Today is: August 12

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

Get a Tan Day - Held on the birthday of George Hamilton. He was born on this day in 1939 in Memphis, Tennissee. Sponsor: The Life of the Party.

Hawaii Annexation Day - In 1898 the U.S. Formally annexed the kingdom of Hawaii.

Victory Day - This public holiday in Rhode Island commemorates the end of the first war between Indians and colonists in 1676.

Born on this Day

• 1753: English artist Thomas Bewick, English artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables)
  
  

• 1762: George IV, king of England (1820-30)
  
  

• 1774: English poet laureate Robert Southey
  
  

• 1838: Joseph Barnby, English organist and choirmaster. He composed nearly 250 hymn tunes during his life. Of these the most enduring include LAUDES DOMINI ("When Morning Gilds the Skies"), LONGWOOD ("Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart"), MERRIAL ("Now the Day is Over") and ST. ANDREW ("We Give Thee But Thine Own").
  
  

• 1849: American painter Abbott Thayer, credited with noting camouflage in the animal world
  
  

• 1859: Educator and poet Katherine Lee Bates, who wrote "America the Beautiful" TODAY's BONUS HISTORY FACT
  
  

• 1862: PhilanthropistJuluis Rosenwald
  
  

• 1876: Mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart
  
  

• 1880: Christy Mathewson, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher
  
  

• 1881: Movie producer Cecil B. DeMille
  
  

• 1911: Comic actor Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) (Around the World in 80 Days, Pepe)
  
  

• 1912: Actress Jane Wyatt (Father Knows Best` Spock's mother in "Star Trek")
  
  

• 1919: Choreographer Michael Kidd (Milton Greenwald)
  
  

• 1926: Actor-director John Derek
  
  

• 1927: Country singer Porter Wagoner
  
  

• 1929: Singer-musician Buck (Alvis Edgar) Owens
  
  

• 1931: Author/screen writer William Goldman,(Marathon Man, The Princess Bride, All the President's Men) ( Lord of the Flies - Nobel 1983)
  
  

• 1933: Auto racer Parnelli (Rufus) Jones: Indianapolis 500 winner [1963]
  
  

• 1939: Actor George Hamilton
  
  

• 1941: Singer Jennifer Warren (Up Where We Belong [w/Joe Cocker])
  
  

• 1949: Rock singer-musician Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)
  
  

• 1949: The former president of Brazil, Fernando Collor de Mello
  
  

• 1950: Singer Kid Creole
  
  

• 1954: Jazz musician Pat Metheny
  
  

• 1954: Actor Sam J. Jones
  
  

• 1956: Country singer Danny Shirley (Confederate Railroad)
  
  

• 1961: Pop musician Roy Hay (Culture Club)
  
  

• 1963: Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot
  
  

• 1971: Tennis player Pete Sampras
  
  

• 1975: Rock musician Bill Uechi (Save Ferris)
  
  

• 1980: Actress Dominique Swain       
         
  
  

Events in History on this day
  

• 0670: Irish abbot, St. Fiacre died. His life of severe denial attracted many. He was the founder of a hermitage in Kilkenny and of a monastery in France.
  
  

• 1253: Death of St. Claire of Assisi
  
  

• 1350: Death of Philip VI, King of France
  
  

• 1484: Death of Pope Sixtus IV at the age of 70. He was pope from 1471 to 1484.
  
  

• 1508: Ponce de Le¢n arrives in Puerto Rico
  
  

• 1515: Marriage of Christian II, King of Norway and Denmark, to Isabella
  
  

• 1552: Emperor Charles V grants religious freedom in treaty of Passau
  
  

• 1553: Pope Julius III orders all copies of the Talmud to be confiscated and burned.
  
  

• 1851: Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine. He set up business in Boston with $40 in capital.
  
  

• 1862: General John Hunt Morgan and his raiders capture Gallatin, Texas.
  
  

• 1865: Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use disinfectant during surgery.
  
  

• 1867: President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
  
  

• 1877: This is the birthday of the phonograph record. Edison drew a sketch of his idea, with a note to his mechanic, John Kreusi, "Make this." When the mechanic did, Edison recorded himself reciting the poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb." It worked. "I was never so taken aback," Edison said.
  
  

• 1888: Bertha, wife of inventor Karl Benz, makes the first motor tour. Without her husband's knowledge, she borrow one of his cars and travels 180km to visit relatives for 5 days.
  
  

• 1898: A peace protocol was signed ending the Spanish-American War. The United States acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, and annexed Hawaii.
  
  

• 1915: The novel "Of Human Bondage," by William Somerset Maugham, was first published.
  
  

• 1934 Babe Ruth's final game at Fenway Park, 41,766 on hand.
  
  

• 1936: Padrewski recorded Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" for a movie of the same name. He bumped into Winston Churchill at the film studio working on a script. This can be described as a meeting of two world leaders because Padrewski once served for a while as premier of Poland.
  
  

• 1937: Comedian, Red Skelton, got his first taste of network radio on this night, as he appeared on the Rudy Vallee Show on NBC.
  
  

• 1944: Joseph P. Kennedy Junior, eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England.
  
  

• 1953: Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.
  
  

• 1955: President Eisenhower raises minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an hour.
  
  

• 1959: First ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation Island.
  
  

• 1960: The first balloon satellite -- the "Echo One" -- was launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral.
  
