy of three small ships — the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria — and fewer than 100 crew. They reached land at Guanahani, an island in the Caribbean, on Oct. 12.

In 1914, Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium. The following day, Britain declared war on Germany and World War I was underway.

In 1923, by the dim light of a flickering oil lamp in a little farmhouse at Plymouth, Vt., his birthplace, Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office as president of the United States following the unexpected death President Warren G. Harding.

In 1943, Gen. George Patton slapped Private Charles Kuhl, who was in a military hospital in Sicily. Kuhl was the first of two privates hospitalized for shock that Patton slapped and berated that month, accusing them of cowardice. The general was later forced to apologize.

In 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus crossed under the North Pole.

In 1975, a chartered Boeing 707 jetliner carrying Moroccan immigrant workers home from France to their families for the summer holidays crashed into a mountainside in Agadir, Morocco, killing all 188 persons aboard.

In 1981, U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike. The strikers were fired within one week.

In 2004, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor was opened to the public for the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

In 2005, in the first emergency repair conducted in space, astronauts fixed a potentially dangerous problem by removing two strips of protruding cloth from the underside of the space shuttle Discovery.

In 2007, the U.S. Congress passed a bill allowing the National Security Agency to monitor email and telephone communications between the United States and foreign countries without a court warrant if terrorism was believed to be involved.

In 2008, People magazine published the first photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s newborn twins, Vivienne and Knox, after paying up to $14 million, the most ever paid for baby pictures.

In 2014, an earthquake in southern China’s Yunnan province killed nearly 400 people, injured 1,800 and destroyed thousands of homes.

In 2019, a gunman targeting immigrants opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people and injuring another 22.

In 2024, American swimmers Nic Fink, Torri Huske, Ryan Murphy and Gretchen Walsh set a new world record time of 3:37:43 in the mixed 4×100-meter medley relay at the Paris Summer Olympics. Team USA won gold, China won silver and Australia took home bronze in the race.