August 14: This Day in History

Featured Fact, 1846:
At a protest against the Mexican War and the spread of slavery, Henry David Thoreau refuses to pay a federal tax. He is jailed for one night, and thereafter writes his influential essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience," which helped shape the philosophies of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela.

Also Today:
1824: General Lafayette, now almost 70 years old, returns to tour the U.S. he helped to create; he is treated like a demigod everywhere he visits.
1873: The first issue of "Field & Stream" magazine is published.
1942: Dwight D. Eisenhower is named commander of the Allied forces for the invasion of North Africa.
1945: The Japanese government agrees to surrender unconditionally to the Allies; Emperor Hirohito urges his people to accept the government's decision to sue for peace.
1973: The U.S. ends its secret bombing of Cambodia.
1980: The Democratic Party, meeting in New York City, nominates Jimmy Carter for president and Walter Mondale for vice president.
1995: Shannon Faulkner becomes the first woman to enroll at the Citadel, a military academy that fiercely resisted opening its doors to women.

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