August 6th
 

1809 ~ Birthday of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet.

1881 ~ Birthday of Alexander Fleming, awarded he Nobel Prize in Medicine 1945.

1911 ~ Birthday of Lucille Ball, Actress, Comedienne.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jon Postel, creator of DNS.

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Little Boy was dropped on the city of Hiroshima.

1961 ~ Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov spent a day in orbit.

1965 ~ U.S. release of the Beatles’ album "Help!".

1972 ~ Birthday of Geri Halliwell, British Pop Singer (Spice Girls).

1990 ~ The UN Security Council ordered a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

1991 ~ Tim Berners-Lee released his idea for the "World Wide Web".

August 7th
 

1560 ~ Birthday of Elizabeth Bathory, serial killer.

1867 ~ Birthday of Mata Hari (Margaretha Zelle), spy.

1942 ~ Birthday of Garrison Keillor, radio host.

1947 ~ Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft "Kon-Tiki", arrived at the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.

1949 ~ Birthday of Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese political leader.

1957 ~ Death of Oliver Hardy, Comedian & Actor.

1964 ~ U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers to deal with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces.

1974 ~ French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

1978 ~ President Carter declared a federal emergency at Love Canal.

1998 ~ Bombing of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya that killed 224 people and injured over 4,500.

August 8th
 

1879 ~ Birthday of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolutionary.

1902 ~ Birthday of P.A.M. Dirac, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1931 ~ Birthday of Roger Penrose, British physicist .

1937 ~ Birthday of Dustin Hoffman, Actor (The Graduate, Tootsie, Kramer vs. Kramer).

1940 ~ Birthday of Dennis Tito, American businessman and space tourist.

1945 ~ The U.S. ratified the United Nations Charter.

1963 ~ Britain's ''Great Train Robbery'' took place when thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes.

1966 ~ The Beatles' released "Revolver”

1974 ~ U.S. President Nixon announced his resignation effective August 9.

1988 ~ U.N. Secretary-General Cuellar announced a cease-fire between Iran and Iraq.

August 9th
 

1173 ~ Construction of the (Leaning) Tower of Pisa began.

1483 ~ Opening of the Sistine Chapel.

1842 ~ The U.S.-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains was defined.

1945 ~ A nuclear bomb codenamed Fat Man was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

1962 ~ Death of Hermann Hesse, German-born writer, awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1969 ~ Members of a cult led by Charles Manson murdered five people including Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and, Abigail Folger.

1975 ~ Death of Dmitri Shostakovich, Composer.

1986 ~ The Headington Shark was erected in Oxford.

1995 ~ Death of Jerry Garcia, guitarist: Grateful Dead.

2006 ~ Death of James van Allen, American physicist.

August 10th
 

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan's 5 ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe.

1675 ~ Foundation stone set of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

1846 ~ The Smithsonian Institution was chartered following a $500,000 donation by scientist Joseph Smithson.

1896 ~ Death of Otto Lilienthal, Aviation Pioneer.

1945 ~ Death of Robert Goddard, Rocket Scientist.

1988 ~ A distressing reminder of my mortality.

1990 ~ The Magellan space probe arrived at Venus.

1995 ~ Norma McCorvey, '”Jane Roe” in the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which legalized abortion, announced she had joined the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

2003 ~ Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko became the first man to marry in space.

2008 ~ Death of Isaac Hayes, Musician & Actor.

480 B.C. ~ Persians under Xerxes defeated Spartans under King Leonidas in the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans fight to the last man.

The Battle of Thermopylae has served as an example to officers and soldiers alike of what courage and self-sacrifice could achieve. It is still remembered, almost 2,500 years later, as a classic example of virtue.

1253 ~ Death of Saint Clare of Assisi, Patron Saint of television.

1905 ~ Birthday of Erwin Chargaff, biochemist.

1919 ~ Death of Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist & Philanthropist.

1929 ~ Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs.

1950 ~ Birthday of Steve Wozniak, Computer Pioneer.

1972 ~ The last U.S. ground combat unit left South Vietnam.

1984 ~ U.S. President Reagan joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address that he had ''signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.''

1994 ~ Death of Peter Cushing, British actor.

2003 ~ NATO took over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe.

August 12th
 

1859 ~ Birthday of Katherine Lee Bates, Poet (America the Beautiful [arranged & performed by Ray Charles]).

1887 ~ Birthday of Erwin Schrödinger, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1927 ~ Birthday of Mstislav Rostropovich, Cellist.

1953 ~ The Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb.

1960 ~ The first communications satellite, “Echo I”, was launched.

1964 ~ Death of Ian Fleming, Novelist.

1981 ~ The IBM PC was introduced.

1982 ~ Death of Henry Fonda, Actor.

2002 ~ The Russian submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea.

