TODAY IN HISTORY - AUGUST 14TH

1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.

1851 – Doc Holliday, American dentist and poker player (d. 1887) is born.

1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, England.

1891 – Sarah Childress Polk, American wife of James K. Polk, 12th First Lady of the United States (b. 1803) dies.

1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.

1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.

1912 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.

1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km²).

1935 – Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.

1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.

1951 – William Randolph Hearst, American publisher and politician, founded the Hearst Corporation (b. 1863) dies.

1959 – Magic Johnson, American basketball player and coach is born.

1959 – Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.

1962 – Two gunmen hijacked a mail truck in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and made off with $1.5 million.

1966 – Halle Berry, American model, actress, and producer, Miss World United States 1986 is born.

1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.

1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens in London.

1983 – Mila Kunis, Ukrainian-American actress is born.

2003 – A widescale power blackout affects the northeast United States and Canada.

2010 – The first-ever Youth Olympic Games are held in Singapore.

2015 – The US Embassy in Havana, Cuba re-opens after 54 years of being closed when Cuba–United States relations were broken off.