Monday, August 31, 2015

What Happened This Day In History - August 31

Today in History
August 31
1303The War of Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.
1756The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France.
1802Captain Merriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
1864At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.
1919The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world unite!"
1928Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin.
1940Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
1942The British army under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeats Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’sAfrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt.
1944The British Eighth Army penetrates the German Gothic Line in Italy.
1949Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1951The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties.
1961A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany, it will be called the Berlin wall.
1965US Congress creates Department of Housing & Urban Development.
1968The Dasht-e Bayaz 7.3 earthquake in NE Iran completely destroys five villages and severely damages six others.
1970Lonnie McLucas convicted of torturing and murdering fellow Black Panther Party member Alex Rackley in the first of the New Haven Black Panther Trials.
1980Polish government forced to sign Gdansk Agreement allowing creation of the trade union Solidarity.
1985Police capture Richard Ramirez, dubbed the "Night Stalker" for a string of gruesome murders that stretched from Mission Viejo to San Francisco, Cal.
1986A Russian cargo ship collides with cruise shipAdmiral Nakhimov, killing 398.
1987Longest mine strike in South Africa’s history ends, after 11 people were killed, 500 injured and 400 arrested.
1990East and West Germany sign the Treaty of Unification (Einigungsvertrag) to join their legal and political systems.
1990Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become first father and son to play on same team simultaneously in professional baseball (Seattle Mariners).
1994Last Russian troops leave Estonia and Latvia.
1994The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a "complete cessation of military operations," opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.
1997Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a Paris car crash along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul while fleeing paparazzi.
1997New York Yankees retire Don Mattingly’s #23 (first baseman, coach, manager).
2006Edvard Munch’s famed painting The Screamrecovered by Norwegian police. The artwork had been stolen on Aug. 22, 2004.
Born on August 31
1811Théophile Gautier, French poet, novelist and author of Art for Art’s Sake.
1870Maria Montessori, educator and founder of the Montessori schools.
1885Duboise Heyward, novelist, poet and dramatist best know for Porgy which was the basis for the operaPorgy and Bess.
1899Lynn Riggs, writer, her book Green Grow the Lilacswas adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein to become Oklahoma.
1903Arthur Godfrey, radio and television personality.
1905Sanford Meisner, influential acting teacher.
1907Wiliam Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker.
1908Wiliam Saroyan, author and playwright (The Human Comedy).
1918Alan Jay Lerner, playwright and lyricist (Brigadoon,Camelot).
1918Daniel Schorr, journalist.
1935Eldridge Cleaver, political activist and author of Soul on Fire.
1936Marva Collins, innovative educator who started Chicago’s one-room school, Westside Preparatory.
1945Van Morrison, Irish singer, songwriter.
1945Itzhak Perlman, violinist.
1948Lowell Ganz, screenwriter, (A League of Their Own) director, producer, actor.
1949Richard Gere, actor (Pretty WomanAn Officer and a Gentleman).
1970Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson, singer, songwriter, record producer, actress; youngest artist ever to write, produce and perform a Billboard #1 single ("Foolish Beat").
1970Queen Rania of Jordan (nee Rania al Yassin), wife of King Abdullah II.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

What Happened This Day In History - August 30

Today in History
August 30
30 BC Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.
1617 Rosa de Lima of Peru becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
1721 The Peace of Nystad ends the Second Northern War between Sweden and Russia, giving Russia considerably more power in the Baltic region.
1781 The French fleet arrives in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution.
1813 Creek Indians massacre over 500 whites at Fort Mims Alabama.
1860 The first British tramway is inaugurated at Birkenhead by an American, George Francis Train.
1861 Union General John Fremont declares martial law throughout Missouri and makes his own emancipation proclamation to free slaves in the state. President Lincoln overrules the general.
1892 The Moravia, a passenger ship arriving from Germany, brings cholera to the United States.
1932 Nazi leader Hermann Goering is elected president of the Reichstag.
1944 Ploesti, the center of the Rumanian oil industry, falls to Soviet troops.
1961 President John F. Kennedy appoints General Lucius D. Clay as his personal representative in Berlin.
1963 Hot Line communications link installed between Moscow and Washington, DC.
1967 US Senate confirms Thurgood Marshall as first African-American Supreme Court justice.
1976 Tom Brokaw becomes news anchor of Today Show.
1979 First recorded instance of a comet (Howard-Koomur-Michels) hitting the sun; the energy released is equal to approximately 1 million hydrogen bombs.
1982 Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) forced out of Lebanon after 10 years in Beirut during Lebanese Civil War.
1983 Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford, Jr., becomes the first African-American astronaut to travel in space.
1986 KGB arrest journalist Nicholas Daniloff (US News World Report) on a charge of spying and hold him for 13 days.
1983 Eiffel Tower welcomes its 150 millionth visitor, 33-year-old Parisian Jacqueline Martinez.
Born on August 30
1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist best known forFrankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.
1871 Ernest Rutherford, physicist who discovered and named alpha, beta and gamma radiation and was the first to achieve a man-made nuclear reaction.
1893 Huey P. Long, Louisiana politician who served as governor and U.S. senator, known as "The Kingfish."
1918 Ted Williams, Hall of Fame outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, the last man to hit .400 in a season.
1919 Kitty Wells (Ellen Muriel Deason), first female singer to top the Country Music charts in US ("It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels," 1952).
1930 Warren Buffett, business magnate; listed as world’s wealthiest person in 2008.
1931 Carrie Saxon Perry, 1st black mayor of a major US city (Hartford CT).
1943 Robert Crumb (R. Crumb), satiric "underground" cartoonist (Fritz the Cat), musician.
1944 Molly Ivins, American political humorist, newspaper columnist.
1956 Jayne Irving, TV broadcaster (Good Morning Britain).
1958 Anna Politkovskaya (Anna Mazepa), New York-born Ukrainian journalist, writer, human rights advocate best known for her reporting from Chechnya.
1960 Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese political-paramilitary group Hezbollah since 1992.
1960 US Army Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, receives posthumorous Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia.
1964 Gavin Fisher, mechanical engineer; chief designer of the Williams Formula One racing team (1997–2005).
1972 Cameron Diaz, model, award-winning actress (The MaskThere’s Something About MaryAny Given Sunday).

Saturday, August 29, 2015

What Happened This Day In History - August 29

Today in History
August 29
70 The Temple of Jerusalem burns after a nine-month Roman siege.
1526 Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent crushes a Hungarian army under Lewis II at the Battle of Mohacs.
1533 In Peru, the Inca chief Atahualpa is executed by orders of Francisco Pizarro, although the chief had already paid his ransom.
1776 General George Washington retreats during the night from Long Island to New York City.
1793 Slavery is abolished in Santo Domingo.
1862 Union General John Pope’s army is defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1882 Australia defeats England in cricket for the first time. The following day a obituary appears in theSporting Times addressed to the British team.
1942 The American Red Cross announces that Japan has refused to allow safe conduct for the passage of ships with supplies for American prisoners of war.
1945 U.S. airborne troops are landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
1949 USSR explodes its first atomic bomb, "First Lightning."
1950 International Olympic Committee votes to allow West Germany and Japan to compete in 1952 games.
1952 In the largest bombing raid of the Korean War, 1,403 planes of the Far East Air Force bomb Pyongyang, North Korea.
1957 US Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957 after Strom Thurmond (Sen-D-SC) ends 24-hour filibuster, the longest in Senate history, against the bill.
1960 US U-2 spy plane spots SAM (surface-to-air) missile launch pads in Cuba.
1964 Mickey Mantle ties Babe Ruth’s career strikeout record (1,330).
1965 Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr complete 120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5, marking the first time the US set an international duration record for a manned space mission.
1966 The Beatles give their last public concert (Candlestick Park, San Francisco).
1968 Democrats nominate Hubert H Humphrey for president at their Chicago convention.
1977 Lou Brock (St Louis Cardinals) breaks Ty Cobb’s 49-year-old career stolen bases record at 893.
1986 Morocco’s King Hassan II signs unity treaty with Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi, strengthening political and economic ties and creating a mutual defense pact.
1991 USSR’s parliament suspends Communist Party activities in the wake of a failed coup.
1992 Thousands of Germans demonstrate against a wave of racist attacks aimed at immigrants.
1995 NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
2003 A terrorist bomb kills Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, and nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf where the ayatollah had called for Iraqi unity.
2005 Rains from Hurricane Katrina cause a levee breech at the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, causing severe flooding.
2012 The Egyptian Army’s Operation Eagle results in the deaths of 11 suspected terrorists and the arrest of another 23.
Born on August 29
1632 John Locke, philosopher of liberalism whose ideas influenced the American founding fathers, famous for his treatise An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
1809 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, essayist and father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
1898 Preston Sturges, screenwiter, film director and playwright.
1915 Ingrid Bergman, Oscar winning actress famous whose films include Casablanca and Anastasia.
1920 Charlie "Bird" Parker, self-taught jazz saxophonist, pioneer of the new "cool" movement.
1923 Richard Attenborough, actor, (The Great Escape,Jurassic Park) Academy Award–winning director and producer (Gandhi)
1924 Dinah Washington, singer known in the 50s as "Queen of the Harlem Blues.".
1925 Donald O’Connor, dancer, actor (Singing in the Rain).
1927 Marion Williams, gospel singer.
1931 Lise Payette, Quebec politician, writer and columnist.
1933 Jehan Sadat, First Lady of Egypt (1970–1981); widow of Anwar Sadat.
1935 William Friedkin, director, producer, writer (The ExorcistThe French Connection).
1936 Future Republican US presidential nominee (2008) John McCain.
1938 Elliott Gould, actor (M*A*S*HBob & Carol & Ted & Alice).
1940 James Brady, press secretary who was severely wounded during John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan.
1941 Robin Leach, TV host (Life Styles of the Rich and Famous).
1943 Richard Halligan, vocalist with band Blood Sweat & Tears.
1952 Karen Hesse, Newbery Medal–winning author of children’s literature (Out of the Dust).
1958 Michael Jackson, pop singer, entertainer.

Friday, August 28, 2015

What Happened This Day In History - August 28

Today in History
August 28
1676 Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, is killed by English soldiers, ending the war between Indians and colonists.
1862 Mistakenly believing the Confederate Army to be in retreat, Union General John Pope attacks, beginning the Battle of Groveten. Both sides sustain heavy casualties.
1914 Three German cruisers are sunk by ships of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first major naval battle of World War I.
1938 The first degree given to a ventriloquist’s dummy is awarded to Charlie McCarthy–Edgar Bergen’s wooden partner. The honorary degree, "Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback," is presented on radio by Ralph Dennis, the dean of the School of Speech at Northwestern University.
1941 The German U-boat U-570 is captured by the British and renamed Graph
1944 German forces in Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrender to the Allies.
1945 Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung arrives in Chunking to confer with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
1963 One of the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, takes place and reaches its climax at the base of the Lincoln Memorial when Dr. Martin Luther King delivers his "I have a dream" speech.
1965 The Viet Cong are routed in the Mekong Delta by U.S. forces, with more than 50 killed.
1968 Clash between police and anti-war demonstrators during Democratic Party’s National Convention in Chicago.
1979 Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explodes under bandstand in Brussels’ Great Market as British Army musicians prepare for a performance; four British soldiers wounded.
1981 John Hinckley Jr. pleads innocent to attempting to assassinate Pres. Ronald Reagan.
1982 First Gay Games held, in San Francisco.
1983 Israeli’s prime minister Menachem Begin announces his resignation.
1986 Bolivian president Victor Paz Estenssoro declares a state of siege and uses troops and tanks to halt a march by 10,000 striking tin miners.
1986 US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth given 365-year prison term for spying for USSR.
1993 Two hundred twenty-three die when a dam breaks at Qinghai (Kokonor), in northwest China.
2003 Power blackout affects half-million people in southeast England and halts 60% of London’s underground trains.
2005 Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 5 strength; Louisiana Superdome opened as a "refuge of last resort" in New Orleans.
2012 US Republican convention nominates Mitt Romney as the party’s presidential candidate.
Born on August 28
1749 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, playwright and novelist, best known for Faust.
1774 Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the first U.S.-born saint.
1828 Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (War and PeaceAnna Karenina).
1882 Belle Benchley, the first female zoo director in the world, who directed the Zoological Gardens of San Diego.
1896 Liam O’Flaherty, Irish novelist and short-story writer.
1903 Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian psychologist, educator of autistic and emotionally disturbed children.
1908 Roger Tory Peterson, author of the innovative bird book A Field Guide to Birds.
1925 Donald O’Connor, entertainer (Singin’ in the Rain,Anything Goes).
1939 Catherine "Cassie" Mackin, journalist; first woman to anchor an evening newscast alone on a regular basis (NBC’s Sunday Night News); NBC’s first woman floor reporter at a national political convention.
1943 Lou Pinelia, American League Rookie of the Year (1969); 14th-winningest manager of all time.
1948 Daniel Seraphine, drummer with the band Chicago.
1951 Wayne Osmond, singer, songwriter, TV actor (The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters).
1952 Rita Dove, poet; second African-American poet to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1987); first African-American Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1993-95); Poet Laureate of Virginia (2004-06).
1965 Shania Twain (Eilleen Regina Edwards), five-time Grammy-winning singer ("You’re Still the One"); only female artist to have three consecutive Diamond albums (10 million units sold).
1971 Todd Eldredge, figure skater; Men’s World Champion (1996).
1982 Leann Rimes, Grammy-winning singer ("Blue"), actress, (Northern Lights).
1986 Gilad Shalit, Israeli Defense Forces corporal kidnapped by Hamas and held for five years before being exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.