July 27

1549. The ship of St. Francis Xavier, a priest who was one of five to found the Society of Jesus (a/k/a Jesuits) and a man reputed to have converted more people than anyone since St. Paul, arrives in Japan after previous sojourns in India, Mozambique and the East Indies.

1694. A royal charter is granted to the Bank of England, which continues as the government's banker to this day.

1789. The first agency of the United States government is formed -- the Department of Foreign Affairs.

1866. The Atlantic Cable is completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communications for the first time.

1940. Bugs Bunny is introduced in "A Wild Hare".

1953. The Korean War ends when the US, China and North Korea sign an armistice. South Korea refuses to sign, but promises to adhere to the agreement.

1990. Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union.

July 28

(this might be the first time I've gone 7 days doing regular daily updates as intended...)

1794. Maximillian Robespierre is executed by guillotine in Paris. Nicknamed The Incorruptible by his supporters and The Tyrant by his enemies, he had largely dominated the Committee of Public Affairs and had been instrumental in the Reign of Terror which resulted in the death of thousands after the fall of the French monarchy. Prior to the execution he was held in the same cell that had formerly held Marie Antoinette, and he was executed, rather unusually, face up, so that he could behold the blade that would end his lilfe.

1864. General Hood attacks Sherman yet again, and is yet again repulsed, at the Battle of Ezra Church, outside Atlanta. There are about 3,000 Confederate casualties, including a corps commander, against only less than 600 Union casualties.

1896. Miami, Florida, is incorporated.

1914. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia for their failure to allow the Astro-Hungarians to investigate the assassination of its archduke. This will trigger a number of mutual defense treaties and therefore, World War I.

1932. President Hoover orders the army to forcibly remove the Bonus Army. (more on this later if I have a chance).

1935. First flight of a B-17 Flying Fortress.

1945. A B-25 flies into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 and injuring 26.

July 29

1014. The Battle of Kleidion. Those who have avidly followed this thread will no doubt have noted my several references to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, the Bulgarslayer. And it was with this battle that Basil cemented his reputation, and his title.

It may be somewhat difficult for those of us here in 2010 to accept, given that Bulgaria has never been any kind of significant factor in world affairs, and that absolutely none of us, I'm sure, studied either first or second Bulgarian Empires, but at one point it was a force to be reckoned with, as this map reflects.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...uil_raster.png

After the Battle of Pliska in 1811 and described only a few posts earlier in this thread, the Bulgarian Empire continued to wax while Byzantium was both distracted with affairs in the East (remember that Islam was on the march during this timeframe), as well as respecting and perhaps fearing the mountainous terrain that the Bulgarians had so tenaciously defended the last time they went to war.

Onto this scene enters Basil II, or Basil the Young, crowned Emperor in his own right in 976. At the time of his ascension there was a complicated three-way war going on between Byzantium, Bulgaria and Kiev, which at that time was an independent or semi-independent state centering around, of course, the city of Kiev in modern Ukraine.

This war resulted in a series of defeats for Bulgaria in the east, which had resulted in the cessation of a number of regions to Byzantium. The Byzantines had assumed that the Bulgarian renounciation of its imperial status would signal the end of an independent Bulgaria, but this was not to be. Bulgaria instead more or less retreated into the fastness of its western mountains and continued to pursue policies antithetical to Byzantium.

Upon his ascension Basil undertook to destroy independent Bulgaria. His first attempt was a complete fiasco, and he was almost captured in the effort. A warrior king who was greatly respected by his troops, Basil was then distracted for over a decade by the Islamic Fatimid Empire in the East, as well as subjugating the rebellious nobles in Anatolia. This accomplished, he once again turned his attention to that constant thorn, Bulgaria, which had in the meantime retaken the eastern Bulgarian lands previously surrendered to Byzantium.

Starting in the year 1000, Basil launched upon a grueling and relentless campaign which lasted for well over a decade and was designed to completely grind up Bulgarian resistance and bring it once and for all under Byzantine rulership. Over the years a pattern emerged with Byzantine forces launching assaults and sieges in Bulgaria proper while the Bulgarians, unable to match Byzantine numbers, launched diversionary assaults in Greece and Macedonia.

In 1014 Bulgarian Emperor Samuel decided to meet the Byzantine invasion force in the field and decide the conquest that he was slowly but surely losing. As was invariably the case during these wars, the armies had retired to winter quarters and Samuel knew that before once again entering the Bulgarian heartland the Byzantine army would need to traverse mountainous passes. And there he intended to stop them.

On this date approximately 20,000 Bulgarians met the Byzantine army whose numbers are lost to history, but was certainly at least double and more likely triple the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians had defended the pass stoutly and the first attacks failed. Basil, who could just as easily have been nicknamed the Relentless, ordered one of his generals to take some troops around the high mountain and take the Bulgarians in the rear while he continued his frontal assaults to hold them in place. This the general did, leading them on a steep and narrow pass. When the infiltrators fell on the Bulgarians from the rear, they fell in disorder and confusion, were unable to defend the wall they had built, and BAsil's direct assaults got through as well. Thousands perished, and Samuel himself barely escaped.

And then came the act that stamped Basil's name, for good or ill, in history. Basil had captured approximately 8,000-10,000 prisoners, whom he ordered separated into lots of 100. Of these lots, he had 99 out of 100 blinded, with the last man having only one eye put out so that he could lead his group back to their homeland. This he did in retaliation of the death of one of his favorite generals, as well as to crush Bulgarian morale.

Basil at this time earned his name of Bulgar-slayer (Boulgaroktonos). Samuel could not bear the sight of his mutilated men and died of heart attack only two months later. Samuel's death left Bulgaria divided, and in four more years of relentless war they finally were completely defeated in 1018 and became a Byzantine province.

So, as those who have been following this thread have probably figured out by now, I have some fairly serious interest in non-Western Europe history as well, including in particular the Byzantine Empire. What's the consensus on this stuff? Are you guys rolling your eyes at yet another post about it all, or is it interesting to hear stuff that relates to eras and locations that are traditionally ignored in our Western-centric schools and books?

This is one of the first threads i look for every day. Always interesting stuff.

I roll my eyes at it.

Yeah right. :p

In fact, it gives me great comfort to know that pretty much no matter what I write, I know at least one person on here who will read every word of it.

Guilty as charged, you bastard.

