1961 East Germany begins construction of
the Berlin Wall ^top^
In an effort to stem the tide of refugees
attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East
Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin.
Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in US-Soviet bloc
relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War. Throughout
the 1950s and into the early 1960s, thousands of people from East
Berlin crossed over into West Berlin to reunite with families and
escape communist repression. In an effort to stop that outflow, the
government of East Germany, on the night of 12 August 1961, began
to seal off all points of entrance into West Berlin from East Berlin
by stringing barbed wire and posting sentries. In the days and weeks
to come, construction of a concrete block wall began, complete with
sentry towers and minefields around it. The Berlin Wall succeeded
in completely sealing off the two sections of Berlin.
The US government responded angrily. Commanders of US troops in West
Berlin even began to make plans to bulldoze the wall, but gave up
on the idea when the Soviets moved armored units into position to
protect it. The West German government was furious with America's
lack of action, but President John F. Kennedy believed that "A wall
is a hell of a lot better than a war." In an attempt to reassure the
West Germans that the United States was not abandoning them, however,
Kennedy traveled to the Berlin Wall in June 1963, and famously declared,
"Ich bin ein Berliner!" ("I am a Berliner!"). In the years to come,
the Berlin Wall became a physical symbol of the Cold War. The stark
division between communist East Berlin and democratic West Berlin
served as the subject for numerous editorials and speeches in the
United States, while the Soviet bloc characterized the wall as a necessary
protection against the degrading and immoral influences of decadent
Western culture and capitalism. During the lifetime of the wall, nearly
80 people were killed trying to escape from East to West Berlin. In
late 1989, with communist governments falling throughout Eastern Europe,
the Berlin Wall was finally opened and then demolished. For many observers,
this action was the signal that the Cold War was finally coming to
an end. |
1960 Echo 1, first communications satellite, the "Echo
One" balloon, is launched by the United States from Cape Canaveral.
1960 The first experimental communications satellite.
^top^
Echo I is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite, a
Mylar balloon coated with a thin layer of aluminum, successfully reflected
radio signals from Goldstone, California, to the Bell Telephone Laboratory
in Holmdel, New Jersey. The success of Echo I was followed by the
launching of numerous communications satellites, ultimately making
cellular phones and other forms of wireless communications possible.
|
1959 first ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation
Island
1955 US President Eisenhower signs bill
raising minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour
1953 USSR tests "Layer-Cake" hydrogen bomb
Less than one year after the
United States tested its first nuclear fusion bomb, the Soviets detonates
its first, a 400-kiloton device, in Kazakhstan. The explosive power
was 30 times that of the US atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and
the mushroom cloud produced by it stretched five miles into the sky.
Known as the "Layer Cake," the bomb was fueled by layers of uranium
and lithium deuteride, a hydrogen isotope. The Soviet bomb was smaller
and more portable than the American hydrogen bomb, so its development
intensified the dangerous nuclear arms race between the Cold War superpowers.
|
1941 Roosevelt and Churchill confer on war-
and postwar-goals ^top^
President ble>
1941 Roosevelt and Churchill confer on war-
and postwar-goals ^top^
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet on board a ship at Placentia
Bay, Newfoundland, to confer on issues ranging from support for Russia
to threatening Japan to postwar peace. When Roosevelt and Churchill
met for the first time as leaders of their respective nations, chief
among the items on their agenda was aid to the USSR "on a gigantic
scale," as it was desperate in its war against its German invaders.
A statement was also drafted, which Roosevelt chose to issue under
his name, that made it plain to Japan that any further aggression
would "produce a situation in which the United States government would
be compelled to take counter-measures," even if it meant "war between
the United States and Japan." The president and the prime minister
also agreed to compose and make public a document in which the United
States and Britain declared their intention "to ensure life, liberty,
independence, and religious freedom, and to preserve the rights of
man and justice." They also promised to strive for a postwar world
free of "aggrandizement, territorial or other," addressing those nations
currently under German, Italian, or Japanese rule, offering hope that
the integrity of their sovereign borders would be restored to them.
