* On Aug. 11, 1806, while hunting for elk along the Missouri River, Meriwether Lewis was accidentally shot by one of his own men, likely Private Pierre Cruzatte, though Cruzatte, who was blind in one eye and nearsighted in the other, denied it. Historians suspect he mistook the leather-clad Lewis for an elk. Lewis made a full recovery.
* On Aug. 12, 1994, Major League Baseball players went on a strike that lasted for 232 days and caused the cancellation of that year’s World Series for the first time in 90 years.
* On Aug. 13, 1941, Henry Ford displayed his “Soybean Car,” the plastic body of which was partially composed of the legumes. It weighed half as much as a steel-bodied car and Ford claimed it was safer, but the model never actually went into production.
* On Aug. 14, 1985, the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, bought the publishing rights to the vast majority of the Beatles’ catalog for a cool $47 million. After his death, Sony, one of his primary creditors, assumed full control of the catalog.
* On Aug. 15, 1950, Princess Anne, the second child and only daughter of England’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, was born. She has long been widely admired for her seemingly tireless work ethic (she does not plan to retire until she’s 90) and involvement with more than 300 charities, as well as her general practicality and reliability.
* On Aug. 16, 1987, a plane crash at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan killed 156 people, including Nick Vanos, a center for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, and left just one survivor, 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan of Tempe, Arizona. The accident was determined to have been caused by pilot error, with speculation that the pilots might have been rushing their pre-flight checks to avoid incoming bad weather.
* On Aug. 17, 1977, the day after Elvis Presley died, FTD delivered more than 3,100 floral arrangements, not only cleaning out Memphis-area florists, but setting a record for the most flowers sold in America in just one day.
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