oops, you forgot one, Ron.

Birthdays

My mom.
Happy 71st, mom.

July 27th


1214 - In France, at "The Battle of Bouvines", the army under Philip II of France defeated the forces of John of England.

1549 - Jesuit priest Francis Xavier's ship arrived in Kagoshima, Japan.

1663 - The British Parliament passed "The Second Navigation Act" requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies to be sent in English ships from English ports.

1689 - "The Battle of Killiecrankie" was fought between Highland clans supporting James II and mostly lowland Scot troops supporting William of Orange during "The Glorious Revolution". Although it was a stunning victory for the Scots, it had little overall effect on the outcome of the war, and their forces were scattered at "The Battle of Dunkeld" the following month.

1694 - A Royal Charter was granted to the Bank of England.

1778 - American Revolution: At "The First Battle of Ushant" British and French fleets fought to a standoff.

1789 - The first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, was established. It was later renamed Department of State.

1794 - French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre was arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the Revolution."

1865 - Welsh settlers arrived in Argentina at Chubut Valley.

1866 - The Atlantic Cable was successfully completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time.

1921 - Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announced the discovery of the hormone "insulin".


1940 - Bugs Bunny made his official debut in the animated cartoon "A Wild Hare".

1941 - Japanese troops occuppied French Indo-China.

1949 - The initial flight of the de Havilland "Comet", the world's first jet-powered airliner.

1953 - The Korean War ends: The United States, the People's Republic of China, and North Korea, signed an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea, refused to sign but pledged to observe the armistice.

1955 - The Allied occupation of Austria, stemming from World War II, ended. (started on May 9, 1945)

1964 - Vietnam War: 5,000 more American military advisers were sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.

1968 - Pink Floyd released the album "A Saucerful of Secrets" in the USA.

1974 - Watergate Scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon: "Obstruction of Justice".

1976 - Former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka was arrested on suspicion of violating foreign exchange and foreign trade laws in connection with "The Lockheed Scandal".

1981 - British television: On Coronation Street, Ken Barlow married Deirdre Langton. This proved to be a national event, with massive viewer numbers earned for the show. (Afenton, what in hell were you Brits thinking? That would be like most of America holding its collective breath while waiting to find out who shot JR Ewing...and we both know THAT would never happen!)

1990 - The Jamaat al Muslimeen staged a coup d'état attempt in Trinidad and Tobago, occupying Parliament and holding Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson along with most of his Cabinet hostage for 6 days.

1995 - In Washington, DC, "The Korean War Veterans Memorial" was dedicated.

1996 - Centennial Olympic Park bombing: In Atlanta, Georgia, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics, killing one and injuring 111.

1997 - The "Si Zerrouk Massacre" took place in Algeria, about 50 people were killed.

1999 - 21 died in a canyoning disaster near Interlaken, Switzerland.

2002 - Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi "Su-27" fighter crashed during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.

2005 - STS-114: NASA makes the decision to ground the Space shuttle pending an investigation of the external tank's continued foam shed problem. During ascent, the external tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery shed a piece of foam slightly smaller than the piece that caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; this foam did not strike the spacecraft.


Born this day:

1452 - Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1508)

1667 - Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1748)

1781 - Mauro Giuliani, Italian composer (d. 1828)

1824 - Alexandre Dumas fils, French author (d. 1895)

1833 - Thomas George Bonney, geologist (d. 1923)

1835 - Giosue Carducci, Italian writer (d. 1907)

1857 - José Celso Barbosa, Puerto Rican political leader (d. 1921)

1857 - Augusta Stowe-Gullen, Canadian physician and feminist

1867 - Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (d. 1916)

1870 - Hilaire Belloc, English writer (d. 1953)

1877 - Ernst von Dohnanyi, Hungarian composer and conductor

1881 - Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1945)

1882 - Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (d. 1965)

1886 - Ernst May, architect (d. 1970)

1901 - Rudy Vallee, American singer (d. 1986)

1904 - Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1991)

1908 - Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d. 1996)

1912 - Hilde Domin, writer

1915 - Mario Del Monaco, tenor (d. 1982)

1916 - Elizabeth Hardwick, novelist

1918 - Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)

1922 - Norman Lear, American television writer and producer

1924 - Vincent Canby, film critic (d. 2000)

1944 - Tony Capstick, English comedian, actor, and musician (d. 2003)

1949 - Maureen McGovern, American singer and Broadway actress

1954 - Peter L. Allen, actor and musician

1957 - Bill Engvall, comedian

1972 - Jill Arrington, sports reporter

1984 - Arynne Sherouse, American writer, actor, and singer


Died this day:

1061 - Pope Nicholas II (or July 19)

1276 - James I of Aragon (b. 1208)

1365 - Rudolf IV of Austria

1564 - Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

1675 - Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, Marshal of France (b. 1611)

1759 - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (b. 1698)

1770 - Robert Dinwiddie, British colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1693)

1841 - Mikhail Lermontov, Russian author (b. 1814)

1844 - John Dalton, English physicist and chemist (b. 1776)

1863 - William Lowndes Yancey, American Confederate leader

1917 - Emil Theodor Kocher, surgeon and biologist (b. 1841)

1924 - Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist and composer (b. 1866)

1946 - Gertrude Stein, American writer and cult figure (b. 1874)

1958 - Claire Chennault, American World War II pilot, commander of "The Flying Tigers".

1980 - Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran

1981 - William Wyler, French born film director (b. 1902)

1984 - James Mason, English actor, WWII conscientious objector (b. 1909)

1999 - Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and mountaineer (b. 1912)

2003 - Vance Hartke, U.S. Senator from Indiana

2003 - Bob Hope, English-born entertainer (b. 1903)

2005 - Marten Toonder, Dutch comic writer (b. 1912)

July 28th



1493 - "The Great Fire of Moscow" left much of the city in ruins.

1540 - Thomas Cromwell, one of the most important political figures of the reign of Henry VIII of England, was executed upon order from the king on charges of treason. Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.

1794 - Maximilien Robespierre was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd, for sending thousands of others to a similar fate during the French Revolution.