July 30

762. Abbasid Caliph Al Mansur founds a new city which he believes to be perfectly situated to serve as his empire's new capital. It will soon become in many ways the capital of the Islamic world. Baghdad.

1619. In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in American meets for the first time. The House of Burgesses.

1864. The Battle of the Crater. (see next post for details)

1945. Less than a week after delivering critical parts needed for the atomic bomb to the island of Tinian, the USS Indianapolis, a cruiser, is sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58. Although she sends a distress call that is heard by three US stations, none take action. Under the navy's scheme at the time, when she was supposed to have arrived at her destination, she is removed from the Navy's board of ships in transit, even though no confirmation of arrival is sent or received. As a result, the ship is sunk and the Navy is not taking any action whatsoever to save her crew.

About 300 of the ship's complement of 1,196 men died at the time of the sinking. The remaining 880 men, with few lifeboats and many without lifejackets are left in the water to await rescue from the Navy that has no idea their ship was sunk. Four and a half days the men still in the water are spotted by a routine flight patrol, and rescue ships are finally sent. The lengthy ordeal left the men to suffer the tribulations of shark infested waters, without potable water, in the heat of the South Pacific. Only 317 men survived. The loss of life remains the Navy's greatest loss of life from a single ship sinking in its history.

1965. President Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, creating Medicare and Medicaid.

July 30, 1864, the Battle of the Crater.

Slightly to the south of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, the Army of the Potomac under the direct and close supervision of Union Commander in Chief Ulysses S. Grant is besieging the city of Petersburg. The city is critical to the supply situation of Richmond, as the Confederate supply trains travel through Petersburg to reach the capital. As such, the siege is not a true siege in which the defenders are encircled and susceptible to being starved out. Rather, it is a relentless war of attrition, with Union forces ever lengthening their lines and forcing the numerically inferior Confederates to match while repulsing steady probing attacks.

The siege began in early June and is already nearly two months old. There is as yet no sign of imminent success. The Union leadership is anxious for victory. Lincoln's war at this time is facing serious criticism. Despite holding every imaginable advantage, the war is now over three years old, and Sherman's army is seemingly stalemated outside Atlanta while Grant is similarly stuck outside Richmond. Meanwhile, the Presidential elections loom only a few months away, and absent a decisive and strategic victory beforehand there is little doubt that Lincoln's opponent, Democrat and former General George McClellan will win and sue for peace.

On this date 1864 was Grant's best opportunity to end the stalemate before Petersburg, penetrate Lee's lines and destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The idea was brilliant in its simplicity. Colonel Henry Pleasants, a coal mine engineer in his civilian life who led a Pennsylvania regiment of coal miners proposed to his commander, Ambrose Burnside, that they dig a tunnel under the Confederate fortifications and blow it up. Work began on June 25.

The tunnel was four feet wide at the bottom, two feet wide at the top, and five feet high. After over a month of digging, on July 27 the miners carried 8,000 pounds of black powder to the end of the tunnel and placed it into side galleries. They then refilled a portion of the tunnel so the blast wouldn't return through the entrance. Burnside organized a force that would rush into the gap created by teh explosion.

At 3:15 a.m. today, 146 years ago, Colonel Pleasants lit the 98 foot fuse and sprinted out of the tunnel. 45 minutes later, nothing having happened, two volunteers entered the tunnel and relit the fuse. In minutes, a tremendous explosion rocked teh lines and 170 feet of Confederate entrenchments erupted in a huge blast throwing dirt and timbers hundreds of feet in the air. An entire Confederate regiment had simply disappeared. Confederate troops left standing near the blast were dazed and helpless. Immediately 110 Union cannon and 50 mortars, placed as advantageously as possible, commenced firing in support of the imminent Union assault.

The initial Union plan would now have had an attack led by black troops against the Confederate lines. These troops were veteran units who had proven themselves, and had been specifically trained for two weeks on how to carry the works. The commander of the Army of the Potomac, however, General George Meade, was uncertain as to the reliability fo black troops, however, and concerned that if the attack failed he would criticized for not valuing their lives, and face bad publicity. At the last minute, no volunteers coming forward, it was determined to have straws drawn by lot to determine which units would attack. The division of James H. Ledlie, a drunkard with political connections, "won" the draw. Burnside argued with Meade, but Grant sided by Meade and the decision was as he had modified it. Ledlie stayed behind to drink rum while his untrained troops rushed into the crater.

And therein lay defeat, for the troops stupidly rushed INTO THE CRATER. The actual pit that had been created by the blast, rather than around the edges of it and into a direct assult on the Confederate works in an effort to penetrate the lines. Instead, the men rushed into a pit only to find themselves faced with rapidly recovering and reorganizing Confederate troops defending the top of a sheer cliff and shooting down on the hapless men, easy targets.

The long but checkered career of Ambrose Burnside would end as a result of this complete fiasco. Burnside had known that he was often in over his head, and nearly two years earlier had begged Lincoln not to appoint him commander of the Army of the Potomac. Nevertheless, when Lincoln ordered him to the command, he had done his best but had failed utterly and had been dominated by Lee at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Previous to that he had also commanded the wing of the Union army in trying to take what famously became known as Burnside's Bridge at the Battle of Antietam. He had therefore been demoted, by the time of Petersburg, to corps commander serving under Meade.

It is ironic that after such a mediocre career and so many spectacular failures he would finally be relieved for a failure which was inarguably not his fault, but rather the fault of the commanders above him, Meade and Grant.


His legacy remains, however, those fascinating mutton chops to which he gave his name (though, somehow fittingly, the facial hair is merely a play upon his name): sideburns

http://civilianmilitaryintelligenceg...e-portrait.jpg

July 31

This weekend is looking tricky, so I'll get a bit ahead here.

30 BC. The Battle of Alexandria. Despite mounting desertions, the forces of Mark Antony repulse an attack in Egypt by Octavian (not yet Caesar Augustus) in the Final War of the Roman Republic. Despite the success, his forces continue to desert. Within two weeks he will have committed suicide, and Cleopatra with him, and Octavian will be victorious.

1941. Following Hitler's orders, Reichmarshall Hermann Goering orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."

I think it is great simply because most of us don't know much if any of that history. I will second Sofa King in stating that this is my favorite ongoing thread and read it whenever I see it on the front page. I appreciate the effort you put in to edumacate some of us dumb shmucks.

