Sure doesn't seem like 20 years have passed since the first Gulf War started as a result of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, does it?

Too true!

August 3rd
 

1900 ~ Birthday of John T. Scopes, defendant in the “Monkey Trial”.

1924 ~ Death of Joseph Conrad, Author. (Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim)

1924 ~ Birthday of Leon Uris, American Writer. (Exodus, QB VII)

1941 ~ Birthday of Martha Stewart, Media personality.

1943 ~ Gen. George S. Patton slapped a private at an army hospital in Sicily, accusing him of cowardice.

1948 ~ Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist, publicly accused former State Department official Alger Hiss of having been part of a Communist underground.

1958 ~ The USS Nautilus traveled beneath the Arctic ice cap.

1972 ~ U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2003 ~ The U.S. Anglican Church approved the appointment of an openly homosexual bishop.

2008 ~ Death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer.

Far too many of these listing are 'events' for me rather than 'history'. :mad:

No, PF, anything before 1850 is definitely "history".

I find them interesting.

I just remember we had to memorize facts like these when I took history classes. :boink:

Understanding what happened and why gives context to today's "history in the making".

Everyone is invited to prepare their own posts to this thread. :thumb:

August 4th
 

1782 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart married Constanze Weber.

1840 ~ Birthday of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Sexologist.

1875 ~ Death of Hans Christian Andersen, Writer.

1901 ~ Birthday of Louis Armstrong, Jazz Musician.

1914 ~ The UK declared war on Germany.

1961 ~ Birthday of Barack Obama, American politician.

1964 ~ The bodies of three missing civil rights workers were found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.

1983 ~ New York Yankee Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull during a baseball game and was charged by police for his "act of cruelty to animals".

1991 ~ The cruise ship Oceanos sinks off the coast of South Africa.

2000 ~ Death of Leslie Glass, Porn actress.

August 5th
 

1885 ~ The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1962 ~ Death of Marilyn Monroe, Actress.

1962 ~ Nelson Mandela imprisoned, not to be released until 1990.

1963 ~ The U.S., UK, and U.S.S.R. signed a nuclear test ban treaty.

1973 ~ Arab gunmen opened fire and threw grenades into a passenger lounge at Athens airport.

1980 ~ Birthday of Kaylani Lei, Singaporean/American Porn actress.

1981 ~ The federal government began firing air traffic controllers who had gone on strike.

1984 ~ Death of Richard Burton, Actor.

1987 ~ Birthday of Lexi Belle, Porn actress.

2000 ~ Death of Sir Alec Guinness, Actor.

August 6th
 

1809 ~ Birthday of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet.

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

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".

2002 ~ Death of Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist.

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.

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.

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

1999 ~ The start of the Second Chechen War.

2005 ~ Death of Peter Jennings, Canadian-born news anchor.

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).

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.

1996 ~ Death of Frank A Whittle, inventor of the Jet engine.

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
 

610 ~ In Islamic tradition, this is when Muhammad began to receive the Quran.

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.

August 11th
 

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.

1974 ~ Birthday of Kira Kener, Porn actress.

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.''

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.

1928 ~ Death of Leos Janacek, Czech Composer.

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.

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.

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.

1973 ~ Birthday of Brittany Andrews, former Porno actress & Foot Fetishist.

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.

1960 ~ Birthday of Sarah Brightman, English soprano.

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.

1951 ~ Death of Artur Schnabel, Pianist.

1967 ~ Death of René Magritte, Surrealist painter.

1969 ~ First day of Woodstock Music and Art Festival.

August 16th
 

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

1888 ~ Birthday of Lawrence of Arabia.

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

1954 ~ Birthday of James Cameron, Canadian film director (The Terminator, Aliens, True Lies, The Abyss, Titanic, and Avatar).

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.

1991 ~ Death of Shamu, one of the famous whales of SeaWorld.

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.

1992 ~ Woody Allen admitted being "romantically involved" with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.

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

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.

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

1966 ~ 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment engaged the Viet Cong in the Battle of Long Tần.

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

1979 ~ Birthday of Selena Silver, Porn actress.

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

August 19th
 

1881 ~ Birthday of George Enescu, Romanian composer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek

1934 ~ The creation of the position Führer was approved in a German plebiscite.

1939 ~ Birthday of Ginger Baker, English musician (Cream).

1942 ~ About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a disastrous raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France, suffering about 50 percent casualties.

1960 ~ A tribunal in Moscow convicted American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.

1977 ~ Death of Groucho Marx, Comedian & Actor.

1981 ~ Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sent two Sukoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two U.S. F-14 Tomcats over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets shot down the Libyan fighters.

1994 ~ Death of Linus Pauling, Scientist & Peace Activist.

He was a physical chemist, among the most influential chemists of the twentieth century, and one of the most important scientists of all time. He was one of the first quantum chemists, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for his work describing the nature of chemical bonds. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against above-ground nuclear testing, becoming one of only two people to receive the Nobel Prize in more than one field, the other being Marie Curie.

2003 ~ A suicide truck bomb struck U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 22, including the top U.N. envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

August 20th
 

1882 ~ Piotr Tchaikovsky's “1812 Overture” debuted in Moscow.

1890 ~ Birthday of H. P. Lovecraft, Horror Writer.

1923 ~ Birthday of Jim Reeves, country and western singer.

1940 ~ UK PM Winston Churchill paid tribute to the RAF, saying, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

1941 ~ Birthday of Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

1968 ~ Warsaw Pact troops and tanks invaded Czechoslovakia to end the Prague Spring of political liberalization.

1991 ~ Downfall of the Soviet Union: Estonia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1998 ~ The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec could not legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.

1998 ~ The U.S. launched cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

2001 ~ Death of Sir Fred Hoyle, Astronomer, Science Fiction Writer.

August 21st
 

1858 ~ The first of seven debates between U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas was held.

1872 ~ Birthday of Aubrey Beardsley, English Illustrator.

1904 ~ Birthday of Count Basie, Bandleader.

1923 ~ Birthday of Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel.

1936 ~ Birthday of Wilt Chamberlain, Basketball Hall of Famer.

1959 ~ Hawaii was admitted as the 50th U.S. state.

1983 ~ Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was murdered moments after stepping off a plane at Manila International Airport.

1986 ~ Suffocating gas erupted from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing more than 1,700.

1991 ~ A hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

2007 ~ Death of Haley Paige, Porn actress.

Hard to believe that it's been 19 years since that happened.

The vision of the military directing tank fire into the "white house' is still a surreal image.

August 22nd
 

1770 ~ James Cook 's expedition arrived on the east coast of Australia.

1862 ~ Birthday of Claude Debussy, Composer.

1893 ~ Birthday of Dorothy Parker, Writer & Wit .

1902 ~ Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to ride in an automobile.

1920 ~ Birthday of Ray Bradbury, science fiction author and fantasy author (Fahrenheit 451).

1962 ~ The Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completed its maiden voyage.

1978 ~ Death of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's founding father.

1996 ~ Preident Clinton signed welfare reform into law.

2001 ~ For the Geeks among us, a sad day. The Trojan room coffee pot is switched off for the last time.

2007 ~ On a day that will live in MLB infamy, the Baltimore Orioles were whomped by the Texas Rangers, 30 – 3! :yikes:

August 23rd
 

1754 ~ Birthday of King Louis XVI of France.

1806 ~ Death of Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist.

1833 ~ Slavery was abolished in the English colonies.

1912 ~ Birthday of Gene Kelly, Dancer & Actor.

1926 ~ Death of Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor.

1927 ~ Italian-born anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in Boston.

1962 ~ First live television connection between the United States and Europe, via the Telstar satellite.

1981 ~ Birthday of Carmen Luvana, Porn actress.

1990 ~ Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests”.

1996 ~ Osama bin Laden's fatwa entitled "A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places" was published in Al Quds Al Arabi.

August 24th
 

1456 ~ The printing of the Gutenberg Bible was completed.

1880 ~ Birthday of Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor of the toy electric train.

1929 ~ Birthday of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader.

1932 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop.

1939 ~ The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (also known as Nazi-Soviet Pact) was signed.

1960 ~ Birthday of Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player.

1979 ~ Death of Hanna Reitsch, German test pilot.

1993 ~ Michael Jackson was accused of child abuse.

1992 ~ Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida.

2006 ~ "Planet" was redefined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) such that Pluto is no longer considered a planet.

August 25th
 

1835 ~ The New York Sun printed The Great Moon Hoax.

1875 ~ Matthew Webb became the first man to swim the English Channel.

1894 ~ Shibasaburo Kitasato discovered the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and published his findings in The Lancet.

1900 ~ Birthday of Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, Scientist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953.

1900 ~ Death of Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher.

