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PT-109 sinks;
Lieutenant Kennedy is instrumental in saving crew






1943
August 01




On August 1, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No. 109,
slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other American PT boats in the area assume the
crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John F. Kennedy.

Japanese aircraft had been on a PT boat hunt in the Solomon Islands, bombing the PT base at
Rendova Island. It was essential to the Japanese that several of their destroyers make it to the
southern tip of Kolombangara Island to get war supplies to forces there. But the torpedo capacity
of the American PTs was a potential threat. Despite the base bombing at Rendova, PTs set out to
intercept those Japanese destroyers. In the midst of battle, Japan’s Amaqiri hit PT-109, leaving 11
crewmen floundering in the Pacific.

After five hours of clinging to debris from the decimated PT boat, the crew made it to a coral island.
Kennedy decided to swim out to sea again, hoping to flag down a passing American boat. None came.
Kennedy began to swim back to shore, but strong currents, and his chronic back condition, made his
return difficult. Upon reaching the island again, he fell ill. After he recovered, the PT-109 crew swam
to a larger island, what they believed was Nauru Island, but was in fact Cross Island. They met up
with two natives from the island, who agreed to take a message south. Kennedy carved the distress
message into a coconut shell: “Nauru Is. Native knows posit. He can pilot. 11 alive need small boat.”

The message reached Lieutenant Arthur Evans, who was watching the coast of Gomu Island, located
next to an island occupied by the Japanese. Kennedy and his crew were paddled to Gomu. A PT boat
then took them back to Rendova. Kennedy was ultimately awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal,
for gallantry in action.

PT-109, a film dramatizing this story, starring Cliff Robertson as Kennedy, opened in 1963.





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BLACK HISTORY
1943
The Harlem Riot of 1943 begins

Simmering racial tensions and economic frustrations boil over
in New York City on the night of August 1, 1943, culminating
in what is now known as the Harlem Riot of 1943. During an
altercation in the lobby of the Braddock Hotel, a white police
officer shoots a Black soldier, ...
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WORLD WAR II
1943
Operation Tidal Wave: U.S. forces attempt
risky air raid on Axis oil refineries

On August 1, 1943, 177 B-24 bombers take off from an Allied
base in Libya, bound for the oil-producing city Ploiești, Romania,
nicknamed “Hitler’s gas station.” The daring raid, known as
Operation Tidal Wave, resulted in five men being awarded the
Medal of Honor—three of them ...
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HOLOCAUST
1944
Anne Frank writes her last diary entry

Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl hiding out in Nazi-occupied
Holland whose diary came to serve as a symbol of the Holocaust,
writes her final entry three days before she and her family are
arrested and placed in concentration camps. Frank, 15 at the
time, received the diary on ...
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GERMANY
1936
Hitler oversees Berlin Olympics opening ceremony

As more than 5,000 athletes from 51 countries march into a
stadium packed with 100,000 onlookers, Adolf Hitler makes
his only public statement of the Berlin Olympics at its opening
ceremony on this day in 1936: “I proclaim the Games of Berlin,
celebrating the eleventh Olympiad of ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1996
George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones debuts

On August 1, 1996, “A Game of Thrones,” an epic fantasy novel
by George R.R. Martin, is released. The book was the first in
Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, about feuding medieval
noble families on an imaginary continent called Westeros.
Although not initially a ...
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EXPLORATION
1498
Columbus lands in South America

Explorer Christopher Columbus sets foot on the American
mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day
Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa
and claimed it for Spain. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy,
in 1451. Little is known of his ...
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WORLD WAR II
1944
Warsaw Revolt begins

During World War II, an advance Soviet armored column under
General Konstantin Rokossovski reaches the Vistula River along
the eastern suburb of Warsaw, prompting Poles in the city to
launch a major uprising against the Nazi occupation. The revolt
was spearheaded by Polish ...
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WORLD WAR I
1914
First World War erupts

Four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia,
Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France
orders a general mobilization, and the first German army
units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German
invasion of France. During the next three days, ...
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1970S
1961
The first Six Flags opens in Texas

On August 1, 1961, amusement park lovers “head for the thrills”
as Six Flags Over Texas, the first park in the Six Flags chain,
has its soft opening. 5 days later, on August 5, the park had
its grand opening. Located on 212 acres in Arlington, Texas,
the park was the first to ...
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SPORTS
1996
Michael Johnson brings home second gold

On August 1, 1996, sprinter Michael Johnson breaks the world
record in the 200 meters to win gold at the Summer Olympics
in Atlanta. Three days earlier, Johnson had also won the 400
meters, making him the first man in history to win both events
at the Olympics. Four years earlier ...
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U.S. PRESIDENTS
1972
George W. Bush is suspended from flying
with the Air National Guard

On August 1, 1972, future President George Walker Bush,
son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush, is
suspended from flying with the Texas Air National Guard for
missing an annual medical examination. Bush’s military-service
record became a source of controversy during ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1981
MTV launches

On August 1, 1981, MTV: Music Television goes on the air
for the first time ever, with the words (spoken by one of
MTV’s creators, John Lack): “Ladies and gentlemen,
rock and roll.” The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”
was the first music video to air on the new cable ...
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The Very First Two Hours Of MTV






CRIME
1966
An ex-Marine goes on a killing spree
at the University of Texas

Charles Whitman takes a stockpile of guns and ammunition
to the observatory platform atop a 300-foot tower at the
University of Texas and proceeds to shoot 46 people,
killing 14 people and wounding 32. Whitman, who had
killed both his wife and mother the night before, was ...
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COLD WAR
1975
Helsinki Final Act signed

The United States, the Soviet Union, Canada and every
European nation (except Albania) sign the Helsinki Final Act
on the last day of the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe (CSCE). The act was intended to revive the
sagging spirit of detente between the Soviet Union ...
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CIVIL WAR
1864
Philip Sheridan takes command of Army
of the Shenandoah

Union General Ulysses S. Grant appoints General Philip Sheridan
commander of the Army of the Shenandoah. Within a few months,
Sheridan drove a Confederate force from the Shenandoah Valley
and destroyed nearly all possible sources of Rebel supplies,
helping to seal the fate of the ...
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Iraq invades Kuwait






1990
August 02



On August 2, 1990, at about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces invade Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny, oil-rich neighbor.
Kuwait’s defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia.
The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City
had been captured and the Iraqis had established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained
control of 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf.
The same day, the United Nations Security Council unanimously denounced the invasion and demanded Iraq’s
immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. On August 6, the Security Council imposed a worldwide ban on trade with Iraq.

On August 9, Operation Desert Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as U.S. forces raced to the
Persian Gulf. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, built up his occupying army in Kuwait to about 300,000
troops. On November 29, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq
if it failed to withdraw by January 15, 1991. Hussein refused to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, which he had
established as a province of Iraq, and some 700,000 allied troops, primarily American, gathered in the
Middle East to enforce the deadline.

At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm, the massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq,
began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers in
the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad
as the world watched the events transpire on television footage transmitted live via satellite from Iraq.
Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international coalition under the supreme command of U.S.
General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait.

During the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in an intensive air war against Iraq’s military and civil
infrastructure and encountered little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force or air defenses. Iraqi ground
forces were helpless during this stage of the war, and Hussein’s only significant retaliatory measure was the
launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks
would provoke Israel to enter the conflict, thus dissolving Arab support of the war. At the request of the
United States, however, Israel remained out of the war.

On February 24, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq’s outdated and poorly supplied armed
forces were rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded, 10,000 of its
troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had been established deep inside Iraq. After less than four
days, Kuwait was liberated, and the majority of Iraq’s armed forces had either surrendered, retreated to Iraq,
or been destroyed.

On February 28, U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and on April 3 the U.N. Security Council
passed Resolution 687, specifying conditions for a formal end to the conflict. According to the resolution,
Bush’s cease-fire would become official, some sanctions would be lifted, but the ban on Iraqi oil sales would
continue until Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction under U.N. supervision. On April 6, Iraq accepted
the resolution, and on April 11 the Security Council declared it in effect. During the next decade, Saddam Hussein
frequently violated the terms of the peace agreement, prompting further allied air strikes and continuing U.N. sanctions.

