This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

Let's try this one more goddamn time, nothing like killing a fucking hour and a half twice.

September 1

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Today is Wattle Day in Australia, marking the first day of Spring.

717 – Siege of Constantinople: The Muslim armada with 1,800 ships, is defeated by the Byzantine navy through the use of Greek fire.

1532 – Lady Anne Boleyn is made Marquess of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.

1804 – Juno, one of the largest asteroids in the Main Belt, is discovered by the German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.

1836 – Narcissa Whitman, one of the first English-speaking white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington.

1878 – Emma Nutt becomes the world's first female telephone operator when she is recruited by Alexander Graham Bell to the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company.

1894 – Over 400 people die in the Great Hinckley Fire, a forest fire in Hinckley, Minnesota.

1914 – The last known passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1952 – The Old Man and the Sea, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Ernest Hemingway, is first published.

1969 – A coup in Libya brings Muammar Gaddafi to power.

1972 – In Reykjavík, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky to become the world chess champion.

1974 – The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).

1983 – Cold War: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board die, including Congressman Lawrence McDonald.

1985 – A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.

2004 – The Beslan school hostage crisis commences when armed terrorists take children and adults hostage in Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia.

Births

1653 – Johann Pachelbel; 1854 – Engelbert Humperdinck; 1866 – James J. Corbett; 1875 – Edgar Rice Burroughs; 1920 – Richard Farnsworth; 1922 – Yvonne De Carlol; 1923 – Rocky Marciano; 1928 – George Maharis; 1931 – Boxcar Willie; 1933 – Ann Richards; 1933 – Conway Twitty; 1937 – Al Geiberger; 1938 – Alan Dershowitz; 1939 – Lily Tomlin; 1946 – Barry Gibb; 1950 – Phil McGraw; 1970 – Padma Lakshmi

Deaths

1557 – Jacques Cartier; 1838 – William Clark; 1989 – A. Bartlett Giamatti; 2005 – R. L. Burnside; 2008 – Jerry Reed; 2012 – Hal David

[Gravdigr]

August 27

1776 – Battle of Long Island: In what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.

1832 – Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War.

1859 – Edwin Drake successfully drilled for oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania, resulting in the Pennsylvania oil rush, the first oil boom in the United States.

1881 – The Georgia hurricane makes landfall near Savannah, Georgia, resulting in an estimated 700 deaths.

1883 – Eruption of Krakatoa: Four enormous explosions destroy the island of Krakatoa and cause years of climate change.

1893 – The Sea Islands hurricane strikes the United States near Savannah, Georgia, killing an estimated 1,000-2,000 people.

1896 – Anglo-Zanzibar War: The shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45), between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.

1918 – Mexican Revolution: Battle of Ambos Nogales: U.S. Army forces skirmish against Mexican Carrancistas and their German advisors on the Mexican-American border in Arizona, in the only battle of World War I fought on American soil.

1939 – First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft.

1942 – First day of the Sarny Massacre.

1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.

1967 - British music entrepreneur and the manager of The Beatles, Brian Epstein was found dead, locked in a bedroom at his London home. A coroner's inquest concluded that Epstein died from an overdose of the sleeping pill Carbitrol.

1979 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British retired admiral Lord Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Shortly after, 18 British Army soldiers are killed in an ambush near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland.

1980 – A massive bomb planted by extortionist John Birges explodes at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada after a failed disarming attempt by the FBI. Although the hotel is damaged, no one is injured.

1990 - Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed when the helicopter he was flying in, hit a man-made ski slope while trying to navigate through dense fog. Vaughan had played a show at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, Wisconsin with Robert Cray & His Memphis Horns, and Eric Clapton. Vaughan was informed by a member of Clapton's crew that three seats were open on a helicopter returning to Chicago with Clapton's crew, it turned out there was only one seat left; Vaughan requested it from his older brother, Jimmie, who obliged. Three members of Eric Clapton's entourage were also killed.

1992 - John Lennon's handwritten lyrics to The Beatles song 'A Day In The Life' from Sgt. Pepper sold in an auction at Sotheby's London for $100,000 (£56,600). The lyrics were put up for sale again in March 2006 by Bonhams in New York. Sealed bids were opened on 7 March 2006 and offers started at about $2 million. The lyric sheet was auctioned again by Sotheby's in June 2010 when it was purchased by an anonymous American buyer who paid $1,200,000 (£810,000).

