^{Harry Houdini preparing to perform his Overboard Box Escape (Credit: Bain News Service, LoC ggbain.50100)}

Today in History

• Scottish resister William Wallace is captured near Glasgow by English forces (1305)
• The first English colony in North America is established at what is now St. John’s Newfoundland (1583)
• The Mayflower departs England (1620)
• Newspaper reporter John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor on the grounds that what he wrote was true (1735)
• The British admiralty rules that the electric telegraph is “wholly unnecessary”  because they already had the semaphore (1816)
• The first transatlantic telegraph cable is completed, although it operates for less than a month (1858)
• The US government levies the first income tax to help pay for the American Civil War. The tax is 3% of incomes over $800 ($20,750 in 2016 dollars). The tax is rescinded in 1872 (1861)
• The US Army abolishes flogging (1861)
• The Civil War Battle of Mobile Bay begins (1864)
• Standard Oil of New Jersey is established (1882)
• The cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty is placed (1884)
• The first long-distance automobile trip (121 miles/194 kilometers) takes place in what is now memorialized as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (1888)
• The first official world record for the long jump is established: 24 feet, 11.75 inches (7.6 meters) (1901)
• The first electric traffic light is installed in Cleveland, Ohio (1914)
• Harry Houdini spends 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping (1926)
• The television series American Bandstand premiers (1957)
• Nelson Mandela is jailed, and will not be released for 28 years (1962)
• The first Indo-Pakistani War begins (1965)
• US President Ronald Reagan fires striking air traffic controllers (1981)

Birthdays

• Guy de Maupassant, author (1850)
• Joseph Merrick, the “Elephant Man” (1862)
• Conrad Aiken, author (1889)
• John Huston, filmmaker (1906)
• Robert Taylor, actor (1911)
• Neil Armstrong, first man on the Moon (1930)
• Loni Anderson, actress (1945)
• Rick Derringer, singer-songwriter (1947)
• David Baldacci, author (1960)
• Patrick Ewing, basketball player (1962)
• Adam Yauch, rapper, member of the Beastie Boys (1964)

Deaths

• Friedrich Engels, philosopher, co-author of The Communist Manifesto (1895)
• Bob Caruthers, baseball player (1911)
• Carmen Miranda, actress (1955)
• Edgar Guest, poet (1959)
• Marilyn Monroe, actress and model (1962)
• Judy Canova, actress and comedian (1983)
• Soichiro Honda, founded Honda (1991)
• Alec Guinness, actor (2000)
• Polina Astakhova, gymnast (2005)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Independence Day (Burkina Faso)
• National Oyster Day (US)
• National Underwear Day (US)
• Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders (Croatia)

August 5 is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years). There are 148 days remaining until the end of the year.