Today in History

That's awesome

 

On This Day - 9th August U,K.:

• 1721Prisoners at Newgate Jail were used as 'guinea pigs' to test vaccines used against disease.
• 1796Horatio Nelson captured the island of Elba from the French, - to which Napoleon Bonaparte was later exiled.
• 1870The Elementary Education Act was passed. It gave compulsory, free education to every child in England and Wales between the age of five and 13.
• 1963ITV transmitted the first edition of the pop music programme Ready Steady Go to rival the BBC's Top of the Pops. The presenter was Cathy McGowan.
• 1984Daley Thompson won the Olympic decathlon at the Summer Games in Los Angeles.

 

On This Day - 10th August U,K.:

• 1675King Charles II laid the foundation stone of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London. (The observatory was built to provide English navigators with accurate tables of the positions of the moon and stars)
• 1842Britain passed the Mines Act - forbidding women and children from working underground.
• 1889The screw bottle top was patented by Dan Rylands of Hope Glass Works, Yorkshire.
• 1977The Queen visited Northern Ireland for the first time in 11 years as part of her Silver Jubilee tour
• 1998English football club Manchester United became the first club in the world to have its own TV channel - MUTV.
• 2003The temperature in Britain exceeded 100° F for the first time when 101.3 °F (38.5 °C) was recorded in the hamlet of Brogdale near Faversham, Kent.

 

This Day in History: 08/11/1934 - Alcatraz Opens
HISTORY.COM EDITORS
TV-PG
1:00


On this day in 1934 Alcatraz opens its doors. A group of federal prisoners classified as "most dangerous" arrives at Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre rocky outcrop situated 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay. The convicts--the first civilian prisoners to be housed in the new high-security penitentiary--joined a few dozen military prisoners left over from the island's days as a U.S. military prison.

 

On This Day - 11th August:

1896 - Harvey Hubbell patents the first electric light bulb socket with a pull chain
1909 - The first SOS morse code message is used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC

1929 - Babe Ruth becomes 1st professional baseball player to hit 500 homers (off Willis Hudlin of Cleveland Indians)
1951 - The 1st televised baseball game in color, on WCBS in New York City (Boston Braves beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 8-1)

1964 - "A Hard Days Night" a musical comedy film featuring the Beatles released in the US
1965 - "Help!" a musical comedy film featuring the Beatles released in the US
1968 - The Beatles launch their own "Apple Records" label

1977- In Cricket, Geoff Boycott scores his 100th FC hundred for England (v Australia) at Headingley

 

On This Day - 12th August :

• 0030: Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.

• 1863: Confederate raider William Quantrill leads a massacre of 150 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.

• 1935: President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill.
• 1961: The erection of the Berlin Wall begins, preventing access between East and West Germany is sanctioned.(**)
• 1977: Space shuttle Enterprise makes its first free flight and landing

• 2000: Russian Navy submarine K-141 Kursk explodes and sinks with all hands during military exercises in the Barents Sea.

 

On This Day - 13th August :
3114 BC - According to the Lounsbury correlation, the start of the Mayan calendar

1521: Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc marking the end of the Aztec Empire

1792: Revolutionaries imprison French royals, including Marie Antoinette

1942: The 'Manhattan Project' commences, under the direction of US General Leslie Groves: its aim - to deliver an atomic bomb
1948: 3 Finnish gymnasts dead heat for the gold medal in the pommel horse section at London Olympics
(Paavo Aaltonen, Veikko Huhtanen & Heikki Savolainen all awarded GOLD)

1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins in East Germany begins (**)

1990: American soul singer Curtis Mayfield becomes paralyzed from neck down after stage lighting equipment falls on him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York; although unable to perform live, he continued to compose, sing, and record

 

On This Day - 13th August :MUSIC:

• 1966:

(1/2) The Lovin Spoonful started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Summer In The City', it made No.8 in the UK.
- The song features a series of car horns during the instrumental bridge, starting with a Volkswagen Beetle horn, and ends up with a jackhammer sound, in order to give the impression of the sounds of the Summer - in the City
(2/2) The BeaTles released their Seventh album - Revolver in three years started a seven-week run at No.1 on the UK charts.
- It spent a total of 34 week's on the UK chart and was also a US No.1. ,

• 1971:

(1/2) Pink Floyd played their first ever Australian date when they appeared at the Festival Hall in Melbourne.
- The group, who were on an Asia Pacific tour, played just one other date in Australia - Sydney, two nights later.
(2/2) John Lennon flew from Heathrow Airport to New York.
- He never set foot on British soil again.

• 1982:

(1/2) American soul singer Joe Tex died at his home in Navasota, Texas, following a heart attack, just five days after his 49th birthday.
- He had nine US Top 40 hits including the 1972 US No.2 single 'I Gotcha'.
(2/2) Major American record companies including CBS Atlantic and Warner Brothers all made Major staff cut-backs as the industry sufferered financial losses.
- The slump was described as being plunged into 'the worst shape in its history'.

 

On This Day - 14th August *:

1040: King Duncan I of Scotland is killed in battle against first cousin Macbeth (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare's play)

1882: Queen Victoria receives Zulu chief Cetewayo (3 years after the battles of Isandlwana and Rourkes Drift)

1945: V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15th* depending on time zone)
1974: /: 1974: USA performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site * / * USSR performs their own underground nuclear test
1994: The Space telescope Hubble photographs Uranus - showing it's rings

2016: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt wins Olympic 100m GOLD medal in Rio de Janeiro being the first man to win the event 3 times

 

On This Day - 14th August ((Music)):

1967: All UK offshore pirate radio stations were closed down when the marine broadcasting act came into force.
- Radio Caroline however continued to broadcast upon the waves .\/.\/.\/. .

1976: Funded by a £400 loan, 'So It Goes' by Nick Lowe became the first record released on Stiff Records.
- The label's marketing and advertising was often provocative and witty billing itself as "The World's Most Flexible Record Label". Other slogans were "We came. We saw. We left", and "If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth a Fuck".

1985: Michael Jackson won a bid over Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney to secure the ATV Music Publishing catalogue.
- At $47.5m he gained the rights to more than 250 songs written by Lennon and McCartney.
- - McCartney had been negotiating with Yoko Ono, who had decided to withdraw her side of the deal because of 'astrological' reasons.

Happy Birthday: =
DAVID CROSBY: (1941) = Crosby, Stills, Nash (and sometimes - Young)
MADDY PRIOR: (1947) = Folk Group Steelye Span
SARAH BRIGHTMAN: (1961) = Beloved of a Phantom, and who lost her heart to a Starship trooper

 

Today in history August 14th


1457 The first book ever printed is published by a German astrologer named Faust. He is thrown in jail while trying to sell books in Paris.

Note: Authorities concluded that all the identical books meant Faust had dealt with the devil - A Faustian Bargain

1945 Japan announces its unconditional surrender in World War II.

1973 The United States ends the "secret" bombing of Cambodia.

 

Today in History August 15th

1620 Mayflower sets sail from Southampton, England, with 102 Pilgrims

1864 Off New England coast, CSS Tallahassee captures 6 yankee schooners

1870 Transcontinental Railway actually completed in Colorado

1876 US law removes Indians from Black Hills after gold find

1901 Arch Rock, a danger to San Francisco Bay shipping, blasted with 30 tons of nitro

1936 Carla de Vries, an American tourist at the swimming event of the Berlin Olympics finds Adolf Hitler “so friendly and gracious” she shakes his hand and gives him a kiss

1939 "The Wizard of Oz", premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood

1965 Beatles play to 55,000 at Shea Stadium

1969 Woodstock Festival opens in Bethel, New York

1977 "The Wow signal" possible alien radio signal from deep space received at "The Big Ear", Ohio State's radio telescope in Delaware

 

On This Day - 15th August:

• 1939: :"The Wizard of Oz", American musical fantasy film directed by Victor Fleming and King Vidor, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, starring Judy Garland (Dorothy), Ray Bolger (Scarecrow), Jack Haley (Tin Man), Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion), Frank Morgan (Wizard), Billie Burke (Glinda), and Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch)

The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 15th August:

• 1947 India gains independence from Great Britain, remains a dominion until 1950 - It becomes a sovereign and democratic nation, independent from the United Kingdom

. . .

Independence Day (India) - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 15th August:

1950: Joseph Pholien becomes BELGIAN Premier

Joseph Pholien - Wikipedia

1950: Sukarno proclaims the unitary Republic of Indonesia and becomes its 1st President

Sukarno - Wikipedia

1954: Alfredo Stroessner names himself President of Paraguay

Alfredo Stroessner - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 15th August:

• 1960: Congo (formerly Congo/Brazzaville) declares Independence from France(*\/*)
• 1962: The Shady Grove Baptist Church was suspiciously burned in Leesburg, Georgia -, after it and other churches in the state served as a base for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) whose goal was to bring equality to the Southern States of America.
• 

• 1963: Fulbert Youlou resigns as President of Congo-Brazzaville (*/\*)
• 1968: Pirate Radio Station 'Free London' begins transmitting to join 'Caroline' /\./\./\ defying UK Government broadcating laws
• 1969: Max Yasgur organises a Music Festival on his Dairy Farm; - It went down quite well=

 

On This Day - 15th August:

1979: "Apocalypse Now", directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, and Martin Sheen, is released (Palme d'Or 1979)



Apocalypse Now - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 15th August:

1981: Ian Botham scores a century in 86 balls v Australia at Old Trafford



Australian cricket team in England in 1981 - Wikipedia