12 August: America's Ever-Expanding Empire Expands; Silver Beetles Dump Drummer, IBM Introduces "5150."

By The Associated Press, 24 mins ago, & the UPI Almanac. Today is Wednesday, Aug. 12, the 224th day of 2009. There are 141 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 12, 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500, first opened.On this date: In 1851, Isaac Singer was granted a patent on his sewing machine. In 1859, poet and English professor Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to "America the Beautiful," was born in Falmouth, Mass. In 1867, President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. In 1880, Baseball Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson was born in Factoryville, Pa. In 1898, fighting in the Spanish-American War came to an end. Hawai'i was formally annexed to the United States. In 1944, during World War II, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England. In 1953, the Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb. In 1960, the first balloon satellite — the Echo 1 — was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral. In 1962, one day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely Aug. 15. In 1973, Jack Nicklaus won the Professional Golfers' Association championship for his 14th major title, surpassing Bobby Jones' record of 13 majors. He won 18 major tournaments in his career. In 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating and then touching down in California's Mojave Desert. Astronaut Gordon Fullerton, pilot of the Enterprise, is "elated." In 1978, Pope Paul VI, who had died Aug. 6 at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica. In 1981, IBM introduced its first personal computer, the model 5150.

In 1984, the 23rd Olympic Games ended in Los Angeles with a record attendance of 5.5 million people despite a Soviet-led boycott. In 1985, the world's worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people. Ten years ago: Los Angeles County prosecutors charged white supremacist Buford O. Furrow with murder and five counts of attempted murder, all filed as hate crimes, in the wounding of five people at a Jewish community center and the shooting death of a Filipino-American mail carrier. (Federal prosecutors also charged Furrow in the postman's slaying.) In 2000, the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. Five years ago: In a stunning declaration, New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation and acknowledged that he'd had an extramarital affair with another man. The California Supreme Court voided nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco between February 12 and March 11, 2004. In 2007, a gunman opened fire in the sanctuary of a southwest Missouri church, killing a pastor and two worshippers. (Eiken Elam Saimon was sentenced to three life sentences without parole.) One year ago: Declaring "the aggressor has been punished," the Kremlin ordered a halt to Russia's devastating assault on Georgia — five days of air and ground attacks that had left homes in smoldering ruins and uprooted 100,000 people. Michael Phelps won the 200-meter freestyle for his third gold medal at the Beijing Games. The Archdiocese of Chicago announced a settlement with 16 people who had been sexually abused by Catholic priests, agreeing to pay them a total of $12.7 million. Today's Birthdays: Former Senator Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., is 84. Actor George Hamilton is 70. Actress Dana Ivey is 68. Actress Jennifer Warren is 68. Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 60. Singer Kid Creole is 59. Jazz musician Pat Metheny is 55. Actor Sam J. Jones is 55. Actor Bruce Greenwood is 53. Country singer Danny Shirley is 53. Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club) is 48. Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is 46.Actor Peter Krause is 44. Tennis player Pete Sampras is 38. Actor-comedian Michael Ian Black is 38. Actress Rebecca Gayheart is 38. Actor Casey Affleck is 34. Rock musician Bill Uechi (Save Ferris) is 34. Former NBA all-star Antoine Walker is 33. Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress is 32. Canada women's hockey star Hayley Wickenheiser is 31. Actress Maggie Lawson is 29. Actress Dominique Swain is 29. Today In Entertainment History -- On August 12th, 1960, the Silver Beetles recruited drummer Pete Best. The band later became The Beatles, and Best was dropped in favor of Ringo Starr.

In 1966, John Lennon apologized at a news conference for his remark that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. That same day, The Beatles started their last North American tour, in Chicago.In 1967, Fleetwood Mac made its first appearance, at the London National Jazz and Blues Festival. In 1982, actor Henry Fonda died at the age of 77. In 1988, the controversial movie "The Last Temptation of Christ" opened in nine cities, despite objections by some Christians that the film was sacrilegious in its treatment of Jesus. In 1992, avant-garde composer John Cage died in New York at age 79. The Red Hot Chili Peppers replaced guitarist Arik Marshall with Jesse Tobias, who was replaced by Dave Navarro three months later. In 1994, Woodstock '94 was held in Saugerties, New York. About 350,000 people saw the show, which included mudfights during Green Day's and Nine Inch Nails' sets and the Red Hot Chili Peppers dressed as human light bulbs. In 1997, a Long Island handyman was arrested for impersonating John Ford Coley, of England Dan and John Ford Coley. In 2007, crooner, talk show host and game show producer Merv Griffin died at age 82. Thought for Today: "Wisdom is born, stupidity is learned." — Russian proverb.