In the Persian Gulf War, 148 American soldiers were killed and 457 wounded. The other allied nations suffered
about 100 deaths combined during Operation Desert Storm. There are no official figures for the number of Iraqi
casualties, but it is believed that at least 25,000 soldiers were killed and more than 75,000 were wounded,
making it one of the most one-sided military conflicts in history. It is estimated that 100,000 Iraqi civilians died
from wounds or from lack of adequate water, food, and medical supplies directly attributable to the Persian Gulf War.
In the ensuing years, more than one million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the subsequent U.N. sanctions.




ALSO ON THIS DAY



WORLD WAR II
1934
Hitler becomes dictator of Germany

With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg,
Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany
under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader.” The German army took
an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the
last remnants of Germany’s democratic ...
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U.S. PRESIDENTS
1923
President Warren G. Harding dies
before scandals break

In a hotel in San Francisco, President Warren G. Harding dies
of a stroke at the age of 58. Harding was returning from a
presidential tour of Alaska and the West Coast, a journey some
believed he had embarked on to escape the rumors circulating
in Washington of corruption in his ...
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SPORTS
1992
Jackie Joyner-Kersee wins gold
in heptathlon, again

On August 2, 1992, Jackie Joyner-Kersee becomes the first
woman ever to win two consecutive Olympic gold medals
in the heptathlon. Born and raised in East St. Louis, Jackie Joyner
overcame poverty and chronic asthma to win a scholarship
to UCLA, where she starred on the ...
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CRIME
1876
Wild Bill Hickok is murdered

“Wild Bill” Hickok, one of the greatest gunfighters of the
American West, is murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Born in Illinois in 1837, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok first
gained notoriety as a gunfighter in 1861 when he coolly shot
three men who were trying to kill him. A ...
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NATURAL DISASTERS & ENVIRONMENT
1985
Sudden thunderstorm causes plane crash

On August 2, 1985, strong and sudden wind gusts cause a plane
crash at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in Texas that kills 135 people.
The rapid and unexpected formation of a supercell, an extremely
violent form of thunderstorm, led to the tragedy.
Delta Flight 191 left Fort ...
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CRIME
1942
Man murdered near L.A. reservoir

On August 2, 1942, Jose Diaz is murdered, and his body is found at
the Sleepy Lagoon reservoir, near Los Angeles, California. Two days
later, police began to round up and arrest 22 men of Mexican descent
in the Los Angeles area for conspiring to kill Diaz. Despite a lack of ...
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CIVIL WAR
1865
CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over

The captain and crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, still prowling the
waters of the Pacific in search of Yankee whaling ships, is finally
informed by a British vessel that the South has lost the war. The
Shenandoah was the last major Confederate cruiser to set sail.
Launched as a ...
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COLD WAR
1945
Potsdam Conference concludes

The last wartime conference of the “Big Three”—the Soviet Union,
the United States and Great Britain—concludes after two weeks of
intense and sometimes acrimonious debate. The conference failed
to settle most of the important issues at hand and thus helped
set the stage for the ...
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AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1776
Delegates sign Declaration of Independence

On August 2, 1776, members of Congress affix their signatures
to an enlarged copy of the Declaration of Independence. Fifty-six
congressional delegates in total signed the document, including
some who were not present at the vote approving the declaration.
The delegates signed by ...
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WORLD WAR I
1917
Mutiny breaks out on German battleship

On August 2, 1917, with British forces settling into new positions
captured from the Germans in the much-contested Ypres Salient on
the Western Front of World War I, Germany faces more trouble
closer to home, as a mutiny breaks out aboard the
German battleship Prinzregent ...
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Nautilus submarine travels under North Pole







1958
August 03



On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplishes the first undersea voyage to the
geographic North Pole. The world’s first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus dived at Point Barrow, Alaska,
and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world. It then steamed
on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe.

The USS Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S. Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant
Russian-born engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946. In 1947, he was put in charge of the
navy’s nuclear-propulsion program and began work on an atomic submarine. Regarded as a fanatic by
his detractors, Rickover succeeded in developing and delivering the world’s first nuclear submarine years
ahead of schedule. In 1952, the Nautilus’ keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman, and on January 21, 1954,
first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the Thames River
at Groton, Connecticut. Commissioned on September 30, 1954, it first ran under nuclear power on the morning
of January 17, 1955.

Much larger than the diesel-electric submarines that preceded it, the Nautilus stretched 319 feet and displaced
3,180 tons. It could remain submerged for almost unlimited periods because its atomic engine needed no air
and only a very small quantity of nuclear fuel. The uranium-powered nuclear reactor produced steam that drove
propulsion turbines, allowing the Nautilus to travel underwater at speeds in excess of 20 knots.

In its early years of service, the USS Nautilus broke numerous submarine travel records and on July 23, 1958,
departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on “Operation Northwest Passage”—the first crossing of the North Pole by submarine.
There were 116 men aboard for this historic voyage, including Commander William R. Anderson, 111 officers and
crew, and four civilian scientists. The Nautilus steamed north through the Bering Strait and did not surface until it
reached Point Barrow, Alaska, in the Beaufort Sea, though it did send its periscope up once off the Diomedes Islands,
between Alaska and Siberia, to check for radar bearings. On August 1, the submarine left the north coast of Alaska
and dove under the Arctic ice cap.

The submarine traveled at a depth of about 500 feet, and the ice cap above varied in thickness from 10 to 50 feet,
with the midnight sun of the Arctic shining in varying degrees through the blue ice. At 11:15 p.m. EDT on
August 3, 1958, Commander Anderson announced to his crew: “For the world, our country, and the Navy—the
North Pole.” The Nautilus passed under the geographic North Pole without pausing. The submarine next surfaced
in the Greenland Sea between Spitzbergen and Greenland on August 5. Two days later, it ended its historic journey
at Iceland. For the command during the historic journey, President Dwight D. Eisenhower decorated Anderson with
the Legion of Merit.


After a career spanning 25 years and almost 500,000 miles steamed, the Nautilus was decommissioned on
March 3, 1980. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world’s first nuclear submarine went on
exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.




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U.S. PRESIDENTS
1923
Calvin Coolidge takes oath of office
after Warren G. Harding’s death

On August 3, 1923, Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the
30th president of the United States, hours after the death
of President Warren G. Harding. Born July 4, 1872,
in Plymouth, Vermont, Coolidge was the son of a village
storekeeper. He graduated from Amherst College in ...
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1970S
1975
Boeing 707 crashes into a mountain
near Agadir, Morocco

On August 3, 1975, a chartered Boeing 707 jetliner
crashes in the Atlas Mountains near Agadir, a coastal
city in Morocco. All 188 people aboard the plane were
killed, in the fourth worst air disaster to that date.
Owned by the Jordanian airline Alia and
chartered to Royal Air ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1996
“The Macarena” begins its reign
atop the U.S. pop charts

If pop songs, like hurricanes, were rated on an objective
scale according to their ability to devastate the pop-cultural
landscape, then the song that reached the top of the
American pop charts on August 3, 1996 was a Category 5
monster. It first made landfall in Florida as a ...
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GREAT BRITAIN
1916
Sir Roger Casement hanged

Sir Roger David Casement, an Irish-born diplomat who
in 1911 was knighted by King George V, is executed for
his role in Ireland’s Easter Rising. Casement was an Irish
Protestant who served as a British diplomat during the
early part of the 20th century. He won international ...
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EXPLORATION
1492
Columbus sets sail

From the Spanish port of Palos, Italian explorer
Christopher Columbus sets sail in command of three
ships—the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina—on a
journey to find a western sea route to China, India
and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.
On October 12, the expedition ...
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VIETNAM WAR
1965
TV news shows Marines burning village

CBS-TV news shows pictures of men from the First
Battalion, Ninth Marines setting fire to huts in the
village of Cam Na, six miles west of Da Nang, despite
reports that the Viet Cong had already fled the area.
The film report sparked indignation and condemnation
of the U.S. ...
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SPORTS
1949
NBA is born