1918 ~ Birthday of Leonard Bernstein, Conductor & Composer.

1944 ~ Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

1982 ~ Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune.

1987 ~ Birthday of Whitney Stevens, Porn actress.

1991 ~ Linus Torvalds sent the email announcing his project to create the Linux operating system.

August 26th
 

55 B.C. ~ Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

1071 ~ The Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert.

1498 ~ Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pieta.

1839 ~ The ship Amistad was captured off Long Island.

1847 ~ Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.

1910 ~ Birthday of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Blessed.

1920 ~ The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was declared in effect.

1961 ~ The International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.

1967 ~ Birthday of Kelly Madison, Porn actress.

1988 ~ Birthday of Tori Black, Porn actress.

Did you know that today would have been Mother Teresa's 100th Birthday!

:hb: to a very special lady. The world needs more like you.

August 27th
 

1776 ~ British forces under General William Howe defeated the Americans under General George Washington in the Battle of Long Island.

1813 ~ Napoleon defeated the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.

1828 ~ Krakatoa erupted; approximately 36,000 people on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra drowned.

1896 ~ Anglo-Zanzibar War. With a duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history.

1908 ~ Birthday of Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th U.S. president.

1939 ~ First jet aircraft flight; a Heinkel He 178, piloted by Erich Warsitz.

1945 ~ American troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government in World War II.

1947 ~ Birthday of Harry Reems, Porn Star.

1962 ~ The Mariner 2 space probe launched to Venus.

1967 ~ Death of Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles.

August 28th
 

430 ~ Death of Augustine of Hippo, Philosopher, Theologian.

1749 ~ Birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Philosopher, Scientist.

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy, Author. His “The Law of Love and the Law of Violence” influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.

1845 ~ First issue of Scientific American magazine published.

1850 ~ Richard Wagner's opera “Lohengrin” premiered, from which comes the Bridal Chorus, traditionally played at Western weddings, and commonly known as "Here Comes the Bride".

1897 ~ Birthday of Charles Boyer, Actor.

1963 ~ During a civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.

1988 ~ Ramstein airshow disaster: 75 people were killed and 346 seriously injured.

1990 ~ Iraq declared Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.

1996 ~ Britain's Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales were divorced.

August 29th
 

1632 ~ Birthday of John Locke, Philosopher.

1885 ~ Gottlieb Daimler patented the world's first motorcycle.

1896 ~ Chop suey was invented in New York City.

1949 ~ The Soviet Union tested its first nuclear weapon at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

1952 ~ Premiere of John Cage's 4'33" in Woodstock, New York.

1957 ~ Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., ended the longest filibuster in Senate history after talking for 24 hours, 18 minutes against a civil rights bill.

1966 ~ The Beatles performed their last concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

1981 ~ Birthday of Lanny Barbie, Canadian Porn actress.

1991 ~ The Downfall of the Soviet Union: The Supreme Soviet suspended all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

2005 ~ Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Louisiana coast, overwhelming the levees protecting New Orleans and causing massive flooding.

August 30th
 

1797 ~ Birthday of Mary Shelley, Author (Frankenstein).

1862 ~ Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va..

1871 ~ Birthday of Ernest Rutherford, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908.

1918 ~ Birthday of Baseball hall-of-famer Ted Williams.

1940 ~ Death of J.J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1906. Prof. Thomson identified the electron as a subatomic particle, the first one to be discovered. In one of the greatest ironies of modern physics his son, G.P. Thomson later received the prize for proving that the electron was also, in fact, a wave.

1963 ~ Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders went into operation.

1963 ~ Death of Guy Burgess, English-born Soviet spy.

1987 ~ Thurgood Marshall confirmed as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1999 ~ East Timorese voted for independence in a referendum.

2006 ~ Death of Glenn Ford, Canadian-born actor.

August 31st
 

1879 ~ Birthday of Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel. This woman knew how to live!

1888 ~ Mary Ann Nichols murdered. She was perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.

1918 ~ Birthday of Alan Jay Lerner, American composer ( Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady).

1945 ~ Birthday of Itzhak Perlman, Violinist.

1945 ~ Birthday of Van Morrison, Irish musician (“Brown-Eyed Girl", "Moondance" and "Domino").

1962 ~ Trinidad and Tobago became independent.

1980 ~ Solidarity labor union formed in Poland.

1997 ~ Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris.

1998 ~ North Korea reportedly launched its first satellite.

2006 ~ Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered.