Today is: August 4

Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
Proverbs 27:1

August is

Children's Vision and Learning Month National Back-to-School Month National Inventors' Month Science / Medicine / Technology Book Month Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month

Chicago's Birthday - This great city was designed in 1830.

Coast Guard Day - Founded on this day in 1790 as the Revenue Cutter Service.

Freedom of the Press Day - This day recognizes the 1735 acquittal of John Peter Zenger, publisher of the "New York Weekly Journal," on a charge of seditious libel. This victory established freedom of the press in the U.S.

Saint John Vianney Feast Day - Patron Saint of Priests.

---

Born on this Day

• 1222: Richard de Clare, 7th Earl of, 8TH EARL OF CLARE, 6TH EARL OF HERTFORD Gloucester, the most powerful English noble of his time. He held estates in more than 20 English counties, including the lordship of Tewkesbury, wealthy manors in Gloucester, and the great marcher lordship of Glamorgan.
  
  

• 1521: Pope Urban VII original name GIAMBATTISTA CASTAGNA pope from Sept. 15 to Sept. 27, 1590.
  
  

• 1755: Nicolas-Jacque Conte, invented the modern pencil.
  
  

• 1776: Pierre-Simon Ballanche, a religious and social philosopher who influenced the Romantic writers and played an important part in the development of French thought in the early decades of the 19th century.
  
  

• 1792: Edward Irving a Church of Scotland minister whose teachings became the basis of the religious movement known as Irvingism, later called the Catholic Apostolic Church.
  
  

• 1792: English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. TODAY's BONUS HISTORY FACT
  
  

• 1853: John Henry Twachtman painter and etcher, one of the first American Impressionists.
  
  

• 1870: Scottish comedian Sir Harry Lauder
  
  

• 1884: Sigmund O.P. Mowinckel, Norwegian Old Testament scholar. Associated from 1917-54 with Oslo University, his most influential work was done in the Psalms. In 1951 he published "The Psalms in Israel's Worship".
  
  

• 1900: The dowager Queen Elizabeth, mother of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II
  
  

• 1900: Arturo Umberto Illia, president of Argentina (1963-66)
  
  

• 1901: Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong (jazz musician: trumpet;inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [1990]
  
  

• 1909: Glenn Cunningham THE KANSAS IRONMAN, or THE KANSAS FLYER American middle-distance runner who repeatedly broke world and national records for the mile in the 1930s.
  
  

• 1910: William Schuman was born. Schuman grew up in New York City loving baseball and other regular parts of American life. He discovered classical music only as a teenager. Yet he would compose ten symphonies, of which all are recorded and several remain in the repertory.
  
  

• 1912: Raoul Wallenberg a Swedish businessman and diplomat who became a legendary figure through his efforts to rescue Hungarian Jews during World War II and through his disappearance while a prisoner in the Soviet Union.
  
  

• 1920: The dean of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas of United Press International
  
  

• 1929: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
  
  

• 1940: Singer Frankie Ford
  
  

• 1944: Actor-comedian Richard Belzer
  
  

• 1955: Actor-screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton
  
  

• 1958: Track star Mary Decker Slaney
  
  

• 1962: Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens
  
  

• 1968: Rock musician Rob Cieka (Boo Radleys)
  
  

• 1969: Actor Michael DeLuise
  
  

• 1981: Rhythm-and-blues singer-actor Marques Houston (Immature)
  
  

• 1992: Actor Dylan Sprouse ("Grace Under Fire")
  
  

• 1992: Actor Cole Sprouse ("Grace Under Fire")        
         
  
  

Events in History on this day
  

• 1060: Death of Henry I, King of France, Philip I becomes King of France
  
  

• 1100: Coronation of Henry I, King of England
  
  

• 1221: Death of St. Dominic
  
  

• 1347: Calais surrenders to Edward III
  
  

• 1693: Champagne is invented by Dom Perignon.
  
  

• 1735: Freedom of the media was established in the American colonies when John Peter Zenger, publisher of a New York City newspaper "New York Weekly Journal", was acquitted of libel charges.
  
  

• 1753: George Washington became a Master Mason on this day.
  
  

• 1777: Retired British cavalry officer Philip Astley establishes the first circus.
  
  

• 1782: Wolfgang Mozart married Constanze Weber. He was 26; she was 19. Mozart wrote, "When we were wed, my wife began to cry and I did, too in fact, everybody cried, even the priests, at seeing our emotion."
  
  

• 1790: The Coast Guard had its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service.
  
  

• 1821: The Saturday Evening Post was published as a weekly for the first time this day.
  
  

• 1830: Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.
  
  

• 1862: The first Federal Income tax was collected.
  
  

• 1892: Andrew and Abby Borden were axed to death in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden's daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, but acquitted at trial. TODAY's BONUS HISTORY FACT
  
  

• 1914: Britain declared war on Germany, one day after Germany had declared war on France, thus beginning World War I. The United States initially declared itself neutral.
  
  

• 1916: The United States purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million.
  
  

• 1922: All 13 million telephones in the U.S. and Canada went dead as AT&T and the Bell Systems shut down all its switchboards and switching stations for one minute in memory of Alexander Graham Bell who died two days earlier.
  
  

• 1927: Peace Bridge between US and Canada opened.
  
  

• 1934: Mel Ott became the first major-league baseball player to score six runs in a single game on this day.
  
  

• 1940: Crime Doctor introduced a new kind of radio hero to audiences on this day. The CBS Radio program presented Dr. Benjamin Ordway, the show's main character, who was a victim of amnesia. He once was a criminal, but got hit on the head and, suddenly, began to work as a crime fighter.
  
  

• 1944: Nazi police raided the secret annex of a building in Amsterdam and arrested eight people -- including 15-year-old Anne Frank, whose diary became a famous account of the Holocaust. (Anne died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.)
  
  

• 1949: More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake leveled 50 towns in Ecuador.
  
  

• 1954 : The uranium rush began in Saskatchewan, Canada this day.
  
  

• 1956: Wilhelm Herz was clocked at 210 miles per hour this day at Wendover, UT. He became the first person to race a motorcycle over 200 mph.
  
  

• 1958: Dumont TV Network crumbles.
  
  

• 1962: Jamaica gains independence from Britain.
  
  

• 1964: The bodies of missing civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.
  
  

• 1971: US launches first satellite into lunar orbit from manned spacecraft.
  
  

• 1972: Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting and wounding Alabama Governor George Wallace. He was sentenced to 63 years in prison.
  
  

• 1977: President Carter signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy. The department officially opened for business on October 1, 1977.
  
  

• 1983: Former Environmental Protection Agency aide Rita M. Lavelle was indicted on charges of lying to Congress about her role in a toxic waste case involving her former employer. Lavelle was subsequently convicted and sentenced to six months in prison.
  
  

• 1984: Carl Lewis won the gold medal in the 100-meter dash at the Los Angeles Olympics, the first of four medals he won altogether.
  
  

• 1984: The African Republic of Upper Volta changed its name to Burkina Faso, which means "the land of upright men."
  
  

• 1985: Two milestones were achieved in major league baseball as Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Sox gained his 300th victory and Rod Carew of the California Angels got his 3,000th hit.
  
  

• 1986: The United States Football League, having won only token damages in an antitrust suit against the National Football League, announced it was calling off its 1986 season.
  
  

• 1987: The Federal Communications Commission voted to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and TV stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.
  
  

• 1987: US Representative Mario Biaggi (Democrat, New York) was convicted of charges that included conspiracy, extortion, tax evasion and acceptance of bribes in the "Wedtech" corruption scandal. (Sentenced to prison, Biaggi was paroled in 1990.)
  
  

• 1989: Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to help end the hostage crisis in Lebanon -- prompting President Bush to say he was "encouraged.""
  
  

• 1990: The European Community imposed an embargo on imports of oil from Iraq and Kuwait to protest the Baghdad government's invasion of its oil-rich neighbor.
  
  

• 1991: Israeli Cabinet members overwhelmingly backed a Middle East peace conference under conditions set by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
  
  

• 1991: The PLO agreed to attend a regional peace conference and offered to compromise with Israel on the make-up of the Palestinian delegation.
  
  

• 1991: The Greek luxury liner "Oceanos" sank in heavy seas off South Africa's southeast coast; all 402 passengers and 179 crewmembers survived.
  
  

• 1992: The crew of the space shuttle "Atlantis" encountered difficulties as they tried to reel out a satellite attached to miles of thin cord as part of an electricity-producing experiment.
  
  

• 1993: A federal judge sentenced Los Angeles police officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to two and a-half years in prison for violating Rodney King's civil rights.
  
  

• 1993: The Senate approved a $5.8 billion disaster bill for Midwestern flood victims.
  
  

• 1994: Serb-dominated Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs, sealing the 300-mile border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia.
  
  

• 1995: Croat forces launched a massive attack on breakaway Serbs in their self-proclaimed capital of Knin.
  
  

• 1996: On the final day of the Atlanta Olympics, Josia Thugwane became the first black South African to win a gold medal as he finished first in the marathon; the US women's basketball team defeated Brazil 111-to-87 to win the gold; David Reid won the only boxing gold medal for the US. A three-hour closing ceremony of music, dance and light brought the games to an official close.
  
  

• 1997: Teamsters went on a 15-day strike against United Parcel Service after talks broke down with nation's largest package delivery service.
  
  

• 1997: Jeanne Calment, at age 122 the world's oldest person, died at a retirement home in Arles, France.
  
  

• 1998: The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 299.43 points, the third-biggest point drop to that time (since then, the fifth-biggest to date), finishing at 8487.31.
  
  

• 1998: Turning aside an urgent White House appeal, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist cleared the way for prosecutors to question White House lawyers about their advice to President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky case.
  

• 1999: On the eve of congressional votes on the Republicans' $792 billion tax cut proposal, President Clinton again pledged a veto, saying the GOP package was "risky and plainly wrong."
  

• 1999: Actor Victor Mature died in San Diego County, California (his age, depending on references, ranged from 83 to 86).
  

• 2000: : Fresh from the Republican national convention in Philadelphia, GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush and running mate Dick Cheney began an air and rail tour of four swing states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. 
  

• 2000: Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore mocked the Republican gathering as a special-interests-sponsored sham
  
  
  

Send Mail to pbower@neo.rr.com