August 1st, 1966Charles Whitman goes on a shooting rampage at the University of Texas clock tower in Austin. With a high-powered rifle, he kills fourteen people and wounds nearly three dozen others, hours after murdering his wife and mother. The killing ends when police gun down Whitman, ninety minutes after the siege at the clock tower began.

1914Europe's major powers take another fateful step into World War I, as Germany declares war on Russia.

1936Nazi Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler opens the Berlin Olympics. Hitler hopes to use the Games as a showcase for his ideology of racial superiority. But American athlete Jesse Owens shatters that dream, by winning four gold medals. 1944An uprising breaks out in Warsaw against Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland during World War II. The two-month revolt takes place a year after a failed uprising by Warsaw's Jews to resist being sent to a Nazi death camp. 1819Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, the tale of the great white whale, is born in New York City. And 1981"Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll."MTV, the channel that put music videos on the pop culture map, debuts on cable.

Today in History, August 1st, Mike Gracia, the Associated Press.