This document would be called the Atlantic Charter and, when finally
ratified by 26 nations in January 1942, would comprise the founding
principles of the United Nations. |
1941 French Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain announces
full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.
1936
49ºC, Seymour, Texas (state record)
1935 President
Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill.
1932
In one of the steepest declines in market history, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average drops 8.40 points, one week after the markets posted encouraging
gains, thus squelching hopes that the Depression is drawing to a close.
1908 Henry Ford's first Model T rolls off the assembly
line.
1898 Armistice ends the Spanish-American
War
Peace
protocol ends Spanish-American War, signed, after three months and
22 days of hostilities.
Spain
agrees to a peace protocol on US terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto
Rico, and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a
final peace treaty. The Spanish-American War had its origins in the
rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba in 1895. The repressive
measures that Spain took to suppress the guerrilla war, such as herding
Cuba's rural population into disease-ridden garrison towns, were graphically
portrayed in US newspapers and enflam
ed public opinion. In January
1898, violence in Havana led US authorities to order the battleship
USS Maine to the city's port to protect American citizens. On 15 February,
a massive explosion of unknown origin sank the Maine in the Havana
harbor, killing 260 of the 400 American crewmembers aboard. An official
US Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March, without much evidence, that
the ship was blown up by a mine but did not directly place the blame
on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed
little doubt that Spain was responsible, and called for a declaration
of war.
In April, the US Congress
prepared for war, adopting joint congressional resolutions demanding
a Spanish withdrawal from Cuba and authorizing President William McKinley
to use force. On 23 April, President McKinley asked for 125'000 volunteers
to fight against Spain. The next day, Spain issued a declaration of
war. The United States declared war on 25 April. On 01 May, the US
Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish
Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the first battle of the Spanish-American
War. Dewey's decisive victory cleared the way for the US occupation
of Manila in August and the eventual transfer of the Philippines from
Spanish to American control.
On the other side of the world, a Spanish fleet docked in Cuba's Santiago
harbor in May after racing across the Atlantic from Spain. A superior
US naval force arrived soon after and blockaded the harbor entrance.
In June, the US Army Fifth Corps landed in Cuba with the aim of marching
to Santiago and launching a coordinated land and sea assault on the
Spanish stronghold. Included among the US ground troops were the Theodore
Roosevelt-led "Rough Riders," a collection of Western cowboys and
Eastern blue bloods officially known as the First US Voluntary Cavalry.
On 01 July, the US won the Battle of San Juan Hill, and the next day
they began a siege of Santiago. On 03 July, the Spanish fleet was
destroyed off Santiago by US warships under Admiral William Sampson,
and on 17 July the Spanish surrendered the city — and thus Cuba
— to the Americans.
In Puerto
Rico, Spanish forces likewise crumbled in the face of superior US
forces, and on 12 August an armistice was signed between Spain and
the United States. On 10 December, the Treaty of Paris officially
ended the Spanish-American War. The once-proud Spanish empire was
virtually dissolved, and the United States gained its first overseas
empire. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States, the
Philippines were bought for $20 million, and Cuba became a US protectorate.
Philippine insurgents who fought against Spanish rule during the war
immediately turned their guns against the new occupiers, and 10 times
more US troops died suppressing the Philippines than in defeating
Spain. |
1898 Hawaii annexed to US .
1896
Gold is discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada.
1867
President Andrew Johnson defies Congress suspending Secretary
of War Edwin Stanton, which would lead to Johnson's impeachment.
1864
After a week of heavy raiding, the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee claims
six Union ships captured.
1863 Siege of Fort Wagner,
Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues
1862 Morgan's cavalry captures a Federal
garrison at Gallatin ^top^
Confederate cavalry leader General
John Hunt Morgan captures a small Federal garrison in Gallatin, Tennessee,
just north of Nashville. The incident was part of a larger operation
against the army of Union General Don Carlos Buell, which was threatening
Chattanooga by late summer. Morgan sought to cut Buell's supply lines
with his bold strike.
Morgan,
an Alabama native raised in Kentucky, attended Transylvania University
before being expelled for boisterous behavior. He fought in the Mexican
War with Zachary Taylor, then became a successful hemp manufacturer
before the war. When his state remained with the Union, he moved south
and joined the Confederate army.
