Today is: August  26

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

Make You Own Luck Day - Take control of your destiny by creating your own opportunities! Sponsor: Richard Falls.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury Feast Day - The first archbishop of Canterbury. He died on May 26, 604.

Women's Equality Day - In 1920, the 19th Amendment was certified, giving women the right to vote. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the amendment into law, it was ratified 8 days earlier.

Born on this Day

• 1596: Frederik V, king of Bohemia (White Mountain)
  
  

• 1627: Composer Thomas Bullis
  
  

• 1676: British statesman Sir Robert Walpole
  
  

• 1687: Dutch violinist and composer Willem the Fesch
  
  

• 1740: France, aeronaut (ballooning) Joseph Montgolfier
  
  

• 1743: French scientist Antoine Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry
  
  

• 1811: Brig General Danville Leadbetter (Confederate Army), died in 1866
  
  

• 1813: Flemish painter Nicaise de Keyser (Battle of Guilder Tracks)
  
  

• 1823: Composer Wilhelm Troszel
  
  

• 1838: Actor John Wilkes Booth, shot and killed U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC.
  
  

• 1873: Lee de Forest, known as the father of radio See today's History Focus
  
  

• 1882: James Franck, German naturalist (Nobel 1925)
  
  

• 1882: Vicar and church historian Johannes Lindeboom
  
  

• 1884: Author Earl Biggers ("Charlie Chan" detective series)
  
  

• 1885: French novelist, playwright and poet Jules Romains (Men of Good Will)
  
  

• 1906: Bacteriologist Albert Sabin, discoverer of an oral vaccine for polio
  
  

• 1915: Actor Jim Davis (Inferno in Paradise, Little Big Horn, The Outcast)
  
  

• 1919: Singer / Actor Ronny Graham (Chico and the Man, The New Bill Cosby Show, The Hudson Brothers Show, The Bob Crane Show)
  
  

• 1921: Former "Washington Post" Executive Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee
  
  

• 1922: Brodcast journalist Irving Levine
  
  

• 1933: Author Ben J. Wattenberg
  
  

• 1935: Former Democratic vice-presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro
  
  

• 1937: Comedian Don Bowman
  
  

• 1942: Singer Vic Dana (Red Roses for a Blue Lady)
  
  

• 1948: Singer Valerie Simpson
  
  

• 1949: Pop singer Bob Cowsill
  
  

• 1952: Actor Michael Jeter
  
  

• 1956: Actor Brett Cullen
  
  

• 1960: Jazz musician Branford Marsalis
  
  

• 1961: Country musician Jimmy Olander (Diamond Rio)
  
  

• 1965: Actor Chris Burke ("Life Goes On")
  
  

• 1969: Rock musician Adrian Young (No Doubt)
  
  

• 1980: Actor Macaulay Culkin        
  
  

Events in History on this day
  

• 0055 B.C.: Roman forces under Julius Caesar invaded Britain.
  
  

• 0846: Basilica of St. Peter plundered by Saracens, Rome
  
  

• 1278: Death of Attakar II, King of Bohemia
  
  

• 1346: Edward III of England defeated Philip VI of France at Crecy, in the first battle where a cannon was used.
  
  

• 1429: Jeanne d'Arc enters Paris
  
  

• 1498: Michelangelo commissioned to make the "Pieta." The work was completed in 1501.
  
  

• 1541: Turkish Sultan Suleiman I takes Buda (again), annexes Hungary
  
  

• 1542: The Duchy of Lorraine becomes independent of the German empire
  
  

• 1545: Pietro Farnese establishes the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. Pope Paul III names his son Pierluigi Farnese, duke of Parma.
  
  

• 1565: The "Chase-about Raid" forces Moray and his supporters to flee
  
  

• 1618: Frederick V elected as King of Bohemia
  
  

• 1629: Cambridge Agreement pledged. Massachusetts Bay Co. stockholders agreed to emigrate to New England.
  
  

• 1666: Frans Hals, Dutch painter, dies
  
  

• 1791: John Fitch granted a US patent for his working steamboat
  
  

• 1842: On this day the U.S. Congress established the fiscal year -- which begins on July 1st.
  
  

• 1846: Felix Mendelssohn led the premiere of his oratorio "Elijah" in the Town Hall in Birmingham, England. Its success made Mendelssohn an important figure in England, where the music of Handel had already created a strong oratorio performance tradition.
  
  

• 1847: Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.
  
  

• 1871: Paper was invented by the Chines in 580. It took the Western World 100 years to catch up. Toilet paper took a while longer. It was first sold on a roll this day in 1871.
  
  

• 1873: The first kindergarten public school opens in St Louis.
  
  

• 1883: The Dutch East Indies volcano Krakatoa began an explosive eruption that destroyed two-thirds of the island and killed 36,000 people. The blast was heard thousands of miles away.
  
  

• 1900: Gabriel Faure's "Prometheus" was performed without much scenery at an open air concert in France. This was from necessity rather than choice, lightning had struck the sets.
  
  

• 1901: The New Testament of the ASV (American Standard Version) Bible was first published.
  
  

• 1907: Houdini escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 seconds.
  
  

• 1910: Mahler was psychoanalyzed by Sigmund Freud. People have been psychoanalyzing Mahler's music ever since.
  
  

• 1920: American women won the right to vote as the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect.
  
  

• 1929: The first US roller coaster built
  
  

• 1939: WXBS televised 2 games between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers. These were the first televised major league baseball games.
  
  

• 1946: George Orwell published "Animal Farm."
  
  

• 1957: The Soviet Union announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
  
  

• 1957: The Ford Motor Company rolled out the first Edsel automobile on this day. 110,847 of the cars were built before Ford pulled the plug due to lack of sales and the negative press received about the ugly car. The car was named Edsel for the company founder's son, Edsel Bryant Ford.
  
  

• 1961: The official International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.
  
  

• 1964: President Johnson was nominated for a term of office in his own right at the Democratic national convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Senator Hubert Humphrey was nominated as the Vice Presidential canidate on the Democratic ticket. They won in November.
  
  

• 1972: The summer Olympics games opened in Munich, West Germany.
  
  

• 1974: Charles Lindbergh -- the first man to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic -- died at his home in Hawaii at the age of 72.
  
  

• 1978: Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Paul the Sixth. The new pontiff took the name Pope John Paul the First.
  
  

• 1985: 13-year-old AIDS patient Ryan White began "attending" classes at Western Middle School in Kokomo, Indiana, via a telephone hook-up at his home. School officials had barred Ryan from attending classes in person.
  
  

• 1986: In the so-called ''preppie murder'' case, 18-year-old Jennifer Levin was found strangled in New York's Central Park; Robert Chambers later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
  
  

• 1987: In an attempt to eliminate a superpower stumbling block, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said his country would destroy its 72 "Pershing One-A" rockets if Washington and Moscow scrapped all their intermediate-range nuclear weapons.
  
  

• 1988: Republican presidential nominee George Bush denounced Democrat Michael Dukakis' criticism of Reagan administration drug policies as "an insult," one day after the Massachusetts governor had said US dealings with Panamanian General Manuel Noriega were "criminal."
  
  

• 1989: The Little League baseball team from Trumbull, Connecticut, won the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn., by defeating a team from Taiwan, becoming the first American team since 1983 to win the title.
  
  

• 1990: 55 Americans who had been evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait left Baghdad by car, headed for the Turkish border. 
  
  

• 1990: The bodies of two slain college students were found in their off-campus apartment in Gainesville, Florida, three more bodies were discovered in the days that followed, setting off a wave of panic.
  
  

• 1991: In an address to the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union's national legislature, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised national elections in a last-ditch effort to preserve his government, but leaders of Soviet republics told him the hour of central power had passed.
  
  

• 1992: A federal judge declared a mistrial in the Iran-Contra coverup trial of former CIA spy chief Clair George. (George was convicted of perjury in a retrial, but was then pardoned by President Bush.)
  
  

• 1992: The US, Britain and France imposed a "no-fly zone" over the southern one-third of Iraq aimed at protecting Iraqi Shiite Muslims.
  
  

• 1993: Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and 14 co-defendants entered innocent pleas in federal court in New York, a day after their indictment on charges of conspiring to wage terrorism against the United States.
  
  

• 1993: Landlady Dorothea Puente was convicted in Monterey, California, of murdering three of her boardinghouse tenants; she was later sentenced to life without parole.
  
  

• 1994: Congressional leaders and White House officials all but conceded that a health reform bill was dead for the year.
  
  

• 1995: In his weekly radio address, President Clinton explained his decision to impose a two-year moratorium on mining claims on 4,500 acres of federal land near the northeast corner of Yellowstone National Park, saying the federal land was ''more priceless than gold.''
  
  

• 1996: Democrats opened their 42nd national convention in Chicago.
  
  

• 1996: Barbara Jewell, mother of security guard Richard Jewell, tearfully called on President Clinton to clear her son's name in connection with the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. (Jewell was later cleared by the Justice Department.)
  
  

• 1996: A Cuban court convicted fugitive US financier Robert Vesco of economic crimes.
  
  

• 1996: The former military ruler of South Korea, Chun Doo-hwan, was sentenced to death for mutiny, treason and embezzlement.
  
  

• 1997: Former South African President F.W. de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end apartheid, resigned as leader of the party that had created the practice.
  
  

• 1998: Hurricane "Bonnie" drifted ashore in North Carolina and began creeping up the coast, packing heavy rains and high winds.
  
  

• 1998: Attorney General Janet Reno reopened the investigation of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior, focusing on two allegations of a conspiracy beyond James Earl Ray.
  

• 1999: Attorney General Janet Reno pledged that a new investigation of the 1993 Waco, Texas, siege would "get to the bottom" of how the FBI used potentially flammable tear gas grenades against her wishes and then took six years to admit it.
  
  

Send Mail to pbower@neo.rr.com

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