Today is:
August 17
|
Today is:
|
|
|
 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 |
Cat Nights begin - Starts shortly after Dog Days end.
Come Up and See Me Sometime Day - Celebrate the immortal words of Mae West on her
birthday. Sponsor: The Life of the Party.
Born on this Day
1153: William, first son of King Henry II of England. Died in infancy.
1586: German vicar and writer Johann V Andreae
1601: Mathematician Pierre de Fermat
1686: Composer Nicola Antonio Porpora
1720: French artist ans engraver Charles D J Eisen
1629: John III Sobieski, King of Poland & Lithuania
1761: Birth of William Carey, pioneer English missionary to India. He
taught at the newly founded Fort William College of Calcutta from 1801 until his death,
and helped found the Serampore Press, which made the Bible accessible to over 300 million
people.
1775: Composer Philippe Libon
1779: Composer Franz de Paula Roser
1780: Birth of George Croly, Irish churchman and author. He is primarily
remembered today as author of the hymn, "Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart."
1786: Frontiersman and politian Davy Crockett American who died in the
defense of the Alamo. See today's History Focus
1882: Samuel Goldwyn (Goldfish) (movie pioneer: the -G- in MGM)
1887: Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey
1890: Harry Hopkins, organized the Works Projects Administration under
President Roosevelt
1892: Actress Mae West. American actress in burlesque, vaudeville,
Broadway, and movies
1904: Publisher-diplomat John Hay Whitney
1920: Actress Maureen O'Hara
1939: Blues guitarist Luther Allison
1945: Actor Robert DeNiro
1946: Movie director Martha Coolidge ("Rambling Rose")
1949: Rock musician Sib Hashian (formerly with Boston)
1951: Actor Robert Joy
1953: Rock singer Kevin Rowland (Dexy's Midnight Runners)
1955: Rock musician Colin Moulding (XTC)
1955: Country singer-songwriter Kevin Welch
1958: Singer Belinda Carlisle
1960: Actor Sean Penn
1960: Actor Bruce Penhall
1962: Rock musician Gilby Clarke (formerly with Guns N' Roses)
1964: Singer Maria McKee
1965: Rock musician Steve Gorman (The Black Crowes)
1966: Rock musician Jill Cunniff (Luscious Jackson)
1967: Actor David Conrad ("Relativity") is 30.
1969: Singer Donnie Wahlberg
1969: Rapper Posdnuos
1970: Tennis player Jim Courier
1986: Actor Bryton McClure ("Family Matters")
0754: Death of Carloman, King of the Franks
1257: Death of St, Hyacinth of Cracow
1308: Three Cardinals interview the senior officers of the
Templars at Chinon, France
1427: Gypsies denied entry into Paris
1498: Cardinal Borgia renounces his Office to marry a
French princess
1559: Death of Pope Paul IV
1585: Antwerp surrenders to the Duke of Parma; sacked.
1590: John White, the leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587
to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returns from a trip to England
to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers is ever found.
1635: English Puritan Richard Mather, 39, first arrived in
Boston. A staunch defender of the congregational form of church government, Mather is
remembered today for founding the "dynasty" to which was born his son Increase
Mather in 1639, and his grandson Cotton Mather in 1663.
1655: Antonio Fernandez Carvajal is 1st Jew to receive
English denizenship.
1743: By the Treaty of Abo, Sweden cedes southeast Finland
to Russia, ending Sweden's failed war with Russia.
1790: The location of the capital city of the United
States moved from New York City to Philadelphia.
1800: The violinist Ole Bull died in Bergen, the home of
Grieg. Ole Bull was one of the world's greatest violinists in his day.
1815: Napoleon arrived at Saint Helena for the beginning
of his exile on this day.
1807: Robert Fulton's "North River Steam Boat"
(popularly known as the "Clermont") began heading up New York's Hudson River on
its successful round-trip to Albany.
1809: In Pennsylvania, Thomas Campbell, 46, and his son
Alexander, 20, formed the American Movement for Christian Unity, which later became the
Disciples of Christ Church.
1812: Napoleon Bonaparte's army defeats the Russians at
the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian retreat to Moscow.
1833: The first steam ship to cross the Atlantic entirely
on its own power, the Canadian ship Royal William, begins her journey from Nova Scotia to
The Isle of Wight.
1835: Solyman Merrick of Springfield, MA, patented the
wrench.
1863: Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in
Charleston harbor during the Civil War.
1877: F.P. Cahill became the first man to be mortally
wounded by Billy the Kid
1896: A prospecting party discovered gold in Alaska, a
finding that touched off the Klondike gold rush.
1903: The first Pulitzer Prize was awarded this day as
Joseph Pulitzer made a million dollar donation to Columbia University. This provided the
funding for the Pulitzer Prize awards to be made in Joseph Pulitzer's name.
1915: A hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, killing 275
people.
1915: A Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb
County, Georgia after death sentence for the murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life
1915: Charles F. Kettering of Detroit, MI, patented the
electric automobile self-starter.
1939: The first movie to use the combination of black and
white and color film -"Wizard of Oz", premiered on this night.
1940: President Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister
William Mackenzie King met in Ogdensburg, New York, where they agreed to set up a joint
defense commission.
1943: The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as US
and British forces entered Messina.
1946: Arthur Honegger's Third Symphony, the
"Liturgical," was premiered in Zurich. All five of Honegger's symphonies deserve
more attention than they get, and the Third is a very moving experience when played well.
The finale includes a particularly ominous march.
1960: American Francis Gary Powers pleads guilty at his
Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet Union in a U-2 plane.
1961: The East German government began building the Berlin
Wall.
1962: East German border guards shot and mortally wounded
18-year-old Peter Fechter, who had attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into the western
sector.
1969: 248 people were killed as Hurricane
"Camille" slammed into the Gulf Coast.
1969: The Woodstock Music and Art Fair concluded near
Bethel, New York.
1973: Lee Trevino gets his first hole-in-one.
1978: The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight
ended as Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman landed their "Double Eagle
Two" outside Paris.
1983: Lyricist Ira Gershwin, who, with his composer
brother George, wrote such classic songs as "A Wonderful" and "The Man I
Love," died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 86.
1984: As delegates to the Republican national convention
arrived in Dallas, the platform committee put finishing touches on its party doctrine,
which said the GOP was seeing "a new dawn of the American spirit."
1985: Over 1,400 meat packers walked off the job at Geo.
A. Hormel and Co.'s main plant in Austin, Minnesota, in a bitter strike that lasted just a
little more than a year.
1986: President Reagan praised a tax revision bill
approved by House and Senate conferees the day before, calling it "a triumph for the
American people and the American system."
1987: Kidnapped American journalist Charles Glass escaped
and was rescued after being held hostage for 62 days in Lebanon.
1987: Rudolf Hess, the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner
circle, died at a Berlin hospital near Spandau Prison at age 93, having apparently
committed suicide by strangling himself with an electrical cord.
1988: Vice President George Bush was nominated for
president at the Republican national convention in New Orleans.
1988: Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and US
Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in a mysterious plane crash (suspected of being an
assassination).
1989: The Commerce Department reported the U.S. trade
deficit shrank to $8.7 billion dollars in June, the smallest monthly imbalance since
December 1984.
1990: Actress/singer Pearl Bailey died in Philadelphia at
age 72.
1990: Iraq said it would "play host" to all
foreign citizens in the country who were from "aggressive nations," and place
them in military and civilian targets until the threat of war was over.
1991: During an outdoor mass in Pecs, Hungary, Pope John
Paul II expressed moral support for Croatians, but stopped short of endorsing Croatia's
drive for independence.
1991: In Strathfield, Australia, a man armed with a
machete and a rifle killed seven people at a shopping mall before taking his own life.
1992: President Bush arrived in Houston for the opening of
the Republican national convention, which featured an address by former President Reagan.
1992: Actor-director Woody Allen admitted being
romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of Allen's longtime
companion, actress Mia Farrow. The breakup sparked a bitter child custody battle for the
couple's three children.
1993: Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata performed at
Tanglewood. They did 17th, 18th and 19th century American folk hymns as well as spirituals
from New England and New York.
1993: A prosecutor in Wayne County, Michigan, charged Dr.
Jack Kevorkian under Michigan's six-month-old law against assisted suicide for aiding in
the death of Thomas Hyde, who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease. (A jury later
acquitted Kevorkian.)
1994: Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman resigned
under pressure, the latest Clinton administration official felled by the Whitewater
controversy.
1994: James B. McDougal, McDougal's ex-wife, Susan H.
McDougal, and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker were indicted by the Whitewater grand jury.
(James McDougal was convicted on 18 of 19 counts of fraud and conspiracy; Tucker was found
guilty on one count of fraud and one count of conspiracy; Susan McDougal was convicted on
four fraud-related charges.)
1995: James B. McDougal, McDougal's ex-wife, Susan H.
McDougal, and Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker were indicted by the Whitewater grand jury.
(James McDougal was convicted on 18 of 19 counts of fraud and conspiracy; Tucker was found
guilty on one count of fraud and one count of conspiracy; Susan McDougal was convicted on
four fraud-related charges.)
1996: A military cargo plane carrying gear for President
Clinton crashed and exploded shortly after takeoff from Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming;
eight crew members and a Secret Service employee were killed.
1996: The Reform Party announced Ross Perot had won its
nomination to be its first-ever presidential candidate.
1997: President Clinton urged both sides in the United
Parcel Service strike to "redouble their efforts" to reach a deal, but hours
later, negotiators recessed their intensive talks.
1998: Russia allowed the ruble to drop in value by up to
34 percent.
1998: The Federal Reserve Board approved the megamerger of
NationsBank and BankAmerica.
1998: President Clinton gave grand jury testimony via
closed-circuit television from the White House concerning his relationship with Monica
Lewinsky; he then delivered a TV address in which he denied previously committing perjury,
admitted his relatiogship with Lewinsky was "wrong," and criticized Kenneth
Starr's investigation.
1999: More than 17,000 people were killed when a magnitude
7.4 earthquake struck Turkey.
Soul Food for August 17 |
All The Rest for August 17 |
Send Mail to pbower@neo.rr.com
Looking for more quotations?
Past quotes from the Daily
Miscellany can be found here!
I hope you are viewing this page with IE
My favorite Browser