Related to a previous post, I was just at a museum recently that referenced a WWII ship called the USS Burnside. Knowing the legacy of Ambrose Burnside, it led me to wonder if there another Burnside who was competent. It doesn't seem like a morale boost to be a sailor on a ship named after Ambrose Burnside.

Many a ship or military base is named after a mediocre-at-best military commander. Fort Hood Texas (John Bell Hood, the mediocre Confederate general who had no concept of doing anything except ATTACK!), and probably the worst -- the USS Bainbridge, named after Commodore Bainbridge, who

1. surrendered a navy ship (USS Retaliation) to a French cruiser without opposition -- the first US Navy ship to ever surrender,

2. made the mistake, when reinstated to another command, of anchoring his ship (USS George Washington) beneath an enemy fort's guns. The Dey of Algiers demanded that he perform as a messenger service and courier the ambassador of Algiers to the Ottomon Court at Constaninople or be blown to smithereens. So he did, and the US Navy had the distinct morale blow of having one of her best ships serve as a courier for one of the Barbary Coast pirates.

3. Ran yet another ship (USS Philadelphia) aground on the Tunisian coast. He surrendered the ship after yet again not fiiring a shot, and then got to watch the ship be floated off teh sandbar at high tide and be captured by the Bey of Tunis. The ship was later fired by the heroic acts of someone who knew WTF they were doing in the US Navy -- Stephen Decatur.

4. Remain imprisoned for nearly three years. After being released, he actually somehow (SOMEHOW!) got another command in teh US Navy. To his credit, he did well in the war of 1812, capturing the smaller HMS Java.

But honest to God! How did he get a second command, much less a fourth?! And they named a ship after him?!?!

or how about Fort Devens, named after jurist and political appointee General Charles Devens (of Massachusetts, btw) whose utter incompetency (and possibly drunkeness) was largely responsible for having the entire Union right flank rolled up at Chancellorsville and -- had there been more hours of daylight left -- may well have resulted in the loss of the entire Army of the Potomac and the Civil War.

Nothing of great interest happened.

August 1

527. Justinian the Great, whom I prefer to call Justinian the Greatly Overrated, becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Dominated by his wife, reputedly a former courtesan, Justinian will ride the laurels of his great general, Belisarius, to a number of military victories only to treat him shamefully at the end of his lengthy career. Inarguably, however, Justinian's reign was both lengthy (40 years) and quite successful. His most lasting accomplishment may have been a complete rewrite of the old Roman Law, which was passed back to Italy and the rest of Western Europe after Belisarius brought much of Italy to heel. It remains influential to this day.

1798. The Battle of the Nile, between British and French fleets battling in Egypt during the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was very unusual for this time period for being a night action. British Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson further cements his fame with a victory over the French fleet.

1834. Slavery becomes illegal within the British Empire, at least technically. In reality, slaves under six years of age were immediately emancipated, and all those over six became "apprentices", really indentured servants who would continue to serve their former masters for a length of time dependent on which of three classifications they belonged to. Those involved in manufacturing or agriculture continued to serve until 1840. All others were fully released as of August 1, 1838. 20 million pounds sterling were set aside to pay the owners for the release of their slaves. The law did not, however, apply to territories controlled by the
East India Company, or the Islands of Ceylon or Saint Helena.

1902. The US buys the rights to the Panama Canal from FRance, which had tried but failed to build it using private enterprise.

1941. The first Jeep is produced.

1944. Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary. She and her family, which has been in hiding from Jew-persecuting Nazis for over two years, will be arrested by the Nazis three days later after being betrayed, after which she is deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she and her sister will both die of Typhus in March, 1945.


1944. The Warsaw Uprising begins against the Nazi occupation forces in Poland. Designed to coincide and lend assistance to advancing Soviet forces, the Polish underground is betrayed when the Soviets stop their advance, leaving the Polish to struggle for 63 days against their brutal Nazi overlords. Eventually, the Polish surrender, but not before many leaders and soldiers in what would have been the independent state of Poland are captured or killed by the Nazis, leaving the Soviet Union with a freer hand to install its own puppet government after the war. Despite Soviet denials, there can be little doubt of their complicity, as Soviet forces were literally only a few miles away the entire time, on the far side of the Vistula River. Approximately 16,000 resistance fighters are killed, 6,000 more badly wounded, and 150-200 thousand civilians killed as the Nazis mercilessly suppress the rebellion. As a result of the damage done during the uprising (the Nazis systematically leveled entire city blocks), in combination with the damage done to Warsaw during prior battles, approximately 85% of the city is in ruins by the time Soviet "liberation" forces arrive.

1957. the US and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

And NORAD always brings one thing in particular to mind for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHWjlCaIrQo&feature=related

August 2

338 BC. A Macedonian Army under Philip II defeats the combined forces of Athens and Thebes, securing Macedonian hegemony over Greece and the Aegean and laying one of the final pieces in the foundation on which his son, Alexander the Great, will build his empire when Philip is assassinated two years later.

216 BC. The Battle of Cannae. In Apulia (Southeastern) Italy, a Carthaginian army under the command of Hannibal defeats a far superior in numbers Roman Army.

Including allied forces and attachments, the estimated strength of this army was an incredible 90,000 men, which for those times in ancient Europe was indeed massive. With this latest defeat, Rome had lost, in three campaigns by Hannibal over 20 months, fully 20% of its entire population over 17 years of age.

1790. The first US census is conducted.

1869. Japan's caste system -- samurai, farmers, merchants, artisans -- is abolished as part of the Meiji reforms.

1939. Physicist Albert Einstein signs a letter primarily written by physicist Leo Szilard and addressed to President Franklin Roosevelt urging him to begin research into the weapon potential of atomic power.

1943. The Japanese destroyer Amagiri rams and sinks US PT Boat 109. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future President, saves all but two of her crew.

1964. The Gulf of Tonkin incident. Allegedly, at least, on this date three North Vietnamese gunboats opened fire on the USS destroyer Maddox, which had been sailing on patrol. The Maddox fired 280 3 and 5 inch shells, and four fighter/bomber planes supported. One plane was damaged, one 14.5mm round hit the destroyer, and all 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged. Two days later, again allegedly, was a naval battle between another US Destroyer, the Turner Joy, and Vietnamese torpedo boats. The result was the Tonkin Gulf resolution, which Congress passed giving President Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was endangered by "Communist aggression." President Johnson used this as his legal justification for fully committing the US into what became known as the Vietnam War.

In retrospect, the August 4th attack is greatly suspect, though the August 2 attack is admitted. One of the US pilots flying over the August 4th "battle", James Stockdale, the squadron commander said

Stockdale at one point recounts seeing Turner Joy pointing her guns at the Maddox.Stockdale said his superiors ordered him to keep quiet about this. After he was captured, this knowledge became a heavy burden. He later said he was concerned that his captors would eventually force him to reveal what he knew about the second incident.

In 1995, retired Vietnamese Defense Minister Vo Nguyen Giap, meeting with former Secretary of Defense McNamara, categorically denied that Vietnamese gunboats had attacked American destroyers on August 4, while admitting to the attack on August 2.

Nothing of great interest happened.

errr...do what you like, I don't much care, but at least try to be amusing or clever. So far your posts belong more in the Epic Fail thread than here.

Wild Bill Hickock was shot in the back this day in 1876 by Jack McCall.


James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876), better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a figure in the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized. His nickname of Wild Bill has inspired similar nicknames for men known for their daring in various fields.

Hickok came to the West as a stagecoach driver, then became a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, and professional gambler. Between his law-enforcement duties and gambling, which easily overlapped, Hickok was involved in several notable shootouts, and was ultimately killed while playing poker in a Dakota Territory saloon.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok

Hickok always sat facing the door. This night, there were two doors and he was only able to face one of them. The killer came up behind him from the door he couldn't see.

He tried getting someone to switch him spots before he even sat down, but the other's wouldnt...

Basically you are picking a day in history that has little historic value and expect big things?

I'm more inclined to say your whole concept falls into the epic fail category. My bet is that posted your weak thread just to start an arguement. Have one with yourself. I think you are the only one that cares.

And later, both he and Szilard regretted doing so.

Some people (ME!) appreciate this thread. If you have a problem with it, stay out. Pretty simple concept.

errr....I'm picking every day of the year and posting whatever I think is significant, interesting or unusual about that day.

If you don't find any of my items to be of interest, then you of course can just ignore this thread. If you want to stick around, you might just learn something.









but I doubt it.

August 3

1492. The Genoese captain made his final checks. 41 years of age he had finally, FINALLY received the financial backing and royal support needed for his long-planned expedition. He had approached, personally or through intermediaries, and been rejected by the leaders of Portugal, England, Venice, and Genoa. Spain, however, had by the grace of God seen the brilliance of his plan. That Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille were wise was without question. Their marriage had cemented together a significant portion of the Iberian peninsula and were now ruling their combined new country, Spain, together.

With their backing, he had been loaned three ships, and had their expedition partially financed by the locals of Palos de la Frontera, the portside town from which they would sail. Now he had all he needed to set sail from Europe today, first to the Canary Islands, owned by Castile, for resupplies. Then Christiopher Columbus would take his three ships to the west, over the horizon, to find a water route to the Indies.

1492. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain on this same date order the expulsion of all Jews from Spain.

1852. The first boat race between Harvard and Yale. Harvard won.

1914. Germany declares war on France.

1916. The Battle of Romani. Allied forces defeat an Ottoman force at the Suez canal, and the Ottomans begin retreating back across the Sinai peninsula.

1934. Adolf Hitler joins the offices of President and Chancellor, becoming the Fuhrer. The word in German means not only "leader", but also "guide", being derived from the Old English words Faran ("to make one's way") and "faer" ("road" or "journey"). It is thus derived from the same words that became in English seafarer, wayfare, or even to pay a fare in transit. The word fuhrer is still used in German in the sense of "guide", but because of the negative connotations of a certain short Bavarian corporal, the word "Leiter" is used pretty much exclusively for leader.

1936. Jesse Owns wins the 100 meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.

1949. The NBA is founded.

That's a busy day.

August 4

1693. The date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne.

1790. The recently passed federal Tariff Act gives rise to the creation of the Revenue Cutter Service, which will eventually become known as the Coast Guard.

1892. The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River home. They had been killed with a hatchet -- in the case of the father, Andrew Borden, the blows had crushed his skull and split his left eyeball. The murders and eventual trial are the late 1800s equivalent of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and the OJ Simpson trial. Eventually, Lizzie is acquitted, though no one else was ever arrested or tried for the murders, and the controversy over who committed the murders continues to this day.

1914. Germany invades Belgium. In response, England declares war on Germany.

1964. The bodies of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi. They had disappeared on June 21.

Their efforts, and the efforts of all civil rights workers involved in integration and civil rights, were strongly opposed by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a state agency reporting directly to the governor which had as its stated objective the protection of the state and her sister states from federal encroachment. Primarily, it's aims were to resist such laws as the Civil Rights Act and the integration of schools. It also served to pass information regarding civil rights workers to others, including the Ku Klux Klan. The members of the Commission were the governor and lieutenant governor of the state, the speaker of the state house of representatives, and the attorney general. The staff also secretly worked with, and funded, the White Citizens Council, a white supremacist organization. The organziation was disbaned in 1978. In 1989 a federal judge ordered the Commission's records opened to the public, which did not occur until 1999 due to legal challenges. The records indicated hte Commission's involvement in the murder of the three civil rights workers, as the Commission had passed information regarding them, and their newly issued Mississippi license plate, to the sheriff of Neshoba County, who had been implicated in the murders.

Their story is memorialized in the film Mississippi Burning, and Andrew Goodman was the inspiration for the Simon & Garfunkel song "He Was My Brother".


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9VP966QnM

Lizzie Borden took an axe,
And gave her mother forty whacks,
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.


:D

:LOL: I had heard that before but I had completely forgotten it.

August 5

1305. William Wallace of Scotland is captured by English forces, and will be transported to London, put on trial, and executed.

1861. In an effort to help finance the Civil War, the federal government levies the first income tax -- 3% of income above $800 per year. The law will be rescinded in 1872.

1864. The Battle of Mobile Bay begins. As part of the Union plan to beat the Confederacy, it had implemented a blockade to prevent ships from leaving or arriving along the Confederate coast, blocking most particularly exports of cotton (which could be sold for hard currency in England and elsewhere), and imports of weapons (the South had very mediocre manufacturing capability, especially regarding weapons). On this day Admiral Farragut determined to seize one of the last remaining large Southern Ports -- Mobile Bay. When another federal ship slowed her charge, Admiral Farragut was reported to have inquired as to why she was doing so. When he learned that it was due to torpedoes (underwater mines, really, in this day and age), he reportedly ordered "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead". More than likely, he never actually said these exact words, but the spirit of charging ahead into the teeth of danger was certainly in keeping with what happened.

1884. The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island, subsequently renamed Liberty Island.

1914. The first electric traffic light is installed, in Cleveland, Ohio.

1962. Nelson Mandela is imprisoned, where he will remain until 1990.

August 6.

1945.

http://urban-fiya.com/sitebuildercon...tomic-bomb.jpg

That isn't Little Boy, but I get what you mean.

I have my doubts there are pictures of that specific explosion.

Wrong!

Yeah, I debated it briefly. I decided the symbolism was more important than the specifics, since the specific photo could just as easily be an ash cloud off a volcano, pretty much.

LMAO

I learn something on this site everyday. Thanks!

August 7

1606. First documented performance of MacBeth.

1782. George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit, to honor those wounded in combat. It is later renamed to the purple heart.

1942. American Marines land at the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands, beginning the Battle of Guadalcanal.

1959. The Lincoln Memorial design of the US penny goes into circulation, replacing the shaves of wheat design. It is still in use today.

1964. The US Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in Vietnam.

August 8

1942. Six would-be German saboteurs are executed in Washington DC, the culmination of a comically inept plan by Nazi Germany to insert agents into the United States via submarine to conduct economic sabotage. The saboteurs targets included hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls, and a number of key manufacturing facilities and railroad-related targets.

1945. Two days after America drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Soviet Union declares war on Japan, and attacks Japanese positions in Manchuria. America would come to regret their prior insistence, indeed begging, the Soviet Union to join the war against Japan -- when the atomic bomb was nothing more than a concept on paper.

1945. The United States signs the UN Charter, becoming the third nation to join.

1973. Vice President Spiro Agnew appears on television to denounce accusations that he had taken kickbacks while governor of Maryland. Within two months, however, exemplifying the corruption that was endemic in the Nixon Administration, he will plead no contest to charges relating to the kickbacks, with the condition that he resign as Vice President. Upon his resignation, Nixon will appoint Gerry Ford as Vice President.

1974. President Nixon announces his resignation, effective the next day. Gerry Ford thereupon becomes President of the United States -- the only person to ever hold that office who had not been elected as either President or Vice President.

August 9

48 BC. The Battle of Pharsalus. In Greece, the outnumbered but veteran forces of Julius Caesar defeat the forces of Pompey, who was backed (and accompanied by) a majority of the Roman Senate. Pompey flees to Greece.

378. The Battle of Adrianople. The forces of Roman Emperor Valens are crushed by the Goths. The battle as long term implications since, as a result fo the defat, the Goths, who had retreated from the Huns into the territory of the Roman Empire (permitted by Rome at the time) are allowed to continue to remain within Roman territory, becoming a chronic issue for the Romans and contributing heavily to the fall of the Western Roman Empire less than 100 years later.

1483. Opening of the Sistine Chapel.

1854. Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden.

1944. Smokey Bear makes his first appearance in US Forest Service posters.

1945. America drops the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The initial target was actually the city of Kokura, but upon arrival the American B-29 SuperFortress Bockscar found the city covered in clouds. After three runs over the city carrying the first plutonium bomb to be used in anger, Fat Man, the commander switched to the secondary target, Nagasaki. (the actual photos, in deference to Donger's sensitivities :p

http://asitoughttobe.files.wordpress...8/nagasaki.jpg

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/...mages/NG30.jpg

http://www.notmytribe.com/wp-content...omb-710373.jpg

http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/r...s/BE042931.jpg

August 10

610. The traditional date of Laylat al-Qadr (also known as the Night of Power, Night of Decree, or Night of Measures) -- when the archangel Gabriel started revealing the Koran to the Prophet Muhammed, according to the Islamic religion.

1519. Ferdinand Magellan takes five ships out of Seville seeking to circumnavigate the globe. Two will return, but without Magellan, who will die in the Phillipines during the journey.

1821. Just for you guys -- Missouri is admitted as the 24th US state.

1846. The Smithsonian Institute is chartered by the US Congress, after James Smithson donates $500,000 for such a purpose. Interestingly, Smithson wasn't even an American. He was a British chemist and mineralogist. Unfortunately, not much is known about Smithson's life to any great degree as his entire works, research, diaries and correspondence were lost in a fire at the Smithsonian Institute in 1865.

1948. Candid Camera makes its debut on television after having been on radio for the last year as Candid Microphone (anyone under, say, 35 years of age will probably have no idea what I'm talking about).

1988. President Reagan signs legislation paying $20,000 to Japanese Americans who were interned or relocated during WWII.

I hate it but this is the obverse side now:

http://www.trailspace.com/assets/7/d...penny-back.jpg

Candid Camera was surely ahead of it's time... making it's debut on television many many years before television is even invented....

ROFL. The fat finger strikes again!

August 11

3114 BC. The start date of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar. Used by pre-Columbian tribes in the Americas, this date is the mythological date of creation and the starting point for the calendar. Many monuments are inscribed with dates referencing the calendar.

1972. The last American ground combat units leave Vietnam.

Not counting POW's.

August 12

30 BC. Cleopatra dies by suicide, reportedly by the bite of an asp.

1281. The Mongolian fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.

1833. Chicago is founded.

1914. The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary in the ongoing fall of the dominoes.

1977. First free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.

1981. The IBM Personal Computer is released.

1985. The worst single airplane accident in history -- Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into a ridge, killing all 520 people on board.

August 13

1521. Herman Cortes captures Tenochtitlan (Mexico City).

1831. Slave Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse, which he believe is a sign from God. A week later he will lead a slave uprising that will result in the deaths of 55 whites in Virginia.

1918. Women enlist in the US Marine Corps for the first time.

1937. The Battle of Shanghai, between China and Japan, and involving nearly 1,000,000 troops and nearly a quarter-million casualties. Eventually, the Chinese are routed.

1961. The GDR (East Germany) closes the border between Eastern and Western Berlin to prevent the flight of its citizens to the West.

