THIS DAY @ LAW

Former East Germany leader

On August 25, 1997, Egon Krenz, the former of East Germany was convicted of

Five executed for witchcraft in Salem

On August 19, 1692, 5 people - four men and a woman - were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Learn more about the Salem Witch Trials.

USSR sentences US pilot to 10 years for espionage

On August 19, 1960, US spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10-years in prison by the Soviet Union after being convicted of espionage. Powers was captured and tried by the USSR after his U-2 was shot down while flying a mission over Soviet airspace. In 1962, Powers was returned to the US as part of a prisoner-exchange agreement.
Read documents about Francis Gary Powers from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and learn more about the spy-plane incident from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.