Happenings at This Day in History

About a year ago I stopped making regular updates to this blog to concentrate on my Namnesia Antidote blog. While that is an ongoing effort, I am starting what should be about a year long effort to revitalize the concept of a "This Day in History" blog. I have decided to leave this blog intact and as-is, using a new "This Day in History 2.0" blog for my expanded and full version. Please feel free to email with your ideas. The two tables below should allow you to find a posting for the "Day in History" you wish to research.

A Proud Liberal


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Sunday, August 26, 2007

August 26......

August 26 is the 238th (239th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 127 days remaining in the year on this date.

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Apathy "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indeifference, and undernourishment." — Robert Maynard Hutchins

Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Holy War ". . . Then, at around five o'clock in the evening a cry of joy rang our from the Schindler family. Both the House and the Senate in Florida had overwhelmingly passed what they called the Terri Bill—a bill that had come from nowhere. Governor Bush was standing by to quickly sign it so that Terri could LIVE! DEATH had been defeated at least for the moment, and a power that was not their own had caused lawmakers to act righteously and CHOOSE LIFE! "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as are the watercourses; He turns it whichever way He wills" (Prov. 21:1). The gates of Hell had been pushed back! God Almighty had intervened and everyone knew it! . . ." — Tom and Linda McGlade, "Terri Schiavo—God's Living Parable to a Dying World!" 10-31-03. operationsaveamerica.org. {I am astounded that the same group of politicians that spent so much on one woman (Terri Schiavo), consider giving health insurance to children something with little or no importance, to the point of actively defeating any such law.}

Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From Politics "In every country the Communists have taken over, the first thing they do is outlaw cockfighting." — John Monks, state representative from Oklahoma, arguing against a bill to outlaw cockfighting in his state {I am reminded of the "nurse" who showed an anti-abortion film when I was in high school that made a similar argument against abortion, saying legal abortion was always the first move of a Communist government. It turned out the film was produced by the John Birch Society not any medical entity as originally claimed.}

Thought for the day: "You're smart when you only believe half of what you hear, Wise is when you know which half to believe."

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}


NASA ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY

A Total Lunar Eclipse Over North Carolina


Credit & Copyright: David Cortner
Click picture to go to NASA APOD site for full explanation


EVENTS

● 55 B.C.E. - Britain was invaded by Roman forces under Julius Caesar.

● 1071 - Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at Manzikert.

● 1278 - Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeat Premysl Ottokar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Dürnkrut in Moravia.

● 1303 - Ala ud din Khilji won Chittor.

● 1346 - Hundred Years' War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.

● 1466 - A conjure against Piero di Cosimo de' Medici in Florence, led by Luca Pitti, is discovered.

● 1498 - In Rome, Italian artist Michelangelo, 23, was commissioned by Pope Alexander VI to carve the "Pieta" Mary lamenting over the dead body of Jesus, whom she holds across her lap). The work was completed in 1501.

● 1629 - Cambridge Agreement, Massachusetts Bay Company stockholders agree to emigrate

● 1648 - "Day of the Barricades." Start of the Fronde Uprising.

● 1743 - Antoine Lavoisier was born. He was the chemist that proved that the union of oxygen and other chemicals is used in burning, rusting of metals and breathing.

● 1748 - The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

● 1778 - The first ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain of Slovenia.

● 1786 - Shay's Rebellion, armed insurrection, begins, Western Massachusetts.

● 1789 - Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by Constituent Assembly at Palace of Versailles.

● 1791 - John Fitch grants US patent for his working steamboat

● 1818 - The first Illinois Constitution was signed in Kaskaskia.

● 1832 - Death of Adam Clarke, 70, English Methodist clergyman. Clarke's name endures primarily for the 8-volume commentary on the Bible which he produced between 1810-26, and still in print today.

● 1839 - The ship Amistad is captured off Long Island.

● 1842 - The first fiscal year was established by the U.S. Congress to start on July 1st.

● 1846 - W A Bartlett appointed 1st US mayor of Yerba Buena (SF)

● 1847 - Liberia was proclaimed as an independent republic.

● 1858 - First news dispatch by telegraph.

● 1862 - American Civil War: The Second Battle of Bull Run begins.

● 1873 - Dr. Lee DeForest was born. He was the inventor of the Audion tube. The tube makes the broadcasting of sound possible.

● 1873 - The school board of St. Louis, MO, authorized the first U.S. public kindergarten.

● 1874 - Men in disguise kidnapped 16 blacks from a Tennessee jail and shot them all in cold blood in revenge for the shooting, by blacks, of two whites four days earlier.

● 1883 - Krakatoa, a volcanic island in Indonesia, erupts with increasingly large explosions kills 36,419, with many other missing, in the greatest volcanic eruption in modern history. Ash and cinders rained down over a 300,000 square mile area, and fine dust was pushed up to 50 miles into the stratosphere, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the entire planet to 87% of normal for the following year.

● 1896 - In the Philippines, and insurrection began against the Spanish government.

● 1900 - Birth of Hale Woodruff, Cairo, Illinois. Studies art in the U.S., Paris and fresco painting with Diego Rivera in Mexico. Starts the influential Atlanta University shows for African-American artists in the 1940s.

● 1901 - The New Testament of the ASV (American Standard Version) Bible was first published. This U.S. edition of the 1881 English Revised Version (ERV) comprised the first major American Bible translation since the King James Version of 1611.

● 1905 - George Washington dies in Centralia, Washington. An African American settler of a vast land claim at the junction of the Shockumchuck and Chehalis rivers in 1851, he endured schemes of white settlers to take his land and the Indian Wars of 1853 to found the town of Centerville (later Centralia) in 1875.

● 1906 - Albert Sabin, the Polish-American doctor who developed the polio vaccine, was born.

● 1910 - Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia.

● 1913 - Tram drivers in Dublin strike for the right to unionize.

● 1914 - World War I: Germans defeat Russians in Battle of Tannenberg, a decisive engagement which resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian 2nd Army.

● 1914 - World War I: The British Expeditionary Force briefly checks the German advance at Le Cateau.

● 1914 - World War I: The German colony of Togoland is invaded by French and British forces, who take it after 5 days.

● 1919 - United Mine Worker organizer Fannie Sellins was gunned down by company guards in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania.

● 1920 - 19th amendment passes-women's suffrage granted (about time!)

● 1924 - (August 13 with the Old Style calendar) Catastrophe of Smyrna, known as the Asia Minor Catastrophe to Greeks, occurs. The Ottoman army expels Greeks and other non-Turks from Asia Minor in systematic ethnic cleansing. One of the first of the 20th Century.

● 1928 - May Donoghue drinks a bottle of ginger beer at a cafe in Paisley, Scotland and finds the remains of a snail in the bottle. She launches a civil action against the drink manufacturer which becomes one of the famous cases in English Common Law; that of Donoghue v. Stevenson.

● 1934 - Adolf Hitler demanded that France turn over their Saar region to Germany.

● 1935 - Birth of Geraldine Ferraro, who in 1984 became the first major party female vice presidential candidate, running (and losing) with Walter Mondale against the incumbent, Acting Pres. Ronald Reagan.

● 1935 - United Auto Workers founded.

● 1937 - African American singer Bessie Smith dies after being refused treatment by a whites-only hospital, Clarksdale, Mississippi.

● 1937 - All Chinese shipping was blockaded by Japan.

● 1937 - Pumping to build Treasure Island in SF Bay is finished

● 1940 - Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.

● 1942 - 7,000 Jews rounded up in Vichy Free Zone of France

● 1942 - Holocaust in Chortkiv, western Ukraine: At 2:30 AM the German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of houses, splits in groups of 120, packs them in freight cars and deports 2000 Jews to Belzec death camp. 500 of sick and children murdered on the spot.

● 1944 - World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.

● 1945 - The Japanese were given surrender instructions on the U.S. battleship Missouri at the end of World War II.

● 1952 - First successful ICBM test announced by United States.

● 1952 - Fluoridation of SF water begins

● 1956 - Swedish Christian statesman Dag Hammarskjald recorded in his devotional journal (Markings): 'Bless your uneasiness as a sign that there is still life in you.'

● 1957 - The USSR announces the successful test of an ICBM - a "super long distance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket ... a few days ago," according to the Soviet news agency, TASS.

● 1959 - US to 'stand by' West Germans; America will stand by West Germans in their efforts to remain strong and free, the US President pledges.

● 1962 - Abortion mother returns home; An American mother-of-four is on her way home amid a storm of controversy after having an abortion in Sweden.

● 1963 - An integrated school in Burns, Louisiana is heavily damaged by a dynamite explosion allegedly set off by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

● 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J.

● 1965 - Last day that getting married could improve your draft status.

● 1966 - Two hundred Gurindji people begin struggle for reclamation of tribal land, Northern Territory, Australia.

● 1967 - The Beatles announce they have given up drugs. Paul McCartney explains, "It was an experience we went through. We don't need it anymore. We're finding different ways to get there." {It was pure BS as McCartney is a pure pothead to this day.} On the same day, Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" is released.

● 1968 - National Student Association reports 221 major college protests against Vietnam War held in U.S. since January.

● 1968 - Pigasus, an actual pig, wins Yippie! nomination for U.S. President, Chicago.

● 1968 - The Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago, Illinois.

● 1969 - Canada's Prime Minister decriminalizes sodomy by saying: "the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation"

● 1969 - The Quinault close reservation beaches to non-Indians; Wash. state responds that ownership is in question. The beaches are still closed, though the resort hotels at Moclips literally go right up to the reservation border.

● 1970 - In "Alice Doesn't Day," tens of thousands of women in cities across the country take to the streets to demand equality. Defying mounted police, almost 50,000 march down New York City's Fifth Avenue. Dutch women march on the U.S. embassy in Amsterdam to show their support, while French feminists demonstrate at the Arc de Triomphe, carrying a banner that reads "More Unknown Than the Unknown Soldier - His Wife."

● 1971 - Six thousand turn out for a National Organization for Women-organized march in New York City for equal rights, with the demand "51 percent of everything."

● 1973 - A U.S. Presidential Proclamation was declared that made August 26th Women's Equality Day.

● 1973 - U of Tx (Arlington) is 1st accredited school to offer belly dancing

● 1974 - Charles Lindberg died at the age of 72.

● 1974 - Soyuz 15 carries 2 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 3

● 1975 - Rhodesia peace talks fail; Talks between the Rhodesian Government and the African National Council collapse acrimoniously.

● 1976 - Raymond Barre becomes Prime Minister of France.

● 1977 - Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec

● 1977 - Over 2,000 women parade from Seattle's Federal Building to Waterfront Park to celebrate "Women's Week" on anniversary of women's suffrage.

● 1978 - Italian Cardinal Albino Luciani, 65, was elevated to the papacy as John Paul I. His unexpected death only 34 days later left a profound sadness for millions of people who had been drawn to him by his warm personality.

● 1978 - Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut on board of the Soyuz 31 spacecraft.

● 1980 - John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada.

● 1981 - Space Shuttle vehicle moves to Launch Complex 39A for STS-2 mission

● 1982 - Benjamin Sasway imprisoned for refusal to register for the draft.

● 1982 - NASA launches Telesat-F

● 1983 - Flooding destroys most of the old town of Bilbao, Spain.

● 1985 - Samantha Smith, a youth invited to the Soviet Union after writing a letter calling for peace, dies in an airplane crash at age 13.

● 1986 - Jennifer Levin was found strangled in New York City's Central Park. In the case called the "preppie murder" case Robert Chambers eventually plead guilty.

● 1987 - Acting President Reagan proclaims September 11, 1987 as 9-1-1 Emergency Number Day.

● 1990 - In Gainesville, FL, two slain college students were found in their apartment. Three more bodies would be found in the few days that followed.

● 1990 - The 55 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait left Baghdad by car and headed for the Turkish border.

● 1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised that national elections would be held.

● 1992 - A "no-fly zone" was imposed on the southern 1/3 of Iraq. The move by the U.S., France and Britain was aimed at protecting Iraqi Shiite Muslims.

● 1992 - A mistrial was declared in the Iran-Contra cover-up trial of CIA spy Clair George.

● 1993 - Dorothea Puente was convicted of murdering three people that had been tenants in her boarding house. She was sentenced to life without parole.

● 1994 - Man gets 'bionic' heart; A man is given the world's first battery-operated heart in a pioneering operation in Britain.

● 1996 - Barbara Jewell asked U.S. President Clinton to clear her son's name in connection with the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. Richard Jewell was later cleared by the Justice Department.

● 1996 - Chun Doo-hwan, the former military leader of South Korea, was sentenced to death. His crimes were mutiny, treason and embezzlement.

● 1996 - Rober Vesco, a U.S. financier, was convicted in a Cuban court of economic crimes.

● 1997 - Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed.

● 1998 - Sudan filed a criminal lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton and the United States for the bombing of the El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries Company. The Sudanese claimed that the plant was strictly civilian.

● 1998 - The U.S. government announced that they were investigating Microsoft in an attempt to discover if they "bullied" Intel into delaying new technology.

● 1998 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a review of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

● 2002 - Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa.

● 2003 - Investigators concluded that NASA's overconfident management and inattention to safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as damage to the craft did.


BIRTHS

● 1469 - Ferdinand II of Naples (d. 1496)

● 1540 - King Magnus of Livonia (d. 1583)

● 1676 - Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1745)

● 1694 - Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale College (d. 1755)

● 1728 - Johann Heinrich Lambert, German scientist (d. 1777)

● 1736 - Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle, French chemist (d. 1790)

● 1740 - Joseph Montgolfier, French inventor (d. 1810)

● 1743 - Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (d. 1794)

● 1775 - William Joseph Behr, German writer (d. 1851)

● 1789 - Abbas Mirza, Prince of Persia (d. 1833)

● 1792 - Manuel Oribe, Uruguayan political figure (d. 1857)

● 1819 - Albert, German-born prince consort of Queen Victoria (d. 1861)

● 1845 - Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, widely believed to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper (d. 1888)

● 1850 - Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)

● 1862 - Herbert Booth, the third son of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1926)

● 1873 - Lee DeForest, American inventor (d. 1961)

● 1874 - Zona Gale, American novelist (d. 1938)

● 1875 - John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish novelist, Governor General of Canada (d. 1940)

● 1880 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet and art critic (d. 1918)

● 1882 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1964)

● 1885 - Jules Romains, French author (d. 1972)

● 1886 - Jerome Hunsaker, American aeronautical engineer (d. 1984)

● 1894 - Sparky Adams, Baseball player (d. 1989)

● 1896 - Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1990)

● 1897 - Yoon Boseon, President of South Korea (d. 1990)

● 1898 - Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (d. 1979)

● 1899 - Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter (d. 1991)

● 1900 - Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (d. 1980)

● 1901 - Maxwell Taylor, American general (d. 1987)

● 1901 - Chen Yi, Chinese communist military commander and politician (d. 1972)

● 1904 - Christopher Isherwood, English-born writer (d. 1986)

● 1906 - Albert Sabin, American polio researcher (d. 1993)

● 1908 - Aubrey Schenck, film producer (d. 1999)

● 1909 - Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981)

● 1909 - Gene Moore, baseball player (d. 1978)

● 1910 - Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity and won the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1997)

● 1914 - Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (d. 1984)

● 1920 - Brant Parker, American cartoonist (d. 2007)

● 1921 - Benjamin Bradlee, American journalist

● 1922 - Irving R. Levine, American journalist

● 1923 - Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor and pianist

● 1924 - Alex Kellner, baseball player (d. 1996)

● 1925 - Jack Hirshleifer, American economist (d. 2005)

● 1925 - Alain Peyrefitte, French politician and writer (d. 1999)

● 1928 - Peter Appleyard, Canadian jazz vibraphonist

● 1928 - Naïm Kattan, Canadian novelist and essayist

● 1933 - Ben J. Wattenberg, Author

● 1934 - Tom Heinsohn, American basketball player, commentator and Hall of Fame member

● 1935 - Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. Vice Presidential candidate

● 1936 - Yvette Vickers, American actress

● 1940 - Don LaFontaine, American voice actor

● 1941 - Barbet Schroeder, Swiss film director

● 1941 - Akiko Wakabayashi, Japanese actress

● 1941 - Chris Curtis, English singer and drummer (The searchers) (d. 2005)

● 1942 - Vic Dana, American singer

● 1942 - Dennis Turner, British politician

● 1944 - Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester

● 1944 - Stephen Greif, English actor

● 1944 - Maureen Tucker, American musician (The Velvet Underground)

● 1945 - Tom Ridge, first United States Secretary of Homeland Security {and color coordinating expert}

● 1946 - Valerie Simpson, American singer (Ashford and Simpson)

● 1946 - Mark Snow, American composer

● 1946 - Zhou Ji, Education Minister of the People's Republic of China

● 1946 - Chantal Renaud, Quebec singer and actress

● 1949 - Bob Cowsill, Singer (The Cowsills)

● 1950 - Jerome "Pop" Pentsky, Co-founder and president of Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits

● 1952 - Bryon Baltimore, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1952 - Michael Jeter, American actor (d. 2003)

● 1952 - Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor

● 1953 - Pat Sharkey, Irish footballer

● 1954 - Efren Reyes, World Pool Player

● 1956 - Brett Cullen, Actor

● 1957 - Dr. Alban, Nigerian-Swedish singer

● 1957 - Rick Hansen, Canadian paraplegic athlete

● 1960 - Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist and bandleader

● 1960 - Nancy Martinez, Canadian-born singer

● 1961 - Jeff Parrett, American baseball player

● 1961 - Jimmy Olander, Country musician (Diamond Rio)

● 1962 - Bob Mionske, American cyclist and attorney

● 1965 - Chris Burke, American actor ("Life Goes On")

● 1965 - Bobby Duncum, Jr., wrestler (d. 2000)

● 1965 - Jon Hensley, American actor

● 1966 - Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player

● 1966 - Shirley Manson, Scottish singer (Garbage)

● 1966 - Dan Vickrey, Rock musician (Counting Crows)

● 1966 - Riley Weston, Actress, writer

● 1967 - Kelly Madison, porn star

● 1969 - Adrian Young, Rock musician (No Doubt)

● 1970 - Olimpiada Ivanova, Russian athlete

● 1970 - Melissa McCarthy, Actress ("Gilmore Girls")

● 1971 - Thalía, Mexican singer

● 1976 - Amaia Montero, Spanish singer (La Oreja de Van Gogh)

● 1976 - Zemfira, Russian singer

● 1977 - Saeko Chiba, Japanese seiyuu

● 1977 - Morris Peterson, American basketball player

● 1979 - Jamal Lewis, American football player

● 1979 - Cristian Mora, Ecuadorian footballer

● 1979 - Rubén Pazos, Spanish footballer

● 1980 - Macaulay Culkin, American actor

● 1980 - Chris Pine, American actor

● 1980 - Brendan Harris, American baseball player

● 1981 - Jesse Martin, Australian yachtsman

● 1981 - Petey Williams, Canadian professional wrestler

● 1983 - Félix Porteiro, Spanish racing driver

● 1986 - Cassie Ventura, American singer

● 1988 - Danielle Savre, American actress

● 1988 - Princess Maria Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este

● 1988 - Evan Ross, American actor

● 1993 - Keke Palmer, American actress


DEATHS

● 1278 - King Otakar II of Bohemia

● 1346 - Killed in the Battle of Crécy:
● Charles II of Alençon (b. 1297)
● John I, Count of Luxemburg (b. 1296)
● Louis I of Flanders (b. 1304)
● Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1320)

● 1349 - Thomas Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury

● 1551 - Margareta Leijonhufvud, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1516)

● 1572 - Petrus Ramus, French philosopher (b. 1515)

● 1595 - Antonio, Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal (b. 1531)

● 1666 - Frans Hals, Dutch painter

● 1714 - Edward Fowler, English Bishop of Gloucester (b. 1632)

● 1723 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist (b. 1632)

● 1785 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (b. 1716)

● 1850 - Louis-Philippe of France (b. 1773)

● 1865 - Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer (b. 1791)

● 1908 - Tony Pastor, American vaudeville performer (b. 1837)

● 1910 - William James, American psychologist and philosopher (b. 1842)

● 1915 - John Bunny American comedian (b. 1863)

● 1930 - Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (b. 1883)

● 1944 - Adam von Trott zu Solz, German anti-Nazi diplomat (executed)

● 1945 - Franz Werfel, Austrian writer (b. 1890)

● 1946 - Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (b. 1887)

● 1958 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)

● 1968 - Kay Francis, American actress (b. 1899)

● 1974 - Charles Lindbergh, American aviator (b. 1902)

● 1976 - Lotte Lehmann, German soprano (b. 1888)

● 1978 - Charles Boyer, French actor (b. 1899)

● 1978 - José Manuel Moreno, Argentine footballer (b. 1916)

● 1979 - Mika Waltari, Finnish author (b. 1908)

● 1980 - Rosa Albach-Retty, German actress (b. 1874)

● 1980 - Tex Avery, American cartoonist (b. 1908)

● 1981 - Roger Nash Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (b. 1884)

● 1981 - Lee Elhardt Hays, American folksinger (b. 1914)

● 1986 - Ted Knight, American actor (b. 1923)

● 1987 - Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)

● 1988 - Carlos Paião, Portuguese singer (b. 1957)

● 1989 - Irving Stone, American author (b. 1903)

● 1990 - Minoru Honda, Japanese astronomer (b. 1913)

● 1992 - Arthur Leigh Allen, Suspected Zodiac serial killer (b. 1933)

● 1992 - Bob de Moor, Belgian comics artist (b. 1925)

● 1995 - Ronald White, American singer and songwriter (The Miracles) (b. 1939)

● 1998 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

● 2000 - Akbar Adibi, Iranian scientist, father of electronics in Iran (b. 1939)

● 2001 - Louis Muhlstock, Canadian painter (b. 1904)

● 2003 - Jim Wacker, American football coach (b. 1937)

● 2004 - Laura Branigan, American singer (b. 1957)

● 2005 - Denis D'Amour, Canadian guitarist (Voivod) (b. 1960)

● 2005 - Robert Denning, American interior designer (b. 1927)

● 2006 - Rainer Barzel, former President of the German Bundestag (b. 1924)

● 2006 - Clyde Walcott, Barbadian West Indies cricketer (b. 1926)

● 2007 - Gaston Thorn, Luxembourger politician and Prime Minister (b. 1928)


HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Adrian of Nicomedia
● St. Alexander of Bergamo
● St. Bichier
● St. Bregwin
● St. David Lewis
● St. Elias
● St. Felix of Pistoia
● St. Jane Elizabeth Bichier des Ages
● St. Ninian
● St. Pandwyna
● St. Pantagathus
● St. Rufinus
● St. Secundus
● St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars
● St. Victor
● St. Zephyrinus, Pope(198-217), martyr
● Bl. Thomas Percy

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for August 13 (Civil Date: August 26)
● Apodosis of the Transfiguration.
● St. Maximus the Confessor (this service is sung on August 12).
● St. Tikhon (Tychon), Bishop of Voronezh, Wonderworker of Zadonsk and All Russia.
● Opening of the Relics of St. Maximus of Moscow, fool-for-Christ.
● Martyr Hippolytus of Rome and those with him: Martyrs Concordia, Irenaeus, and Abundius.
● Empress Irene, tonsured Xenia.
● St. Eudocia the Empress, wife of St. Theodosius the Younger.
● St. Serid (Seridus), abbot of Gaza.
● New-Martyrs Benjamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd; Archimandrite Sergius, and those with them (1921).

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Abba Dorotheus of Gaza.
● Martyr Coronatus.
● Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Of the Passion".
● Repose of Valaam Schemamonk Timothy of Mt. Athos. (1848).

● Namibia - Namibia Day or Heroes' Day.

● Philippines - National Heroes' Day.

● United States - Women's Equality Day (1973) / Susan B. Anthony Day (1920) {Actually this should be a day of mourning for the Equal Rights Amendment.}

● Zanzibar - Sultan's Birthday.

● These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Hong Kong : Liberation Day (1945) - ( Monday )
● England, Channel Is, Northern Ireland, Wales : Bank Holiday - ( Monday )



Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:


On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Liberal Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004

Quotes from the Right of the Day taken from Take Them at Their Words: Startling, Amusing and Baffling Quotations from the GOP and Their Friends, 1994-2004 Compiled by Bruce J. Miller with Diana Maio ©2004

Dumbest Thing Said for the Day taken from 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said Edited by Steven D. Price ©2004


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