Today is: August 19

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

Go to the Track Day - Celebrated on the birthday of Willie Shoemaker, one of the greatest jockeys. He was born in 1931 in Fabens, Texas. Celebrate by taking a ride on a horse. Sponsor: The Life of the Party.

National Aviation Day - This day has been proclaimed by various presidents. It is celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright, born this day in 1871.

Born on this Day

• 1398: Poet I€igo Ląpez, Spain, marques de Santillana (Comedieta de Ponza)
  
  

• 1521: Italian historian Lodovico Guicciardini (Descrittione di Tutti)
  
  

• 1558: Dutch lawyer and historian Paulus Merula
  
  

• 1596: Elisabeth Stuart, English daughter of James I
  
  

• 1570: Salamone Rossi was born in Mantua. Rossi composed both secular and synagogue music. And for a time Rossi collaborated with his more famous contemporary Monteverdi.
  
  

• 1631: English poet John Dryden
  
  

• 1646: John Flamsteed, 1st astronomer royal of England.
  
  

• 1686: Composer Antonio Tonelli
  
  

• 1881: The composer Georges Enescu was born in the city of Dorohoiu, Rumania. Enescu's Rumanian-flavored music enjoyed some popularity in the first half of the 20th century but it is less often played nowadays.
  
  

• 1785: Connecticut clockmaker Seth Thomas
  
  

• 1870: Financier Bernard Baruch
  
  

• 1871: Orville Wright
  
  

• 1883: Coco (Gabrielle) Chanel
  
  

• 1892: Actor Alfred Lunt (Tony Award for Quadrille )
  
  

• 1902: Ogden Nash See today's History Focus
  
  

• 1903: Actor Claude Dauphin (Franc-Nohain) ( Les Miserables, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Is Paris Burning, April in Paris)
  
  

• 1903: Novelist James Cozzens (Pulitzer Prize Guard of Honor [1948])
  
  

• 1907: Actress June Collyer (Heermance) (A Face in the Fog, The Ghost Walks, Drums of Jeopardy)
  
  

• 1915: Author Ring Lardner (You Know Me, Haircut & Other Stories)
  
  

• 1919: Publisher Malcolm Forbes, Sr. (Forbes magazine)
  
  

• 1921: Producer - writer Gene Roddenberry Star Trek, Have Gun Will Travel)
  
  

• 1927: Actor L.Q. Jones
  
  

• 1931: Former jockey Willie Shoemaker
  
  

• 1933: Actress Debra Paget (Tales of Terror, The Ten Commandments, Omar Khayyam, Love Me Tender, Prince Valiant)
  
  

• 1934: Tennis coach Renee Richards
  
  

• 1938: Actress Diana Muldaur
  
  

• 1939: Rock musician Ginger Baker (Cream, Blind Faith)
  
  

• 1940: Singer Johnny Nash
  
  

• 1940: Actress Jill St. John
  
  

• 1943: Singer Billy J. Kramer
  
  

• 1944: Country singer-songwriter Eddy Raven
  
  

• 1946: President William J. Clinton
  
  

• 1948: Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore
  
  

• 1948: Actor Gerald McRaney
  
  

• 1951: Rock musician John Deacon (Queen)
  
  

• 1952: Actor Jonathan Frakes
  
  

• 1953: Political consultant Mary Matalin
  
  

• 1955: Actor Peter Gallagher
  
  

• 1956: Actor Adam Arkin
  
  

• 1963: Actor John Stamos
  
  

• 1965: Actress Kyra Sedgwick
  
  

• 1965: Actor Kevin Dillon
  
  

• 1966: Country singer Lee Ann Womack
  
  

• 1967: M-T-V reporter Tabitha Soren
  
  

• 1969: Actor Matthew Perry ("Friends")
  
  

• 1969: Country singer Clay Walker
  
  

• 1971: Tennis player Mary Joe Fernandez
  
  

• 1985: Actor J. Evan Bonifant ("Blues Brothers 2000") 
         
  
  

Events in History on this day
  

• 0014: Augustus Cësar, 1st Roman Emperor, dies
  
  

• 0440: Death of Pope Sixtus III
  
  

• 1153: Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem, takes Ascalon
  
  

• 1399: Richard II, King of England, surrenders to Henry, his cousin and heir and abdicates
  
  

• 1457: Andrea del Castagno, Italian painter, dies
  
  

• 1458: Election of Pius II as Pope
  
  

• 1493: Maximilian succeeds his father Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor.
  
  

• 1503: Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) dies accidentally of poison intended for a guest
  
  

• 1587: Sigismund III is chosen to be the king of Poland.
  
  

• 1772: Gustavus III of Sweden eliminates the rule of parties and establishes an absolute monarchy.
  
  

• 1779: Americans under Major Henry Lee take the British garrison at Paulus Hook, New Jersey.
  
  

• 1812: The USS Constitution earns the nickname "Old Ironsides" during the battle off Nova Scotia that saw her defeat the HMS Guerriere. Often venturing into harm's way, America's most famous sailing ship twice came close to oblivion--once at the hands of a British squadron, and once at the hands of her own navy.
  
  

• 1848: The New York "Herald" reported the discovery of gold in California.
  
  

• 1856: Gail Borden of Brooklyn, New York, patented his process for condensed milk. The milk from contented cows. This slogan was one of the great American advertising campaigns. Borden's is still in business and is one of the largest dairy product concerns in the world. The familiar flat-topped cans of Borden's condensed milk are still available, as are Borden's ice cream, cheese and other products -- all with the seal of approval by Borden's famous mascot, Elsie, the cow.
  
  

• 1886: The Christian Union was founded by Baptist clergyman Richard G. Spurling in Monroe County, Tennessee. In 1923, this pentecostal denomination changed its name to the Church of God. Headquartered today in Cleveland, Tennessee, its current membership is nearly 500,000.
  
  

• 1909: The first race run on the brick track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana was held on this day.
  
  

• 1914: The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) lands in France.
  
  

• 1915: Two Americans were killed when a German U-boat torpedoed a British liner in the Atlantic Ocean, an incident that helped bring the United States into World War I.
  
  

• 1929: The comedy program "Amos and Andy," starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, made its network radio debut on NBC.
  
  

• 1934: A plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler as Fuehrer.
  
  

• 1936: Spanish poet Fredico Garcia Lorca is shot by Franco's troops after being forced to dig his own grave.
  
  

• 1942: About six-thousand Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering about 50-percent casualties.
  
  

• 1944: In an effort to prevent a communist uprising in Paris, Charles DeGualle begins attacking German forces all around the city. Adolf Hitler had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his FŸhrer's order.
  
  

• 1950: Edith Sampson becomes the first African-American representative to the United Nations.
  
  

• 1953: Israel's parliament conferred Israeli citizenship posthumously on all Jews killed by the Nazis during the years of the Holocaust (1933-45) in Europe.
  
  

• 1955: Floods hit the northeastern United States, killing 200 people.
  
  

• 1955: Severe flooding in the Northeast caused by the remnants of Hurricane "Diane" claimed some 200 lives.
  
  

• 1960: A tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
  
  

• 1976: President Ford won the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Kansas City.
  
  

• 1977: One of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history hit the eastern Indian Ocean between Australia and Indonesia, rattling buildings in Perth, Australia, 1,000 miles to the south.
  
  

• 1977: Comedian Groucho Marx died in Los Angeles at age 86.
  
  

• 1981: The final episode of "Charlie's Angels" was broadcast on ABC-TV. The show which starred Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and the voice of John Forsythe, went into syndication.
  
  

• 1983: Southeastern Texas began cleaning up from the ravages of Hurricane Alicia, which had left 22 dead and a billion dollars worth of damage in its wake.
  

• 1984: Lee Trevino won the 66th PGA Championship - by four stroke. Trevino's payoff for the championship was $125,000. It was his first victory in three years.
  
  

• 1985: Republican Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a close friend and adviser of President Reagan's, announced he would not seek re-election, citing personal reasons.
  
  

• 1986: A car bomb exploded during morning rush hour at the main square in central Tehran, killing 20 people. Iran first blamed "American agents," but later executed what it described as an "Iraqi agent."
  
  

• 1987: A third convoy of US warships and reflagged Kuwaiti tankers slipped into the Persian Gulf before dawn and headed up the waterway behind a screen of mine-seeking helicopters.
  
  

• 1987: Consumer reporter David Horowitz was held at gunpoint -on camera. During a KNBC-TV newscast in Burbank, California, Horowitz was forced to read the assailant's rambling note. The program went off the air until police could remove the gunman.
  
  

• 1987: In Britain's worst mass killing, gunman Michael Ryan shot and killed 16 people during a rampage through Hungerford.
  
  

• 1988: Hundreds of U.N. observers deployed along the Iran-Iraq war front on the eve of a cease-fire, the first step toward ending nearly 8 years of bloodshed.
  
  

• 1988: During a news conference in his hometown of Huntington, Indiana, Republican vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle defended his service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War.
  
  

• 1990: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein offered to free all foreigners detained in Iraq and Kuwait provided the United States promise to withdraw its forces from Saudi Arabia and guarantee that an international economic embargo would be lifted.
  
  

• 1991: Soviet hard-liners announced that President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had been removed from power. Russian federation President Boris N. Yeltsin, defying the coup plotters, called for a general strike.
  
  

• 1992: The third night of the Republican national convention in Houston, billed as "family values night," featured first lady Barbara Bush and Marilyn Quayle, wife of Vice President Quayle, as speakers.
  
  

• 1993: Dr. George Tiller was shot and wounded outside an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas, by Rachelle Shannon, who was later sentenced to eleven years in prison.
  
  

• 1993: Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony was performed at Tanglewood by the Boston Symphony under Bernard Haitink. But that's just the appetizer. Most of the evening consisted of them and several soloists performing the Third Act of Wagner's "Gotterdammerung."
  
  

• 1994: President Clinton abruptly halted the nation's three-decade open-door policy for Cuban refugees, ordering the Coast Guard to intercept boat people at sea and take them to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.
  
  

• 1995: Three top U.S. diplomats heading to peace talks in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, were killed when their armored vehicle plunged off a muddy road and exploded.
  
  

• 1996: Ralph Nader accepted the presidential nomination of the Green Party in Los Angeles, denouncing tax breaks for corporations and calling for a "political alternative" to the two mainstream parties.
  
  

• 1996: A judge sentenced former Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker to four years' probation for his Whitewater crimes.
  
  

• 1997: Carl Drega, a 67-year-old resident of Colebrook, New Hampshire, shot and killed a part-time judge, two state troopers and a newspaper editor before being killed in a gun battle with police.
  
  

• 1998: President Clinton spent a quiet 52nd birthday with his family on Martha's Vineyard as controversy continued to swirl over his admissions to a grand jury concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
  

• 1999: Confronting questions about possible past drug use, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush told reporters he had not used illegal drugs in 25 years, and added that if voters insisted on knowing more "they can go find somebody else to vote for."
  
  

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