After fighting at Shiloh in April 1862, Morgan commanded a regiment
in Joseph Wheeler's cavalry. Known as the "Thunderbolt of the South,"
Morgan's outfit was famous for stealth attacks. In 1862 and 1863,
he led three major raids into Union-held territory. After the first
raid, Morgan supported attempts to disrupt Buell's campaign in Tennessee.
Gallatin was a vital supply point for the Union between Louisville
and Nashville. Morgan's men burned the depot, captured the Union force
protecting it, and then destroyed an 240-meter railroad tunnel north
of town by setting fire to a train loaded with hay and pushing it
into the tunnel. The timber supports caught fire and burned until
the tunnel collapsed. Afterwards, Morgan moved north to support General
Edmund Kirby Smith's invasion of Kentucky. |
1861 Confederates ambushed by Mescalero Apaches in the
Big Bend country south of Fort Davis, Texas
1812
British commander the Duke of Wellington occupies Madrid, Spain, forcing
out Joseph Bonaparte.
1791 Black slaves on the island
of Santo Domingo rise up against their white masters.
1762
The British capture Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.
1759
The Russians under General Soltikov and the Austrians under General Landon
defeated 40'000 Prussians under Frederick the Great at the Battle of Kunersdorf
in the Seven Years' War.
1687 At the Battle of Mohacs,
Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeats the Turks.
1553
Pope Julius III orders confiscation and burning of the Talmud
1508 Ponce de León arrives in Puerto Rico
1332
Battle of Dupplin Moor; Scottish dynastic battle
1099
At the Battle of Ascalon 1000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, rout
an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem, which had already fallen
to the Crusaders.
|
Deaths which
occurred on a 12 August: ^top^
2003 Erez Hershkovitz, 18, Israeli; and Khamis Ghazi Gerwan,
17, Palestinian suicide bomber, at a bus stop at the entrance of
the Ariel enclave settlement, West Bank, at 10:00 (07:00 UT). Three persons
are wounded.
2003 Yehezkel Yekutiel, 43, Israeli; and Yousef
Qteishat, 17, Palestinian suicide bomber, just inside the NewPharm
pharmacy in a shopping center in Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel, at 09:00 (06:00 UT).
Some ten persons are wounded.
2001 Muhammad Nasser,
28, suicide bomber of Islamic Jihad, on the patio of Wall Street Café
in Haifa. No one else is killed. Some 20 are injured, mostly lightly.
 2000
Dima Staroseltsev, Dmitri Koleshnikov, Viktor Kuznetsov, and 115 other
sailors, the inexperienced crew of the Russian nuclear
submarine Kursk, on training maneuvers in the Berents Sea.
Suddenly, at 11:28, an explosion, probably
from a mishandled torpedo, then, 2 minutes later, a much larger explosion
set off by the first, this time it is probably many or all of the
30 torpedoes on board. The devastating blast rips through the submerged
sub, instantly killing many of its crew. The whole prow section of
the sub, its escape module, and the escape hatch are damaged. The
sub fills up with water, drowning many who survived the explosion,
and sinks to the bottom, 108 m deep.
The
Russian navy's Soviet-style public relations announces the accident
one day late in a fog of lies, starting with the insistence that it
happened not on the 12th but on the 13th. They say that some of the
submariners are heard tapping in Morse code on the hull. Later Russian
misinformation contradicts this, but there were some survivors, soon
to die from suffocation and hypothermia as they vainly hoped for rescue.
This was proved on 26 October by a note found by divers on the body
of Capt.-Lt. Koleshnikov [photo >]:
"13:15.
It is dark but I will try to write by touch. It seems there is no
chance, 10 to 20 percent. Let's hope someone reads this. All the crew
of compartments 6, 7, and 8, moved to the 9. There are 23 persons
here. We took this decision due to the accident. None of us can go
up to the surface. I write blindly. 13:5..." (compartment
9 is the last one in the rear of the sub).
Vitya
Kuznetzov, a noncom, was from the town of Kursk, where, at 09:15 one
day weeks later, his mother, Olga, collapsed and died awaiting news
that her son's body had been retrieved. The news arrived two hours
after her death.
