Today in History

On This Day - 15th August:

1985: South African President P. W. Botha gives the "Rubicon" Speech in Durban.
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It disappoints many by refusing to consider immediate and major reforms in the country's apartheid system
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1989: F. W. de Klerk becomes President of South Africa



He and his government dismantled the apartheid system and introduced universal suffrage.
F. W. de Klerk - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 15th August:

1998: Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles, kills 29 people and injures about 220


A man and a child (who both survived) stand next to the car bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland, that exploded shortly after, killing 29 people. The photographer did not survive.

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Omagh bombing - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 15th August: ( BeaTle) Music):

1962: - Lennon and McCartney drove from Liverpool to Skegness, to ask Ringo Starr to join the Beatles. (Starr was playing a residency with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes at Butlins). L/ Mc offered £25 a week, which Starr accepted.

1965: - The Beatles set a new world record for the largest attendance at a pop concert when they played in front of 55,600 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City.
The group were paid $160,000. Two Rolling Stones were in the audience (Jagger / Richards) and later that evening; Bob Dylan visited The Beatles at their hotel.

1966: - During a US tour The Beatles appeared at the D.C. Stadium in Washington DC to over 32,000 fans.
Tickets cost $3. Five members of the Ku Klux Klan, led by the Imperial Wizard of Maryland, picketed the concert.

2002: - A memorial to John Lennon was unveiled in the remote Scottish village of Durness where Lennon had spent his holidays from age seven to fifteen.
The lyrics from 'In My Life' had been inscribed on three stones.

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2007: - Sixteen solo John Lennon albums were made available to download on iTunes for the first time.
A deal was approved by the late Beatle's widow Yoko Ono following a lengthy legal battle between the band's label Apple Corps and Apple Inc, which owned Tunes.

 

On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock music festival opens on a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New York town of Bethel

 

Today in History August 16th


1977 Elvis Presley dies of a heart attack in the upstairs bedroom suite area of his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.


1984 The safe of the sunken ocean liner Andrea Doria is opened on TV after three decades, revealing cash and certificates but no other valuables.


Note: It was billed as "the live TV event of the year," but what it was, was Amateur Night. The safe from the sunken liner Andrea Doria was opened at the New York Aquarium while millions watched on 161 American stations and in 44 countries with visions of stacks of cash and diamonds by the handful. What they got was a few packets of $20 bills and some Italian lira.

Note: The emcee George Plimpton, who had been desperately ad-libbing through most of the two-hour show interrupted by a mysterious rainstorm (baffling viewers who had thought the scene was inside the aquarium), added these consoling words: "It doesn't make any difference if it's 8 cents: it's got wonderful value."

 

On This Day - 16th August:

• 1920: Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is hit in head by NY Yankees pitcher Carl Mays; he dies the next day in only MLB game related fatality = His death led baseball to establish a rule requiring umpires to replace the ball whenever it becomes dirty. Chapman's death and sanitary concerns also led to the ban on spitballs. After the 1920 season Chapman's death was one of the examples cited to justify the wearing of batting helmets. However, it took over 30 years to adopt the rule that required their use.
• 1953: Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi & princess Soraya flee to Baghdad & Rome
  
• 1960: Britain grants independence to crown colony of Cyprus. It gained its independence from the United Kingdom, after the long anti-British campaign by the Greek Cypriot EOKA (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), a guerrilla group which desired political union with Greece, or enosis.
• 2012:: Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador

 

On This Day - 16th August: (Music)
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1986: Rick Allen, Drummer with Def Leppard made his first live appearance with the band after losing an arm in a car accident, when they appeared at the Monsters Of Rock Festival, Castle Donington, England.
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Departures
1975: Singer Peter Gabriel announces his departure from the rock group Genesis
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1980: Bill Ward quits Black Sabbath
1980: Cozy Powell quits Rainbow
1980: British rock musician Jools Holland quits band Squeeze

1977: Death of 'the King'
2018: American singer and songwriter Aretha Franklin died in Detroit at the age of 76.
Known as ‘The Queen of Soul’ and one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide was diagnosed with cancer in 2010.

 

On This Day - 16th August: (Local - (9 miles) to me):
1819: The Peterloo Masacre



Historian Robert Poole has called the Peterloo Massacre 'the bloodiest political event of the 19th century in English soil', and 'a political earthquake in the northern powerhouse of the industrial revolution'.
An estimated 18 people, including four women and a child, died from sabre cuts and trampling. Nearly 700 men, women and children received extremely serious injuries

• The massacre paved the way for parliamentary democracy and particularly the Great Reform Act of 1832.

Peterloo Massacre - Wikipedia

 

The dying and injured were taken to the nearby Friends meeting house and Sir Ralph Abercromby Inn nearby which both still stand today
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On This Day - 17th August::

1945: George Orwell publishes "Animal Farm" in the United Kingdom
= Animal Farm - Wikipedia

1959: Massive Eaertquake strikes Hebgen Lake /Yellowstone National Park
= 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake - Wikipedia

1960: Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow
= Francis Gary Powers - Wikipedia

1979: "Monty Python's "Life of Brian" premieres in US
= Monty Python's Life of Brian - Wikipedia

1988: Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash
= Death and state funeral of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq - Wikipedia

1998: US President Bill Clinton admits "improper physical relationship" with intern
= Clinton–Lewinsky scandal - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 17th August: (In Other News):

1960: The Beatles began their first Hamburg engagement at the Indra Club, Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg, West Germany, playing the first of 48 nights at the Club.
The owner, Bruno Koschmider, asked The Beatles to "Mach Shau", or really put on a show, which led to the band screaming, shouting, and leaping about the stage and sometimes playing lying on the floor.
Lennon once appeared wearing only his underwear and on another occasion, wearing a toilet seat around his neck.

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1979: The New York Post reported that Anita Pallenberg (the wife of Keith Richards) was linked to a witches coven in South Salem, New York where Richards owned a house.
A policeman claimed he was attacked by a flock of black-hooded, caped people and a local youth claimed he had been invited by Pallenburg to take part in ‘pot smoking sex orgies’. Locals also claimed they found ‘ritualistic stakes’ and small animals that had been ‘sacrificed’ near the house.

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2012: Three members of the Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years imprisonment after they had staged a performance on the soleas of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior in a protest directed at the Orthodox Church leader's support for President Putin during his election campaign.


Pussy Riot - