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MOMENTS IN TIME #12345_20260803  
FOR RELEASE Aug. 3, 2026
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* On Aug. 17, 1579, Francois, Duke of Alencon and Anjou, visited Queen Elizabeth I of England with the design of winning her hand in marriage -- the only suitor to court her in person. He was 23 and Elizabeth 45. Though they became quite close, the queen's subjects heartily disapproved of the idea of a French king, and two years later Elizabeth declined the proposal with what appears to have been genuine regret. She remained single for the rest of her life.
* On Aug. 18, 1826, Scottish explorer Alexander Gordon Laing made his way across the Sahara and became the first European to reach the fabled trading city of Timbuktu. Merely weeks after leaving it, he was murdered in his sleep by his own Arab escorts.
* On Aug. 19, 1914, Elmer Rice's courtroom drama "On Trial" debuted at New York City's Candler Theatre. It ran for 365 performances and became famous for pioneering the use of the cinematic "flashback" and reverse chronology on stage.
* On Aug. 20, 1957, the U.S. Air Force's ultra-high balloon flight Project Manhigh broke the existing altitude record by reaching 101,516 feet over Minnesota and South Dakota with physician and scientist David G. Simons in an aluminum capsule suspended from a helium balloon. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the achievement.
* On Aug. 21, 1980, the animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was incorporated in a basement office in Takoma Park, Maryland.
* On Aug. 22, 1992, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi, while aiming at a fleeing suspect, shot and killed Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Weaver was unarmed and holding her infant daughter behind the door of her cabin. Horiuchi was initially charged with manslaughter but the charges were dismissed.
* On Aug. 23, 2018, the discovery of a bone from a 90,000-year-old hybrid human, half Neanderthal, half Denisovan and thought to be a girl of at least 13 years old, from Anuy River, Siberia, was published in Nature magazine.
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