Today is: August 16

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

Elvis Presley Commemoration Day - At the age of 42, Elvis died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. He died for the first time in 1977. Some people still seem to see him. Sponsor: Elvis Presley Birthplace.

Joe Miller's Joke Day - This English comic actor died in 1738. He inspired the first book of jokes, Joe Miller's Jokes.

Material Girls Day - Celebrated on the birthday of singer/actress Madona Ciccone. She was born on this day in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Sponsor: The Life of the Party.

True Love Forever Day - On this day in 1965, Francesca and Robert, the main characters of "The Bridges of Madison County," first met.

Born on this Day

• 1397: Albrecht II von Habsburg, king of Bohemia/Hungary/Germany
  
  

• 1550: Dutch lawyer/pastor/vicar Carolus Gallus
  
  

• 1645: Jean de la Bruyere, French writer and moralist famous for his work Characters of Theophratus
  
  

• 1815: St. John Bosco, Italian educator. Poverty among the children in the city of Turin led him in 1859 to establish the Society of St. Francis of Sales (the Salesians). Bosco was canonized by Pius XI in 1934.
  
  

• 1852: Adolf von Schlatter, Swiss Protestant New Testament scholar. His 1921 History of Christ maintained that the success of any systematic theology had to be based on a foundation of solid biblical exegesis.
  
  

• 1863: Gabriel Pierne. He would become one of the minor "fin de siecle" French composers. Some of his harp music is still performed today.
  
  

• 1845: The French physicist Gabriel Lippman, inventor of color photography
  
  

• 1862: Basketball and Football Hall of Famer- Amos Alonzo Stagg
  
  

• 1868: Bernard McFadden, publisher responsible for the magazine True Story
  
  

• 1884: Hugo Gernsback, responsible for science fiction becoming an independent literary form.
  
  

• 1892: Harold Foster, cartoonist, created "Prince Valiant", known for it's fine drawing and historical detail.
  
  

• 1894: Labor leader George Meany
  
  

• 1904: Wendell Stanley, biochemist, first to crystallize a virus (Nobel '46)
  
  

• 1913: Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
  
  

• 1915: Singer Al Hibbler
  
  

• 1923: Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres
  
  

• 1925: Actor Fess Parker
  
  

• 1928: Actress Ann Blyth
  
  

• 1930: Actor Robert Culp
  
  

• 1930: Sportscaster Frank Gifford
  
  

• 1935: Actress Julie Newmar
  
  

• 1936: Actress Anita Gillette
  
  

• 1939: Actress Carole Shelley
  
  

• 1939: Country singer Billy Joe Shaver
  
  

• 1940: Movie director Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy")
  
  

• 1942: Don Wyrtzen, contemporary Christian songwriter. Among his most enduring sacred compositions are "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" and "Worthy is the Lamb."
  
  

• 1943: Football player Woody Peoples
  
  

• 1945: Ballerina Suzanne Farrell
  
  

• 1945: Actor Bob Balaban
  
  

• 1946: Actress Lesley Ann Warren
  
  

• 1950: Rock singer-musician Joey Spampinato (NRBQ)
  
  

• 1952: Actor Reginald VelJohnson
  
  

• 1952: Baseball player Al [Alfred Willis] Holland
  
  

• 1953: T-V personality Kathie Lee Gifford
  
  

• 1953: Rhythm-and-blues singer J.T. Taylor
  
  

• 1954: Movie director James Cameron ("Titanic")
  
  

• 1957: Rock musician Tim Farriss (INXS)
  
  

• 1958: Singer Madonna
  
  

• 1958: Actress Angela Bassett
  
  

• 1959: Actress Laura Innes ("E-R")
  
  

• 1960: Actor Timothy Hutton
  
  

• 1967: Actor Donovan Leitch
  
  

• 1972: Country singer Emily Erwin (The Dixie Chicks)      
         
  
  

Events in History on this day
  

• 1153: Death of Bernard de Tremelai, 4th Master of the Templars
  
  

• 1327: Death of St. Roc
  
  

• 1419: Death of Wenceslaus, King of Germany
  
  

• 1513: Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian defeat the French at Guinegatte, France, in the Battle of the Spurs.
  
  

• 1532: Treaty of Union between Brittany and France
  
  

• 1534: Abbot Whiting of Glastonbury hires James Renynger as music- master and organist for the Abbey
  
  

• 1650: Charles II, King of England and Scotland, signs the National Covenant of Scotland
  
  

• 1777: American forces won the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington, Vermont.
  
  

• 1777: France declares a state of bankruptcy.
  
  

• 1780: American troops are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
  
  

• 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Detroit without resistance to a smaller British force under General Issac Brock.
  
  

• 1829: The original "Siamese twins," Chang and Eng Bunker, arrived in Boston aboard the ship "Sachem" to be exhibited to the Western world.
  
  

• 1858: Telegraphed message from Britain's Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.
  
  

• 1861: President Lincoln prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding states of the Confederacy.
  
  

• 1861: Union and Confederate forces clash near Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri.
  
  

• 1875: Death of early 19th century Presbyterian revivalist Charles G. Finney, 82. Converted at 29, he led revivals for several years before affiliating with Oberlin College in 1835, where he spent the rest of his professional life.
  
  

• 1914: Liege, Belgium, falls to the German army.
  
  

• 1936: Nazi Olympics opened with a fanfare by Richard Strauss. Strauss stayed in Germany during World War Two. Afterwards, his supporters said he had not been a political person.
  
  

• 1937: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, became the first school to institute graduate study courses in traffic engineering and administration.
  
  

• 1939: The famous vaudeville house, Hippodrome, in New York City, was used for the last time
  
  

• 1943: A bomb hit La Scala, damaging the hall but not the stage. The Allies said they did not intentionally bomb artistic or cultural centers.
  
  

• 1945: Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, is released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.
  
  

• 1948: Baseball legend Babe Ruth died in New York at age 53.
  
  

• 1949: Margaret Mitchell, the 49-year-old author of Gone With the Wind, died in a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was taken after being struck by a taxi. She was on her way to see a movie at the time. The cab driver was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
  
  

• 1954: "Sports Illustrated" was first published by Time Incorporated.
  
  

• 1956: Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president at the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
  
  

• 1960: Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus.
  
  

• 1960: A world record for a successful free fall was set by Joseph Kittinger. What Mr. Kittinger did was quite amazing. He dropped from an altitude of 84,700 feet - more than 16 miles - before opening his parachute over New Mexico.
  
  

• 1972: African-American Methodist clergyman from Dominica, West Indies, Philip A. Potter, 51, was named general secretary of the World Council of Churches. Serving until 1984, Potter gave strong spiritual guidance to the work of the WCC.
  
  

• 1977: The "King of Rock and Roll," Elvis Presley, died at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 42.
  
  

• 1986: House and Senate conferees on Capitol Hill approved sweeping legislation to extensively restructure the federal income tax law.
  
  

• 1987: 156 people were killed when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed while trying to take off from a Detroit airport; the sole survivor was four-year-old Cecelia Cichan.
  
  

• 1987: Thousands of people worldwide began a two-day celebration of the "harmonic convergence," which heralded what believers called the start of a new, purer age of humankind.
  
  

• 1988: Vice President George Bush tapped Indiana Senator Dan Quayle to be his running mate.
  
  

• 1989: A rare prime-time lunar eclipse occurred over most of the United States, although clouds spoiled the view for many.
  
  

• 1990: President Bush met with Jordan's King Hussein in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he urged the monarch to close Iraq's access to the sea through the port of Aqaba.
  
  

• 1990: In Iraq, President Saddam Hussein issued a statement in which he repeatedly called Bush a "liar" and said the outbreak of war could result in "thousands of Americans wrapped in sad coffins."
  
  

• 1991: Pope John Paul II began the first-ever papal visit to Hungary.
  
  

• 1991: In Moscow, Alexander Yakovlev, a top adviser to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, resigned from the Communist Party, warning that hard-liners were plotting ''a party and state coup.''
  
  

• 1992: On the eve of the Republican national convention in Houston, President Bush and party officials were heatedly denying a "New York Times" report that a confrontation with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was being motivated by political concerns.
  
  

• 1993: President Clinton opened his campaign for health care reform with a speech to the nation's governors in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
  
  

• 1993: New York police rescued business executive Harvey Weinstein from a covered 14-foot-deep pit, where he'd been held nearly two weeks for ransom.
  
  

• 1993: Actor Stewart Granger died in Santa Monica, California, at age 80.
  
  

• 1994: President Clinton and other top Democrats were scouring the House of Representatives for converts in hopes of reviving a stalled anti-crime bill.
  
  

• 1995: The government more than doubled its estimate of rapes or attempted rapes in the United States each year, to 310,000, a finding that was praised by leaders of women's groups.
  
  

• 1996: A jubilant Bob Dole set out from the Republican convention, promoting his tax-cut plan as a boon to working families.
  
  

• 1997: Two cosmonauts just returned from Mir (Vasily Tsibliyev and Alexander Lazutkin) held a news conference in which they rejected criticism that they were to blame for troubles aboard the aging, problem-plagued space station.
  
  

• 1997: Thousands of Elvis Presley fans thronged Graceland on the 20th anniversary of his death.
  
  

• 1998: Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland united in uncomprehending grief over the car bomb slaughter of 29 people in Omagh a day earlier.
  
  

• 1998: A day before President Clinton was to face a criminal grand jury concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, his lawyer said, "The truth is the truth, and that's how the president will testify."
  

• 1999: Four months after two gunmen sent them fleeing in horror, students reclaimed Columbine High School in Colorado for the start of the school year.
  

• 1999: The quiz show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" began a limited two-week run on ABC. 
  

• 1999: Vladimir Putin won confirmation as Russia's prime minister, the fifth since early 1998.
  

• 1999:  Republican Lamar Alexander folded his presidential campaign.
  
  

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