The United States,
Britain, and Norway, immediately offer assistance. The Russians refuse,
proudly proclaiming that the Russian rescue personel and equipment
is equal to the best in the world. After vain Russian rescue efforts
and after the alleged tapping from the trapped sailors is reported
te be no longer heard, the Russians change their stand and do ask
for Norwegian assistance on 17 August. But it is too late. The Norwegians
can only get to the scene on 20 August. In 24 hours they succeeded
in what a week of Russian efforts failed to do, opening the sub's
escape hatch. They find the sub full of water, which establishes the
certainty that there are no survivors.
Meanwhile
president Putin has been seen on TV enjoying his vacation at a Black
Sea resort, making no mention of the disaster until several days have
passed and public opinion is outraged.
On 08 October 2001, he main body of the Kursk, would
be raised from 108 m down on be Barents Sea floor in a salvage operation
is conducted from a giant barge with computer-controlled cables by
the Dutch companies Mammoet and Smit International, contracted for
some $65 million by the Russian government. |
1985: 520 in worst single-plane crash of
history.
At 18:50
local time, a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747SR crashes into Mount Otsuka,
110 km northwest of Tokyo. There were 524 persons aboard, and all
but four were dead by the time rescuers reached the remote crash site
12 hours later.
JAL flight 123
took off from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on a domestic flight, under the
command of Captain Takahama, at 18:12 local time. Twelve minutes into
the flight, as the jumbo jet was approaching its cruising altitude,
a explosion shook the aircraft. A bulkhead had blown in the tail,
creating over-pressurization that severed the four sets of hydraulic-control
lines and blew part of the tail section off. With a total loss of
hydraulic pressure, the captain radioed he was getting no response
from his controls. For the next 27 minutes, Takahama attempted unsuccessfully
to regain control of the aircraft as it descended uncontrollably in
a flight condition known as the "Dutch roll." JAL flight 123 crashed
into Mount Otsuka at a point 4,780 feet above sea level. |
1989 William Shockley ^top^
English-born William Shockley
worked with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
Together they invented the transistor, which heralded a revolution
in radio, television, and computer circuitry. The three won the Nobel
Prize in 1956 for their work with semiconductors and their development
of the transistor. In later life, Shockley provoked outrage for his
racist views and his proposal that people of low IQ be sterilized.
|
1985: 520 victims of deadliest air crash
in history ^top^
At 18:50 local time, a Japan Air Lines
Boeing 747SR crashes into Mount Otsuka, 110 km northwest of Tokyo.
There were 524 people aboard, and all but four have died by the time
rescuers reach the remote crash-site twelve hours later. It is the
worst one-plane catastrophe in history.
At 18:12, JAL flight 123 had taken off from Tokyo's Haneda airport
under the command of Captain Takahama. Twelve minutes into the flight,
as it is approaching its cruising altitude, a depressurization explosion
shakes the jumbo jet. A bulkhead had blown in the tail, creating an
overpressure that severed the four sets of hydraulic-control lines
and blew part of the tail section off. At the same time, as a result
of a total loss of hydraulic pressure, the captain radioen that he
is getting no response from his controls. For the next twenty-seven
minutes, Takahama attempts unsuccessfully to regain control of the
aircraft as it descends uncontrollably in a "Dutch roll." At 18:50,
JAL flight 123 crashes into Mount Otsuka at an altitude of 1457 m.
|
1945 Scheffers,
mathematician
1944 Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. , and his co-pilot,
when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England. Joseph P. was
the eldest son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, born on July 25, 1915,
almost 2 years before his brother John F. who would be US president.
1935 Schottky,
mathematician.
1927 Alfred Zoff, Austrian artist
born on 11 December 1852.
1913 Aimé-Nicolas Morot,
French artist born on 16 June 1850.
1901 Jonquières,
mathematician.
1900 Wilhelm Steinitz Prague, Chess
champion (1866-1894)
1863 Some 150 men and boys, massacred
by Confederate raiders led by William Quantrill, in Lawrence, Kansas.
