August
1st 1774 Priestly discovers oxygen
1831 London Bridge opens
1876 Colorado becomes 38th State
1958 1st class postage goes up to 4¢ (was 3¢ for 26 years)
1960 Chubby Checker releases "The Twist"
1966 Charles Whitman shoots 12 people from UT tower
1972 1st Watergate article
Birthdays:
1779 Francis Scott Key (Star Spangled Banner) Maryland
1819 Herman Melville (author - Moby Dick)
1933 Dom DeLuise (comedian/actor) Brooklyn, NY
1936 Yves Saint-Laurent (fashion designer)
1942 Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) San Francisco
2nd 1375 1st roller skating rink opens (London)
1776 Formal signing of the Declaration of Independence
1909 1st Lincoln head pennies minted
1943 PT-109 rammed & sunk
1964 North Vietnam fires on a US destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin
Birthdays:
1905 Myrna Loy (actress) Montana
1922 Carroll O'Connor (actor - All in the Family, Heat of the Night) NYC
1932 Peter O'Toole (actor) Ireland
3rd 1958 Nautilus travels under North Pole
Birthdays:
1900 Ernie Pyle (WW II correspondant)
1905 Dolores Del Rio (actress) Mexico
1920 P.D. James (mystery writer)
1923 Anne Klein (fashion designer)
1924 Leon Uris (novelist)
1926 Tony Bennett (singer) NY
1941 Martha Stewart
1952 Jay North (actor - Dennis the Menance)
4th 1693 Dom Perignon invents champagn
1790 Coast Guard Day - honoring its establishment on this day in 1790
1830 Plans for the city of Chicago laid out
1916 US agrees to buy Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million
1944 Anne Frank, 15, is arrested by Nazis
1977 Pres. Carter establishes Dept of Energy
Birthdays:
1755 Nicolas-Jacque Conte (inventor of the modern pencil)
1792 Percy Bysshe Shelley (poet) England
1901 Louis Armstrong (musician) New Orleans
1944 Richard Belzer (comedian/actor - Law & Order)
1955 Billy Bob Thornton (actor, singer - "Sling Blade") Ark.
5th 1861 US Army abolishes flogging
1861 US levies 1st income tax (3% on incomes over $800)
1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, Ala: Adm. David Farragut orders "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
1884 Cornerstone laid for Statue of Liberty on Bedloes Island
1914 1st traffic light installed (Euclid Ave. & E 105th St, Cleveland)
1921 1st radio broadcast of baseball game
1945 Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Aug 6 in Japan)
1957 "American Bandstand" goes on network TV (ABC)
1962 Marilyn Monroe's found dead of apparent drug overdose
1966 Martin Luther King Jr. stoned during Chicago march
Birthdays:
1906 John Huston (director/writer)
1930 Neil Armstrong (astronaut) Ohio
1962 Patrick Ewing (NBA center) Kingston, Jamaica
6th 1890 1st use of the electric chair in US (John Hart in NY for murder)
1914 Austria-Hungary declares war against Russia
Birthdays:
1809 Alfred Lord Tennyson (poet laureate Eng)
1881 Sir Alexander Fleming (penicillin) (Nobel Prize 1954)
1911 Lucille Ball (actress) Jamestown, NY
1917 Robert Mitchum (actor) Bridgeport, CT
1927 Andy Warhol (artist)
7th 1782 George Washington creates Order of the Purple Heart