1969. After returning from the moon, the Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three week quarantine and attend a ticker tape parade in New York, and a dinner in Los Angeles where President Nixon gives them all a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

I see sometimes on the History channel, and other places, they will take all kinds of eveidence "clothing, pictures, paintings" and try to peice together what someone looks like. I remember seeing them do it to George Washington.

My question is, has anyone ever done this for her? If so, where can i find a clip. I've always been curious as to what she really looked like.

This time period isn't my specialty, but my understanding is that the general consensus is that Cleopatra wasn't particularly physically attractive. Rather, it was her intellect, wit, etc. that made her an unusual and attractive woman.

If the coins with her image were at all accurate...

http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk:443/m...CoinScaled.jpg

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/pr...9Cleopatra.jpg

August 14.

Pretty light day.

1945. Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender.

1947. Pakistan gains independence from the British Indian Empire.

August 15. Better get your game on if you want to make the list for today...

927. The Saracens (Muslims) capture and destroy Taranto, Italy.

1483. Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.

1519. Panama City, Panama, is founded.

1543. St. Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the founding of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

1824. Freed American slaves found Liberia.

1843. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is dedicated in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in continuous use in the United States.

1914. The Panama Canal opens to traffic, with the first ship using the canal being the cargo ship Ancon. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the canal resulted in the deaths of over 21,000 Frenchmen who were involved in the project during French control (1880 to about 1900), and a further 5,600 US deaths during the US control and construction period (until 1914). The project also led to the recognition of the importance of the mosquito in spreading yellow fever, which had resulted in many of these deaths.

The advent of the Panama Canal revolutionized shipping by cutting the transit time from New York to San Francisco, for example, by more than half. It also led to regulation of the size of cargo ships, as the maximum size ship that could transit the canal became known as Panamax. US Navy ships were also built with Panamax limitations in mind, as the two widest ships ever to transit the canal to this day are two North Carolina class battleships.

Ships too large to fit, such as US Navy supercarriers and supertankers, are known as Post Panamax.

1944. As part of the Allied assault on fortress Europe, Operation Dragoon is launched this day, a large amphibious assault on Southern France which opens up new avenues for Allied forces to bring pressure to bear on German forces as well as a new avenue to bring supplies forward to Allied troops.

1948. South Korea is established south of the 38th parallel.

1971. President Nixon completes the break off the gold standard.


1977. The Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University receives a signal bearing many expected hallmarks indicative of extra-terrestrial life. The researcher who recorded the signal circles it and writes "WOW" next to it, giving it its name of the Wow Signal. Efforts to find additional similar signals have been unsuccessful to date.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Wow_signal.jpg

August 16

1780. Following the capture of Charleston, South Carolina, and a strategic redirection by the British to the Southern colonies, the British troops of Lord Cornwallis inflict a serious defeat on the Revolutionary Army under the command of General Horatio Gates, in the Battle of Camden. The loss was total -- Gates had lost his entire army, effectively, with 2,000 casualties (1,000 of which were prisoners), his entire baggage train and his cannon. Gates, humiliated and ineffectual, was removed from command, which was instead given to Nathaniel Greene.

1930. The first sound color cartoon, Fiddlesticks, is released.

1954. The first edition of Sports Illustrated is published.

1960. USAF Captain Joseph Kittinger parachutes out of an airplane at 102,800 feet of altitude, setting three records to this day -- highest altitude jump, free fall and highest speed of a human without an aircraft (estimated at 614 mph). He would go on to serve three combat tours in Vietnam, fly 483 missions, be shot down, and captured and imprisoned by the NOrth Vietnamese for 11 months in the "Hanoi Hilton".

August 17

1806. Robert Fulton's first American steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world and leading -- some 15 years later -- to a fascinating and critical Supreme Court case involving Cornelius (Commodore) Vanderbilt, Daniel Webster, Robert Livingstone (signer of the Declaration of Independence) that I hope to write about in the near future.

1943. The American (under General Patton) and British (under Field Marshal Montgomery) arrive in Messina, Sicily, completing the Allied conquest of the island. This is the memorable scene in Patton.

The real footage is a bit different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFc9h5Efqq8

1998. President Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with Monica Lewinsky.

August 18

1587. Virginia Dare becomes the first child of English colonists to be born in America, at the Roanake Colony.

1920. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women's suffrage, is ratified.

August 19

43 BC. Octavian, later Caesar Augustus, compels the Senate to elect him Consul.

1812. In the opening months of the War of 1812, when America was still winning such few victories (nearly all at sea) that she would enjoy for the duration, the USS Constitution met the HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia. The British ship opened fire as soon as she was within range, but her guns did little damage to the heavy live oak hull of the Constitution. The Constitution, conversely, withheld fire until the two ships were at nearly point blank range, at which time she fired a double broadside of grape and round shot. The ships continued firing indiscriminately, but the Constitution had all the advantages, and the Guerriere soon became a floating hulk, and struck her colors. She was so thoroughly massacred that she wasn't worth salvaging, and the next day she was burned. During the battle, with many British shots bouncing uselessly off the hull, a sailor on the Constitution reportedly exclaimed "Huzzah, her sides are made of iron!" And thus her nickname, Old Ironsides, was given.

For those particularly interested in arcane early US Navy matters, I strongly recommend the book Six Frigates, which goes into detail regarding the construction of the first six frigates by the US, pursuant to an act passed in 1794. I will give a very brief recap of the most salient facts here, for those who want a thumbnail.

Particularly noteworthy, here is the fine job performed by Joshua Humphreys, the naval architect who designed those six frigates. First, by design the six ships, though "frigates", were much larger and heavier than comparable European frigates, which typicallyc arried 38 guns. The US frigates were rated for 44 guns, but sometimes carried 50 or more, and were often a mix of 24 pounder and 32 pound cannon, as opposed to the lighter 18 pounders that British ships such as Guerriere carried. The "pounds" refers to the weight of teh shot (the solid metal ball) that the cannon fired, and when comparing firepower the total weight that a ship could fire was critical.

So by design, the US frigates were bigger than European frigates, but they were also smaller than European "ships of the line" (74 guns, standard, but sometimes bigger). They could, however, outsail them, being much faster than the lumbering hulks of the line. Thus Humphreys, knowing the US could not match the Europeans in numbers of vessels, designed a frigate that could outfight European frigates, and successfully flee heavier ships of the line.

The construction materials of the US ships were also superior. One of the main features was that the ship employed in its construction wood from Southern Live Oak -- a wood that is very difficult to work. A particularly dense wood, it can weigh up to 75 pounds per cubic foot. The hull was 21 inches thick, whereas 18 inches was far more common.

Southern Live Oak are also particularly long-lived. The Angel Oak, on Johns Island, South Carolina, is estimated at 1,400 years of age.

A picture of a live oak:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Georgetown.jpg


The Constitution -- the oldest commissioned ship afloat in the world.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ution_1997.jpg

1848. Though gold was discovered much earlier, the New York Herald announces the gold rush in California to the East Coast, setting off a massive migration from the East Coast to a sleepy insignificant town that will become San Francisco.

1953. The CIA backs the overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh, and the Shah is reinstated. Mosaddegh was imprisoned for three years, then placed under house arrest until his death in 1967. The coup d'etat was done during and as a result of Cold War politics, but here in 2010 it appears to have been a colossal blunder as the rise of the current Islamic governed Iran is a direct result of both American interference (it was a rallying cry in the 1979 revolution) and the removal of a secular leader who may have led Iran down a different, more moderate, path.

1991. Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest in one of the more important of a series of events that led to the collapse of the old Soviet Union.

August 20

636. Arab forces conquer Syria and Palestine from the Byzantine Empire, marking the beginning of the first great wave of Muslim conquests and the rapid spread of Islam outside of Arabia.

1882. Premier of the 1812 Overture, in Moscow.

1920. Founding of the National Football League.

1938. Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd and last Grand Slam, a record that still stands.

1988. A cease fire after eight years of continuous war is declared in the Iran-Iraq war. Presumably, Saddam Hussein waited a day or two before thinking about an easier opponent to pick on.

1991. Over 100,000 people rally in Moscow protesting the coup d'etat against Mikhail Gorbachev.

August 21

1192. Minamoto no Yoritomo becomes Shogun of Japan, beginning the Kamakura Shogunate that would rule Japan for 150 years and, among other things, fend off two Mongol invasions.

1770. James Cook claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. And I'd like to pause to note that while brave, intrepid and hardy, British and other explorers were stunningly boring in their selection of names for the places they found -- none moreso than the pilgrims who left Plymouth England and landed at Plymouth Massachusetts. :spock:

1863. Quantrill's Raiders raid Lawrence, Kansas, and commit what will become known as the Lawrence Massacre.

1968. Soviet Union dominated Warsaw Pact troops enter Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring.

1991. The coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.

There's no doubt about that.... many times all they did is throw the word "New" in front of it... New York, etc....

EDIT: i guess i could have went with New South Wales lol

August 22

1831. Nat Turner's slave rebellion begins.

1864. The Red Cross is formed.

1902. President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first president to ride in an automobile.

1910. Korea is annexed by Japan, a relationship that would last until the end of WWII.

1941. German troops reach Leningrad. The siege, one of the longest and most costly in history, will begin in a month when the last land corridor to the city is cut.

1942. Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy, sealing their fate.

1968. Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota, Columbia, the first visit by a Pope to South America.

1989. Nolan Ryan strikes out Ricky Henderson to become the first pitcher to achieve 5,000 strike outs.

That's a bit of an over-statement...no?

Yeah but can he throw a snowball through a guys jacket and still have the impact destroy a garage door in the distance?

Signed,
Randy Johnson

You seem to forget that I'm a charter member.


http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/153/3825.jpg

Today in history, 24 Aug 1944, Operation
Goodwood III: British carrier aircraft (33 Barracuda dive bombers, 10
Hellcat fighters, 5 Corsair fighters, 29 other fighters) from HMS
Indefatigable, Furious, and Formidable attacked German battleship
Tirpitz, scoring 2 hits.

http://a1.vox.com/6a00f48cdd980c0003...bdf1000e-500pi

August 23

79. On the Feast Day of Vulcan, the Roman God of fire, Mount Vesuvius begins to stir.

1305. William Wallace is executed by King Edward I.

1572. The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris. Six days after the wedding of the sister of King Charles IX to Henry of Navarre, a protestant (and future King Henry IV of France). Due to the wedding, an unusually large number of Huguenots were assembled in Catholic Paris, the murders lasted for weeks and resulted in the death of 3,000-5,000 protestants. The massacre was believed to be at the behest of Catherine d'Medici, the mother of the King, and cemented protestant hatred of Catholics throughout Europe.

1775. King George III declares the American colonies to be in an open state of rebellion against the British crown.

1784. Western North Carolina (now Eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state. It calls itself Franklin. After four years of being unable to join the United States as an independent state, it gives up the cause.

1939. Germany and Russia sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression treaty. A secret codicil to the agreement provides for the division of the Baltic States, Poland, Finland and Romania between them.

1944. King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu. Romania switches from pro-Nazi to pro-Allies.

1990. East and West Germany announce their reunification, as of October 3.

The Tirpitz is an interesting story. She never really left any of her bases, and stayed in Germany and barelyf ired a shot the whole war, but her mere presence, as behemoth sister-ship to the Bismarck, tied up signifciant British naval forces and caused more worry to the British Naval High Command than one can possibly imagine today.

August 24

79. Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae in volcanic ash.

410. Just a bad day for the Romans in history. The Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome, beginning the traditional three days of rape, pillage and plunder.

1349. Six thousand Jews, blamed for spreading bubonic plague, are killed in Mainz.

1814. Continuing the general theme of humiliation for the Americans in the War of 1812, the British invade Washington, DC, and burn down the White House and several other buildings.

1857. The Panic of 1857, one of the most severe economic crisis in US history, begins.

1932. Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the US, non-stop.

1960. A temperature of -128.6 degrees fahrenheit is recorded in Vostok, Antarctica, a world record low.

1989. Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti bans Pete Rose for life from baseball for betting on games.

1992. Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 hurricane, hits southern Florida.

1995. Microsoft releases Windows 95.

2006. The International Astronomical Union redines the definition of a planet, kicking Pluto out.

Pluto today...... not doing so well....

http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures...net--23221.jpg

August 25

1609. Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to the Venetian Senate.

1944. Paris is liberated by Allied forces.

1950. During the Korean War, President Truman orders the US Army to seize control of the nation's railways to avert a potentially crippling strike.