On August 3, 1949, after a damaging three-year battle
to win both players and fans, the rival Basketball Association
of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL)
merge to form the National Basketball Association (NBA).
The BAA incorporated in 1946, challenging the ...
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19TH CENTURY
1846
Donner Party encounters first delay

An ominous sign of the troubles to come, the Donner
Party finds a note warning the emigrants that their
expected route through the mountains ahead is nearly
impassable. The Donner Party had left Springfield, Illinois,
three months earlier. Led by two wealthy brothers, Jacob and ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
2008
Multimillion-dollar baby photos published

On August 3, 2008, the first published photos of former couple
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s newborn twins, Vivienne Marcheline
and Knox Leon, go up on People magazine’s website. A 19-page
photo spread followed in the magazine’s August 18, 2008, issue.
People won the rights to ...
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CRIME
1982
Sodomy arrest sparks controversy

Michael Hardwick is arrested for "sodomy" after a police officer
observes him having sex with another man in his own bedroom
in Georgia. Although the district attorney eventually dropped
the charges, Hardwick decided to challenge the constitutionality
of Georgia’s law. “John and ...
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COLD WAR
1948
Chambers accuses Hiss of being a communist spy

In hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC), Whittaker Chambers accuses former State Department
official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the
Soviet Union. The accusation set into motion a series of events
that eventually resulted in the ...
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INVENTIONS & SCIENCE
1977
“The Spy Who Loved Me”
released in theaters

On August 3, 1977, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” starring Roger Moore
as the suave superspy James Bond, known for his love of fast cars
and dangerous women, is released in theaters across America.
The film features one of the most memorable Bond cars of all
time–a sleek, powerful Lotus ...
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WORLD WAR I
1914
Germany and France declare war
on each other

On the afternoon of August 3, 1914, two days after declaring war
on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with
a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the
German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a two-front war against
France and Russia. ...
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Anne Frank captured





1944
August 04



Acting on tip from an informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank
and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there
in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with
another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought
them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the so-called “secret annex” working on
her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place,
but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps.

Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on June 12, 1929. She was the second
daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Hollander, both of Jewish families that had lived in Germany for
centuries. With the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1933, Otto moved his family to Amsterdam to escape
the escalating Nazi persecution of Jews. In Holland, he ran a successful spice and jam business. Anne
attended a Montessori school with other middle-class Dutch children, but with the German invasion of the
Netherlands in 1940 she was forced to transfer to a Jewish school. In 1942, Otto began arranging a hiding
place in an annex of his warehouse on the Prinsengracht Canal in Amsterdam.

On her 13th birthday in 1942, Anne began a diary relating her everyday experiences, her relationship with
her family and friends, and observations about the increasingly dangerous world around her. Less than a
month later, Anne’s older sister, Margot, received a call-up notice to report to a Nazi “work camp.” Fearing
deportation to a Nazi concentration camp, the Frank family took shelter in the secret annex the next day.
One week later, they were joined by Otto Frank’s business partner and his family. In November, a Jewish
dentist—the eighth occupant of the hiding place—joined the group.

For two years, Anne kept a diary about her life in hiding that is marked with poignancy, humor, and insight.
The entrance to the secret annex was hidden by a hinged bookcase, and former employees of Otto and other
Dutch friends delivered them food and supplies procured at high risk. Anne and the others lived in rooms with
blacked-out windows, and never flushed the toilet during the day out of fear that their presence would be
detected. In June 1944, Anne’s spirits were raised by the Allied landings at Normandy, and she was hopeful
that the long-awaited liberation of Holland would soon begin.

On August 1, 1944, Anne made her last entry in her diary. Three days later, 25 months of seclusion ended with
the arrival of the Nazi Gestapo. Anne and the others had been given away by an unknown informer, and they
were arrested along with two of the Christians who had helped shelter them.

They were sent to a concentration camp in Holland, and in September Anne and most of the others were shipped
to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. In the fall of 1944, with the Soviet liberation of Poland underway, Anne
was moved with her sister Margot to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Suffering under the
deplorable conditions of the camp, the two sisters caught typhus and died in February 1945. The camp was
liberated by the British less than two months later.

Otto Frank was the only one of the 10 to survive the Nazi death camps. After the war, he returned to Amsterdam
via Russia, and was reunited with Miep Gies, one of his former employees who had helped shelter him. She
handed him Anne’s diary, which she had found undisturbed after the Nazi raid.

In 1947, Anne’s diary was published by Otto in its original Dutch. An instant best-seller and eventually translated
into more than 70 languages, The Diary of Anne Frank has served as a literary testament to the nearly six million
Jews, including Anne herself, who were silenced in the Holocaust.

The Frank family’s hideaway at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam opened as a museum in 1960. A new English
translation of Anne’s diary in 1995 restored material that had been edited out of the original version, making
the work nearly a third longer.




ALSO ON THIS DAY



CRIME
2019
Dayton, Ohio shooting becomes second
mass shooting in 24-hour period

A mass shooting takes place early in the morning in
Dayton, Ohio on August 4, 2019. The killing of nine
people and the injuries of 27 was significant in its own
right, but this mass shooting was particularly notable
for being America’s second in less than 24 hours.
Just one day ...
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IMMIGRATION
1942
U.S. and Mexico sign the
Mexican Farm Labor Agreement

On August 4, 1942, the United States and Mexico sign
the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement, creating what is
known as the "Bracero Program." The program, which
lasted until 1964, was the largest guest-worker program
in U.S. history. Throughout its existence, the Bracero Program ...
read more


SPORTS
2012
Oscar Pistorius becomes the first
amputee runner to compete at the Olympics

On August 4, 2012 in London, Oscar Pistorius of South Africa
becomes the first amputee to compete at the Olympics by
running in an opening heat of the men’s 400-meter. Pistorius
finished second out of five runners and advanced to the semifinals,
where he finished eighth out of ...
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COLONIAL AMERICA
1753
George Washington becomes a Master Mason

George Washington, a young Virginia planter, becomes a
Master Mason, the highest basic rank in the secret fraternity
of Freemasonry. The ceremony was held at the
Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington
was 21 years old and would soon command his first military ...
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CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
1964
Slain civil rights workers found

The remains of three civil rights workers whose disappearance
on June 21 garnered national attention are found buried in
an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner
and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had traveled
to heavily segregated Mississippi in ...
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CRIME
1892
Lizzie Borden's parents found dead

On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden are found hacked
to death in their Fall River, Massachusetts, home. Andrew was
discovered in a pool of blood on the living room couch, his
face nearly split in two. Abby was upstairs, her head smashed
to pieces; it was later determined ...
read more





SPORTS
1936
Jesse Owens wins long jump–and
respect–in Germany

On August 4, 1936, American Jesse Owens wins gold in the
long jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It
was the second of four gold medals Owens won in Berlin,
as he firmly dispelled German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s notion
of the superiority of an Aryan “master race,” for ...
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WESTWARD EXPANSION
1873
Colonel Custer and 7th Cavalry
attacked by the Sioux

While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer
and his 7th Cavalry clash for the first time with the local
Sioux Native Americans, who will defeat them three years
later at the Little Big Horn. During the previous two years,
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
2006
“Talladega Nights” released

“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” an irreverent
comedy based in the outlandish (fictionalized) world of American
stock car racing, premieres in movie theaters around the
United States on August 4, 2006. The comedian Will Ferrell
(who also co-wrote the screenplay ...
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WORLD WAR I
1914
U.S. proclaims neutrality in World War I

As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson
formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States, a
position that a vast majority of Americans favored, on
August 4, 1914. Wilson’s initial hope that America could
be “impartial in thought as well as in action” was ...
read more

Marilyn Monroe is found dead






1962
August 05



On August 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles.
She was discovered lying nude on her bed, face down, with a telephone in one hand. Empty
bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. After a brief
investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was “caused by a self-administered
overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide.”

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her mother
was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jeane was reared by
a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. At the age of 16, she married a fellow worker
in an aircraft factory, but they divorced a few years later. She took up modeling in 1944 and in 1946
signed a short-term contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe.
She had a few bit parts and then returned to modeling, famously posing nude for a calendar in 1949.