1854 Antoine Chazal, French artist born on 07 Nov 1793.
1820 Manuel Lisa, fur trader. ^top^
Manuel Lisa, the first fur trader to
develop the upper Missouri River territory explored by Lewis and Clark,
dies in St. Louis. The son of either Cuban or Spanish parents, Lisa
was born in New Orleans in 1772. By the time he was a young man he
had developed extensive trading interests along the Mississippi River,
and in 1799 he chose St. Louis as the center of his growing business.
When the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark came to St.
Louis in 1804, Lisa sold them many of the supplies required for their
long journey to the Pacific. When Lewis and Clark returned to St.
Louis two years later, Lisa listened with interest to their reports
of rich beaver and otter populations to be found in the upper Missouri
River country. Lisa quickly began to organize a fur trading expedition,
and in 1807, he headed up the river in a keelboat. Overcoming opposition
from several Indian tribes along the way, Lisa managed to reach the
confluence of the Big Horn and Yellowstone rivers in present-day Montana.
There he established the Fort Raymond (later Fort Lisa) post and began
providing Indians with manufactured goods in exchange for furs. The
potential for the upper-Missouri River fur trade was huge, and initially
Lisa's business thrived. In 1809, several prominent St. Louis men
(including Lewis and Clark) joined with Lisa to form the Missouri
Fur Company. The company ran into trouble, however, with the Blackfeet
Indians of Montana, who resented Lisa's challenge to their long-standing
dominance of the area fur trade. The War of 1812 further undermined
the business, and in 1814, the Missouri Fur Company dissolved. Lisa
continued to trade for furs on the Missouri, enjoying several successful
years and establishing excellent relations with the Omaha tribe by
marrying one of its women. Lisa made his final trip up the Missouri
in 1819, but when he returned he was suffering from an unidentified
ailment that eventually proved fatal. He died in St. Louis in 1820
at the age of 47. Though his life was cut short, he had already explored
vast new areas of territory and established the basic methods that
would be used by the fur trade for decades to come. |
1750 Rachel Ruysch (or Ruisch), Dutch Baroque
era painter born in 1664, specialized in Still
Life and Flowers.
— MORE
ON RUYSCH AT ART “4” AUGUST
with links to images.
1676 King Philip of the Wampanoag, assassinated
for the English colonists ^top^
In colonial New England, King Philip's
War effectively comes to an end when Philip, chief of the Wampanoag
Indians, is assassinated by a Native American in the service of the
English. In the early 1670s, fifty years of peace between the Plymouth
colony and the local Wampanoag began to deteriorate when the rapidly
expanding settlement forced land sales on the tribe.
Reacting to increasing Native American hostility, the English met
with King Philip, and demanded that his forces surrender their arms.
The Wampanoag did so, but in 1675, a Christian Native American, who
had been acting as an informer to the English, was murdered, and three
Wampanoag were tried and executed for the crime. On June 24, King
Philip ordered a raid on the border settlement of Swansee, Massachusetts,
in response. His warriors massacred the English colonists there, and
the attack set off a series of Wampanoag raids in which several settlements
were destroyed and scores of colonists massacred.
The colonists retaliated by destroying a number of Indian villages.
The destruction of a Narragansett village by the English brought the
Narragansett into the conflict on the side of King Philip, and within
a few months several other tribes and all of the New England colonies
were involved. In early 1676, the Narragansett were defeated and their
chief killed, while the Wampanoag and their other allies were gradually
subdued.
King Philip's wife and
son were captured, and on 12 August 1676, after his secret headquarters
in Mount Hope, Rhode Island, were discovered, Philip is assassinated.
The English drew and quartered Philip's body and publicly displayed
his head on a stake in Plymouth. King Philip's War, which was extremely
costly to the colonists of southern New England, ended the Native-American
presence in the region and inaugurated a period of unimpeded colonial
expansion. |
1674 Philippe de Champaigne, Flemish French Baroque
era painter, specialized in Portraits,
born in 1602 — MORE
ON DE CHAMPAIGNE AT ART “4” AUGUST
with links to images.
1667 Cornelis van
Poelenburgh, Utrecht painter, mainly of landscapes, born in 1586.
