1 of 4 | On Aug. 22, 1922, Michael Collins, a founder of the Irish Republican Army and a key figure in Ireland’s independence movement, was assassinated by political opponents. File Photo courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica
Aug. 22 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1851, the U.S.-built schooner America outran a fleet of Britain’s finest ships around England’s Isle of Wight in an international race that became known as the America’s Cup.
In 1881, American humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the National Red Cross.
In 1922, Michael Collins, a founder of the Irish Republican Army and a key figure in Ireland’s independence movement, was assassinated by political opponents.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI arrived in Colombia, becoming the first pontiff to visit South America.
In 1986, Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of nuclear industry worker Karen Silkwood more than $1 million, ending a 10-year legal battle waged by her family over her exposure to radioactive materials at the company’s Oklahoma plant.
In 2004, two masked robbers stole Edvard Munch’s The Scream and another painting from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. They were found about two years later and put back on display in 2008. The Scream had been stolen once before, 10 years earlier, but was recovered within three months.
File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
In 2005, the last Jewish settlers moved peacefully out of the Gaza Strip after carrying Torah scrolls down the main street of Netzarim, last of 21 settlements to be evacuated.
In 2006, Pulkovo Airlines Flight 612 crashed near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing 171 people.
In 2011, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington opened to the public. The $120 million memorial, 25 years in the making, is on a four-acre site on the National Mall.
In 2017, India’s Supreme Court declared the “instant divorce” practice among the nation’s Muslim population to be unconstitutional.
In 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Singapore, her first visit to Asia as VP, to discuss issues of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain concerns with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Shien Loong.
Vice President Kamala Harris gives a statement with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office in Washington, D.C., on March 29, 2022. File Photo by Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg
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