2004 ~ New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey came out of the closet at the press conference when he announced his resignation from the office.

August 13th
 

1521 ~ Tenochtitlán, present day Mexico City, fell to conquistador Hernán Cortés.

1860 ~ Birthday of Annie Oakley, Sharpshooter.

1899 ~ Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock, Director.

1910 ~ Death of Florence Nightingale, English nurse.

1942 ~ Walt Disney's animated cartoon "Bambi" premiered.

1946 ~ Death of H. G. Wells, Writer.

1961 ~ The Berlin Wall began to be built.

1966 ~ Beginning of China’s Cultural Revolution.

1984 ~ Death of Tigran Petrosian, Soviet chess player.

1997 ~ The popular, controversial animated series "South Park" debuted.

August 14th
 

1862 ~ Birthday of Ernest Thayer, Poet (Casey at the Bat).

1880 ~ After 632 years, Cologne Cathedral was completed.

1945 ~ Japan surrendered, ending World War II.

1947 ~ Birthday of Maddy Prior, English folk singer.

1971 ~ Rod Stewart released "Maggie May".

1980 ~ Workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, in a job action that resulted in the creation of the Solidarity labor movement.

1985 ~ Birthday of Ashlynn Brooke, Porn Actress.

1988 ~ Death of Enzo Ferrari, Automobile Designer.

1994 ~ Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, was captured.

2003 ~ A blackout hit the northeastern U.S. and part of Canada; 50 million people lost power.

August 15th
 

778 ~ The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in which Roland was killed.

1769 ~ Birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte, general and politician.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison made the first-ever recording - "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

1890 ~ Birthday of Jacques Ibert, French Composer.

1945 ~ The Allies proclaimed V-J Day, one day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.

1947 ~ India and Pakistan became independent from British rule.

1948 ~ Republic of Korea established south of 38th Parallel.

1964 ~ Birthday of Melinda French Gates, wife of Bill Gates.

1967 ~ Death of René Magritte, Surrealist painter.

1969 ~ First day of Woodstock Music and Art Festival.

I was able to talk my cousin out of going to this. :yikes: She had called me a month or so earlier and said she could get a couple of tickets if we wanted to go. It was inconvenient to get to, and when I said so, she agreed, and so…. :rolleyes:

August 16th
 

1858 ~ President Buchanan inaugurated the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria.

1888 ~ Birthday of Lawrence of Arabia.

1899 ~ Death of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, chemist (Bunsen Burner).

1930 ~ First color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, was made by Ub Iwerks.

1954 ~ The first edition of Sports Illustrated was published.

1962 ~ The Beatles fired Pete Best and replaced him with Ringo Starr.

1977 ~ Death of Elvis Presley, Singer, Actor.

1981 ~ Birthday of Taylor Rain, Porn Actress.

2000 ~ Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominated Vice President Al Gore for president.

2003 ~ Death of Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator.

August 17th
 

1601 ~ Birthday of Pierre de Fermat, Mathematician.

1943 ~ The US Army Air Force had its wrist slapped smartly with the loss of 147 B-17's shot down or damaged beyond repair during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission

1882 ~ Birthday of Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer.

1911 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Botvinnik, World Chess Champion.

1962 ~ East German border guards shot and mortally wounded 18-year-old Peter Fechter, who had attempted to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.

1970 ~ Venera 7 was launched. It became the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet, Venus.

1972 ~ Birthday of Ken Ryker, Porn Actor.

1992 ~ Death of Al Parker, Porn Actor.

1998 ~ President Clinton admitted having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

2008 ~ Michael Phelps became the first Olympian to win eight gold medals in the same Olympics.

1943 ~ The US Army Air Force had its wrist slapped smartly with the loss of 147 B-17's shot down or damaged beyond repair during the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission

Regensburg/Schweinfurt was a collossal mission, a time when men flew into overwhelming defences to achieve their goal, but my trust of this source is diminished by his claim that Stukas bombed the Allied bomber stream with timed bombs.

August 18th
 

1227 ~ Death of Genghis Khan, Mongol leader.

1587 ~ Birthday of Virginia Dare; the first English child born in the Americas.

1774 ~ Birthday of Meriwether Lewis, Explorer.

1877 ~ Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, the moon of Pluto.

1920 ~ The 19th Amendment to US constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women's right to vote.

1958 ~ Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita was published in the U.S.

1963 ~ James Meredith became the first black to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

1969 ~ Jimi Hendrix played the unofficial last day of Woodstock.

1990 ~ Death of B.F. Skinner, American psychological theorist.

1991 ~ Downfall of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was put under house arrest while he was vacationing in the Crimea.

jseal is using cryptic code again.

1877 ~ Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, the moon of Pluto.

Pluto is obviously code for Mars, the purpose will come to me with much thought.