— MORE
ON VAN POELENBURGH AT ART “4” AUGUST
with links to images.
1580 Luca Longhi “le Raphäel
de Ravenne”, Ravenna Italian Mannerist painter, born on 10 (14?) January
1507, who produced mainly religious paintings and portraits. —
MORE
ON LONGHI AT ART “4” AUGUSTwith
links to images.
1546 Francisco de Vitoria, Spanish
Dominican theologian, born in 1486. He is best remembered for his defense
of the rights of the Amerindians against the Spanish colonists and for his
ideas of the limitations of justifiable warfare.
|
Births which
occurred on a 12 August:
1981 The IBM PC ^top^
By the early 1980s, the computer had
shrunk from a room-filling monster to a desk top machine. So the IBM
Personal Computer (PC) is a modest technical advance. , It is the
first 16-bit personal computer, significantly more powerful than other
machines available at the time.It would become the top-selling personal
computer, 136'000 sold in its first year and a half, and spawn dozens
of clone manufacturers. IBM’s new machine was made from other company’s
components, including an Inter processing chip and an operating system
(PC-DOS version 1.0) developed by a thirty-two person outfit called
Microsoft.
The company’s stock
went on a climb that would peaked later in the decade. By the early
1990s IBM would be experiencing annual losses of up to $8 million.
|
1980 Shannon Marie Sherrill, daughter of Dorothey and William
Michael Sherrill, who would be divorced by 05 October 1986, when Shannon
would disappear after last being seen playing hide-and-go-seek with five
or six friends outside her mother's mobile home at 607 Plum Street, Thorntown,
Indiana. On 26 July 2003, Dorothy Lynette Walker, 35, would claim to be
Shannon, a hoax that would be discovered on 30 July 2003 from DNA tests.
On 02 April 2004 Walker would plead mentally ill guilty to identity deception
and false reporting, and be sentenced to 18 months in prison. Walker's sick
attempts to gain attention in California, Kansas, Virginia, and Nebraska
had previously resulted in charges such as making crank calls, reporting
a false fire alarm, writing bad checks, making a bomb threat, and using
stolen credit cards to run up long-distance charges.
1963 The 1964 Thunderbird
^top^
The first 1964 Thunderbird rolls off the assembly line. Originally
conceived as Ford’s answer to the Corvette, the Thunderbird has enjoyed
an illustrious place among American cars. It was promoted as a “personal”
car rather than a sports car, never having to compete against imports,
which dominated the sports car market, and so experienced enormous
success. The car’s name was eventually shortened to “T-bird,” |
1938 Hitler's award to mothers of many children
^top^
Adolf Hitler institutes the Mother's Cross, to encourage German women
to have more children, to be awarded each year on 12 August Hitler's
mother's birthday. The German Reich needed a robust and growing population
and encouraged couples to have large families. It started such encouragement
early. Once members of the League of German Girls (the female Hitler
Youth) turned 18, they became eligible for a branch called Faith and
Beauty, which trained them girls in the art of becoming ideal Nazi
mothers producing as many little Nazis as possible. And so each year,
in honor of his beloved mother, Klara, and in memory of her birthday,
a gold medal was awarded to women with seven children, a silver to
women with six, and a bronze to women with five. Hitler would commit
suicide and his Nazi Reich be destroyed before those "little
Nazis" got old enough to do much harm. |
1915 Of
Human Bondage by William Somerset Maugham, is published.
MAUGHAM ONLINE: Moon
and Sixpence. — Of
Human Bondage — Of
Human Bondage
1911 Mario Moreno "Cantinflas"
Mexico, circus clown, acrobat, and comic movie actor (Around the Worl
d in
80 Days, Pepe; Mexico's vaudeville: carpas)
1908 The Model T, the "Tin Lizzie".
^top^
Henry Ford’s first Model T, affectionately known as the “tin Lizzy,”
rolled off the assembly line in Detroit, Michigan. The Model T revolutionized
the automotive industry by providing an affordable, reliable car for
the average American. Prior to the invention of the Model T, most
automobiles were viewed as playthings of the rich. Ford was able to
keep the price down by retaining control of all raw materials, as
well as his use of new mass production methods. When it was first
introduced, the “tin Lizzy” cost only $850 and seated two people.
Though the price fluctuated in the years to come, dipping as low as
$290 in 1924, few other changes were ever made to the Model T. Electric
lights were introduced in 1915, and an electric starter was introduced
as an option in 1919. Eventually, the Model T’s design stagnancy cost
it its competitive edge, and Ford stopped manufacturing the “tin Lizzy”
in 1927. |
1902 International Harvester Company, with $120 million
in capital. International Harvester would quickly dominate the market —
at one point producing 85% of all farm machinery. But its "moderate" business
tactics would make it immune to anti-trust action.
1889 Zerna
Sharp, creator of the "Dick and Jane" reading books.
1887 Erwin
Schrödinger, mathematician, physicist who said :"The
task is, not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what
nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees." This is a
lot clearer than Schrödinger's
cat paradox (which I do not understand, but then that means that I understand
the first thing about quantum mechanics, according to Niels
Bohr who said: "If you think you understand it, that only shows you
don't know the first thing about it." ).
1884 Frank Swinnerton
England, novelist (Summer Storm, Sanctuary)
1881 Cecil B deMille, US film director, producer and screenwriter,
famous for epic productions such as The 10 Commandments.
1877
The Edisonphone, Thomas Edison's invention of a sound recording
device
1876 Mary Roberts
(Rinehart), US novelist and playwright best known
for her mystery stories. ^top^
The
Circular Staircase (1908), her first book and first mystery,
was an immediate success, and the following year The
Man in Lower Ten, which had been serialized earlier, reinforced
her popular success. Thereafter she wrote steadily, averaging about
a book a year. A long series of comic tales about the redoubtable
"Tish" (Letitia Carberry) appeared as serials in the Saturday Evening
Post over a number of years and as a series of novels beginning with
The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (1911).
Roberts served as a war
correspondent during World War I and later described her experiences
in several books, notably Kings, Queens and Pawns (1915).
She produced as well a number of romances and nine plays. Most of
the plays were written in collaboration with Avery Hopwood; her greatest
successes were Seven Days, produced in New York in 1909,
and The Bat, derived from The Circular Staircase
and produced in 1920. Her autobiography, My Story, appeared
in 1931 and was revised in 1948. Roberts died 22 September 1958.
ROBERTS ONLINE: |
| The
After House
The Amazing Interlude
Bab: A Sub-Deb
The Bat: A Novel From the Play, co-authors A. Hopwood,
S. V. Benet
The
Breaking Point
The
Breaking Point (another site)
The Case of Jennie Brice
The Circular Staircase (1908)
The Confession |
Dangerous Days
Long
Live the King
The Man in Lower Ten (1909)
A Poor Wise Man
Sight Unseen
The Street of Seven Stars
When a Man Marries
Where There's a Will
The Window at the White Cat |
1867 Edith Hamilton US, writer (Mythology)
1866
Jacinto Benavente y Martínez Spanish dramatist (Nobel 1922)
1862 Jules
Richard, mathematician.
1859 Katharine Lee Bates,
author and Wellesley College English teacher. ^top^
She published over 20 books, but is
best remembered today for writing the patriotic hymn, "America, the
Beautiful" (a.k.a. "O Beautiful for Spacious Skies"). Among her works
are The College Beautiful and Other Poems (1887), English
Religious Drama (1893), and The Pilgrim Ship (1926).
Her America the Beautiful and Other Poems was published in
1911. Bates died on 28 March 1929.
ONLINE: Retinue
and Other Poems, Yellow
Clover: A Book of Remembrance
O
beautiful for spacious skies / For amber waves of grain, / For purple
mountain majesties / Above thy fruited plain!
/ America! America! / God shed his grace on thee / And crown thy
good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea!
/ O beautiful for pilgrim feet, / Whose stern, impassioned stress
/ A thoroughfare for freedom beat / Across the wilderness!
/ America! America! / God mend thine every flaw, / Confirm thy soul
in self control, / Thy Liberty in law!
/ O beautiful for heroes proved / In liberating strife, / Who more
than self their country loved, / And mercy more than life!
/ America! America! / May God thy gold refine / Till all success
be nobleness / And every gain divine!
/ O beautiful for patriot dream / That sees beyond the years / Thine
alabaster cities gleam / Undimmed by human tears!
/America! America! / God shed his grace on thee / And crown thy
good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea! |
1851 Sewing machine patent granted to Isaac Singer.
1849 Abbott Henderson Thayer, US painter who died on 29
May 1921. — MORE
ON THAYER AT ART “4” AUGUST
with links to images.
1815 Dominique-Louis-Féréal
Papéty, French painter.who died on 19 September 1849 (1848?)
in a cholera epidemic. — MORE
ON PAPÉTY AT ART “4” AUGUST
with links to images.
1799 Hermania Sigvardine Neegard,
Danish painter who died on 25 March 1874.
1781 Robert Mills
US, 1781 Robert Mills, architect and engineer whose designs include the
Washington Monument, the National Portrait Gallery and the US Treasury Building.
1799 Hermania Sigvardine Neegard, Danish artist who died
on 25 March 1874.
1774 Robert Southey, in Bristol,
Wordsworth's predecessor as poet laureate of England, (1813-1843),
^top^
He
was a biographer: The
Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson, and the translator of: The
Chronicle of the Cid.
Southey
began writing at the Westminster School in London. He was expelled
for writing an essay condemning excessive corporal punishment, which
he published in the school magazine. He managed to make it to Oxford
in 1792, where he wrote poetry and hatched a plan with his friend
Samuel Coleridge to start a utopian society in America. Their plans
called for married couples to establish the society. To this end,
Southey married Edith Fricker and convinced Coleridge to marry Fricker's
sister Sarah. However, Southey left Oxford without taking a degree
and abandoned the utopian plan.
He went to Portugal and later published his correspondence as Letters
Written During a Short Residence in Spain and Portugal. Back
in England, he wrote biographies, translations, and journalism to
support his family. Southey continued to write verse when time permitted,
including epic poems like Madoc (1805) and Thalaba the
Destroyer (1801). Financially strapped, Southey struggled until
1813, when the support of Sir Walter Scott won him the appointment
of poet laureate, which brought him a regular income. Although seldom
read today, Southey was very popular during his time, both for his
poetry and for his excellent biographies, including The
Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson (1813) and Life of Wesley,
and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820). Southey remained
poet laureate until his death in 1843. William Wordsworth succeeded
him.
— SOUTHEY ONLINE: The
Life of Horatio, Lord Nelson |
1762 George IV, named Prince Regent in 1810 when his father,
George III, is declared insane, king of England (1820-30) — George
IV d'Angleterre D'abord régent, il sera couronné en 1820. Son amour du jeu
et sa vie scandaleuse sont célèbres. Partisan de la guerre contre la France,
conservateur affirmé, il fut contraint par son peuple d'accepter des réformes
et accorda, en 1829, à l'Irlande son émancipation.
1753 Thomas
Bewick England, artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables) He died
on 08 November 1828. He was a printmaker and illustrator important for reviving
the art of wood engraving and establishing it as a major printmaking technique.
|
Holidays Cuba : People's Victory Against Machado Tyranny / Massachusetts,
Oklahoma : Indian Day / Texas : Pioneer' Day / Thailand
: Queen's Birthday / World : Ponce de Leon Day (1508)
Thoughts for the day: "Too much of a good thing is wonderful."
"Too much of a good thing is to be mistrusted."
"Too much of a wonderful thing is impossible."
"Too much of a good thing and no wonder you're full."
"Too much of a bad thing is hell."
"To munch on a good thing is wonderful.”
“Wisdom is born, stupidity is learned.” — Russian proverb.
“Russian proverbs are learned, not born.”
“Russians are not born submariners.”
“Wise Russians are still born.”
“People learn from their parents from the moment of birth, schools and peers
continue the process later.”
“Smart persons learn from their mistakes, wise persons learn from the mistakes
of others.”
|
On
a 12 August: 
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price chart]. 
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