She began to attract attention as an actress in 1950 after appearing in minor roles in the
The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. Although she was onscreen only briefly playing a mistress in
both films, audiences took note of the blonde bombshell, and she won a new contract from Fox. Her
acting career took off in the early 1950s with performances in Love Nest (1951), Monkey Business (1952),
and Niagara (1953). Celebrated for her voluptuousness and wide-eyed charm, she won international
fame for her sex-symbol roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
and There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954). The Seven-Year Itch (1955) showcased her comedic
talents and features the classic scene where she stands over a subway grating and has her white skirt
billowed up by the wind from a passing train. In 1954, she married baseball great Joe DiMaggio,
attracting further publicity, but they divorced eight months later.

In 1955, she studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City and subsequently gave a
strong performance as a hapless entertainer in Bus Stop (1956). In 1956, she married playwright
Arthur Miller. She made The Prince and the Showgirl–a critical and commercial failure–with Laurence Olivier
in 1957 but in 1959 gave an acclaimed performance in the hit comedy Some Like It Hot. Her last role,
in The Misfits (1961), was directed by John Huston and written by Miller, whom she divorced just one
week before the film’s opening.

By 1961, Monroe, beset by depression, was under the constant care of a psychiatrist. Increasingly erratic
in the last months of her life, she lived as a virtual recluse in her Brentwood, Los Angeles, home. After
midnight on August 5, 1962, her maid, Eunice Murray, noticed Monroe’s bedroom light on. When Murray
found the door locked and Marilyn unresponsive to her calls, she called Monroe’s psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson,
who gained access to the room by breaking a window. Entering, he found Marilyn dead, and the police
were called sometime after. An autopsy found a fatal amount of sedatives in her system, and her death was
ruled probable suicide.

In recent decades, there have been a number of conspiracy theories about her death, most of which contend
that she was murdered by John and/or Robert Kennedy, with whom she allegedly had love affairs. These
theories claim that the Kennedys killed her (or had her killed) because they feared she would make public
their love affairs and other government secrets she was gathering. On August 4, 1962, Robert Kennedy,
then attorney general in his older brother’s cabinet, was in fact in Los Angeles. Two decades after the fact,
Monroe’s housekeeper, Eunice Murray, announced for the first time that the attorney general had visited
Marilyn on the night of her death and quarreled with her, but the reliability of these and other statements
made by Murray are questionable.

Decades after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains a major cultural icon.




ALSO ON THIS DAY



21ST CENTURY
2002
Divers recover U.S.S. Monitor turret

On August 5, 2002, the rusty iron gun turret of the
U.S.S. Monitor broke from the water and into the daylight
for the first time in 140 years. The ironclad warship was
raised from the floor of the Atlantic, where it had rested
since it went down in a storm off Cape Hatteras, ...
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U.S. PRESIDENTS
1981
Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 air-traffic controllers

On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan begins firing 11,359
air-traffic controllers striking in violation of his order for them to
return to work. The executive action, regarded as extreme by many,
significantly slowed air travel for months. Two days earlier, on August 3, ...
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19TH CENTURY
1858
First transatlantic telegraph cable completed

After several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line across the
Atlantic Ocean is completed, a feat accomplished largely through the
efforts of American merchant Cyrus West Field. The telegraph was first
developed by Samuel F. B. Morse, an artist-turned-inventor who ...
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WORLD WAR II
1944
Hundreds of Jews are freed from
forced labor in Warsaw

On August 5, 1944, Polish insurgents liberate a German forced-labor
camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners, who join in a general
uprising against the German occupiers of the city. As the Red Army
advanced on Warsaw in July, Polish patriots, still loyal to their ...
read more


WORLD WAR I
1914
German assault on Liege begins first
battle of World War I

On August 5, 1914, the German army launches its assault on the
city of Liege in Belgium, violating the latter country’s neutrality and
beginning the first battle of World War I. By August 4, the
German 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies—some 34 divisions of men—were
in the process of ...
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SPORTS
1976
NBA merges with ABA

On August 5, 1976, the National Basketball Association (NBA) merges
with its rival, the American Basketball Association (ABA), and takes
on the ABA’s four most successful franchises: the Denver Nuggets,
the Indiana Pacers, the New York (later Brooklyn) Nets and the San Antonio ...
read more





U.S. PRESIDENTS
1861
Abraham Lincoln imposes first federal income tax

On August 5, 1861, President Lincoln imposes the first federal
income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with
which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agreed to
impose a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800. As early
as March 1861, Lincoln had begun ...
read more


ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1957
"American Bandstand" goes national

Television, rock and roll and teenagers. In the late 1950s, when
television and rock and roll were new and when the biggest
generation in American history was just about to enter its teens,
it took a bit of originality to see the potential power in this
now-obvious combination. ...
read more





ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1983
"Risky Business" debuts,
launches Tom Cruise to stardom

On August 5, 1983, the comedy Risky Business, starring
Tom Cruise in a breakout performance, opens in U.S. theaters.
In the film, Cruise played Joel Goodsen, a suburban Chicago
teen who has a series of misadventures when his parents go
out of town and leave him home alone. ...
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CRIME
1998
Mother charged with smothering
her eight children

On August 5, 1998, Marie Noe, age 70, is arrested at her
Philadelphia home and charged in the smothering deaths of
eight of her children, who died between 1949 and 1968.
Each of the eight infants was reportedly healthy at birth,
but later died when home alone with Noe. At the ...
read more





COLD WAR
1963
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed

Representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union
and Great Britain sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which
prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space,
underwater, or in the atmosphere. The treaty was hailed
as an important first step toward the control of ...
read more





CIVIL WAR
1864
Union scores a victory at the
Battle of Mobile Bay

On August 5, 1864, at the Battle of Mobile Bay, Union Admiral
David Farragut leads his flotilla through the Confederate
defenses at Mobile, Alabama, to seal one of the last major
Southern ports. The fall of Mobile Bay was a huge blow to
the Confederacy, and the victory was the ...
read more


INVENTIONS & SCIENCE
1914
First electric traffic signal installed

The world’s first electric traffic signal is put into place on the
corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio,
on August 5, 1914. In the earliest days of the automobile,
navigating America’s roads was a chaotic experience,
with pedestrians, bicycles, horses ...
read more

American bomber drops atomic bomb
on Hiroshima







1945
August 06




On August 6, 1945, the United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during
wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people
are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would
be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.

Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after having been
warned that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. By the time the
United States conducted the first successful test (an atomic bomb was exploded in the desert in New Mexico
in July 1945), Germany had already been defeated. The war against Japan in the Pacific, however,
continued to rage. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade
Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the
war to a speedy end.

On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city
of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the
city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks
from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki,
killing nearly 40,000 more people. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender.





In the years since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a number of historians have suggested that
the weapons had a two-pronged objective. First, of course, was to bring the war with Japan to a speedy end
and spare American lives. It has been suggested that the second objective was to demonstrate the new weapon
of mass destruction to the Soviet Union.

By August 1945, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States had deteriorated badly.
The Potsdam Conference between U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Russian leader Joseph Stalin, and
Winston Churchill (before being replaced by Clement Attlee) ended just four days before the bombing of
Hiroshima. The meeting was marked by recriminations and suspicion between the Americans and Soviets.
Russian armies were occupying most of Eastern Europe. Truman and many of his advisers hoped that the
U.S. atomic monopoly might offer diplomatic leverage with the Soviets. In this fashion, the dropping of the
atomic bomb on Japan can be seen as the first shot of the Cold War.

If U.S. officials truly believed that they could use their atomic monopoly for diplomatic advantage, they had
little time to put their plan into action. By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb and the
nuclear arms race began.




ALSO ON THIS DAY



INVENTIONS & SCIENCE
1996
Researchers claim to have found signs
of Martian life in Antarctic meteorite

On August 6, 1996, NASA and Stanford researchers
announce they have found signs of Martian life in a
meteorite discovered 12 years earlier in Allan Hills,
Antarctica, causing a worldwide sensation. But some
viewed the announcement skeptically,
and the Martian life connection was ...
read more


SPORTS
1948
Vicki Draves and Sammy Lee become the first
Asian Americans to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S.

