This day from the past for August 7th…219th day of 2014 – 146 days remaining… → 1742 - Nathaniel Greene born, General: American Revolutionary War; dies June 19, 1786. → 1782 - George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart. → 1803 - Lord Selkirk sends First of 800 Highland settlers from Scotland to Orwell Bay; begins colonizing efforts in Prince Edward Island. Orwell Bay, PEI → 1858 - George-Étienne Cartier adopts Ottawa as the future capital of the Province of Canada as a major plank of his Liberal-Conservative party platform. → 1876 - Mata Hari (Gertrud Margarete Zelle) born, dancer, courtesan, double agent: German spy: Agent H-21; executed by firing squad near Paris Oct 15, 1917. → 1882 - Hatfield’s of south WV & McCoys of East Ky feud, 100 wounded or die. → 1884 - Billie (Mary William Ethelbert Appleton) Burke born, comedienne, actress: The Wizard of Oz, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Father of the Bride, Topper, The Young Philadelphians; dies May 14, 1970. → 1888 - Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia went around and around with the U.S. Patent Office for a time, but, finally, got a patent for the revolving door. To celebrate, we suggest going to your favorite building that has one of the fun doors that makes that whoosh-whoosh noise when you go through it -- and go through it twice! → 1900 - ‘Sunny’ Jim Fitzsimmons had his first horse race victory as Agnes D won at Brighton Beach Race Track in New York. By the end of his illustrious 50-year career, Fitzsimmons logged more than 2,000 winners. → 1906 - Flexible Flyer sled was trademark registered. → 1925 - Felice Bryant born, songwriter [w/husband Boudleaux]: Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie, All I Have to Do is Dream, Bird Dog, Devoted to You, Problems, Only the Lonely; dies Apr 22, 2003. → 1927 - Mackenzie King joins British PM Stanley Baldwin, Prince George (later King George VI), Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) and US Vice President Charles Dawes in dedicating the Peace Bridge between Fort Erie, Ont, and Buffalo, NY, today one of the busiest border crossings between Canada and the US. → 1928 - Disney completes the second Mickey Mouse film, Gallopin Gaucho. → 1937 - Bunny Berigan and his orchestra recorded I Can’t Get Started for Victor Records. The song became Berigan’s longtime theme song. → 1941 - Television station WNBT, Channel 4 in New York City, broadcast the first audience-participation show. Studio guests played charades as part of the fun. → 1941 - Soviet Prime Minister Josef Stalin becomes Supreme Commander of Soviet Armed Forces. → 1942 - B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas born, singer: Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Hooked on a Feeling, [Hey Won’t You Play] Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song, I Just Can’t Help Believing, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry. → 1942 - World War II - U.S. forces invade Guadalcanal. On this day in 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. → 1943 - Lana Cantrell born, entertainer, singer: LPs: Act III, And then there was Lana, Lana!, The now of Then!. → 1943 - Canadian forces in Sicily are put into reserves. → 1943 - (evening) British Bomber Command begins new attacks on northern Italy. About 200 Lancaster’s hit Milan, Turin, and Genoa. Two planes do not return. → 1944 - IBM creates the Harvard Mark I, the first program controlled calculator. → 1944 - Volkswagen halts production during World War II. On this day in 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. → 1944 - John Glover born, actor: Julia, Melvin and Howard, Great God Brown, In the Mouth of Madness, Night of the Running Man, Dead on the Money, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Scrooged, A Killing Affair, An Early Frost, The Evil that Men Do, Last Embrace, Annie Hall, Batman-The Animated Series[voice of The Riddler]. → 1947 - The balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki, which had carried a six-man crew 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean, crashed into a reef in a Polynesian archipelago. → 1948 - A new Olympic Games record was set when 83,000 spectators attended the final day of track and field events. The Games, held in London, England, had gate receipts totaling more than $2 million. → 1949 – ‘Martin Kane, Private Eye’ was first heard on Mutual radio. William Gargan starred on the Sunday afternoon program. → 1950 - Korean War - Cabinet decides to recruit and create a special Canadian armed force of 5,000 men for service with United Nations in Korea; Brig Gen Rockingham appointed Commanding Officer. Ottawa, Ontario → 1954 - Music - Sh-Boom, a single by the Toronto group The Crew Cuts, makes it to the Billboard top ten in only three weeks, the fastest-moving record on the music charts until Elvis and The Beatles. → 1955 - The First transistor radios by Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering are sold. → 1955 - Wayne Knight born, actor: Seinfeld, Dead Again, JFK, Jurassic Park, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Space Jam, For Richer or Poorer, Toy Story 2. → 1956 - Mysterious explosions in Colombia. Seven army ammunition trucks explode in Cali, Colombia, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring thousands more on this day in 1956. The cause of the explosions remains a mystery. → 1959 - U.S. satellite photographs earth. 