2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.

2006 – Comair Flight 5191 crashes on takeoff from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky bound for Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. Of the passengers and crew, 49 of 50 are confirmed dead.

2011 – Hurricane Irene strikes the United States east coast, killing 47 and causing an estimated $15.6 billion in damage.

Births

1809 – Hannibal Hamlin (15th VPOTUS); 1865 – Charles G. Dawes (30th VPOTUS); 1874 – Carl Bosch (Haber–Bosch process, "On average, one-half of the nitrogen in a human body comes from synthetically fixed sources, the product of a Haber–Bosch plant."); 1877 – Charles Rolls (yeah, that Rolls); 1890 – Man Ray; 1896 – Léon Theremin (invented the Theremin); 1899 – C. S. Forester (wrote The African Queen, Horatio Hornblower series of novels); 1906 – Ed Gein; 1908 – Lyndon B. Johnson (36th POTUS); 1916 – Martha Raye; 1929 – Ira Levin♪ ♫; 1939 – William Least Heat-Moon; 1942 – Daryl Dragon(the captain from Capt. & Tennille); 1943 – Tuesday Weld; 1947 – Barbara Bach; 1949 – Jeff Cook(Alabama); 1950 – Charles Fleischer (voiced Roger Rabbit); 1952 – Paul 'PeeWee Herman' Reubens; 1953 – Alex Lifeson(Rush), Peter Stormare ('Slippery Pete' from Seinfeld; The Big Lebowski, one of my favorite villain actors); 1956 – Glen Matlock(Sex Pistols); 1957 – Bernhard Langer; 1959 – Downtown Julie Brown (former MTV vj); 1961 – Tom Ford; 1969 – Chandra Wilson (Grey's Anatomy); 1970 – Tony Kanal(No Doubt); 1973 – Cory Bowles (Trailer Park Boys); 1976 – Sarah Chalke (Scrubs); 1979 – Aaron 'Bitch!' Paul (Breaking Bad); 1988 – Alexa PenaVega

Deaths

1576 – Titian; 1963 – W. E. B. Du Bois; 1964 – Gracie Allen; 1967 – Brian Epstein (managed The Beatles); 1975 – Haile Selassie; 1979 – Louis Mountbatten; 1980 – Douglas Kenney (co-founded National Lampoon); 1990 – Stevie Ray Vaughan; 1996 – Greg Morris (Mission: Impossible)

[Gravdigr]

August 28

There are 125 days remaining in 2016.

There are 118 days til Christmas.

1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.

1789 – William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn: Enceladus.

1830 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new steam locomotive, Tom Thumb, races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in US railroads. The horse won the race.

1845 – The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published.

1859 – A massive solar storm began, causing a coronal mass ejection to strike the Earth's magnetosphere that generated aurorae that were visible in the middle latitudes. Known as the Carrington Event.

1862 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Second Manassas. The battle ends on August 30.

1898 – Caleb Bradham invents the carbonated soft drink that will later be called "Pepsi-Cola".

1937 – Toyota Motors, now the world's largest automobile manufacturer, was spun off from Toyota Industries as an independent company.

1955 – Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent Civil Rights Movement.

1957 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on the Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.

1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech.

1963 – Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan apartment, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights.

1964 – The Philadelphia race riot begins.

1968 – Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.

1988 – Ramstein air show disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and the wreckage falls into the crowd. Seventy-five are killed and 346 seriously injured.

1990 – Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.

1993 – The Galileo spacecraft discovers a moon, later named Dactyl, around 243 Ida, the first known asteroid moon.