On August 6, 1948, American diver Vicki Draves wins
gold at the London Olympics. Two days later, her good
friend and fellow diver Sammy Lee takes gold as well,
making them the first Asian Americans to win Olympic
gold medals for the United States.
Draves was the daughter of an ...
read more





CRIME
1930
Joseph Force Crater becomes
the missingest man in New York

On August 6, 1930, New York Supreme Court judge Joseph
Force Crater vanished on the streets of Manhattan near
Times Square. The dapper 41-year-old’s disappearance
launched a massive investigation that captivated the nation,
earning Crater the title of “the missingest man in New ...
read more





UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
1787
First draft of Constitution debated

In Philadelphia, delegates to the Constitutional Convention
begin debating the first complete draft of the proposed
Constitution of the United States. The Articles of Confederation,
ratified several months before the British surrender at Yorktown
in 1781, provided for a loose ...
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19TH CENTURY
1890
First execution by electric chair

At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution
in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been
convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe.
Electrocution as a humane means of execution was first
suggested in 1881 by Dr. ...
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ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1928
Andy Warhol is born

Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the latter part
of the 20th century, is born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A frail and diminutive man with a shock of silver-blond hair,
Warhol was a major pioneer of the pop art movement of
the 1960s but later ...
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VIETNAM WAR
1969
Green Berets are charged with murder

The U.S. Army announces that Colonel Robert B. Rheault,
Commander of the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam,
and seven other Green Berets have been charged with
premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder
in the summary execution of a Vietnamese national,
Thai Khac ...
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SPORTS
1926
Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman
to swim English Channel

On August 6, 1926, on her second attempt, 19-year-old
Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the 21
miles from Dover, England, to Cape Griz-Nez across the
English Channel, which separates Great Britain from the
northwestern tip of France. Ederle was born to German ...
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U.S. PRESIDENTS
1965
President Johnson signs Voting Rights Act

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson
signs the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans
the right to vote. The bill made it illegal to impose
restrictions on federal, state and local elections that
were designed to deny the vote to Black people. Johnson ...
read more


ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1911
Lucille Ball is born

On August 6, 1911, Lucille Desiree Ball, one of America’s
most famous redheads and beloved comic actresses, is
born near Jamestown, New York. At age 15, Ball went to
New York City to attend drama school and become an
actress. However, she received little encouragement
and was ...
read more





CRIME
1902
Mobster Dutch Schultz is born

Arthur Flegenheimer, who will go on to become one of
New York’s most feared criminals under the name “Dutch Schultz,”
is born in the Bronx. Thirty-three years later, his life came
to a violent and bloody conclusion when he was shot down
in the men’s room of the Palace Chophouse ...
read more





CIVIL WAR
1862
Confederate ship blown up by crew

The C.S.S. Arkansas, the most feared Confederate ironclad
on the Mississippi River, is blown up by her crew after
suffering mechanical problems during a battle with the
U.S.S. Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Arkansas‘s
career lasted just 23 days. In August 1861, the ...
read more

U.S. embassies in East Africa bombed






1998
August 07



At 10:30 a.m. local time, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
Minutes later, another truck bomb detonated outside the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, the capital of
neighboring Tanzania. The dual terrorist attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded
more than 4,500. The United States accused Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, a proponent of international
terrorism against America, of masterminding the bombings. On August 20, President Bill Clinton ordered
cruise missiles launched against bin Laden’s terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and against a
pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, where bin Laden allegedly made or distributed chemical weapons.

Osama bin Laden was born in 1957 into one of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest and most prominent families. His
father, an immigrant from South Yemen, had built a small construction business into a multibillion-dollar
company. When his father died in 1968, bin Laden inherited an estimated $30 million but for the next
decade drifted without focus and lived a jet-setting lifestyle. In 1979, however, everything changed when
the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Like tens of thousands of other Arabs, bin Laden volunteered to
aid Afghanistan in repulsing what he saw as the godless communist invaders of the Muslim country.

For the first few years of the Afghan War, he traveled around Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf raising
money for the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters. In 1982, he traveled to the front lines of the war for the first
time, where he donated construction equipment for the war effort. Bin Laden directly participated in a
handful of battles, but his primary role in the anti-Soviet jihad was as financier. During the war, he made
contact with numerous Islamic militants, many of whom who were as anti-Western as they were anti-Soviet.

In 1989, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, and bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia. He grew
increasingly critical of the ruling Saudi family, especially after hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops were
welcomed onto Saudi soil during the Persian Gulf War. Although his passport was taken away, he slipped
out of Saudi Arabia in 1991 and settled in the Sudan. From there, he spoke out against the Saudi
government and the continuing U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, which he likened to the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan.

After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, the United States began to suspect that
bin Laden was involved in international terrorism against the United States. The military organization he
built during the Afghan War–al Qaeda, or “the Base”–was still in existence, and U.S. intelligence believed
he was transforming it into an anti-U.S. terrorist network. In 1995, bin Laden called for guerrilla attacks
against U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, and three months later a terrorist attack against a U.S. military installation
killed five Americans. Under U.S. and Saudi pressure he was expelled from the Sudan in May 1996. One
month later, a truck bomb killed 19 U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia. Whether or not bin Laden was involved
in planning these attacks has not been established.

With 200 of his followers, bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, which was then falling under the control of the
Taliban, a faction of extreme Islamic fundamentalists. Bin Laden provided funding for the Taliban military
campaign against the city of Kabul, which fell to the militia in September 1996. Soon after his arrival in
Afghanistan, bin Laden issued a fatwah, or religious decree, calling for war on Americans in the Persian Gulf
and the overthrow of the Saudi government. In February 1998, he issued another fatwah stating that
Muslims should kill Americans, including civilians, anywhere in the world.

On August 7, 1998—the eighth anniversary of the deployment of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia—two U.S.
embassies in East Africa were bombed almost simultaneously. The attack at the Nairobi embassy, which
was located in a busy downtown area, caused the greater devastation and loss of life. There, a truck loaded
with 2,000 pounds of TNT forced its way to the back entrance of the embassy and was detonated, shattering
the embassy, demolishing the nearby Ufundi Coop House, and gutting the 17-story Cooperative Bank. By
the time rescue operations came to an end, 213 people were dead, including 12 Americans. Thousands of
people were wounded, and hundreds were maimed or blinded. The attack against the U.S. embassy in
Dar es Saalam killed 11 and injured 85.

By 1997, American intelligence officers knew that bin Laden operatives were active in East Africa but were
unable to break up the terrorist cell before the embassies were attacked. They had even heard of a possible
plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Nairobi but failed to recommend an increase in security before the attack.
Meanwhile, Prudence Bushnell, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, independently asked the State Department
to move the Nairobi embassy because of its exposed location, but the request was not granted. Revelations
of these pre-bombing security issues provoked much controversy and concern about the United States’
vulnerability abroad. Few, however, voiced concern that the proliferation of terrorists eager to kill innocent
civilians and themselves in order to strike a blow against the U.S. would soon shatter America’s sense of
invulnerability at home.

Within days of the August 7 bombings, two bin Laden associates were arrested and charged with the attacks.
However, with bin Laden and other key suspects still at large, President Clinton ordered a retaliatory military
strike on August 20. In Afghanistan, some 70 American cruise missiles hit three alleged bin Laden training
camps. An estimated 24 people were killed, but bin Laden was not present. Thirteen cruise missiles hit a
pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan, and the night watchman was killed. The United States later backed away
from its contention that the pharmaceutical plant was making or distributing chemical weapons for al Qaeda.

In November 1998, the United States indicted bin Laden and 21 others, charging them with bombing the two
U.S. embassies and conspiring to commit other acts of terrorism against Americans abroad. To date, nine of
the al Qaeda members named in the indictments have been captured; six are in the United States, and three
are in Britain fighting extradition to the United States.