1789 US War Dept established
1882 Hatfields of south WV & McCoys of east KY feud, 100 wounded or killed
1942 1st US offensive in Pacific WWII - Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
1959 Explorer VI tranmits 1st TV photo of Earth from Space
Birthdays:
1876 Mata Hari (dancer/courtesan/spy WWI)
1885 Billie Burke (actress - Glenda the Good Witch) Washington, DC
1942 Garrison Keillor (author/PBS radio personality - Prairie Home Companion)
8th 1709 1st known ascent in hot-air balloon
1844 Brigham Young chosen head of Mormon Church following death of Joseph Smith
1876 Thomas Edison patents mimeograph
1918 6 US soldiers are surrounded by Germans in France, Alvin York shoots 20 Germans and
captures 132 more
1929 German airship Graf Zeppelin begins round-the-world flight
1940 Battle of Britain begins as Germany launches air attacks
1942 6 convicted Nazi saboteurs who landed in US executed in Washington, DC
1945 Pres. Truman signs UN Charter
Birthdays:
1884 Sara Teasdale (poet - 1st Pulitzer Prize-1918 "Love Songs") US
1923 Esther Williams (swimmer/actress) Inglewood, CA
1932 Mel Tillis (country singer/stutterer)
1937 Dustin Hoffman (actor)
1938 Connie Stevens (singer/actress)
9th 1778 Capt Cook passes through Bering Strait
1786 1st ascent of Mt. Blanc
1842 US-Canada border defined by Webster-Ashburton Treaty
1854 Henry David Thoreau publishes "Walden"
1930 Betty Boop makes her first appearance in "Dizzy Dishes"
1936 Jesse Owens wins 4th gold medal at Berlin Olympics
1945 US drops second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki
1969 Sharon Tate (actress) killed by Charles Manson's gang
1974 Richard Nixon resigns presidency, Gerald Ford becomes 38th President
Birthdays:
1938 Rod Laver (tennis ace) Australia
1957 Melanie Griffith (actress) NYC
10th 1792 Mobs in Paris attack the palace of Louis XVI
1821 Missouri admitted as 24th State
1833 Chicago incorporates as a village of about 200
1846 Congress charters the Smithsonian Institution
1966 1st lunar orbiter launched by US
1977 Son of Sam" arrested in Yonkers, NY
1990 US's Magellan spacecraft lands on Venus
Birthdays:
1928 Eddie Fisher (singer) Phildelphia, PA
1928 Jimmy Dean (actor/singer/sausage maker) Texas
1940 Bobby Hatfield (singer - Righteous Brothers) Wisc.
1942 Betsy Johnson (fashion designer)
1943 Ronnie Spector [Veronica Bennett] (singer)
1959 Rosanna Arquette (actress) NYC
11th 1866 World's 1st Roller Rink opens in Newport, RI
1919 Green Bay Packers football club founded
1929 Babe Ruth becomes 1st to hit 500 homers
1965 6 day riot starts in Watts
Birthdays:
1902 Lloyd Nolan (actor) San Francisco, CA [starred with Mae West in "Every Day's a Holiday"
1921 Alex Haley (author - Roots)
1925 Mike Douglas (talk show host) Chicago, IL
1933 Jerry Falwell (televangelist)
1950 Steve Wozniak (co-founder Apple Computer; Dancing with the Stars)
1953 Hulk Hogan [Terry Bollea] (wrestler WWF) Georgia
12th 1851 Isaac Singer granted patent for his sewing machine
1955 Pres. Eisenhower raises minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour
Birthdays:
1859 Katherine Lee Bates (author "America the Beautiful")
1867 Edith Hamilton (writer - "Mythology")
1881 Cecil B deMille (director) Mass.
1912 Jane Wyatt (actress - Father Knows Best) Campgaw, NJ
1927 Ralph Waite (actor - The Waltons) White Plains, NY
1929 Buck Owens (singer) Sherman, TX
1931 William Goldman (author - Lord of the Flies - Nobel Prize 1983)
1932 Porter Wagoner (country singer)
1939 George Hamilton (actor) Memphis, TN
13th 1961 Construction begins on Berlin Wall
Birthdays:
1860 Annie Oakley (frontierswoman) Drake, OH
1899 Alfred Hitchcock (director) London
1912 Ben Hogan (PGA golfer) Dublin, TX
1927 Fidel Castro
1930 Don Ho (singer/ukulele player) Hawaii
1951 Dan Fogelberg (rock singer) Peoria, IL
1959 Danny Bonaduce (actor; Danny - Partridge Family)
14th 1846 Henry David Thoreau jailed for tax resistance
1935 Social Security Act becomes law
1945 V-J Day; Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WWII
1947 India granted independence within British Commonwealth
Birthdays:
1774 Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark Expedition) Charlottsville, VA
1867 John Galsworthy (author Nobel Prize 1932 - Forsythe Saga) England
1903 John Ringling (circus director)
1941 David Crosby (rock star - Crosby, Stills & Nash)
1945 Steve Martin (comedian) Waco, TX
1958 Earvin (Magic) Johnson (NBA star)
15th 1935 Wiley Post & Will Rogers killed in plane crash in Alaska
1939 Wizard of Oz" premiers at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood
1963 Woodstock Music & Art Fair opens in NY State
Birthdays:
1769 Napoleon Bonaparte
1771 Sir Walter Scott (novelist/poet) Scotland
1879 Ethel Barrymore (actress) Philadelphia
1887 Edna Ferber (writer) Michigan
1888 T. E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) Wales
1912 Julia Child (chef) California
1944 Linda Ellerbee (newscaster) Bryan, TX
1950 Princess Anne (daughter of Queen Elizabeth II)
16th 1620 Mayflower sets sail with 102 Pilgrims
1863 Emancipation Proclamation signed
1898 Roller coaster patented
1954 Sports Illustrated publishes its 1st issue
Birthdays:
1897 Robert Ringling (circus master)
1925 Fess Parker (actor - Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Old Yeller) Ft. Worth, TX
1930 Frank Gifford (NFL halfback & sportscaster) Calif.
1930 Robert Culp (actor - I Spy) Berkley, CA
1945 Suzanne Farrell (ballerina)
1953 Kathie Lee Gifford (talk show host)
1958 Madonna (singer) Bay City, MI
1960 Timothy Hutton (actor)
17th 1870 1st ascent of Mt. Rainier, Wash.
1933 Lou Gehrig breaks record by playing his 1,308th straight game
1939 Wizard of Oz" opens in NY
Birthdays:
1786 Davy Crockett (frontiersman/politician)
1893 Mae West (actress) Brooklyn, NY
1921 Maureen O'Hara (actress) Dublin, Ireland
1929 Francis Gary Powers (captured by USSR 1959 - U-2 incident)
1943 Robert De Niro (actor) NYC
1960 Sean Penn (actor)
18th 1834 Mt. Vesuvius erupts
1958 Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, published
1958 TV game show scandal investigation begins
1961 Berlin Wall completed
Birthdays:
1587 Virginia Dave (1st Amer. born of Eng. parents)
1834 Marshall Field (founded Chicago based store chain)
1904 Max Factor, Jr. (CEO Max Factor Cosmetics)
1917 Casper Weinberger (US Sec. of Defense 1981-87)
1922 Shelley Winters [Schrift] (actress) St. Louis, MO
1927 Rosalynn Carter (1st Lady) GA
1934 Robert Clemente (baseball player)
1937 Robert Redford (actor) CA
1943 Martin Mull (actor/comedian) Chicago, IL
1952 Patrick Swayze (actor/dancer) Houston, TX
19th 1909 1st Race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Birthdays:
1631 John Dryden (1st poet laureate of England)
1859 Charles Comiskey (Chicago White Sox)
1871 Orville Wright (aviator)
1892 Alfred Lunt (Broadway actor)
1902 Ogden Nash (humorous poet) Rye, NY
1921 Gene Roddenberry (TV Producer - Star Trek)
1931 Willie Shoemaker (jockey)
1946 Bill Clinton (42nd US President)
1948 Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson (aka "Tipper" Gore)
1963 John Stamos (actor)
20th 1781 George Washington begins moving troops south to fight Cornwallis
1896 Dial telephone patented
1911 1st round-the-world telegram sent
1940 Leon Trotsky ice picked by Frank Jackson
Birthdays:
1833 Benjamin Harrison (23rd President) North Bend, OH
1931 Don King (boxing promoter)
1942 Isaac Hayes (musician)
1946 Connie Chung (newcaster)
1948 Robert Plant (rocker)
21st 1858 1st Lincoln-Douglas debate (IL)
1931 Babe Ruth hits his 600th homer
1959 Hawaii becomes 50th State
1965 Gemini V launched into Earth orbit with 2 astronauts
1968 Democratic convention opens in Chicago
1968 Radio Prague announces a soviet led invasion
Birthdays:
1906 William "Count" Basie (musician)
1906 Friz Freleng (animator - Bugs Bunny)
1930 Princess Margaret (sister of Queen Elizabeth II)
1936 Wilt Chamberlain (NBA)
1938 Kenny Rogers (singer)
1959 Jim McMahon (NFL QB)
22nd 1775 King George III proclaims colonies to be in open rebellion
1846 US annexes New Mexico
1910 Japan annexes Korea
1911 Mona Lisa stolen from Louvre
Birthdays:
1862 Claude Debussy (composer)
1893 Dorothy Parker (writer)
1920 Dr. Denton Cooley (heart surgeon -
1st artificial heart transplant)
1920 Ray Bradbury, III (sci-fi author)
1934 Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf
1939 Carl Yastrzemski (Hall of Fame baseball player)
1942 Kathy Lennon (Lennon Sister)
1947 Cindy Williams (Shirley - Laverne & Shirley)
23rd 1617 1st one-way streets established (London)
1889 1st ship-to-shore wireless message received in US
Birthdays:
1785 Oliver Hazard Perry (US Naval hero - "We have met the enemy...")
1912 Gene Kelly (dancer/actor/director) Pittsburgh, PA
1913 Bob Crosby (orchestra leader) Spokane, WA
1930 Vera Miles (actress)
1932 Mark Russell (political satirist) Buffalo, NY
1934 Barbara Eden (actress - I Dream of Jeannie) Tucson, AZ
1949 Rick Springfield (actor/singer) Australia
24th 79 Mt. Vesuvius erupts burying Pompeii & Herculaneum
1814 British sack Washington, DC
1853 1st potato chips prepared by Chef George Crum - Saratoga Springs, NY
1891 Edison patents motion picture camera
1909 Workers start pouring concrete for Panama Canal
1932 1st transcontinental non-stop flight by a woman - Amelia Earhart
1949 NATO established
Birthdays:
1912 Durward Kirby (TV announcer) Indianapolis, IN
1961 Carl Ripkin, Jr. (shortstop)
1965 Marlee Matlin (actress) Illinois
25th 1916 National Park Service established in the Dept of the Interior
1919 1st scheduled passenger service by airplane (Paris-London)
1932 Amelia Earhart completes transcontinental flight
1940 1st parachute wedding
1944 Paris liberated from Nazi occupation
1946 Ben Hogan wins the PGA championship
1950 Pres. Truman orders army to seize control of RR to avert a strike
Birthdays:
1530 Ivan (the Terrible) IV - 1st tsar of Russia
1819 Allan Pinkerton (founded detective agency in Chicago) Glasgow, Scotland
1836 Bret Harte (author) US
1845 Ludwig II (mad king of Bavaria)
1905 Clara Bow (silent movie actress)
1909 Ruby Keeler (dancer/actress) Halifax, NS
1916 Van Johnson (actor) Newport, RI
1918 Leonard Bernstein (conductor/composer/pianist)
1923 Monty Hall (game show host) Winiped, Canada
1930 Sean Connery (actor)
1931 Regis Philbin (TV host)
1949 Gene Simmons (KISS) Queens, NY
26th 1920 19th Amendment passes - women granted right to vote
Birthdays:
1884 Earl Biggers (author "Charlie Chan" detective series)
1906 Dr. Albert B. Sabin (polio vaccine discoverer)
1935 Geraldine Farraro (congresswoman/VP candidate)
1981 Macauley Culkin (actor)
27th 1667 Earliest recorded hurrican in US (Jamestown, VA)
1883 Krakatoa, west of Java, explodes - 1,300 megaton force
1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes "Tarzan"
1966 Francis Chichester begins the 1st solo sail around the world
Birthdays:
1865 Charles Gates Dawes (30th VP, Nobel 1925)
1871 Theodore Dreiser (novelist) US
1882 Samuel Goldwyn (MGM)
1908 Lyndon B Johnson (36th Pres)
1908 Martha Raye (actress) Butte, Mont.
1910 Mother Teresa [Agness Gonxha Bojaxhiu] Yugoslavia (Nobel 1979)
1929 Ira Levin (author "Rosemary's Baby)
1937 Tommy Sands (singer/actor)
1942 Daryl Dragon (Capt & Tennile) Pasadena, CA
1943 Susan "Tuesday" Weld (actress) Weld, NY
28th 1818 Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable (trader, founder of Chicago) dies
1884 1st known photograph of a tornado made near Howard, SD
1907 United Parcel Service begins service in Seattle
1963 Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream speech"
Birthdays:
1749 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (author)
1774 Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (Mother Seton) 1st American Catholic saint
1889 Charles Boyer (actor) France
1921 Nancy Kulp (actress - Jane - Beverly Hillbillies)
1943 David Soul (actor - Starsky & Hutch)
1943 Lou Pinella (baseball player & manager)
1951 Wayne Osmond (Osmond Brothers)
1958 Scott Hamilton (figure skating champion Olympic Gold 1984)
29th 1758 1st Indian reservation established
1885 Gottlieb Daimler receives German patent for a motorcycle
1957 Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957
1958 Air Force Academy opens
Birthdays:
1915 Ingrid Bergman (actress)
1920 Charlie "Bird" Parker (musician)
1923 Sir Richard Attenborough (actor/director)
1924 Dinah Washington (singer) Chicago, IL
1925 Donald O'Connor (dancer/actor) Chicago, IL
1938 Peter Jennings (news anchor) Canada
1939 William Friedkin (director)
1941 Robin Leach (TV host)
1958 Michael Jackson (singer) Gary, IN
30th 30 BC Cleopatra commits suicide
1905 Ty Cobb's 1st major league at bat
1941 Siege of Leningrad by Nazi troops begins during WWII
1945 Hong Kong liberated from Japan
1963 Hot Line link between Washington DC & Moscow begins
1965 Casey Stengel announces retirement after 55 years in baseball
1967 US Senate confirms Thurgood Marshall as 1st black justice
1976 Tom Brokaw becomes news anchor of Today Show
1979 Pres. Carter attacked by a rabbit on a canoe trip to Plains, GA
Birthdays:
1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (author - Frankenstein) London
1871 Ernest Lord Rutherford (physicist - discovered atomic nucleus) England
1893 Huey P Long (Gov.-D-LA)
1896 Raymond Massey (actor) Toronto, Canada
1907 Fred MacMurray (actor) Kankakee, IL
1918 Ted Williams (baseball player)
1919 Kitty Wells (country singer) Nashville, TN
1927 Geoffrey Beene (dress designer) Louisiana
1930 Warren Buffett
1935 John Phillips (singer)
1943 Jean Claude Killy (Olympic skier - 3 golds-1968)
31st 1887 Thomas Edison patents Kinetoscope
1954 Census Bureau established
1972 Olga Korbut, USSR, wins golympic gold medal in gymnastics
Birthdays:
1881 1st US tennis championship (Newport, RI)
1897 Frederick March (actor; 2 Oscars 1932 & 1946)
1903 Arthur Godfrey (radio & TV host)
1908 William Saroyan (novelist/playwright) US
1918 Alan Jay Lerner (lyricist/composer - My Fair Lady)
1924 Buddy (Leonard) Hackett (comedian)
1931 Dan Rather (news anchor)
1945 Itzhak Perlaman (violinist) Tel Aviv, Israel
1949 Richard Gere (actor) Philadelphia, PA