Births

1728 – John Stark (no relation to Ned, Arya, Sansa, Rob, Bran, or Rickon); 1749 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Faust); 1774 – Elizabeth Ann Seton; 1831 – Lucy Webb Hayes (20th FLOTUS); 1899 – Charles Boyer; 1921 – Nancy Kulp ('Miss Hathaway' on The Beverly Hillbillies); 1925 – Billy Grammer, Donald O'Connor; 1929 – Roxie Roker(The Jeffersons, Lenny Kravitz's mother); 1930 – Ben Gazzara; 1942 – Sterling Morrison(The Velvet Underground); 1943 – David Soul; 1952 – Rita Dove; 1956 – Luis Guzmán; 1957 – Rick Rossovich (Top Gun); 1957 – Ai Weiwei; 1958 – Scott Hamilton; 1961 – Jennifer Coolidge('Stifler's Mom' in American Pie movie series, Two Broke Girls); 1965 – Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1), Shania Twain♪ ♫; 1969 – Jack Black♪ ♫; 1969 – Jason Priestley; 1982 – LeAnn Rimes♪ ♫; 1986 – Armie Hammer ('Illya Kuryakin' in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 2013)

Deaths

1784 – Junípero Serra; 1903 – Frederick Law Olmsted; 1987 – John Huston; 1988 – Max Shulman (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis); 2007 – Hilly Kristal (founded CBGB); 2013 – Edmund B. Fitzgerald (namesake of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald)

[Gravdigr]

August 29

708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).

1758 – The first American Indian reservation is established, at Indian Mills, New Jersey.

1786 – Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.

1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.

1842 – Signing of the Treaty of Nanking ends the First Opium War.

1869 – The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first mountain-climbing rack railway. It is still in operation.

1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen.

1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.

1907 – The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers. The still-under-construction bridge would collapse again in 1916, the two disasters claiming a total of 88 lives.

1911 – Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans (the last "wild" Indian), emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.

1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.

1922 – The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.

1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1950 – Korean War: British troops arrive in Korea to bolster the US presence there.

1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

1966 – The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

1977 - Three people were arrested in Memphis after trying to steal Elvis Presley's body. As a result, his remains would be later moved to Graceland.

1992 - U2 became only the second act ever (Billy Joel being the first) to play Yankee Stadium in New York City, during their sold out Zoo TV tour.

2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing an estimated 1,836 people and causing over $108 billion in damage.

77-year-old Fats Domino was rescued from the flooding in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina. He had earlier told his agent that he planned to remain in his home despite the order to evacuate.

2007 – 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident: Six US cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base.

2009 - The Los Angeles coroner confirmed Michael Jackson's death was homicide, primarily caused by the powerful anaesthetic Propofol. The singer suffered a cardiac arrest at his Los Angeles home in June, aged 50. The report said Propofol and the sedative Lorazepam were the "primary drugs responsible for Jackson's death", but four other drugs were also found.

Births

1632 – John Locke (not the one on Lost, this one was from a much bigger island); 1809 – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.; 1876 – Charles F. Kettering (founded Delco Electronics); 1915 – Ingrid Bergman; 1917 – Isabel Sanford ('Weezy' on The Jeffersons); 1920 – Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker♪ ♫; 1922 – Richard Blackwell; 1923 – Richard Attenborough; 1924 – Dinah Washington♪ ♫; 1927 – Jimmy C. Newman♪ ♫; 1936 – John McCain; 1939 – Joel Schumacher; 1940 – James Brady, Gary Gabelich(driver of the rocket car The Blue Flame); 1941 – Robin Leach; 1945 – Harry S. Morgan (porn actor, director, producer), Chris Copping(Procol Harum); 1958 – Michael Jackson♪ ♫; 1959 – Rebecca De Mornay; 1959 – Chris Hadfield (Canuck astronaut); 1968 – Meshell Ndegeocello♪ ♫; 1971 – Carla Gugino

Deaths

1533 – Atahualpa; 1769 – Edmond Hoyle ("According To Hoyle"); 1877 – Brigham Young; 1930 – William Archibald Spooner (namesake of 'Spoonerism'); 1931 – David T. Abercrombie (co-founded Abercrombie & Fitch); 1946 – Adolphus Busch III; 1968 – Ulysses S. Grant III; 1971 – Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (Leopold & Loeb); 1976 - Jimmy Reed♪ ♫; 1982 – Ingrid Bergman; 1987 – Archie Campbell (Hee Haw), Lee Marvin; 2007 – Richard Jewell (falsely accused Olympic Park Bombing suspect); 2011 – David "Honeyboy" Edwards♪ ♫; 2013 – Bruce C. Murray (co-founded The Planetary Society); 2015 – Wayne Dyer

[Gravdigr]

August 30

1791 – HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef the previous day.

1813 – Creek War: Fort Mims massacre: Creek of the "Red Sticks" faction kill over 500 settlers (including over 250 armed militia) in Fort Mims, north of Mobile, Alabama.

1835 – Melbourne, Australia is founded.

1836 – The city of Houston, Texas is founded by brothers Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen.

1918 – Fanni Kaplan shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.

1945 – Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.

1949 - Hank Williams went into Herzog Studio in Cincinnati to record 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'. Williams wrote the song originally intending that the words be spoken, rather than sung. The song about loneliness was largely inspired by his troubled relationship with wife Audrey Sheppard.

1962 – Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.

1963 – The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation.

1967 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

1992 – The 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff ends with Randy Weaver surrendering to federal authorities.

1995 - Carly Simon and James Taylor performed live together in front of 10,000 fans on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. It was the first time they appeared live on the same stage since 1979.

2003 – While being towed across the Barents Sea, the de-commissioned Russian submarine K-159 sinks, taking nine of her crew and 800 kg of spent nuclear fuel with her.

Births

1797 – Mary Shelley; 1896 – Raymond Massey; 1906 – Joan Blondell; 1908 – Fred MacMurray; 1912 – Nancy Wake (genuine badass); 1918 – Ted Williams; 1919 – Kitty Wells♪ ♫; 1926 – Daryl Gates; 1927 – Bill Daily (I Dream Of Jeannie); 1930 – Warren Buffett ($$$); 1935 – John Phillips♪ ♫(The Mamas & The Papas); 1937 – Bruce McLaren; 1941 – Ben Jones ('Cooter' on The Dukes of Hazzard); 1943 – Robert Crumb (created Fritz The Cat); 1948 – Lewis Black; 1950 – Antony Gormley (sculptor Angel of the North); 1951 – Timothy Bottoms; 1954 – David Paymer; 1956 – Frank Conniff (MST3K); 1963 – Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic Four), Paul Oakenfold♪ ♫(dj); 1972 – Cameron Diaz; 1973 – Lisa Ling; 1982 – Andy Roddick

Deaths

1879 – John Bell Hood; 1938 – Max Factor, Sr.; 1961 – Charles Coburn; 1968 – William Talman ('District Attorney Burger' on Perry Mason); 1979 – Jean Seberg; 1993 – Richard Jordan; 1995 – Sterling Morrison(The Velvet Underground); 2003 – Charles Bronson; 2006 – Glenn Ford; 2015 – Wes Craven

[Gravdigr]

August 31

Today is National Trail Mix Day in the United States.

1422 – King Henry V of England dies of dysentery while in France. His son, Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.

1803 – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark start their expedition to the west by leaving Pittsburgh at 11 in the morning.

1864 – During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta.

1888 – Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims.

1895 – German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his Navigable Balloon.

1897 – Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.

1920 – The first radio news program is broadcast by 8MK in Detroit.

1943 – USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.

1968 – Garfield Sobers became the first batsman ever to hit six sixes in a single over of six consecutive balls in first-class cricket. It was a truly wicked bit of googly.

1990, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Wonder sang 'Amazing Grace' at a memorial service held for guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan who had been killed in a helicopter crash 4 days earlier.

1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.

2005 – The 2005 Al-Aaimmah bridge stampede in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.

2006 – Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream, stolen on August 22, 2004, is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.

Births

12 – Caligula; 1870 – Maria Montessori (Montessori schools); 1897 – Fredric March; 1903 – Arthur Godfrey; 1905 – Sanford Meisner; 1908 – William Saroyan; 1914 – Richard Basehart; 1920 – G. D. Spradlin; 1924 – Buddy Hackett; 1928 – James Coburn; 1931 – Noble Willingham; 1937 – Bobby Parker; 1939 – Jerry Allison(Buddy Holly & The Crickets); 1942 – Isao Aoki; 1945 – Van Morrison♪ ♫, Bob Welch(Fleetwood Mac); 1948 - Rudolf Schenker(The Scorpions); 1949 – Richard Gere; 1962 – Dee Bradley Baker (voice of 'Klaus', the goldfish, on American Dad); 1970 – Debbie Gibson; 1972 – Chris Tucker ("You got knocked the fuck out, man!")

Deaths

1422 – Henry V of England; 1867 – Charles Baudelaire; 1888 – Mary Ann Nichols (Jack The Ripper's first confirmed victim); 1948 – Billy Laughlin ('Froggy' on Our Gang); 1969 – Rocky Marciano; 1973 – John Ford; 1979 – Sally Rand; 1997 – Dodi Fayed, Diana, Princess of Wales; 2002 – Lionel Hampton; 2013 – David Frost; 2014 – Jimi Jamison♪ ♫(Survivor)

[Gravdigr]

That second effort was somewhat condensed from the first one.

And you're welcome.

Additions and corrections are always welcome. And encouraged.

[Gravdigr]

September 2

Today is Victory Over Japan Day (V-J Day) in the United States, marking the end of World War II.

1666 – The Great Fire of London breaks out and burns for three days, destroying 10,000 buildings, including St Paul's Cathedral, and the homes of 70,000 of the city's 80,000 citizens.

1752 – Great Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

1789 – The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.

1806 – A massive landslide destroys the town of Goldau, Switzerland, killing 457.

1859 – A solar super storm affects electrical telegraph service.

1864 – American Civil War: Union forces enter Atlanta, a day after the Confederate defenders flee the city, ending the Atlanta Campaign.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of Sedan: Prussian forces take Napoleon III of France and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner.

1901 – Vice President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.

1912 – Arthur Rose Eldred is awarded the first Eagle Scout award of the Boy Scouts of America.

1945 – World War II: Combat ends in the Pacific Theater: The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

1963 – CBS Evening News becomes U.S. network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.

1984 – Seven people are shot and killed and 12 wounded in the Milperra massacre, a shootout between the rival motorcycle gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in Sydney, Australia.

1987 – In Moscow, the trial begins for 19-year-old pilot Mathias Rust, who flew his Cessna airplane into Red Square in May.

Births

1661 – Georg Böhm; 1675 – William Somervile; 1850 – Albert Spalding (co-founded the Spalding Sporting Goods Company); 1901 – Adolph Rupp (coached the University of Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team for 42 years, namesake of Rupp Arena); 1911 – William F. Harrah (founded Caesars Entertainment Corporation); 1914 – Tom Glazer♪ ♫; 1915 – Meinhardt Raabe (Munchkin); 1917 – Cleveland Amory; 1925 – Hugo Montenegro♪ ♫; 1929 – Hal Ashby; 1934 – Grady Nutt (minister & humorist, Hee Haw); 1935 – D. Wayne Lukas (horse trainer); 1937 – Peter Ueberroth; 1938 – Mary Jo Catlett; 1946 – Billy Preston♪ ♫; 1946 – Dan White (Harvey Milk's & George Moscone's assassin); 1948 – Terry Bradshaw, Christa McAuliffe; 1951 – Michael Gray ('Billy Batson' on Shazam!), Mark Harmon ('Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs' on NCIS); 1952 – Jimmy Connors; 1957 – Steve Porcaro(Toto); 1964 – Keanu Reeves; 1965 – Lennox Lewis; 1966 – Salma Hayek

Deaths

1910 – Henri Rousseau; 1964 – Alvin C. York; 1969 – Ho Chi Minh; 1973 – J. R. R. Tolkien; 1978 – Fred G. Meyer (founded Fred Meyer); 2005 – Bob Denver (Gilligan's Island)

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

September 2

1752 – Great Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar, nearly two centuries later than most of Western Europe.

It really doesn't do to rush into these things, you know.

[Clodfobble]

rival motorcycle gangs Bandidos and Comancheros in Sydney, Australia.

Now I am laughing as I try to pronounce "bandidos" and "comancheros" with an Australian accent.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Now I am laughing as I try to pronounce "bandidos" and "comancheros" with an Australian accent.

Awesome! It didn't even occur to me to try that.

[Gravdigr]

Cawmuncheeros

[Gravdigr]

September 4

Today is Newspaper Carrier Day, honoring Barney Flaherty, the first newspaper carrier (paperboy), hired in 1833, as well as current paper carriers.

