August 30 in history:

Lincoln and Booth were together every week in the ’60s…the 1960s. On your TV screen.  Raymond Massey…famous for playing Abraham Lincoln on stage and film…portrayed Dr. Gillespie on “Dr. Kildare.” NBC followed “Kildare” on Thursday nights with ”Hazel,” starring Shirley Booth.  The two shows debuted on the same night in 1961, and remained together on the NBC schedule until “Hazel” moved to CBS in 1965.  Both stars were born on August 30th…Massey in 1896, and Booth in 1898.

There was no “booth,” but a famous telephone was installed at the White House on August 30th, 1963.  It was the first hotline between Washington and the Kremlin, designed to help communications between East and West and avoid international incidents.  It wasn’t a direct phone line between the U.S. president and the Soviet leader.  The Pentagon acted as a go-between.

George Washington got a message, a peace offer, from a British general on this date in 1776.  General William Howe offered to let Washington and his army escape from Brooklyn Heights before a possible British attack.  Washington rejected the offer, and sent it to the Continental Congress.