Today in History - History - August 26th

1498Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà.

1971Bobby Orr signs a five-year contract with the Boston Bruins worth one million dollars, the first million dollar contract in NHL history

1972Leo Durocher replaces Harry Walker as manager of Astros

1907Harry Houdini escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 sec

1984Betsy King wins LPGA Columbia Savings Golf Classic

1996"7th Heaven", starring Jessica Biel, debuts on The WB

1979Beth Daniel wins LPGA Patty Berg Golf Classic

1962Mickey Wright wins LPGA Salt Lake City Golf Open

1990Beth Daniel wins LPGA Northgate Golf Classic

1996President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in US welfare policy

1921Ben Bradlee, Boston, editor/journalist/executive (Washington Post)

1980Macaulay Culkin, NYC, actor (Home Alone, My Girl, Richie Rich)

1845Mary Ann Nichols, English victim of Jack the Ripper (d. 1888)

1910Mother Teresa, [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], Skopje Ottoman Empire, nun and Founder of Missionaries of Charity (Nobel Peace Prize 1979)

1965Mobster and nbi informant Henry Hill (22) weds Karen Friedman in North Carolina

1926Poet Arna Bontemps (24) weds fellow Seventh-Day Adventist Alberta Johnson

1910William James, American psychologist and philosopher (Pragmatism), dies at 68

1937Andrew W. Mellon, American banker, industrialist and Secretary of the Treasury (1921-32), dies at 82