1666 – In London, England, the most destructive damage from the Great Fire occurs.

1781 – Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola) by 44 Spanish settlers.

1862 – American Civil War: Maryland Campaign: General Robert E. Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the war, into the North.

1882 – Thomas Edison flips the switch to the first commercial electrical power plant in history, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan. This is considered by many as the day that began the electrical age.

1886 – American Indian Wars: After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo, with his remaining warriors, surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona.

1888 – George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film.

1939 – World War II: A Bristol Blenheim is the first British aircraft to cross the German coast following the declaration of war. German ships are bombed.

1941 – World War II: A German submarine makes the first attack against a United States ship, the USS Greer.

1949 – The Peekskill riots erupt after a Paul Robeson concert in Peekskill, New York.

1950 – Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race. The Southern 500 is being held today, at Darlington Raceway. That's 66 years. Racetime: 6:00 p.m. EST.

1957 – American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis: Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Central High School.

The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel.

So, that's two things that failed in 1957. Ford and Faubus musta been bummed.

1964 – Scotland's Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh officially opens.

1965 - The Who had their van stolen containing over £5000 worth of equipment outside the Battersea Dogs Home. The band were inside the home at the time buying a guard dog. The van was later recovered. Guess they shoulda got a guard dog last week.

1967 – Vietnam War: Operation Swift begins when U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley.

1969 - The film 'Easy Rider' starring Jack Nicholson Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper opened at The Classic in London England. The movie's soundtrack featured The Band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Steppenwolf.

1972 – Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games.

1985 – The discovery of Buckminsterfullerene, the first fullerene molecule of carbon.

1998 – Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.

2010 – A 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes the South Island of New Zealand causing widespread damage and several power outages.

Births

1901 – William Lyons (co-founded Jaguar Cars); 1908 – Edward Dmytryk (directed The Caine Mutiny); 1913 – Mickey Cohen 'The King of Los Angeles' (mob boss); 1917 – Henry Ford II; 1918 – Paul Harvey; 1919 – Howard Morris ('Ernest T. Bass' on The Andy Griffith Show); 1931 – Mitzi Gaynor; 1942 – Raymond Floyd; 1942 – Merald "Bubba" Knight♪ ♫(Gladys Knight & The Pips); 1944 – Gene Parsons(The Byrds); 1945 – Danny Gatton; 1946 – Gary Duncan; 1949 – Tom Watson; 1951 – Judith Ivey; 1956 – Blackie Lawless(WASP); 1957 – Khandi Alexander; 1958 – Drew Pinsky (Dr. Drew); 1960 – Kim Thayil(Soundgarden), Damon Wayans; 1968 – John DiMaggio (voice of 'Bender' on Futurama); 1970 - Igor Cavalera(Sepultura); 1971 – Ione Skye, Ty Longley(Great White); 1981 – Beyoncé Carter♪ ♫; 1982 – Whitney Cummings (co-creator 2 Broke Girls)

Deaths

1864 – John Hunt Morgan; 1965 – Albert Schweitzer; 1974 – Creighton Abrams (namesake of the M1 Abrams main battle tank); 1990 – Irene Dunne; 1991 – Tom Tryon, Dottie West♪ ♫; 1993 – Hervé Villechaize ("De plane! De Plane!"); 1995 – William Kunstler; 2001 – Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf (It does not seem like 15 years since he died.); 2006 – Steve Irwin ("Crikey!"); 2014 – Joan Rivers

[Gravdigr]

September 5

Today is Labor Day in the United States.

Today is Labour Day in Canada.

1661 – Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.

1698 – In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry.

1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia.

1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: The British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown.

1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses. At least the attack came on their return from the outhouses. How would ya like to fight a band of wild Indians hollering for hair while clutching your mud?

1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

1877 – American Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.

1906 – The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22–0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).

1921 – A Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle party in San Francisco ends with the death of the young actress Virginia Rappe. It is one of the first scandals of the Hollywood community.

1945 – Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.

1945 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.

1957 – On the Road, a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, is published.

1960 – Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome.

1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: The United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province.

1972 – Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine die the following day.

1975 – Sacramento, California: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.

1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.

Births

1847 – Jesse James; 1850 – Jack Daniel; 1897 – Arthur Nielsen (Nielsen Ratings); 1902 – Darryl F. Zanuck; 1912 – John Cage ( ); 1929 – Bob Newhart; 1937 – William Devane; 1940 – Raquel Welch; 1942 – Werner Herzog; 1945 – Al Stewart♪ ♫; 1946 – Freddie Mercury♪ ♫(Queen), Loudon Wainwright III♪ ♫; 1947 – Buddy Miles; 1950 – Cathy Guisewite (created comic strip Cathy); 1951 – Michael Keaton; 1964 – Emmanuel Yarborough; 1967 – Arnel Pineda♪ ♫(Journey); 1969 – Dweezil Zappa♪ ♫; 1973 – Rose McGowan

Deaths

1877 – Crazy Horse; 1912 – Arthur MacArthur, Jr.; 1934 – Sidney Myer (founded Myer Stores); 1992 – Fritz Leiber; 1997 – Georg Solti♪ ♫; 1997 – Mother Teresa; 1999 – Allen Funt (Candid Camera); 2001 – Justin Wilson(Cajun chef, "I garr-awn-tee."); 2012 – Joe South♪ ♫

[Gravdigr]

September 6

Today is National Coffee Ice Cream Day in the United States.

3114 BC – According to the proleptic Julian calendar the current era in the Maya Long Count Calendar started. (Non-standard interpretation).

1492 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.

1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America. (Old Style date; September 16 per New Style date.)

1628 – Puritans settle Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1803 – British scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.

1847 – Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.

1870 – Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.

1901 – Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed anarchist (guess there wasn't much work for anarchists back then), shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1916 – The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders.

1939 – World War II: At the Battle of Barking Creek, Britain suffers its first fighter pilot casualty of the Second World War as a result of friendly fire.

1952 – A prototype aircraft crashes at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, England, killing 29 spectators and the two on board.

1972 – Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group die (as did a German policeman) at the hands of the kidnappers during a failed rescue attempt. Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day.

1976 – Cold War: Soviet Air Force pilot Lieutenant Viktor Belenko lands a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States; his request is granted.

1983 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.

1990 - Tom Fogerty rhythm guitarist with Creedence Clearwater Revival died aged 49, due to complications from AIDS acquired during a blood transfusion.

1992 – Hunters discover the emaciated body of Christopher McCandless at his camp 20 miles (32 km) west of the town of Healy, Alaska.

1995 – Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that had stood for 56 years.

1997 – The Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Well over a million people lined the streets and 2.5 billion watched around the world on television.

Births

1757 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette; 1879 – Max Schreck; 1888 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.; 1893 – Claire Lee Chennault; 1921 – Norman Joseph Woodland (co-created the bar code); 1925 – Jimmy Reed; 1930 – Charles Foley (co-created Twister); 1937 – Jo Anne Worley; 1939 – David Allan Coe♪ ♫; 1942 – Mel McDaniel♪ ♫; 1943 – Roger Waters(Pink Floyd); 1944 – Swoosie Kurtz (Mike & Molly); 1947 – Jane Curtin (original SNL); 1954 – Carly Fiorina; 1958 – Jeff Foxworthy; 1958 – Michael Winslow (Police Academy); 1962 – Chris Christie, Elizabeth Vargas; 1963 – Mark Chesnutt♪ ♫; 1964 – Rosie Perez; 1965 – Christopher Nolan; 1967 – Macy Gray♪ ♫; 1969 – CeCe Peniston♪ ♫; 1971 - Delores O’Riordan♪ ♫(The Cranberries); 1972 – Idris Elba

Deaths

1945 – John S. McCain Sr.; 1959 – Edmund Gwenn; 1972 - David Mark Berger, Ze'ev Friedman, Yossef Gutfreund, Eliezer Halfin, Amitzur Shapira, Kehat Shorr, Mark Slavin, Andre Spitzer, Yakov Springer; 1984 – Ernest Tubb♪ ♫; 1987 – Quinn Martin; 1990 – Tom Fogerty♪ ♫(Creedence Clearwater Revival); 1994 – James Clavell; 1998 – Akira Kurosawa; 2012 – Art Modell (former owner Cleveland Browns); 2015 – Martin Milner (Route 66)