1821 - Peru declared its independence from
Spain.

1864 - American Civil War: "The Battle of Ezra Church" began. Confederate troops led by General John Bell Hood made a third unsuccessful attempt to drive the Union forces under General William T. Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia.

1866 - "The Metric Act of 1866" became law and legalized the standardization of weights and measures in the United States.

1868 - The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted guaranteeing black Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.

1873 - The Japanese government implemented land and tax reforms as part of "The Meiji Restoration" reforms.

1878 - Great Britain's William Gowland becomes the first non-Japanese to reach Yarigatake peak (3,180 meters), and he named the mountain "The Japanese Alps", a name that was eventually used to refer to the entire mountain range.

1914 - World War I began. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia after it failed to meet the conditions of an ultimatum it set on July 23 following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serbian assassin. This event supposedly led to the outbreak of war.

1932 - US President Herbert Hoover ordered the United States Army to forcibly evict "The Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, DC.


1942 - World War II: USSR leader Joseph Stalin issued Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into Russia. Under the order all those who retreated or otherwise left their positions, without orders to do so, would be immediately killed. (Uncle Joe's answer to everything was to kill people...too bad the bastard didn't drop dead decades earlier.)

1943 - World War II: Operation Gomorrah - The Allied bombing of Hamburg caused a firestorm that killed 42,000 German civilians.

1945 - A US Army bomber accidentally crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 injuring 26.

1965 - Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1973 - A Watkins Glen, New York concert was attended by 600,000 to see The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Grateful Dead.

1976 - "The Tangshan Earthquake" measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude flattened Tangshan, China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.

1990 - Alberto Fujimori became president of Peru.

1992 - Mary J. Blige released her album "What's the 411?". It is considered the album that started the new subgenre, hip-hop soul.

1995 - Network Solutions announced a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet.

1996 - "Kennewick Man", the remains of a prehistoric man, was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.

1998 - Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House intern, Monica Lewinsky received transactional immunity in exchange for her grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with US President Bill Clinton.

2002 - Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded "Quecreek Mine" in Somerset, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.

2003 - NPR broadcast the first episode of "Day to Day", a one-hour radio newsmagazine.


Born this day:

1659 - Charles Ancillon, French Huguenot pastor (d. 1715)

1804 - Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (d. 1872)

1844 - Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)

1866 - Beatrix Potter, English author (d. 1943)

1867 - Charles Dillon Perrine, astronomer (d. 1951)

1874 - Ernst Cassirer, philosopher (d. 1945)

1887 - Marcel Duchamp, French painter (d. 1968)

1901 - Rudy Vallee, American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer (d. 1986)

1902 - Karl Popper, philosopher of science (d. 1994)

1904 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)

1907 - Dolf Sternberger, publicist (d. 1989)

1907 - Earl Tupper, American inventor of "Tupperware" fame (d. 1983)

1909 - Malcolm Lowry, novelist (d. 1957)

1914 - Carmen Dragon, composer (d. 1984)

1915 - Charles Townes, Americn physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

1916 - David Brown, American film producer

1922 - Jacques Piccard, French undersea explorer

1927 - John Ashbery, poet

1929 - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American wife of John F. Kennedy (d. 1994)

1934 - Jacques d'Amboise, dancer and choreographer

1937 - Peter Duchin, pianist and bandleader

1940 - Philip Proctor, comedian

1941 - Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor

1943 - Bill Bradley, basketball player and U.S. Senator

1945 - Jim Davis, American cartoonist

1945 - Richard Wright, keyboard player with Pink Floyd

1949 - Steve Peregrin Took, singer and songwriter (d. 1980)

1952 - Yoshitaka Amano, Japanese artist

1958 - Terry Fox, one legged Trans-Canada marathon runner, cancer activist (d. 1981)

1964 - Ian Livingston, British international businessman and capital venturist


Died this day:

1057 - Pope Victor II (b. 1018)

1230 - Leopold VI of Austria (b. 1176)

1655 - Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet (b. 1619)

1667 - Abraham Cowley, English poet (b. 1618)

1685 - Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English statesman (b. 1618)

1718 - Etienne Baluze, French scholar (b. 1630)

1741 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (b. 1678)

1750 - Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (b. 1685)

1762 - George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, English politician (b. 1691)

1794 - Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (guillotined) (b. 1758)

1794 - Louis de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1767)

1842 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (b. 1778)

1844 - Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I and King of Naples and Spain (b. 1768)

1942 - William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)

1957 - Edith Abbott, social worker, educator, and author (b. 1876)

1965 - Edogawa Ranpo, Japanese author of detective novels (b. 1894)

1967 - Karl W. Richter, American aviator (b. 1942)

1968 - Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)

1969 - Frank Loesser, composer (b. 1910)

1972 - Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)

1982 - Keith Green, American gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist (b. 1953)

1996 - Marguerite "Marge" Ganser, singer (Shangri-Las) (b. 1948)

2003 - Lady Valerie Goulding, Irish Senator and campaigner for the disabled (b. 1918)

2004 - Tiziano Terzani, Italian journalist (b. 1938)

2004 - Francis Crick, English chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)

July 29th

1588 - The English defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines.

1754 - The first international boxing match was held. The 25-minute match was won when Jack Slack of Britain knocked out Jean Petit from France.

1773 - The first schoolhouse to be located west of the Allegheny Mountains was built in Schoenbrunn, OH.

1786 - "The Pittsburgh Gazette" became the first newspaper west of the Alleghenies to be published. The paper's name was later changed to "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette".

1874 - Major Walter Copton Winfield of England received U.S. patent for the lawn-tennis court.

1890 - Artist Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France.

1914 - The first transcontinental telephone service was inaugurated when two people held a conversation between New York, NY and San Francisco, CA.

1940 - John Sigmund of St. Louis, MO completed a 292-mile swim down the Mississippi River. The swim from St. Louis to Caruthersville, MO took him 89 hours and 48 minutes.

1950 - Disney's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" was released.

1957 - Jack Paar began hosting the "Tonight" show on NBC-TV. The name of the show was changed to "The Jack Paar Show". Paar was host for five years.

1957 - The International Atomic Energy Agency was established.

1958 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized by the U.S. Congress.

1967 - Fire swept the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin. 134 U.S. servicemen were killed.

1968 - Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's stance against artificial methods of birth control.

1975 - OAS (Organization of American States) members voted to lift collective sanctions against Cuba. The U.S. government welcomed the action and announced its intention to open serious discussions with Cuba on normalization.

1981 - England's Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married.

1983 - Steve Garvey of the Los Angeles Dodgers set the National League consecutive game record at 1,207.

1985 - General Motors announced that Spring Hill, TN, would be the home of the Saturn automobile assembly plant.

1993 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible." His death sentence was thrown out and he was set free.

1997 - Minamata Bay in Japan was declared free of mercury 40 years after contaminated food fish were blamed for deaths and birth defects.

1998 - The United Auto Workers union ended a 54-day strike against General Motors. The strike caused $2.8 billion in lost revenues.

1999 - Mark O. Barton killed nine people and wounded 13 others in a shooting rampage in Atlanta, GA. He wife and two children had been found bludgeoned to death earlier in the day.

Birthdays

Booth Tarkington 1869
Benito Mussolini 1883
Sigmund Romberg 1887
Clara Bow 1894
Melvin Belli 1907
Stephen McNally 1913
Richard Egan 1923
Lloyd Bochner 1924
Robert Horton 1924
Ted Lindsay 1925
Don Carter 1926
Paul Taylor 1930
Randy Sparks (New Christy Minstrels) 1933
Robert Fuller 1934
Peter Jennings 1938
David Warner 1941
Neal Doughty (REO Speedwagon) 1946
Simon Kirk (Bad Company) 1949
Ken Burns 1953
Geddy Lee (Rush) 1953
Michael Biehn 1956
Patti Scialia (E Street Band) 1956
Alexandra Paul 1963
Martina McBride 1966
Chris Gorman (Belly) 1967
Wil Wheaton 1972
Stephen Dorff 1973
Wanya Morris (Boyz II Men) 1973

July 30th

1619 - The first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown, VA. (House of Burgesses)

1729 - The city of Baltimore was founded in Maryland.

1889 - Vladimir Zworykin, called the "Father of Television" was born in Russia. He invented the iconoscope.

1898 - "Scientific America" carried the first magazine automobile ad. The ad was for the Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, OH.

1937 - The American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) was organized as a part of the American Federation of Labor.

1942 - The WAVES were created by legislation signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The members of the Women's Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service were a part of the U.S. Navy.

1945 - The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. Only 316 out of 1,196 men aboard survived the attack.

1956 - The phrase "In God We Trust" was adopted as the U.S. national motto.

1965 - U.S. President Johnson signed into law Social Security Act that established Medicare and Medicaid. It went into effect the following year.

1968 - Ron Hansen of the Washington Senators made the first unassisted triple play in the major leagues in 41 years.

1974 - The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Nixon for blocking the Watergate investigation and for abuse of power.

1975 - Jimmy Hoffa, former Teamsters union president, disappeared in Michigan. His remains were never found.

1996 - A federal law enforcement source said that security guard Richard Jewell had become the focus of the investigation into the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. Jewell was later cleared as a suspect.

1997 - 14 Israelis were killed in a double suicide bombing in a Jerusalem marketplace. The Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombings.

1998 - A group of Ohio machine-shop workers (who call themselves the Lucky 13) won the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot. It was the largest-ever American lottery.

2000 - Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were married.

2001 - Lance Armstrong became the first American to win three consecutive Tours de France.

2003 - In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagon Beetle rolled off an assembly line.

Birthdays

Emily Bronte 1818
Thornstein Velben 1857
Henry Ford 1863
Vladimir Kosmo Zworykin 1889
Casey Stengel 1890
Henry Moore 1898
Dick Wilson 1916
Richard Johnson 1927
Christine McGuire (The McGuire Sisters) 1929
Thomas Sowell 1930
Edd "Kookie" Byrnes 1933
Ben Piazza 1934
Buddy Guy 1936
Joe Nuxhall 1938
Eleanor Smeal 1939
Peter Bogdanovich 1939
Paul Anka 1941
David Sanborn 1945
William Atherton 1947
Marc Bolan (T. Rex) 1947
Arnold Schwarzenegger 1947
Jean Reno 1948
Frank Stallone 1950
Ken Olin 1954
Anita Hill 1956
Delta Burke 1956
Rat Scabies (Damned) 1957
Kate Bush 1958
Richard Burgi 1958
Neal McCoy 1961
Laurence Fishburne 1961
Lisa Kudrow 1963
Vivica A. Fox 1964
Dwayne O'Brien (Little Texas) 1964
Christine Taylor 1971
Hillary Swank 1974
Jaime Pressley 1977

July 29th



1014 - At "The Battle of Kleidion" the forces of Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicted a decisive defeat upon the Bulgarian army. His subsequent savage treatment of the 15,000 plus prisoners reportedly caused Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of shock.

1030 - King Olaf II fought and died in "The Battle of Stiklestad" while trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes.

1567 - James VI was crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.

1588 - At "The Battle of Gravelines" the Spanish Armada was defeated by an English naval force under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake off the coast of Gravelines, France.

1693 - During "The War of the Grand Alliance", at "The Battle of Landen" the French won a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.

1793 - John Graves Simcoe decided to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.

1848 - Irish Potato Famine: "The Tipperary Revolt", an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule, was put down by police.

1851 - Annibale de Gasparis discovered asteroid "15 Eunomia".

1858 - The United States and Japan signed "The Treaty of Peace and Commerce". Negotiated by US envoy Townsend Harris it is often referred to as "The Harris Treaty".

1864 - American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd was arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.

1899 - The First Hague Convention was signed.

1900 - In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy was assassinated by an anarchist.

1907 - Sir Robert Baden-Powell founde "The Boy Scouts" with the first scout camp at Brownsea Island.

1932 - The Great Depression: In Washington, DC US troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans.

1945 - The "BBC Light Programme" radio station was launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.

1947 - After being shut off on November 9, 1946 for a memory upgrade "ENIAC", the world's first all-electronic digital computer, was reactivated. It would remain in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.

1948 - After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics opened in London, United Kingdom.

1954 - "The Fellowship of the Ring", the first part of "The Lord of the Rings", was published in Great Britain.

1957 - The "International Atomic Energy Agency" was established.

1958 - The U.S. Congress formally created the "National Aeronautics and Space Administration" (NASA).

1965 - Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrived in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.

1967 - Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, the "USS Forrestal" catches on fire in the worst US naval disaster since World War II (134 American servicemen are killed, 62 injured, 21 planes are destroyed and 42 more are damaged).

1976 - In New York City, the "Son of Sam" pulled a gun from a paper bag and opened fire, killing one person and seriously wounding another. It was the first in a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year.

1981 - Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales.

1993 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquitted John Demjanjuk, accused of being the former Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible", of all charges and he was set free.

1996 - The controversial child protection portion of "The Communications Decency Act" was struck down as being too vague and broad by a US federal court.

2004 - U.S. Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

2005 - Astonomers discovered a 10th planet in our solar system.

2005 - The official "System Administrator Appreciation Day"...SO START APPRECIATING ME, DAMMIT!!!


Born this day:

1801 - George Bradshaw, English publisher (d. 1853)

1805 - Alexis de Tocqueville, historian and political scientist (d. 1859)

1843 - Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (d. 1901)

1849 - Max Nordau, author, philosopher and Zionist leader (d. 1923)

1865 - Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer (d. 1936)

1869 - Booth Tarkington, author (d. 1946)

1871 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian spiritualist to the Czarist family, "The Mad Monk" (d. 1916)

1874 - James Shaver Woodsworth, Methodist minister, social worker, and politician (d. 1942)

1878 - Don Marquis, author (d. 1937)

1883 - Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator (d. 1945)

1883 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (d. 1942)

1884 - Ralph A. Bard, U.S. Navy Under Secretary (d. 1975)

1887 - Sigmund Romberg, composer (d. 1951)

1897 - Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (d. 1983)

1898 - Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)

1900 - Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer (d. 1976)

1905 - Clara Bow, American actress (d. 1965)

1905 - Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General (d. 1961)

1905 - Stanley Kunitz, American poet

1906 - Diana Vreeland, fashion editor (d. 1989)

1907 - Melvin Belli, lawyer and actor (d. 1996)

1920 - Rodolfo Acosta, Mexican character actor (d. 1974)

1925 - Mikis Theodorakis, Greek composer

1927 - Harry Mulisch, Dutch author

1930 - Paul Taylor, dancer, choreographer

1932 - Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, U.S. Senator

1935 - Peter Schreier, German tenor

1936 - Elizabeth Dole, US senator

1938 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-American television news anchor

1953 - Ken Burns, television producer and director

1959 - Ruud Janssen, teacher, writer, and artist

1965 - Chang-Rae Lee, author


Died this day:

238 - Pupienus and Balbinus, Roman emperors (assassinated)

1030 - Olaf II of Norway

1099 - Pope Urban II

1108 - King Philip I of France (b. 1081)

1507 - Martin Behaim, navigator and geographer (b. 1459)

1644 - Pope Urban VIII

1833 - William Wilberforce, campaigner against slavery

1844 - Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, composer

1856 - Robert Schumann, German composer

1890 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (b. 1853)

1900 - King Umberto I of Italy

1951 - Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author

1970 - John Barbirolli, conductor

1970 - George Szell, Hungarian conductor

1974 - Mama Cass Elliot, American musician (b. 1941)

1974 - Erich Kästner, German author

1975 - James Blish, science fiction writer

1979 - Bill Todman, American television producer (b. 1916)

1981 - Robert Moses, New York public works official (b. 1888)

1982 - Vladimir Zworykin, physicist and inventor

1983 - David Niven, English actor (b. 1910)

1983 - Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)

1983 - Luis Buñuel, director

1984 - Fred Waring, band leader, inventor

1990 - Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria (b. 1911)

1995 - Wolfgang Boumann, installed as high ranking Nazi/Wehrmacht communications staff chief during WWII; was actually the famous British spy (mole) codenamed "Nimrod" (b.1901)

2001 - Edward Gierek, Polish politician

2001 - Henryk Jablonski, President of Poland

2003 - Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leonean rebel leader

2004 - Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek comedienne and actress (b. 1923)

July 30th



1608 - At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs. This would to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next hundred years. (Typical French response to a simple disagreement.)

1619 - In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the "House of Burgesses" convenes for the first time.

1629 - An earthquake in Naples, Italy killed more than 10,000 people.

1729 - Baltimore, Maryland was founded.

1733 - The first Freemasons lodge in the Americas opened.

1825 - Malden Island was discovered.

1863 - Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signed "The Treaty of Box Elder". A promise to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah.

1864 - American Civil War: At "The Battle of the Crater" Union forces attempted to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.

1930 - In Montevideo, Uruguay won the first "Football World Cup".

1932 - The 1932 Summer Olympics opened in Los Angeles, California.

1945 - World War II: A Japanese submarine torpedoed and sank the heavy cruiser "USS Indianapolis" .883 seamen would die in the worst single loss in the history of the United States Navy.

1953 - Rikidozan held a ceremony announcing the establishment of "The Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance".

1956 - A Joint Resolution of the U.S. Congress was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It authorized "In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto.

1965 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed "The Social Security Act of 1965" into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

1966 - At Wembley Stadium host country England won Football's World Cup, beating Germany 4 to 2.

1969 - Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon made an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and met with President Nguyen Van Thieu along with US military commanders.

1970 - "The Powder Ridge Rock Festival" began in Middlefield Ct.

1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 15 landed on the Moon.

1971 - An "All Nippon Airways" Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collided in the skies over Morioka, Japan killing 162.

1974 - Watergate Scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon released subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the United States Supreme Court. (But not before having them doctored.

1980 - Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides) gained its independence from France and Britain.

1990 - The first "Saturn" automobile rolled off the assembly line.

1997 - A double suicide bombing killed 14 people in Jerusalem, Israel.

2003 - In Washington state a high speed chase by state troopers pursuing a stolen Corvette lasted for 286 miles before the Vette ran out of gas. As it turned out the car thief being pursued was only 13 years old.

2004 - A gas explosion killed 16 people in Belgium.


Born this day:

1549 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1609)

1641 - Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (d. 1673)

1818 - Emily Brontë, English novelist (d. 1848)

1855 - Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, German industrialist

1857 - Thorstein Veblen, economist (d. 1929)

1863 - Henry Ford, American automotive/aviation pioneer and industrialist (d. 1947)

1889 - Franz Masereel, painter and graphic artist (d. 1972)

1889 - Vladimir Zworykin, physicist and inventor (d. 1982)

1898 - Henry Moore, sculptor (d. 1986)

1909 - C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and writer (d. 1993)

1914 - Lord Killanin, former IOC president (d. 1999)

1921 - Grant Johannesen, American concert pianist (d. 2005)

1929 - Werner Tübke, painter (de:Werner Tübke)

1930 - Thomas Sowell, international economist

1934 - Bud Selig, baseball team owner and commissioner

1936 - Buddy Guy, guitarist, singer, songwriter

1939 - Peter Bogdanovich, film director

1941 - Paul Anka, singer (kinda) and composer

1945 - David Sanborn, musician, Grammy Award winner

1947 - Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor, champion bodybuilder, 38th Governor of California

1956 - Anita Hill, American law professor, author

1962 - Alton Brown, Food Network host and producer

1971 - Tom Green, comedian, actor, screenwriter

1974 - Hilary Swank, Academy Award winning American actress

1975 - Graham Nicholls, British artist


Died this day:

578 - Jacob Baradaeus, bishop of Edessa

1652 - Charles Amédée de Savoie, 6th Duc de Nemours, French soldier (b. 1624)

1680 - Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, Irish naval commander (b. 1634)

1683 - Maria Theresa of Spain, queen of Louis XIV of France (b. 1638)

1691 - Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (b. 1639)

1715 - Nahum Tate, Irish poet (b. 1652)

1718 - William Penn, English founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)

1771 - Thomas Gray, English poet and letter-writer (b. 1716)

1875 - George Pickett, American Confederate general (b. 1825)

1898 - Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor (b. 1815)

1900 - Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1844)

1912 - Emperor Meiji, Japanese emperor (b. 1852

1918 - Joyce Kilmer, American poet (b. 1886)

1947 - Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia

1971 - Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet

1983 - Lynn Fontanne, stage and film producer/actress (b. 1887)

1985 - Julia Hall Bowman Robinson, American mathematician (b. 1919)

2003 - Sam Phillips, American record producer (b. 1923)

July 31st



781 - The first recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji.

1009 - Pietro Boccapecora became Pope Sergius IV.

1423 - Hundred Years War: At "The Battle of Cravant" the French army was defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.

1498 - On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus became the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

1508 - Dawit II ascended the throne of Ethiopia as Emperor upon the death of his father Na'od who was killed in battle against the Muslims, in Ifat.

1588 - The Spanish Armada was spotted off the coast of England.

1667 - "The Treaty of Breda" ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

1703 - Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for the crime of "seditious libel" after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but the crowd only pelted him with flowers.

1790 - The first US patent was issued, granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins.

1856 - Christchurch, New Zealand was chartered as a city.

1917 - World War I: "The Third Battle of Ypres" began in Flanders.

1919 - The German national assembly adopted "The Weimar Constitution". It entered into force on August 14th.

1930 - The radio mystery program "The Shadow" aired for the first time.

1936 - The International Olympic Committee announced that the 1940 Summer Olympics were to be held in Tokyo. However, the games were given back to the IOC after "The Second Sino-Japanese War" broke out, and were eventually cancelled altogether because of "World War II".

1941 - Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."

1945 - Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrendered to Allied soldiers in Austria.

1948 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) was dedicated.

1951 - Japan Airlines was incorporated.

1954 - The first successful ascent of "K2" was made by an Italian expedition, led by Ardito Desio.

1961 - At Fenway Park in Boston, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurred when the game was stopped in the 9th inning due to rain.

1964 - Ranger program: "Ranger 7" sent back the first close-up photographs of the moon. The images were 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.

1971 - Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts became the first to ride in a lunar rover.

1973 - A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashed while landing in fog at Boston's Logan Airport. 89 were killed.

1975 - In Detroit, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa was reported as missing.

1976 - NASA released the famous "Face on Mars" photo, taken by Viking 1.

1987 - A rare, F-4 tornado ripped through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.

1992 - A Thai Airways Airbus "A300-310" crashed into a mountain south of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.

1996 - MIL-STD-1750A was declared inactive for use in new designs. The U.S. Air Force defined the standard in order to reduce the costs of software and computer systems for aircraft and missiles. However with the release of the Notice 4 revision to the standard "1750A" was declared inactive/obsolete and relegated to the dust bin.

1999 - NASA intentionally crashed the "Lunar Prospector" spacecraft into the Moon. This ended its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface. (The dumb shits!)

2003 - WON (World Opponent Network) an online gaming service, was shut down.


Born this day:

1396 - Philip III of Burgundy, duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)

1803 - John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)

1816 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)

1901 - Jean Dubuffet, painter and sculptor (d. 1985)

1904 - Brett Halliday, American mystery writer (d. 1977)

1911 - George Liberace, pianist, entertainer (d. 1983)

1912 - Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 "Nobel Prize" in economics

1912 - Irv Kupcinet, American newspaper columnist (d. 2003)

1914 - Louis de Funès, actor and comedian (d. 1983)

1916 - Bill Todman, game show producer (d. 1979)

1918 - Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

1918 - Hank Jones, pianist

1919 - Primo Levi, author, chemist (d. 1987)

1921 - Whitney Young, civil rights activist (d. 1971)

1923 - Ahmet Ertegun, record company executive

1928 - Kurt Sontheimer, political scientist

1941 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician, Chief Minister of Gujarat, President of Gujarat Pradesh Congress, leader of Congress Legislature Party in Gujarat. (d. 2004)

1943 - William Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, Director of the National Drug Control Policy (ubiquitously nicknamed "The Drug czar")

1946 - Gary Lewis, singer/musician/songwriter "Gary Lewis & The Playboys"

1952 - Alan Autry, American football player, actor, mayor of Fresno, California

1958 - Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman, producer, Dallas Mavericks owner

1959 - Stanley Jordan, jazz guitarist

1965 - J. K. Rowling, novelist (maybe you've heard of her books....?)


Died this day:

1099 - El Cid, Spanish warrior (b. 1044)

1108 - King Philip I of France

1396 - William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury

1508 - Na'od, Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle)

1547 - King Francis I of France (b. 1494)

1556 - Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest, founder of the Jesuits (b. 1491)

1726 - Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1695)

1784 - Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encylopedist (b. 1713)

1875 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)

1886 - Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer

1914 - Jean Jaurès, French politician (d. 1859)

1917 - Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet

1937 - Charles Martine, Apache scout

1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer

1953 - Robert Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate

1972 - Paul-Henri Spaak, Prime minister of Belgium

1993 - Baudouin I of Belgium

2001 - Poul Anderson, science fiction author

2003 - Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist

2005 - Wim Duisenberg , 1st president of the European Central Bank

August 1st



527 - Justinian I became Byzantine Emperor.

607 - Ono no Imoko was dispatched as the Japanese envoy to the Sui court in China.

1291 - The Swiss Confederation was formed.

1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella drove the last of the Jews out of Spain.

1461 - Edward IV was crowned king of England.

1498 - Christopher Columbus became the first European to set foot in Venezuela.

1619 - The first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia.

1774 - The element oxygen was discovered by Carl Wilhelm and Joseph Priestley.

1776 - The formal signing of the United States "Declaration of Independence" took place.

1798 - "The Battle of the Nile" began between French and British fleets.

1820 - London's "Regent's Canal" opened. (Afenton was on hand for the free ale being handed out.)

1831 - The London Bridge opened. (Afenton was on hand for the free ale being handed out.)

1832 - "The Black Hawk War" ended. The war was one fought in the Midwestern section of the US, principally Illinois. It was between American settlers and Native Americans. Named for Black Hawk, the leader of a band of Sauk and Fox Indians, it was the result of government annexation of Native lands in Illinois.

1834 - Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.

1838 - Slaves in Trinidad and Tobago were emancipated.

1864 - The Elgin Watch Company was founded in Elgin, Illinois.

1876 - Colorado was admitted as the 38th U.S. state.

1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War erupted between Japan and China over Korea.

1902 - The United States bought the rights to the Panama Canal from France.

1907 - The first Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island.

1914 - Germany declared war on Russia at the opening of World War I and "The Guns of August" came into their own with the mass mobilizations of Europe and Eastern Asia.

1927 - "The Nanchang Uprising" marked the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China. This day is commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.

1936 - The Berlin Olympic Games opened.

1937 - In the woods near Samobor the constitutive congress of KPH (Croatian Communist Party) was held; there were 16 present delegates. Tito gave a speech and read the resolution "Manifesto of Constitutional Congress of KPH".

1941 - A great day in history as the first Jeep was produced. (Ron was on hand for the free beer being handed out.)

1944 - Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary.

1944 - "The Warsaw Uprising" against the Nazi occupation broke out in Warsaw.

1945 - Mel Ott became the third member of the 500 home run club with a home run at the Polo Grounds in New York, New York.

1946 - The Japanese Federation of Trade Unions was formed.

1948 - The U.S. Air Force "Office of Special Investigations" was founded.

1957 - The United States and Canada formed the "North American Air Defense Command" (NORAD).

1960 - Benin declared its independence from France.

1961 - "Six Flags Over Texas", the first Six Flags park, opened.

1965 - Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands announced her engagement to Claus von Amsberg.

1966 - A gunman, shooting from a tower at the University of Texas in Austin, killed 15 people before being shot to death by police.

1966 - Purges of intellectuals and imperialists becomes official People's Republic of China policy at the beginning of "The Cultural Revolution".

1967 - Israel annexed East Jerusalem.

1970 - Day 2 of "The Powder Ridge Rock Festival" in Middlefield Ct.

1971 - George Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh" in New York City featured, amongst others, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Leon Russell.

1981 - The first broadcast by MTV. The first video played was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles.

1994 - Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirmed rumors that they had married eleven weeks earlier.

1996 - Olympic Games: Michael Johnson won the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds, beating the old world record by over 0.3 seconds.

2001 - In talks between the government and representatives of the Albanian minority in the Republic of Macedonia, an agreement was reached on the position of the Albanian language in the Republic.

2001 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia all joined "The European Environment Agency".

2004 - A supermarket fire killed 215 people and injured 300 in Asunción, Paraguay.

2005 - The German spelling reforms of 1996 were formally implemented.


Born this day:

10 BC - Claudius, Roman emperor (d. AD 54)

126 - Pertinax, Roman Emperor (d. 193)

1630 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English statesman (d. 1673)

1744 - Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, scientist (d. 1829)

1770 - William Clark, explorer (d. 1838)

1779 - Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and lyricist (d. 1843)

1815 - Richard Henry Dana, Jr., lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1882)

1818 - Maria Mitchell, astronomer (d. 1889)

1819 - Herman Melville, writer (d. 1891)

1858 - Hans Rott, composer (d. 1884)

1885 - George de Hevesy, Hungarian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1966)

1891 - Karl Kobelt, Swiss politician (d. 1968)

1924 - Georges Charpak, Ukrainian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

1925 - Ernst Jandl, writer (d. 2000)

1927 - Raymond Leppard, English conductor

1930 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (d. 2002)

1931 - Tom Wilson, cartoonist

1932 - Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League (d. 1990)

1933 - Dom DeLuise, actor, comedian, producer screenwriter

1936 - Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer

1937 - Al D'Amato, U.S. Senator from New York

1942 - Jerry Garcia, guitarist, lyricist, singer (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)

1945 - Douglas D. Osheroff, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.

1946 - Fiona Stanley, Australian epidemiologist

1950 - Jim Carroll, poet, actor

1952 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia (d. 2003)

1953 - Robert Cray, blues singer

1956 - Tom Leykis, radio personality, producer

1960 - Richard Roeper, newspaper columnist and film critic

1965 - Sam Mendes, British stage and film director


Died this day:

371 - St Eusebius of Vercelli, Italian bishop

1137 - King Louis VI of France (b. 1081)

1227 - Shimazu Tadahisa, the first of Shimazu clan and Japanese warlord (b. 1179)

1464 - Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1386)

1598 - Abraham Ortelius, Belgian cartographer (b. 1527)

1714 - Queen Anne of Great Britain (b. 1665)

1787 - Alphonsus Liguori, Italian founder of the Redemptionist order (b. 1696)

1917 - Frank Little, American labor organizer (lynched)

1918 - John Riley Banister, American cowboy and renowned lawman with the Texas Rangers (b. 1854)

1967 - Richard Kuhn, Austrian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)

1973 - Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer

1977 - Gary Powers, American spy plane pilot, principal figure in the 1959 "U2 Incident" (b. 1929)

1981 - Paddy Chayefsky, American writer (b. 1923)

1989 - John Ogdon, English pianist (b. 1937)

1996 - Frida Boccara, French singer, songwriter and Eurovision Song Contest winner (b. 1940)

1996 - Tadeus Reichstein, Polish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)

1999 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Anglo-Indian writer (b. 1897)

2004 - Philip Hauge Abelson physicist (b. 1913)

2005 - Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Arabia's head of state (b. 1923)

August 2nd



338 BC - Forces of Philip II of Macedon crushed the combined armies of Athens and Thebes in "The Battle of Chaeronea".

216 BC - Punic Wars: At "The Battle of Cannae" Hannibal destroyed the Roman army of Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro in what is considered one of the greatest executions of tactical warfare.

461 - Majorian resigned as Western Roman Emperor. Shortly afterwards Libius Severus was declared western Roman emperor by Ricimer.

1610 - Henry Hudson sailed into what it is now know as "Hudson Bay". He mistakenly believed he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.

1776 - Delegates to "The Continental Congress" began to sign the United States Declaration of Independence.

1790 - The first US Census was taken.

1798 - "The Battle of the Nile", between French and British fleets, ended with a decisive French defeat. (I always did like those Brits!)

1869 - Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system was abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.

1870 - Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opened in London.

1903- An unsuccessful uprising of the Bulgarians against Ottoman Turkey began. It is also known as the "Ilinden Uprising".

1916 - World War I: Austrian sabotage caused the sinking of the Italian battleship "Leonardo da Vinci" in Taranto.

1918 - Japan announced that it was deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of Russia's World War I participation.

1934 - Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler became Führer of Germany.

1943 - In the South Pacific the "PT-109", commanded by future US president Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was rammed by a Japanese destroyer and split in two.

1944 - The "Zigenerblock" of the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liquidated. The last 3000 Sinti and Roma were murdered by German SS.

1944 - Beginning of "The Treblinka Uprising".

1945 - World War II: "The Potsdam Conference", in which the Allied Powers discussed the future of defeated Germany, concluded.

1950 - The publication "The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures" was released at a convention in Yankee Stadium, New York.

1955 - Velcro was patented.

1964 - North Vietnam is believed to have fired on a US destroyer in "The Gulf of Tonkin Incident".

1967 - "The Second Blackwall Tunnel" opened in Greenwich, London.

1970 - In Middlefield, Ct. "The Powder Ridge Rock Festival" ended.

1975 - In New Orleans "The Superdome" officially opened with a game between the New Orleans Saints and the Houston Oilers.

1976 - An intruder broke into Priscilla Davis's mansion in Fort Worth, Texas and killed Andrea Wilborn and Stan Farr.

1980 - A terrorist bombing at the railway station in Bologna, Italy killed 85 people and injured more than 200.

1985 - During a severe thunderstorm a Delta Air Lines "Lockheed L-1011 TriStar" crashed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, killing 137. The cause of the crash was later determined to be wind shear.

1990 - Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait, this eventually led to "The Gulf War".

1994 - Popular Japanese television and movie actor Beat Takeshi was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident.

1997 - 18 lives were lost in "The Thredbo Landslide" in New South Wales, Australia.

2003 - A 65th anniversary edition of "The Beano" was released.

2005 - The crash of Air France Flight 358 at Toronto Pearson International Airport outside Toronto, Canada.


Born this day:

1533 - Theodor Zwinger, medical scholar (d. 1588)

1672 - Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss scholar (d. 1733)

1674 - Philip II, Duke of Orléans, regent of France (d. 1723)

1696 - Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1754)

1754 - Pierre Charles L'Enfant, architect, city planner (d. 1825)

1788 - Leopold Gmelin, chemist (d. 1853)

1815 - Adolf Friedrich von Schack, writer (d. 1894)

1834 - Frédéric Bartholdi, sculptor (d. 1904)

1835 - Elisha Gray, American inventor and founder of Western Electric (d. 1901)

1854 - Milan I, King of Serbia (d. 1901)

1865 - Irving Babbitt, American literary critic (d. 1933)

1868 - King Constantine I of Greece (d. 1923)

1871 - John French Sloan, artist (d. 1951)

1892 - Jack Warner, Canadian film producer (d. 1978)

1897 - Max Weber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1974)

1905 - Karl Amadeus Hartmann, composer (d. 1963)

1905 - Myrna Loy, actress (d. 1993)

1912 - Vladimir Zerjavic, Croatian statistician (d. 2001)

1924 - James Baldwin, American author (d. 1987)

1924 - Carroll O'Connor, actor (d. 2001)

1925 - Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentinian dictator

1932 - Peter O'Toole, Irish actor

1933 - Lorenzo Milam, author and broadcaster

1934 - Valery Bykovsky, cosmonaut

1939 - Wes Craven, film director

1942 - Isabel Allende, author

1944 - Jim Capaldi, British drummer, singer, and songwriter (Traffic) (d. 2005)

