|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Today in History ~ August 8
Events0070 - Tower of Antonia destroyed by Romans
0870 - Kings Charles the Bare & Louis the German divide Lutherans
1567 - Duke of Alba's army enters Brussels Belgium
1570 - Peace of Saint-Germain-and-Laye more freedom for Huguenots
1585 - Pope Sixtus excommunicates Henri IV
1609 - Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei's telescope
1709 - Portuguese Father Bartolomeu de Gusmao demonstrated a model hot air balloon to King John V.
1786 - Congress adopts silver dollar & decimal system of money
1786 - Frenchmen Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard became the first to reach the top of Mont-Blanc (14 421 ft/4 807 m) a mountain in the French Alps.
1788 - King Louis XVI calls French States & Generals together
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena to spend the remainder of his days in exile.
1844 - Brigham Young chosen Mormon Church head following Joseph Smith death
1854 - Smith & Wesson patents metal bullet cartridges
1860 - Queen of Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) arrives in NYC
1863 - Robert E. Lee offers to resign as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia [H]
1864 - Red Cross forms in Geneva
1864 - Union troops/fleet occupy Fort Gaines Alabama
1876 - Inventor Thomas A. Edison patented the mimeograph machine.
1890 - Daughters of American Revolution organizes
1894 - The Hawaiian Republic which had proclaimed its independence and adopted a democratic constitution on July 4 was officially recognized by the U.S. government.
1900 - The first US Davis Cup tennis competition began at the Longwood Cricket Club in Brookline Massachusetts.
1918 - 6 US soldiers are surrounded by Germans in France, Alvin York is given command & shoots 20 Germans & captures 132 more
1922 - Italian general strike broken by fascist terror
1925 - 1st national march of Ku Klux Klan (200 000) in Washington DC
1929 - German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight
1940 - Battle of Britain began as Germany launches air attacks
1942 - Six convicted Nazi saboteurs who'd landed in the United States were executed in Washington D.C.; two others received life imprisonment. [H]
1944 - Germans raid Achterhuis home of Anne Frank & family
1945 - Pres Harry S Truman signs UN Charter
1945 - USSR declares war against Japan in WW II, two days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before Tokyo surrendered
1945 - USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea
1953 - Russia's Georgi Malenkov reports possession of hydrogen bomb
1953 - US & South Korea initial a mutual security pact
1955 - Fidel Castro forms "July 26th Movement"
1960 - "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" hits #1
1963 - Great Train Robbery in England ($7.3 million) 16 masked men ambushed the Glasgow-to-London mail train as it stopped at a red signal; within the year 12 of the robbers were in jail most of the take was never recovered [H]
1966 - Beatles' release "Revolver"
1966 - South Arican Broadcasting bans Beatles (Lennon's anti-Jesus remark)
1968 - Race riot in Miami Florida
1968 - Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican national convention in Miami Beach.
1969 - On an estate above Beverly Hills California Sharon Tate the wife of film director Roman Polanski was brutally murdered along with four others by followers of cult leader Charles Manson.
1973 - Vice President Spiro T. Agnew branded as "damned lies" reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland, and vowed not to resign _ which he eventually did.
1974 - In a nationally televised address President Richard Nixon announced his intention to resign following new damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal, effective noon the next day. 1st president in American History to resign [H]
1978 - The United States launched Pioneer Venus 2, which carried scientific probes to study the atmosphere of Venus.
1979 - Iraqi president Saddam Hussein executes 22 political opponents
1987 - Lynne Cox became 1st to swim from US to Russia across Bering Strait
1988 - Army in Rangoon shoots on students 5-10,000 killed
1988 - Renovated Central Park Zoo reopens after 4 years
1988 - Russian troops begin pull out of Afghanistan after 9 year war
1988 - Sec of State Shultz narrowly escapes assassin attempt in Bolivia
1990 - Iraq annexes Kuwait as its 19th province
1990 - Pete Rose begins 5-ms prison term at Marion (IL) Federal prison camp
1991 - Lebanese kidnappers freed British TV producer John McCarthy, held hostage for more than five years; however, a rival group abducted Frenchman Jerome Leyraud, threatening to kill him if any more hostages were released (Leyraud was freed three days later).
1991 - The bodies of former Iranian Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar and his chief of staff were found in Bakhtiar's residence outside Paris.
1991 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved membership applications from North and South Korea.
1992 - Eight people were injured when more than 10,000 fans rioted inside a stadium in Montreal after Guns N' Roses canceled its concert in mid-show. It was the second riot linked to the rock group and its lead singer, Axl Rose.
1992 - The U.S. basketball "Dream Team" clinched the gold at the Barcelona Summer Olympics, defeating Croatia 117-85.
1992 - The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a problem-plagued mission.
1995 - The regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein was shaken when his two eldest daughters, their husbands and other senior army officers defected.
1996 - President Clinton belittled Bob Dole's tax plan, vowing to oppose tax cuts that he said the country couldn't afford.
2000 - A bomb ripped through an underground walkway in central Moscow, killing at least 13 people.
2000 - Chile's Supreme Court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet's immunity, clearing the way for the former dictator to be tried on human rights charges. (However, an appeals court later ruled Pinochet unfit to stand trial because of his deteriorating health and mental condition.)
2000 - Vice President Al Gore formally introduced and celebrated his Jewish running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, during an appearance in Gore's home state of Tennessee.
Birthdays Today
1571 - John Ward composer
1763 - Charles Bulfinch Boston Mass 1st US pro architect (Mass State House)
1866 - Matthew Henson (explorer: North Pole expedition [1908-09 w/Robert Peary])
1879 - Emiliano Zapata Mexican revolutionary peasant leader
1881 - Paul L E von Kleist German general-fieldmarshal (Eastern Front)
1908 - Arthur J Goldberg Ill UN ambassador/Supreme Court justice (1962-65)
1910 - Sylvia Sidney (Kosow) (actress: Beetlejuice, You Only Live Once, Les Miserables, Love from a Stranger)
1919 - Dino DeLaurentis (producer: The Bible, Barbarella, Jaws IV, King Kong)
1922 - Rory Calhoun (Francis Durgin) (actor: Angel, Apache Uprising, River of No Return, Treasure of Pancho Villa)
1922 - Rudi Gernreich designer (1st women's topless swimsuit, miniskirt)
1923 - Esther Williams (swimmer actress: Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Dangerous When Wet, Neptune's Daughter, Million Dollar Mermaid)
1923 - Jimmy Witherspoon (singer: Ain't Nobody's Business, Some of My Best Friends are the Blues, You're Next)
1926 - Richard Anderson (actor: The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Escape from Fort Bravo, The Long Hot Summer, Hit the Deck)
1926 - Urbie (Urban) Green (musician: trombonist: played w/Cab Calloway)
1926 - Webb Pierce (singer: In the Jailhouse Now, Honky Tonk Song, Tupelo County Jail, I've Got Leaving on My Mind, Back Street Affair, There Stands the Glass)
1928 - Johnny Temple (baseball)
1929 - Josef Suk Prague Czechoslovakia violinist (Artist of Merit-1977)
1930 - Joan Mondale (Adams) (wife of 42nd U.S. Vice-President Walter "Fritz" Mondale)
1932 - Mel Tillis (singer songwriter: I Believe In You, Coca-Cola Cowboy, Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town, Detroit City, I Ain't Never, Commercial Affection, Good Woman Blues; autobiography: Stutterin' Boy)
1933 - Joe Tex (Arrington, Jr.) (singer: I Gotcha, Hold What You've Got, Skinny Legs and All, Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)
1936 - Frank Howard (baseball: LA Dodgers outfielder: Rookie of the Year [1960])
1937 - Dustin Hoffman (Academy Award-winning actor: Rain Man [1989] Kramer vs. Kramer [1980]; The Graduate, Tootsie, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Dick Tracy, Hook, Search for Tomorrow, Outbreak)
1938 - Connie Stevens (Concetta Ingolia) (singer: Sixteen Reasons, Kookie Kookie [Lend Me Your Comb]; actress: Hawaiian Eye, The Grissom Gang, Parrish, Back to the Beach)
1939 - Philip Balsley (singer: group: The Statler Brothers: Flowers on the Wall, Bed of Roses)
1944 - Peter Weir (director: Dead Poets Society, Witness, Green Card, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Mosquito Coast)
1947 - Jose Cruz (baseball)
1948 - Larry Wilcox (actor: Lassie, C.H.I.P.S., The Dirty Dozen, Mission Manila, Sky Heist)
1949 - Brian Sipe (football: Cleveland Browns: NFL Player of the Year [1980]; U.S. Football League [1985-86])
1949 - Keith Carradine (actor: Pretty Baby, The Long Riders, The Moderns, Kung Fu, Will Rogers Follies, Nashville; singer: I'm Easy)
1951 - Randy Shilts (journalist writer: And the Band Played On: Politics People and the AIDS Epidemic)
1952 - Mike Ivie (baseball)
1953 - Donny Most (actor: Happy Days)
1958 - Deborah Norville (TV host: Today Show)
1988 - Beatrice, daughter of Sarah Ferguson the Duchess of York, and Britain's Prince Andrew
Famous deaths
0869 - Lotharius II, King of Middle-France (Lotharingen) (855-869)
1471 - Thomas a Kempis, [Thomas Hammerken von Kempen], writer/monk, dies at 91
1788 - Louis FAD Duke de Richelieu, French marshal, dies at 92
1902 - Jean Y Y Tissot, French painter/illustrator, dies
1944 - Erwin von Witzleben, German fieldmarshal, hanged
1950 - Nicolai Yakovlevich Miaskovsky, composer, dies at 69
1967 - Jaromir Weinberger, Czech/US composer (Czech Rhapsody), dies at 71
1969 - Sharon Tate, murdered by the Manson family at 26
1974 - Baldur von Schirach, Nazi youth leader, dies at 67
1975 - Julian "Cannonball" Alderly, sax player, dies of a stroke at 46
1976 - John Roselli, hired by CIA to kill Castro, found murdered
1991 - James B Irwin, Col USAF/astronaut (Apollo 15, pilot of the Lunar Roving Vehicle), dies at 61
1996 - Frank A Whittle, inventor of the Jet engine, dies at 89
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
Yesterday Tomorrow
