Today is: August  22

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

American Rebellion Day - In 1775, King George III declared that England's American colonies were in open rebellion. This was the first official recognition of the American Revolution.

Be An Angel Day - Live like angels today and do one small act of service for someone.

New Mexico Annexation Day - In 1846, the U. S. annexed the territory of New Mexico.

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Born on this Day

• 1240: Rabbi Menahem (Solomon Meiri) talmudist, author
  
  

• 1530: Composer Bartolomeo Spontone
  
  

• 1601: French writer Georges de Scud‚ry (Observations sur le Cid)
  
  

• 1615: Composer Christopher Gibbons
  
  

• 1647: French Inventor and Physicist Denis Papin Invented the pressure cooker and suggested the first cylinder and piston steam engine.
  
  

• 1681: Composer Pierre Danican Philidor
  
  

• 1753: Composer Christian Friedrich Ruppe
  
  

• 1760: Pope Leo XII, [Annibale Sermattei] (1823-29)
  
  

• 1795: Physician and missionary Abraham Capadose
  
  

• 1800: Edward B. Pusey, English biblical scholar and Tractarian spokesman. A devoted church leader all his life, Pusey worked to establish religious orders in Anglicanism, founding in 1845 the first Anglican sisterhood.
  
  

• 1822: US Union general-major George Stoneman, Govenor of California 1883-87
  
  

• 1827: Composer Edouard Silas
  
  

• 1827: Josef Strauss, Austrian composer (brother of Johann, Jr.)
  
  

• 1831: William H. Cummings, English musicologist. In 1855 he adapted a theme from Mendelssohn's "Festgesang," which afterward became the melody of the Christmas carol, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."
  
  

• 1836: Artist Archibald M. Willard, painted the "Spirit of '76"
  
  

• 1847: Sir Alexander MacKenzie, Scottish composer, born in Edinburgh
  
  

• 1860: Paul Gottlieb Nipkow: Inventor, discovered television's scanning principle, in which the light intensities of small portions of an image are successively analyzed and transmitted.
  
  

• 1862: Claude Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris. Debussy was not merely respected; he was controversial and influential. He died in 1918 at the age of 55.
  
  

• 1867: Charles Jenkins, inventor of the conical drinking cup and brakes for airplanes.
  
  

• 1880: Cartoonist George Herriman (Krazy Kat, Krazy Kat and Ignatz, The Dingbat Family)
  
  

• 1893: Writer and critic Dorothy Parker
  
  

• 1893: Movie Actor Cecil Kellaway (Withering Heights, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Harvey, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner)
  
  

• 19??: Keith Wayne Bassham (Johnny Q. Public)
  
  

• 1904: Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader from 1977 to 1987
  
  

• 1911: Actress Edith Atwater "Love on a Rooftop"
  
  

• 1917: Blues singer and guitarist John Lee Hooker (some sources 1920)
  
  

• 1917: Tex Williams
  
  

• 1920: Sci-fi author Ray Douglas Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451," "Martian Chronicles," "The Illustrated Man"
  
  

• 1920: Heart surgeon Denton Cooley He performed the first artifical heart transplant
  
  

• 1923: Sonny Thompson
  
  

• 1925: Actress Honor Blackman "The Avengers'" Cathy Gale, "Goldfinger's" Pussy Galore
  
  

• 1926: Bob Flanigan (Four Freshmen)
  
  

• 1928: Karlheinz Stockhausen. After the war Stockhausen studied with Frank Martin and Darius Milhaud. Stockhausen's music is rarely performed, but he was influential in his day, especially by his use of aleatory, the element of chance in music.
  
  

• 1933: Actress Sylva Koscina
  
  

• 1934: General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition forces during the Persian Gulf War
  
  

• 1935: ABC newsman Morton Dean
  
  

• 1938: Dale Hawkins (Delmar Allen Hawkins)
  
  

• 1939: Fred Milano (Belmonts)
  
  

• 1939: Baseball Hall-of-Famer Carl Yastrzemski
  
  

• 1940: Actress Valerie Harper
  
  

• 1941: Football coach Bill Parcells
  
  

• 1942: Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters)
  
  

• 1945: CBS newsman Steve Kroft
  
  

• 1945: Ron Dante (Archies/Cufflinks)
  
  

• 1945: TV Producer, Screen/Scriptwriter David Chase (Rockford Files)
  
  

• 1947: Donna Godchaux (Grateful Dead)
  
  

• 1947: Actress Cindy Williams, "Laverne & Shirley's" Shirley Feeney
  
  

• 1948: Sam Neely
  
  

• 1949: Swimmer, Olympic Athlete Diana Nyad. She was the first to swim Bahamas to Florida in 1979
  
  

• 1950: Rhythm and Blues Singer Teresa Davis (The Emotions)
  
  

• 1954: Frank Marino (Mahogany Rush)
  
  

• 1957: Country singer Holly Dunn
  
  

• 1958: Rock musician Vernon Reid
  
  

• 1958: Ian Mitchell (Bay City Rollers)
  
  

• 1960: Country singer Collin Raye
  
  

• 1961: Rock singer Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears)
  
  

• 1961: Rock musician Debbie Peterson (The Bangles)
  
  

• 1961: Roland Orzabal (Tears For Fears)
  
  

• 1961: Debbie Peterson (Bangles)
  
  

• 1961: Alternative Rock Performer Jay Ashton (Gene Loves Jezebel)
  
  

• 1962: Rock musician Gary Lee Connor (Screaming Trees)
  
  

• 1963: Singer Tori Amos
  
  

• 1963: Country singer Mila Mason
  
  

• 1963: Rhythm-and-blues musician James DeBarge
  
  

• 1963: US table tennis player Lily Yip, born in Canton China (Olympics-92, 96)
  
  

• 1964: Tennis player Mats Wilander
  
  

• 1964: Singer - pianist Tori Amos (Boys For Pele)
  
  

• 1967: Jockey Curt Bourque
  
  

• 1967: Rock singer Layne Staley (Alice Chains)
  
  

• 1968: 800m runner Paul Ereng, born in Kenya (Olympic-gold-1988)
  
  

• 1973: Singer Howie Dorough (Backstreet Boys) 
         
  
  

Events in History on this day
  

• 0408: Stilicho, regent, general of Roman Empire, beheaded by the Emperor
  
  

• 0634: Death of Abu Bakr, Caliph
  
  

• 0822: Saint Columba reported seeing monster in Loch Ness
  
  

• 1138: The English defeated the Scots at Cowton Moor. Banners of various saints were carried into battle which led to it being called the Battle of the Standard.
  
  

• 1280: Death of Pope Nicholas III
  
  

• 1305: William Wallace arrives in London, and is tried and convicted for treason
  
  

• 1350: John II, also known as John the Good, succeeds Philip VI as king of France.
  
  

• 1389: Coronation of Isabella, wife of Charles IV, King of France
  
  

• 1485: England's King Richard the Third was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field. This victory establishes the Tudor dynasty in England and ends the War of the Roses.
  
  

• 1513: James IV, King of Scots, and his army, invade England
  
  

• 1553: Execution of John Dudley, Earl of Northumberland
  
  

• 1567: The Duke of Alba, sent to re-establish Spanish authority in the Netherlands, instituted the Council of Troubles at the start of his tyrannical rule. It was nicknamed the "Council of Blood."
  
  

• 1582: The Ruthven raid occured, in which English party in Scotland captured King James VI while he was hunting and held him captive until June 1583.
  
  

• 1599: The composer Luca Marenzio, whose madrigals survive to this day, died on this day. A contemporary account suggested that he returned to Rome from Poland, was rebuked by the Pope about something, he perhaps had a heart attack.
  
  

• 1642: The Civil War in England began between the supporters of Charles I (Royalists or Cavaliers) and of Parliament (Roundheads).
  
  

• 1654: Jacob Barsimon, 1st Jew known to have arrived in America, lands at New Netherlands.
  
  

• 1670: Hiacoomes, 1st Indian preacher of Christianity, ordained, Massachusetts. See today's History Focus
  

• 1717: The Austrian army forces the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans.
  

• 1762: Ann Franklin became the first woman to hold the title of newspaper editor on this day, when she assumed those duties at The Newport Mercury in Newport, Rhode Island.
  
  

• 1775: England's King George the Third proclaimed the American colonies in a state of open rebellion.
  
  

• 1777: With the approach of General Benedict Arnold's army, British Colonel Barry St. Ledger abandons Fort Stanwix and returns to Canada.
  
  

• 1787: John Fitch's steamboat completes it's tests, years before Fulton builds his steamboat.
  
  

• 1788: The British settlement in Sierra Leone was founded to provide a home in Africa for freed slaves and homeless Africans from England.
  
  

• 1846: The United States annexed New Mexico.
  
  

• 1849: The Portuguese governor of Macao, China, is assassinated because of his anti-Chinese policies.
  
  

• 1851: The schooner "America" outraced the "Aurora" off the English coast to win a trophy that became known as the "America's Cup."
  
  

• 1864: The Geneva Convention for the protection of the wounded during times of active warfare was signed, leading to the formation of the Red Cross.
  
  

• 1901: The Cadillac Co. was founded.
  
  

• 1902: President Theodore Roosevelt became the first US chief executive to ride in an automobile, in Hartford, Connecticut.
  
  

• 1906: On this day, the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey, began to manufacture the Victrola -- or record player. The hand cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sold for $200.
  
  

• 1910: Korea was annexed by Japan after five years as a protectorate.
  
  

• 1911: It was announced in Paris that Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" had been stolen from the Louvre Museum the night before. (The painting turned up two years later, in Italy.)
  
  

• 1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on Belgium.
  
  

• 1922: Michael Collins, a founder of the Irish Republican Army and a key figure in Ireland's independence movement, was assassinated by political opponents. He had led the Irish delegation which signed the 1921 Anglo-Irish treaty by which Ireland was partitioned.
  
  

• 1930: The two halves of Sydney Harbor Bridge were joined together. It was eventually opened in March 1932.
  
  

• 1941: German troops reached the outskirts of Leningrad, eventually surrounding the city Sept. 8 at the start of the siege, which lasted until January 1944.
  
  

• 1942: Brazil declares war on the Axis powers. She is the only South American country to send combat troops into Europe.
  
  

• 1944: Hitler ordered that Paris be destroyed.
  
  

• 1945: Soviet troops land at Port Arthur and Dairen on the Kwantung Peninsula in China. After the war, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East meted out justice to Japanese war criminals at locations throughout Asia.
  
  

• 1956: President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon were nominated for second terms in office by the Republican national convention in San Francisco.
  
  

• 1956: Elvis Presley started work on his first movie, "Love Me Tender."
  
  

• 1962: The Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completed her maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va., to Savannah, Georgia.
  
  

• 1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson welcomed the Shah of Iran to the U.S. for a two-day visit. Two months later, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlevi was crowned King of Kings and Sun of the Aryans. One of the Shah's major proclamations provided for a general amnesty for political prisoners overflowing Iran's jails.
  
  

• 1968: Pope Paul VI arrived in Colombia, becoming the first pontiff ever to visit South America.
  
  

• 1969: The world's tallest totem pole is dedicated at Kake, Alaska.
  
  

• 1971: Bolivian President General Juan Jose Torres Gonzalez was deposed in a coup by Colonel Hugo Banzer Suarez, who drew support from the right-wing Falange Socialista Boliviana and the army.
  
  

• 1972: The Republican party renominated Richard M. Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew on this day in Miami, Florida.
  
  

• 1972: Rhodesia was asked to withdraw from the 20th Olympic Summer Games because of its racial policies.
  
  

• 1973: President Nixon named German-born Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State. Kissinger served in that capacity until 1977. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
  
  

• 1977: TV, Movie, and Stage Actor, Sebastian Cabot dies at the age of 59. (Checkmate, Suspense, Family Affair's Mr.Giles French, Ghost Story's Winston Essex; narrator)
  
  

• 1978: President Jomo Kenyatta, a leading figure in Kenya's struggle for independence, died; Vice President Daniel Arap Moi was sworn in as acting president.
  
  

• 1979: Led Zeppelin released their final original album, "In Through The Out Door."
  
  

• 1984: The Republican national convention in Dallas nominated President Reagan and Vice President Bush for second terms in office, breaking with tradition by approving both nominations with a single roll-call vote.
  
  

• 1984: The last Volkswagen Rabbit rolled off the assembly line in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. Over 11 million of the economical cars had been produced.
  
  

• 1985: 55 people died when fire broke out aboard a British Airtours charter jet on a runway at Manchester Airport in England.
  
  

• 1986: Angolan guerrilla leader said Soviet-aided government forces started using chemical warfare in its 10-year struggle for control of the nation.
  
  

• 1986: Kerr-McGee Corporation agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a ten-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.
  
  

• 1987: The supertanker "Bridgeton" and three other re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers left Kuwait under U.S. escort and safely cleared Persian Gulf waters where the Bridgeton had hit a mine the month before.
  
  

• 1988: Speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago, Vice President George Bush defended the Vietnam-era National Guard service of running mate Dan Quayle, saying, "He did not go to Canada, he did not burn his draft card and he damn sure didn't burn the American flag."
  
  

• 1989: Columbia's foreign minister discouraged any military intervention by the United States in the struggle against that country's drug barons.
  
  

• 1989: Nolan Ryan struck out his 5,000th batter becoming the first to reach that milestone when he fanned Oakland's Ricky Henderson in the fifth inning. It happened at 8:51 p.m. on a 3-2, 96-mph fastball.
  
  

• 1989: Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton was shot to death in Oakland, California. (Gunman Tyrone Robinson was later sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.)
  
  

• 1990: President Bush signed an order calling up reservists to bolster the U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf.
  
  

• 1990: The State Department announced it would defy President Saddam Hussein's demand to close the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait by August 24th.
  
  

• 1990: Scores of angry smokers blocked a street near Moscow's Red Square for hours in protest of the summer-long cigarette shortage.
  
  

• 1991: Yugoslav federal official admitted that a truce ordered in Croatia on August 7th had collapsed and 70 people had died in the fighting since then.
  
  

• 1991: Soviet President Gorbachev refused to join Russian Republic president Boris Yeltsin in holding the Communist parliament responsible for the coup.
  
  

• 1992: President Bush told an evangelical gathering in Dallas that the Democrats had left "three simple letters" out of their platform: "G-o-d." Democrat Bill Clinton said Bush was trying to divert attention from the economy.
  
  

• 1992: Neo-Nazi violence against foreigners erupted in Rostock, Germany.
  
  

• 1993: NASA engineers continued trying, without success, to re-establish contact with the Mars Observer, a day after losing contact.
  
  

• 1994: Ernesto Zedillo, candidate of the party that has ruled Mexico for 65 years, declared victory a day after presidential elections that his leading opponents charged were unfair.
  
  

• 1994: Jordan, overwhelmed by a flood of refugees, closed its border to arrivals from Kuwait and Iraq.
  
  

• 1995: Parliament elected Negaso Gidada president of the newly-named Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
  
  

• 1995: Congressman Mel Reynolds, D-Ill., was convicted in Chicago on charges of criminal sexual assault, sexual abuse, child pornography and obstruction of justice for having sex with a former campaign worker who was underage at the time. (Reynolds was sentenced to five years in prison.)
  
  

• 1996: President Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients.
  
  

• 1996: The 61-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva ended in failure after India blocked an agreement on a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
  
  

• 1997: A federal official threw out the contentious Teamsters election because of alleged campaign fund-raising abuses, forcing union President Ron Carey into another race against James P. Hoffa.
  
  

• 1998: President Clinton, in his Saturday radio address, announced he had signed an executive order putting Osama bin Laden's Islamic Army and two of his main lieutenants on a list of terrorist groups.
  

• 1999: Hurricane "Bret" rumbled ashore on the Texas Gulf Coast with winds over 100 mph.
  

• 1999: Art dealer Leo Castelli died in New York at age 91.
  

• 1999: A China Airlines jet burst into flames at Hong Kong's new airport, killing three people and injuring more than 200.
  
  
  

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