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 earths surface and cloud cover from a distance of 17,000 miles. The photo, received in Hawaii, took nearly 40 minutes to transmit. → 1959 - Don Messer and the Islanders start their national TV career with The Don Messer Show, a summer replacement series on CBC; it proved so popular it was kept on for the next decade as Don Messers Jubilee; CBCs cancellation of the show in 1969 sparked national protests and raised questions in the House of Commons; Messers agent put the show into syndication, and it continued until his death in 1973. Halifax, Nova Scotia → 1959 - The U.S penny design changes from Sheaves of Wheat to the Lincoln Memorial. → 1960 - David Duchovny born, actor: The X-Files, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Beethoven, Red Shoe Diaries series, Playing God. → 1963 - The most valuable toy soldier in the world is the first handcrafted 1963 G.I. Joe prototype, sold in 2003 to Baltimore businessman Stephen A. Geppi at a Heritage Comics auction in Dallas for $200,000. [Guinness]. → 1963 - The movie Beach Party debuted. → 1964 - Vietnam War - Tonkin Gulf Resolution is passed. The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 88-408, which becomes known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, giving President Johnson the power to take whatever actions he deems necessary to defend Southeast Asia including the use of armed force. → 1965 - Im Henry VIII, I Am by Hermans Hermits topped the charts. → 1965 - The Turtles remake of Bob Dylans It Aint Me Babe was released. → 1965 - Mike Smith (Dave Clark Five) had two ribs broken when he was pulled off the stage by a fan in Chicago. → 1966 - Chart Toppers – ‘Wild Thing’ - The Troggs; ‘Lil’ Red Riding Hood’ - Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs; ‘Summer in the City’ - The Lovin’ Spoonful; ‘Think of Me’ - Buck Owens. → 1970 - Christine McVie joined Fleetwood Mac as the group’s first female member. McVie was married to bass player John McVie. She quit touring with the group in 1991. → 1971 - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? by the Bee Gees topped the charts. → 1974 - Musician Peter Wolf married actress Faye Dunaway in Beverly Hills, California. → 1974 - French daredevil Philip Petit tight-roped his way between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The stunt caused a massive traffic jam on the street 1,350 feet below. → 1975 - The Rolling Stones received a gold album for ‘Made in the Shade’. → 1976 - Dont Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John & Kiki Dee topped the charts. → 1976 - American Viking 2 goes into Martian orbit after 11-month flight from Earth. → 1981 - After 128 years of publication, ‘The Washington Star’ ceased operation. Only one daily newspaper remained to serve the nation’s capital: ‘The Washington Post’. → 1982 - Eye of the Tiger by Survivor topped the charts. → 1984 - An urbanologist at the University of Chicago issued a report stating that the richest community in America was Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Per capita income in that neighborhood was $32,000. → 1984 - Japan beats US for Olympic gold medal in baseball. → 1987 – ‘Back to the Beach’ opened at theatres around the country. The film reunited Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, who played middle-aged parents with rebellious kids -- kids like Frankie and Annette had played in their ‘Bikini Beach’ movies in the 1960s. → 1990 - Bush orders Operation Desert Shield. On this day in 1990, President George Herbert Walker Bush orders the organization of Operation Desert Shield in response to Iraqs 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 launched as Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. To support Operation Desert Shield, Bush authorized a dramatic increase in U.S. troops and resources in the Persian Gulf. → 1992 - Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2, en route from Marthas Vineyard to New York, hits an unchartered reef off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Damage is not serious, but the ship is out of service for months. → 1993 - The rap trio Cypress Hill saw their ‘Black Sunday’ hit #1 on U.S. LP charts. → 1996 - A federal appeals court in New York ruled that two former members of ‘Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers’ waited too long to claim that they were co-writers of the group’s legendary 1955 hit ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love’. A previous court ruling had cleared the way for royalties to go to Jimmy Merchant and Herman Santiago for writing the song with lead singer Frankie Lymon (he dies of a overdose of heroin on Feb 28, 1968). → 1997 - Garth Brooks played to a crowd estimated at between 250,000 and 900,000 -- with an HBO audience of more than 15 million. The crowd at the free concert, was the largest ever for a concert in New York’s Central Park. Said Garth of the preparations required, “We rehearse indoors at a place here in New York. Then we rehearse with no sound for the camera guys, so they will hopefully be in the vicinity of what’s going on. And then the rest of it’s really, man, just fly by the seat of your pants. You know, once the show starts, all the rules are out the window.” → 1998 - A pair of major explosions near U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. “Clearly, this is a terrorist attack,” U.S. State Department spokesman Lee McClenny said. → 1998 - Buena Vista releases the Touchstone Pictures live-action feature film ‘Armageddon’ to theaters in Great Britain. → 2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would run for the office of governor. → 2005 - Peter Jennings dies of lung cancer at age 67; the Canadian-born ABC broadcaster had delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades. New York, New York → 2009 - Typhoon Morakot hits Taiwan, killing 500 and stranding more than 1,000 via the worst flooding on the island in half a century. → Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...Ω
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 10:28:56 +0000
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