Today is Thursday, Aug. 26, the 239th day of 2004. There are 127 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Aug. 26, 1920, the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was declared in effect.

On this date:

In 55 B.C., Roman forces under Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

In 1883, the island volcano Krakatoa began erupting with increasingly large explosions.

In 1939, the first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS – a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the first game, 5-2, the Dodgers the second, 6-1.

In 1957, the Soviet Union announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.

In 1961, the official International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.

In 1964, 40 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the Democratic national convention in Atlantic City, N.J.

In 1972, the summer Olympics games opened in Munich, West Germany.

In 1974, Charles Lindbergh – the first man to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic – died at his home in Hawaii at age 72.

In 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff took the name Pope John Paul I.

In 1986, in the so-called “preppie murder” case, 18-year-old Jennifer Levin was found strangled in New York’s Central Park; Robert Chambers later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Ten years ago: Congressional leaders and White House officials all but conceded that a health reform bill was dead for the year.

Five years ago: Attorney General Janet Reno pledged that a new investigation of the 1993 Waco, Texas, siege would “get to the bottom” of how the FBI used potentially flammable tear gas grenades against her wishes and then took six years to admit it.

One year ago: In the face of criticism, President Bush defended his handling of the war and reconstruction of Iraq, telling an American Legion conference in St. Louis the fight was essential to the U.S. campaign against terrorism. Investigators concluded that NASA’s overconfident management and inattention to safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as did damage to the craft.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Washington Post Executive Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee is 83. Author Ben J. Wattenberg is 71. Former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro is 69. Singer Vic Dana is 62. Pop singer Bob Cowsill is 55. Actor Brett Cullen is 48. Jazz musician Branford Marsalis is 44. Country musician Jimmy Olander (Diamond Rio) is 43. Actor Chris Burke is 39. Rock musician Dan Vickery (Counting Crowes) is 38. Rock musician Adrian Young (No Doubt) is 35. Actress Melissa McCarthy (“Gilmore Girls”) is 34. Actor Macaulay Culkin is 24.

Thought for Today: “Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded.” – Virginia Woolf, English author and critic (1882-1941).