In February 2001, four of the suspects went on trial in New York on 302 criminal counts stemming from the
embassy attacks. On May 29, all four were convicted on all counts. Saudi citizen Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-‘Owhali
and Tanzanian Khalfan Khamis Mohamed admitted to directly taking part in the terrorist attacks but claimed
they did not knowingly engage in a conspiracy against the United States. Lebanese-born U.S. citizen Wadih El-Hage
and Jordanian Mohammed Saddiq Odeh admitted ties to bin Laden but denied involvement in any terrorist acts.
All four were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

On September 11, 2001, the world learned that the U.S. embassy attacks were merely a prelude to a far more
devastating strike against the United States. On that day, 19 al Qaeda terrorists deftly exploited weaknesses in
U.S. domestic security and hijacked four U.S. airliners that they flew into the World Trade Center towers in
New York; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and a rural field in western Pennsylvania. Four thousand people
were killed in the almost simultaneous attacks and 10,000 were wounded. On October 7, America struck back
with Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan,
destroy the al Qaeda network based there, and capture bin Laden dead or alive.

On May 2, 2011, bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs. He was buried at sea.





ALSO ON THIS DAY



1970S
1974
Philippe Petit walks on a tightrope
between the Twin Towers

High above the early-morning traffic in Lower Manhattan,
a French street performer steps off the roof of the south
tower of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974.
Clad in black and carrying a long pole for balance,
Philippe Petit begins the most famous high-wire walk in ...
read more





SPACE EXPLORATION
1959
The first U.S. satellite to photograph the Earth is launched

From the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida,
the U.S. unmanned spacecraft Explorer 6 is launched into an
orbit around the earth. The spacecraft, commonly known as
the “Paddlewheel” satellite, featured a photocell scanner that
transmitted a crude picture of the ...
read more


21ST CENTURY
2005
Trapped Russian sub rescued

On August 7, 2005, a Russian Priz AS-28 mini-submarine, with
seven crew members on board, is rescued from deep in the
Pacific Ocean. On August 4, the vessel had been taking part in
training exercises in Beryozovaya Bay, off the coast of Russia’s
far-eastern Kamchatka peninsula, ...
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US POLITICS
1912
Teddy Roosevelt nominated as
Bull Moose candidate

Theodore Roosevelt is nominated for the presidency by the
Progressive Party, a group of Republicans dissatisfied with
the renomination of President William Howard Taft. Also known
as the Bull Moose Party, the Progressive platform called for
the direct election of U.S. senators, ...
read more





INVENTIONS & SCIENCE
1944
Volkswagen halts production during World War II

On August 7, 1944, under the threat of Allied bombing during
World War II, the German car manufacturer Volkswagen halts
production of the “Beetle,” as its small, insect-shaped automobile
was dubbed in the international press. Ten years earlier,
the renowned automotive engineer ...
read more


INVENTIONS & SCIENCE
1947
Norwegian explorer completes 4,300-mile
ocean voyage in wooden raft

On August 7, 1947, Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained
by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a
4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the
Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti. Heyerdahl wanted to
prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could ...
read more





WORLD WAR II
1942
U.S. forces invade Guadalcanal

On August 7, 1942, the U.S. 1st Marine Division begins
Operation Watchtower, the first U.S. offensive of the war,
by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands.
Weeks earlier, the Japanese landed on Guadalcanal Island
and began constructing an airfield there. Operation ...
read more





SPORTS
1987
Lynne Cox swims into communist territory

On August 7, 1987, Lynne Cox braves the freezing
waters of the Bering Strait to make the first recorded
swim from the United States to the Soviet Union.
Lynne Cox’s swimming career began in her native
New Hampshire when she was just nine years old.
Not long after that, her ...
read more




U.S. PRESIDENTS
1990
Bush orders Operation Desert Shield

On August 7, 1990, President George Herbert Walker Bush
orders the organization of Operation Desert Shield in
response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on August 2.
The order prepared American troops to become part
of an international coalition in the war against Iraq that would be ...
read more


LATIN AMERICA
1956
Mysterious explosions in Colombia

Seven army ammunition trucks explode in Cali, Colombia,
killing more than 1,000 people and injuring thousands
more on August 7, 1956. The cause of the explosions
remains a mystery. The previous day, 20 trucks fully
loaded with dynamite departed the Colombian city of
Buenaventura. ...
read more





VIETNAM WAR
1964
Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The United States Congress overwhelming approves the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson
nearly unlimited powers to oppose “communist aggression”
in Southeast Asia. The resolution marked the beginning of
an expanded military role for the United States in ...
read more


Purple Heart
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1782
George Washington creates the Purple Heart

On August 7, 1782, in Newburgh, New York, General George Washington,
the commander in chief of the Continental Army, creates the
“Badge for Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple,
heart-shaped piece of silk, edged with a narrow binding of silver,
with the word Merit ...
read more

Nixon resigns







1974
August 08



In an evening televised address on August 8, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention
to become the first president in American history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against
him for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and
Congress to leave the White House.

“By taking this action,” he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office, “I hope that I will have hastened
the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.”

Just before noon the next day, Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th president of the United States.
Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically
raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began
their journey home to San Clemente, California. Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as
the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White House.

After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring,
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.” He later pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may
have committed while in office, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the
Watergate scandal.

On June 17, 1972, five men, including a salaried security coordinator for President Nixon’s reelection committee,
were arrested for breaking into and illegally wiretapping the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the
Washington, D.C., Watergate complex. Soon after, two other former White House aides were implicated in the
break-in, but the Nixon administration denied any involvement. Later that year, reporters Carl Bernstein and
Bob Woodward of The Washington Post discovered a higher-echelon conspiracy surrounding the incident,
and a political scandal of unprecedented magnitude erupted.

In May 1973, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, headed by Senator Sam Ervin
of North Carolina, began televised proceedings on the rapidly escalating Watergate affair. One week later,
Harvard law professor Archibald Cox was sworn in as special Watergate prosecutor. During the Senate hearings,
former White House legal counsel John Dean testified that the Watergate break-in had been approved by
former Attorney General John Mitchell with the knowledge of White House advisers John Ehrlichman and
H.R. Haldeman, and that President Nixon had been aware of the cover-up.

Meanwhile, Watergate prosecutor Cox and his staff began to uncover widespread evidence of political espionage
by the Nixon reelection committee, illegal wiretapping of thousands of citizens by the administration, and
contributions to the Republican Party in return for political favors.

In July, the existence of what were to be called the Watergate tapes–official recordings of White House
conversations between Nixon and his staff–was revealed during the Senate hearings. Cox subpoenaed these
tapes, and after three months of delay President Nixon agreed to send summaries of the recordings.
Cox rejected the summaries.

In what became known as the Saturday Night Massacre, on October 20, 1973, in an unprecedented show of
executive power, Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus
to fire Cox, but both men refused and resigned their posts in protest. The role of attorney general then fell to
Solicitor General Robert Bork, who reluctantly complied with Nixon’s request and dismissed Cox. Less than a
half hour later, the White House dispatched FBI agents to close off the offices of the Special Prosecutor,
Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General.

Cox's successor as special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, leveled indictments against several high-ranking administration
officials, including Mitchell and Dean, who were duly convicted. Meanwhile, on November 14, 1973,
U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell ruled that Cox's dismissal had been illegal.

Public confidence in the president rapidly waned, and by the end of July 1974 the House Judiciary Committee
had adopted three articles of impeachment against President Nixon: obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential
powers, and hindrance of the impeachment process.

On July 30, under coercion from the Supreme Court, Nixon finally released the Watergate tapes. On August 5,
transcripts of the recordings were released, including a segment in which the president was heard instructing
Haldeman to order the FBI to halt the Watergate investigation. Three days later, Nixon announced his resignation.





ALSO ON THIS DAY



INVENTIONS & SCIENCE
1975
The term “global warming” appears for the first time

The term “global warming” appears for the first time in
print on August 8, 1975, with the publication of
Wallace Smith Broecker's paper
“Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a
Pronounced Global Warming?” in the journal Science. 
Five years earlier, in 1970, Broecker, a ...
read more


21ST CENTURY
2008
5-day long Russo-Georgian War begins

On August 8, 2008, a long-simmering conflict between
Russia and Georgia boiled over into a shooting war
between the small Caucasian nation and the superpower
of which it was once a part. The brief Russo-Georgian War
was the most violent episode in a conflict that began more than ...
read more


US GOVERNMENT
2009
Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

On August 8, 2009, Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Born in the Bronx
to Puerto Rican parents, Sotomayor is the first Hispanic
justice to serve on the nation's highest court. Sotomayor's
mother was an orphan from rural Puerto Rico. Her ...
read more





RELIGION
1844
Brigham Young chosen to lead Mormon Church

After Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormonism,
and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered by an angry mob
in an Illinois prison six weeks earlier, Elder Brigham Young
is chosen to be the Church’s next leader. The ...
read more





WORLD WAR II
1945
Soviets declare war on Japan;
invade Manchuria

On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union officially declares war
on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into
Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take
on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. The dropping of the
bomb on Hiroshima by the Americans did not have ...
read more


19TH CENTURY
1879
Emiliano Zapata born

Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and Indigenous
people during the Mexican Revolution, is born in Anenecuilco,
Mexico. Born a peasant, Zapata was forced into the Mexican
army in 1908 following his attempt to recover village lands
taken over by a rancher. After the revolution ...
read more





WORLD WAR II
1942
German saboteurs executed in Washington

During World War II, six German saboteurs who secretly
entered the United States on a mission to attack its civil
infrastructure are executed by the United States for spying.
Two other saboteurs who disclosed the plot to the FBI and
aided U.S. authorities in their manhunt for ...
read more





SPORTS
1988
Lights go on at Wrigley

On August 8, 1988, the Chicago Cubs host the first night
game in the history of Wrigley Field. The first-ever night
game in professional baseball took place nearly 60 years
earlier, on May 2, 1930, when a Des Moines, Iowa, team
hosted Wichita for a Western League game. The ...
read more





ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1988
Gangsta rap hits the mainstream with the
release of N.W.A’s "Straight Outta Compton"

As of 1988, the top-selling hip hop albums of all time
were Run D.M.C.’s Raising Hell and the Beastie Boys’
License to Ill, both released in 1987 and both selling
millions without ruffling many feathers. In June 1988,
Public Enemy released It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us ...
read more





ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1986
Spike Lee’s first feature,
"She’s Gotta Have It," premieres

On August 8, 1986, actor, writer and director Spike Lee’s
first feature-length movie, She’s Gotta Have It, opens in
theaters around the United States. Made on a shoestring
budget, She’s Gotta Have It was a comedy about a young
African American woman in Brooklyn, New York, and her ...
read more





US GOVERNMENT
1945
President Truman signs United Nations Charter

President Harry S. Truman signs the United Nations Charter
and the United States becomes the first nation to complete
the ratification process and join the new international
organization. Although hopes were high at the time that
the United Nations would serve as an arbiter of ...
read more


CIVIL WAR
1863
Robert E. Lee offers resignation as
commander of the Confederate army

In the aftermath of his defeat at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation
as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia to
Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The letter came more
than a month after Lee’s retreat from ...
read more


WORLD WAR I
1918
Battle of Amiens

On August 8, 1918, the Allies launch a series of offensive
operations against German positions on the Western Front
during World War I with a punishing attack at Amiens, on
the Somme River in northwestern France. After heavy
casualties incurred during their ambitious spring 1918 ...
read more

Charles Manson cult kills five,
including actress Sharon Tate






1969
August 09



On August 9, 1969, members of Charles Manson’s cult kill five people in movie director Roman Polanski’s
Beverly Hills, California, home, including Polanski’s pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate. Less than two days
later, the group killed again, murdering supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in their
home. The savage crimes shocked the nation and turned Charles Manson into a criminal icon.

Manson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1934 to an unwed 16-year-old mother. He spent much of his childhood
in juvenile reformatories and his early adulthood in prison. After his release in 1967, Manson moved to California
and used his unlikely magnetism to attract a group of hippies and set up a commune, where drugs and orgies
were common, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Manson preached his own blend of eccentric religious teachings
to his acolytes, who called themselves his “Family.”

Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Pianist), was not the cult leader’s intended target. Manson,
an aspiring musician, chose the Polanski house because he had once unsuccessfully tried to get a recording
deal from a producer who used to live there. Polanski was out of town at the time of the murders, but his wife
and her friends, including coffee heiress Abigail Folger, were shot or stabbed to death. Manson stayed out of the
Polanski house on the night of the crime and didn’t take part in the LaBianca killings either. However, he would
later be charged with murder on the grounds he had influenced his followers and masterminded the crimes.

After initially eluding police suspicion, Manson was arrested only after one of his followers, already in jail on a
different charge, started bragging about what had happened. Manson’s subsequent trial became a national
spectacle, in which he exhibited bizarre and violent behavior. In 1971, he was convicted and given the death
penalty; however, that sentence became life behind bars when the California Supreme Court overturned the
death penalty in 1972.

Manson has been the subject of numerous movies and books, including the best-seller Helter Skelter
(the title is a reference to a Beatles’ song of the same name, through which Manson believed the group was sending
secret messages to start a race war).






Manson died in prison in 2017.




ALSO ON THIS DAY




21ST CENTURY
2014
Michael Brown is killed by a police officer
in Ferguson, Missouri

On August 9, 2014, police officer Darren Wilson shoots
and kills Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager,
in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Protests
and riots ensue in Ferguson and soon spread across
the country. There are many different accounts of the incident, ...
read more


ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1854
Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” is published

Henry David Thoreau’s classic Walden, or, A Life in the Woods
is required reading in many classrooms today. But when it
was first published—on August 9, 1854—it sold just around
300 copies a year. The American transcendentalist writer’s
work is a first-person account of his ...
read more


21ST CENTURY
2010
JetBlue flight attendant quits job via escape slide

On August 9, 2010, JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater quits
his job in dramatic style by sliding down his plane’s emergency-escape
chute while the aircraft is stopped near the terminal gate at
New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Slater, who
claimed his actions ...
read more





SPORTS
1936
Jesse Owens wins 4th gold medal

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, African American track star Jesse Owens
wins his fourth gold medal of the Games in the 4×100-meter relay.
His relay team set a new world record of 39.8 seconds, which held
for 20 years. In their strong showing in track-and-field events at the XIth ...
read more





ANCIENT ROME
378
Romans routed at Adrianople

In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army
under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is defeated by the
Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds
of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens himself, were overrun and ...
read more


U.S. PRESIDENTS
1974
Gerald Ford becomes president after Richard Nixon resigns

In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous evening,
Richard M. Nixon officially ends his term as the 37th president of the
United States at noon on August 9, 1974. Before departing with his
family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and ...
read more





SPORTS
1988
The Great One gets traded
On August 9, 1988, Edmonton Oilers center Wayne Gretzky is traded
to the Los Angeles Kings along with Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley
in return for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas and first-round draft picks in
the 1989, 1991 and 1993 drafts. At age 27, Gretzky was already ...
read more





NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY
1877
Nez Perce fight Battle of the Big Hole

Having refused government demands that they move to a reservation,
a small band of Nez Perce tribesmen clash with the U.S. Army near the
Big Hole River in Montana. The conflict between the U.S. government
and the Nez Perce was one of the most tragic of the many Indian wars of the ...
read more


ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1995
Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia dies

Like his band the Grateful Dead, which was still going strong three
decades after its formation, Jerry Garcia defied his life-expectancy
not merely by surviving, but by thriving creatively and commercially
into the 1990s—far longer than most of his peers. His long, strange trip ...
read more





WORLD WAR II
1945
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

On August 9, 1945, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by
the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional
surrender. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient
to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference’s ...
read more

Son of Sam serial killer is arrested







1977
August 10



On August 10, 1977, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz is arrested and charged with
being the “Son of Sam,” the serial killer who terrorized New York City for more than a year, killing six
young people and wounding seven others with a .44-caliber revolver. Because Berkowitz generally
targeted attractive young women with long brown hair, hundreds of young women had their hair cut
short and dyed blonde during the time he terrorized the city. Thousands more simply stayed home at night.

After his arrest, Berkowitz claimed that demons and a black Labrador retriever owned by a neighbor
named Sam had ordered him to commit the killings.

David Berkowitz was brought up by adoptive parents in the Bronx. He was traumatized by the death of his
adoptive mother from cancer in 1967 and thereafter became more and more of a loner. In 1971, he joined
the army and served for three years, where he distinguished himself as a talented marksman. In 1974, he
returned to New York and worked as a security guard. His mental condition began to severely deteriorate in
1975 (he would later be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic).

Feeling isolated from the world around him, he became an arsonist and set hundreds of fires in New York City
without being arrested. He began to hear voices of “demons” that tormented him and told him to commit
murder. On Christmas Eve, 1975, he gave into these internal voices and severely wounded 15-year-old
Michelle Forman with a hunting knife.

In January 1976, he moved into a two-family home in Yonkers, a suburb of New York. Berkowitz became
convinced that the German shepherd that lived in the house and other neighborhood dogs were possessed by
demons who ordered him to murder attractive young women. One of the neighborhood dogs was shot during
this time, probably by Berkowitz. He also began to see his neighbors as demons.

In April, Berkowitz moved to an apartment house in Yonkers, but his new home also had dogs. His neighbor,
retiree Sam Carr, had a black Labrador retriever named Harvey, who Berkowitz believed pleaded with him to
kill. He also saw Sam Carr as a powerful demon and was referring to him when he later called himself
"Son of Sam."

On July 28, 1976, Berkowitz quit his job as a security guard. Early the next morning, he walked up to a parked
car in the Bronx where two young women were talking and fired five bullets from his.44 revolver into the vehicle.
Eighteen-year-old Donna Lauria was killed instantly, and her friend Jody Valenti was wounded. Police could find
no motives or leads in the shooting.

In the early morning of October 24, Berkowitz struck again, critically wounding 20-year-old Carl Denaro as he
sat in a car and talked with a female friend in Queens. A little more than a month later, on November 26,
16-year-old Donna DeMasi and 18-year-old Joanne Lomino were shot and seriously wounded in the street on
their way home from a movie. On January 30, 1977, Berkowitz fatally shot Christine Freund as she sat in a car
in Queens with her fiancee. Police began to suspect that these crimes were perpetrated by a single killer, but
few bullets were found intact to confirm the assumption.

On March 8, 19-year-old college student Virginia Voskerichian was shot to death as she walked home in Manhattan.
A bullet was found intact, and it matched a bullet found at the scene of Berkowitz’s first murder. The New York police
announced that a serial killer was on the loose, known to be a white male in his 20s, with black hair and of average
height and build.

A large group of detectives was organized–the “Omega” task force–to track the killer down. On April 17,
18-year-old Valentina Suriani and 20-year-old Alexander Esau were shot and killed by the same gun as they
kissed in their parked car near the Hutchinson River Parkway. This time, the .44-caliber killer left a note in which
he referred to himself as the Son of Sam.

On April 29, Berkowitz shot Sam Carr’s Labrador retriever. He had previously sent an anonymous, threatening
letter to Mr. Carr concerning the animal. The dog recovered, and the Yonkers police began an investigation.
Meanwhile, Berkowitz began sending bizarre letters to other neighbors and his former landlords. These individuals
began to suspect Berkowitz to be the Son of Sam and reported their suspicions to local police. The Omega task
force was subsequently notified, but the detectives had received thousands of reports of Son of Sam “suspects”
and were having a difficult time sifting through all the dead-end leads.

On June 26, the Son of Sam struck again, wounding Judy Placido and Sal Lupo as they sat in their car after leaving
a Queens disco. Public concern over the rampaging serial killer grew to panic proportions, and New York nightclubs
and restaurants saw a dramatic drop in business. A blistering heat wave and a 25-hour blackout in mid-July only
increased the tension. On July 31, just two days after the anniversary of his first killing, Berkowitz shot a young
couple kissing in a parked car in Brooklyn. Twenty-year-old Stacy Moskowitz was fatally wounded, and her boyfriend,
Bobby Violante, lost his left eye and nearly all the vision in his right eye.

A few days later, a major break in the case came when an eyewitness came forward to report that she had seen a
man with what looked like a gun minutes before the shots were fired in Brooklyn. Her information led to the first
police sketch of Berkowitz. More important, she reminded investigators that two police officers had been writing
parking tickets on her street that night. A search of tickets issued eventually turned up Berkowitz’s car.

At the same time, Yonkers police investigated Berkowitz after he escalated a harassment campaign against one of
his neighbors. Convinced he was the Son of Sam, they informed the Omega task force of their findings. The Omega
detectives finally put two and two together, and on August 10 David Berkowitz was arrested while leaving his
Yonkers home. He gleefully admitted to being the Son of Sam. On his person was a semiautomatic rifle, and he
explained he was on his way to commit another murder. The .44-caliber revolver was also recovered.


There was some question about whether Berkowitz was mentally fit to stand trial, but on May 8, 1978, he withdrew
an insanity defense and pleaded guilty to the six murders. Berkowitz, in fact, appeared to enjoy the media attention
his case was receiving and he proceeded to sell his exclusive story rights to a publishing house. That prompted
New York state to adopt the first in a nationwide series of so-called "Son of Sam laws" that take proceeds a criminal
earns from selling their story and gives them to a victims' compensation fund.

Berkowitz was given six 25-years-to-life sentences for the crime, the maximum penalty allowed at the time. He has
since been denied parole. He is currently held at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where
he allegedly converted to Christianity.




ALSO ON THIS DAY



NATURAL DISASTERS & ENVIRONMENT
2003
Temperatures in UK top 100 F for first time
during European heat wave

On August 10, 2003, the United Kingdom records its first-ever
temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Throughout the month,
an intense heat wave scorched the European continent, claiming
more than 35,000 lives. August 2003 was the hottest August ever
recorded in the northern ...
read more


ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1793
Louvre Museum opens

After more than two centuries as a royal palace, the Louvre is
opened as a public museum in Paris by the French revolutionary
government. Today, the Louvre’s collection is one of the richest
in the world, with artwork and artifacts representative of 11,000
years of human ...
read more





19TH CENTURY
1846
Smithsonian Institution created

After a decade of debate about how best to spend a bequest left
to America from an obscure English scientist, President James K. Polk
signs the Smithsonian Institution Act into law on August 10, 1846.
In 1829, James Smithson died in Italy, leaving behind a will with a
peculiar ...
read more





SPORTS
1981
Pete Rose sets National League hits record

On August 10, 1981, Pete Rose of the Philadelphia Phillies gets the
3,631st hit of his baseball career, breaking Stan Musial’s record for
most hits by a National Leaguer. The record-breaking hit came in a
game against the St. Louis Cardinals, the team with whom Musial
had spent ...
read more





ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1912
Virginia and Leonard Woolf marry

On August 10, 1912, Virginia Stephen, 30, marries Leonard Woolf, 31,
at a registry office in London. Virginia Woolf, born in 1882, grew up
surrounded by intellectuals. Her father was a writer and philosopher,
and her mother was a British aristocrat. In 1902, Virginia’s father ...
read more





ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1937
First-ever electric guitar patent awarded
to the Electro String Corporation

Versatile, inexpensive and relatively easy to play, the acoustic guitar
was a staple of American rural music in the early 20th century,
particularly black rural music such as the blues. But a significant
physical limitation made it a poor fit in ensembles made up of brass, ...
read more





ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY
1984
"Red Dawn," first PG-13 movie, is released

On August 10, 1984, the action thriller Red Dawn, starring
Patrick Swayze, opens in theaters as the first movie to be
released with a PG-13 rating. The Motion Picture Association
of America (MPAA), which oversees the movie rating system,
had announced the new PG-13 category in ...
read more





INVENTIONS & SCIENCE
1978
Fatal Ford Pinto crash in Indiana

On August 10, 1978, three teenage girls die after their 1973
Ford Pinto is rammed from behind by a van and bursts into
flames on an Indiana highway. The fatal crash was one of a
series of Pinto accidents that caused a national scandal during
the 1970s. The small and economical ...
read more





AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1776
London learns of American independence

On August 10, 1776, news reaches London that the Americans
had drafted the Declaration of Independence. Until the Declaration
of Independence formally transformed the 13 British colonies
into states, both Americans and the British saw the conflict centered
in Massachusetts as a ...
read more


WORLD WAR II
1945
Japan accepts Potsdam terms,
agrees to unconditional surrender

On August 10, 1945, just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan
submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of
unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt
to atomic bombing. Emperor Hirohito, having remained aloof from
the daily decisions ...
read more