MOMENTS IN TIME - Aug. 19, 2010

The History Channel

* On Aug. 20, 1804, Sgt. Charles Floyd dies three months into the voyage of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, becoming the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during the journey. Based on the symptoms described by Lewis and Clark, modern physicians have concluded that Floyd was probably suffering from acute appendicitis.

• On Aug. 19, 1812, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, known as “Old Ironsides,” catches the British warship Guerrière some 600 miles east of Boston. After considerable maneuvering, the Constitution delivered its first broadside. The British man-of-war was dismasted and rendered a wreck, while the Constitution escaped with only minimal damage.

• On Aug. 21, 1911, theft of the Mona Lisa is discovered. Investigators and detectives searched for the painting for more than two years without finding any decent leads. In 1913, former employee Vincenzo Perugia was captured attempting to collect a ransom.

• On Aug. 22, 1933, the notorious Barker gang robs a Federal Reserve mail truck in Chicago and kills Officer Miles Cunningham. Netting only a bunch of worthless checks, the Barkers soon returned to a crime with which they had more success — kidnapping. Their first victim, William Hamm, had earned the gang $100,000 in ransom.

• On Aug. 18, 1958, Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel “Lolita” is published in the U.S. The novel, about a man’s obsession with a 12-year-old girl, had been rejected by four publishers before G.P. Putnam’s Sons accepted it.

• On Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis Presley dies in Memphis, Tenn. He was 42. The death of the “King of Rock and Roll” brought legions of mourning fans to Graceland, his mansion in Memphis. Doctors said he died of a heart attack, likely brought on by his addiction to prescription barbiturates.

• On Aug. 17, 1987, Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s former deputy, is found strangled to death in Spandau Prison in Berlin at the age of 93, apparently the victim of suicide. Hess was the last surviving member of Hitler’s inner circle and the sole prisoner at Spandau since 1966.

(c) 2010 King Features Synd., Inc.