  

• 1966: The last tour for the Beatles began this day at the International Amphitheater in Chicago; and John Lennon apologized for boasting that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. London's "Catholic Herald" said Lennon's comment was "arrogant ... but probably true."
  
  

• 1962: One day after launching Andrian Nikolayev into orbit, the Soviet Union also sent up cosmonaut Pavel Popovich; both men landed safely Aug.15.
  
  

• 1967: "Fleetwood Mac" made their stage debut at the National Blues Festival in Great Britain.
  
  

• 1969: The Boston Celtics basketball team was sold for $6,000,000. It was the highest price paid for a pro basketball team to that date.
  
  

• 1972: The last American combat ground troops left Vietnam.
  
  

• 1973: Jack Nicklaus won his 14th major golf title, breaking a record held for nearly 50 years by Bobby Jones. Nicklaus won the PGA Championship for the third time.
  
  

• 1977: The space shuttle "Enterprise" passed its first solo flight test by taking off atop a Boeing 747, separating, and then touching down in California's Mojave Desert.
  
  

• 1978: Pope Paul the Sixth, who had died August sixth at age 80, was buried in St. Peter's Basilica.1978: This was the first papal funeral ever held outdoors in St. Peter's Square.
  
  

• 1982: Terry Felton of the Minnesota Twins set a major-league record for rookie pitchers. He went 0-for-14. Guy Morton of the Cleveland Indians had lost 13 games, but won his 14th, in 1914.
  
  

• 1983: President Reagan opened a drive for Hispanic political support as he denounced Cuba's communist government in a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Tampa, Florida.
  
  

• 1984: Luis Aparicio and Don Drysdale, who began the playing careers on the same day in 1956, were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
  
  

• 1984: The 23rd Olympic Games ended in Los Angeles with a record attendance of 5.5 million people despite a Soviet-led boycott.
  
  

• 1985: The world's worst single-aircraft disaster occurred as a crippled Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 on a domestic flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people.
  
  

• 1986: NASA announced it had selected a new rocket design for the space shuttle aimed at correcting the flaws believed responsible for the Challenger disaster.
  
  

• 1986: Rod Carew became the first player in the history of the California Angels franchise to have his uniform number retired. Number 29 played for the Angels for seven years.
  
  

• 1987: President Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, saying his former national security adviser, John Poindexter, was wrong not to have told him about the diversion of Iran arms-sale money.
  
  

• 1988: The Last Temptation of Christ, the controversial film directed by Martin Scorsese, opened this day in nine cities despite objections by some Christians and various religious groups who felt the film was sacrilegious.
  
  

• 1990: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sought to tie any withdrawal of his troops from Kuwait to an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
  
  

• 1990: Air Force Staff Sergeant John Campisi of West Covina, California, died after being hit by a military truck in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first U.S. casualty of the Persian Gulf crisis.
  
  

• 1991: A letter from Lebanese kidnappers was made public; it offered to trade the release of Western hostages for the freedom of ''all detainees'' worldwide.
  
  

• 1991: The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., began hosting a two-day reunion of former Negro League players.
  
  

• 1992: After 14 months of negotiations, the United States, Mexico and Canada announced in Washington that they had concluded the North American Free Trade Agreement, which would create the world's largest trading bloc.
  
  

• 1992: Avant-garde composer John Cage died in New York at age 79
  
  

• 1993: Pope John Paul the Second began his third US visit in Denver with a welcome by President Clinton.
  
  

• 1993: President Clinton signed a relief package for the flooded Midwest.
  
  

• 1993: President Clinton lifted a ban on rehiring air traffic controllers fired for going on strike in 1981.
  
  

• 1993: The launch of space shuttle "Discovery" was scrubbed at the last second.
  
  

• 1994: Woodstock '94 opened in Saugerties, New York, marking the 25th anniversary of the original Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York.
  
  

• 1994: In baseball's eighth work stoppage since 1972, players went on strike rather than allow team owners to limit their salaries.
  
  

• 1994: Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, already sworn in during a private ceremony, took a public oath at the White House.
  
  

• 1995: In a methodical, daylong procession, Republican presidential candidates courted Ross Perot's followers at a United We Stand America conference in Dallas.
  
  

• 1996: The Republican Party opened its 36th national convention in San Diego by celebrating Bob Dole as a tested, trustworthy leader who would lower taxes and bring compassionate conservatism to the White House.
  
  

• 1997: Steel workers approved a contract ending a ten-month strike against Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation.
  
  

• 1997: Two New York City police officers were placed in desk jobs as authorities investigated the charges of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who accused police of sodomizing him with the wooden handle of a toilet plunger after he was arrested in a nightclub fight.
  
  

• 1997: A flash flood in Arizona's Lower Antelope Canyon claimed the lives of 11 hikers.
  
  

• 1998: Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to Holocaust survivors to settle claims for their assets.
  

• 1999: Los Angeles County prosecutors charged white supremacist Buford O. Furrow with murder and five counts of attempted murder, all filed as hate crimes, in the wounding of five people at a Jewish community center and the shooting death of a Filipino-American mail carrier. (Federal prosecutors already had charged Furrow in the postman's slaying.) 
  

• 2000: The Russian nuclear submarine "Kursk" and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea. 
  

• 2000: Evander Holyfield won a 12-round unanimous decision over John Ruiz in Las Vegas for the vacant WBA heavyweight title. 
  

• 2000: Actress Loretta Young died at age 87. 
  
  
  

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