1948 - Dennis Prager, radio talk show host and author

1950 - Lance Ito, American legalist and judge

1970 - Kevin Smith, actor, director, and screenwriter

1974 - Jeremy Castle, singer and songwriter


Died this day:

686 - Pope John V

1100 - King William II of England (b. 1056)

1589 - King Henry III of France (b. 1551)

1611 - Kato Kiyomasa, Japanese daimyo and samurai (b. 1562)

1696 - Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, Scottish military commander at "The Massacre of Glencoe" (b. 1630)

1769 - Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea, English politician (b. 1689)

1788 - Thomas Gainsborough, English artist (b. 1727)

1859 - Horace Mann, American educator and abolitionist (b. 1796)

1876 - James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, American lawman and gunfighter (b. 1837)

1921 - Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (b. 1873)

1922 - Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born inventor (b. 1847)

1923 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (b. 1865) (GOOD RIDDANCE!)

1934 - Paul von Hindenburg, German general and politician (b. 1847)

1936 - Louis Blériot, French aviation pioneer (b. 1872)

1939 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, founder of AMORC (b. 1883)

1945 - Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer (b. 1863)

1976 - Fritz Lang, Austrian film director (b. 1890)

1978 - Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer

1986 - Roy Cohn, American politician and anti-communist (b. 1927)

1988 - Raymond Carver, writer, poet (b. 1938)

1990 - Norman Mclean, writer (b. 1902)

1997 - William S. Burroughs, writer (b. 1914)

1998 - Shari Lewis, puppeteer (b. 1933)

2004 - Wilhelm Fresenius, German chemist (b. 1913)

August 3rd



435 - Deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of the Christological "heresy" (at the time known as Nestorianism), was exiled by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.

1492 - Christopher Columbus set sail with 3 ships from Palos de la Frontera, Spain to sail around the world.

1492 - The Jews of Spain were expelled by the Catholic Monarchs.

1635 - Iemitsu, the third of the Tokugawa shoguns, established the system of alternate attendance by which the feudal daimyo were required to spend one year at Edo Castle in Tokyo and one year back home at their feudal manor, while their families remained in Tokyo as virtual political hostages.

1645 - At "The Second Battle of Nördlingen", fought between the forces of France and the Holy Roman Empire, resulted in a French Victory.

1678 - Robert LaSalle built "The Griffon", the first ship known to be built in America.

1783 - Mount Asama erupted in Japan, killing more than 35,000 people.

1860 - "The Second Maori War" began in New Zealand.

1900 - The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founded.

1914 - First World War: Germany declared war against France.

1916 - First World War: "The Battle of Romani" was fought between British forces and those of the Ottoman Empire. After a night and full day of fighting the Turkish assault was defeated. Thereafter the Allies were on the offensive, pushing the Turks back across the Sinai, through Palestine and into Syria.

1923 - Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated as the 30th President of the United States.

1940 - Second World War: Italy invaded British Somaliland.

1946 - The "National Basketball Association" was founded in the United States.

1948 - Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.

1958 - The nuclear submarine "USS Nautilus" traveled beneath the Arctic ice cap.

1960 - Niger gained its independence from France.

1972 - The U.S. Senate ratified "The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty".

1973 - Stevie Wonder released the classic album "Innervisions".

1975 - A privately chartered Boeing 707 slammed into the mountainside near Agadir, Morocco killing all 188 aboard.

1977 - The United States Senate Hearing on "MKULTRA". Also known as "MK-ULTRA" this was the code name for a CIA mind control research program lasting from the 1950s through the 1970s.

1981 - "The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization" walked off the job. All 13,000 members would eventually be fired by US President Ronald Reagan.

1983 - New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull during a baseball game and was charged by police for his "act of cruelty to animals". His manager Billy Martin quipped, "It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man."

1992 - The Los Angeles Dodgers won their 3000th game since moving to Los Angeles.

1997 - The "Oued El-Had and Mezouara Massacre" took place in Algeria. 76 villagers were killed.

2000 - George W. Bush accepted the presidential nomination at "The Republican National Convention" in Philadelphia.

2005 - President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania was overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.


Born this day:

1509 - Étienne Dolet, scholar and printer (d. 1546)

1604 - John Eliot, English puritan missionary (d. 1690)

1645 - August Kuhnel, composer

1692 - John Henley, English clergyman (d. 1759)

1748 - Carl Ludwig Junker, composer

1753 - Charles Stanhope, inventor of the calculator

1770 - King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia (d. 1840)

1801 - Joseph Paxton, landscape design/gardener pioneer (d. 1865)

1808 - Hamilton Fish, politician (d. 1893)

1811 - Elisha Graves Otis, inventor of the safe elevator (d. 1861)

1817 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general

1823 - Thomas F. Meagher, Irish rebel, convict and escapee in Australia, US Union general

1833 - Auguste Schmidt, feminist and teacher (d. 1902)

1856 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1919)

1860 - W.K. Dickson, Scottish inventor (d. 1935)

1867 - Stanley Baldwin, British Prime Minister (d. 1947)

1872 - King Haakon VII of Norway (d. 1957)

1887 - Rupert Brooke, poet (d. 1915)

1900 - Ernie Pyle, war correspondent (d. 1945)

1900 - John T. Scopes, defendant in "The Scopes Monkey Trial" (d. 1970)

1901 - Stefan Wyszynski, primate of Poland (d. 1981)

1904 - Clifford D. Simak, author, (d. 1988)

1905 - Cardinal Franz König, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vienna (d. 2004)

1918 - Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (d. 1999)

1918 - Les Elgart, musician, bandleader

1920 - P.D. James, novelist

1923 - Shenouda III of Alexandria, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church

1924 - Leon Uris, American novelist (d. 2003)

1926 - Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (d. 2004)

1935 - Georgi Shonin, cosmonaut (d. 1997)

1937 - Diane Wakoski, poet

1940 - Martin Sheen, American actor

1941 - Martha Stewart, home economist, jailbird

1946 - Jack Straw, British politician

1948 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime Minister of France

1950 -