August 26

1071. The Battle of Manzikert. One of the most significant battles in history, this battle was fought between the Seljuk Turks under Alp Arslan and Byzantine forces under the direct and personal command of Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes. The battle was a complete victory for the Turks, who captured the Emperor. More important were its long term ramifications -- the loss resulted in years of internal strife in the Empire, and loss of control over its borders with the result that an increasing number of Turks moving into the Anatolian heartland (the area we now know as Turkey), which had historically been the Empire's great breadbasket and mustering grounds for troops.

What makes it all the more tragic for Byzantium is that the battle need never have taken place. Byzantium had inflicted a stinging defeat on the Turks only a year earlier in defense of its borders, and Mazikert was the culmination of a war of further punishment/conquest undertaken by the Byzantine Emperor. Further, the Sultan had offered terms to the Emperor to induce his withdrawal, which the Emperor rejected, to the lasting misfortune of himself and his Empire.

Absent the Battle of Manzikert, it is entirely likely that Byzantium would have been better able to resist future Islamic expansion and delayed or thwarted the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

1346. The Battle of Crecy. Another famous battle, though better known to western historians than Mazikert. At Crecy, France, the ultimate supremacy of the English longbow over French crossbows and armored knights is firmly established during this critical battle in the Hundred Years' War. Many consider this battle to also be the beginning of the end of classic chivalry, due to the weapons and tactics employed.

The British, with a force of between 9,000 and 15,000, held the high ground in Northern France, fighting under thier King, Edward III. The French, under their King, Philip IV, had approximately 30,000 men under arms, including a great part of the mounted knight nobility of France and Genoese and French crossbowmen.

The battle was an utter disaster for the French. The range of the English longbows was greater than the crossbows, and when the English came somewhat forward and started annihilating hte crossbowmen with massed arrowstorms, they withdrew. The French knights, thinking the withdrawal cowardly, mowed them down as well. Then charged the English.

French armor could not stop the English arrows from penetrating, however, and their horses were practically unprotected. They and their horses were hit hard during the charge, and then (many now horseless) the knights floundered through the mud trying to get to the longbowmen, and were annihilated en masse.

Much of the nobility of France was killed or wounded, while Edward III, whose war in Frnace was increasingly unpopular back home, found new grounds for support. He would go on to besiege Calais, which would fall to him in a year and be held by the British for nearly 200 years.

1498. Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...eaned_edit.jpg

1883. Mount Krakatoa begins its final, paroxysmal, eruption.

1939. The first major league baseball game is telecast -- a double header at Ebbets Field between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.

1966. The Battle of Omuguluwombashe commences the Namibian War of Independence. I'm not sure how important this is in the greater historical sense, as my knowledge of Namibia is pretty limited, but I couldn't miss an opportunity to write "Omuguluwombashe".

Today in history, nothing of substance for the U.S. happened.

August 27

1776. The Battle of Brooklyn Heights, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Long Island. This was the first major battle of the American Revolution after the issuance of hte Declaration of Independence, and was overwhelmingly a British victory.

Earlier in the year, the British had fled Boston after the Continentals had brought cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston. George Washington, therefore, brought his army to New York, to defend the key juncture between New England and the rest of the colonies. After making some very shaky strategic and tactical decisions, however, and being routed in the first day of battle, the rebels escape a prolonged (and certainly futile) siege by fleeing during the night across the river, helped by an early morning fog which helped conceal the evacuation that had not yet been completed by daybreak. At 7:00 a.m. Washington, the last man out, had saved his 9,000 troops in their entirety.

Though the withdrawal had been ingenius, it didn't disguise either the faulty initial plans that had resulted in the Revolutionary Army's poor situation, nor retrieve the fact that New York had been lost.

1859. What will become the first commercially successful oil well is discovered at Titusville, Pennsylvania.

1939. First flight of the Heinkel HE 178 -- the world's first jet aircraft.

August 28

1521. The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.

1867. The US takes possession of the previously unoccupied Midway Atoll, which will come to prominence during WWII.

1898. Caleb Bradham, a North Carolina pharmacist who, like most in that day had a soda fountain, rebrands his soft drink from what was previously known as "Brad's Drink" to "Pepsi-Cola". The inspiration for the name was the combination of the terms pepsin and cola, pepsin being the pepsin enzyme that aids in digestion, much as he believed his cola did.

In 1923 Bradham and his company would declare bankruptcy, largely as a result of fluctuations in the price of sugar. He would return to his pharmacy, while his company would be acquired out of bankruptcy by Craven Holding Company for $35,000. Today, Pepsi has worldwide operations with over 200,000 employees, approximately $44 billion in annual revenues and profits of approximately $6 billion per year.

1961. Motown (short for "Motor" "Town", a nickname for Detroit) Records releases what will be its first hit -- Please Mr. Postman, by the Marvelettes.

1963. Leading his march on Washington for jobs and freedom, Martin Luther King gives his I Have a Dream speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

2005. Hurricane Katrina, the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, begins to make landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi. The hurricane and subsequent floods would cause over 1,800 lost lives, over $80 billion in damages and over 7 million gallons of petroleum being spilled.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._2005_NASA.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...2005_track.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...oded_edit2.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ississippi.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ats_ashore.jpg

August 29

1756. Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning what is known in Europe as the Seven Years War, and in America sa the French and Indian Wars.

1758. The first American Indian reservation is established, in New Jersey.

1825. Portugal recognizes the independence of Brazil.

1885. Gottlieb Daimler patents the first motorcycle.

1949. The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.

August 30

A surprisingly quiet day, really. I'll keep it short and simple.

1967. Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African-American Justice to the United States Supreme Court. Marshall, after graduating first in his class from Howard University, had almost immediately started arguing civil rights cases. He would win his first case before the Supreme Court at age 32 and immediately thereafter became chief counsel to the NAACP. He would go on to win 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court, including most notably Brown v. Board of Education, in 1954, which reversed the "separate but equal" doctrine that the Supreme Court had approved in the abominable Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

He would serve 24 years on the SCOTUS, compiling a strongly liberal record in support of individual rights. His jurisprudence was not limited to merely criminal law matters. In 1976 he authored an opinion that includes the standard for the challenging "materiality" standard in securities law matters which remains the standard to this day.

Among his law clerks was Elena Kagan, who was recently confirmed as a justice to the SCOTUS herself.

Marshall in 1936, at the beginning of his NAACP career.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...hall_NAACP.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...marshall-2.jpg