On This Day for August 5 - Independence declared by Upper Volta, Marilyn Monroe is featured, and more

This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, click here to view. August 05 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Marilyn Monroe READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1960 Independence declared by Upper Volta READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2019: American writer Toni Morrison, who earned a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 for novels that examine the Black experience (particularly Black female experience) within the Black community, died at age 88. [ Test your knowledge of Nobel laureates in literature.] 2019: Continued antigovernment protests and a general strike brought Hong Kong to a near standstill; among the demonstrators' demands were universal suffrage and investigations into allegations of police brutality. 2011: Thai businesswoman and politician Yingluck Shinawatra was elected prime minister of Thailand, becoming the first woman to hold that post. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Thailand.] 2010: Thirty-three workers became trapped after a mine in the Atacama Desert of Chile collapsed, and the resulting rescue took 69 days, attracting international attention. [ Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Chile.] 1981: U.S. President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who were on strike. [Take our quiz about U.S. presidents.] 1957: Dick Clark's American Bandstand, a TV show in which performers lip-synched their latest songs and the teenage audience danced, began airing nationally. [Test your knowledge of pop culture.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1930 Neil Armstrong American astronaut 1968 Marine Le Pen French politician 1862 Joseph Merrick British medical patient 1964 Adam Nathaniel Yauch American musician and rapper 1906 John Huston American director, writer, and actor 1850 Guy de Maupassant French writer SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY   Advertisement   FOLLOW: To unsubscribe from Britannica e-mails, click here. Encyclopædia Britannica 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 United States © 2020 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Privacy Policy • Help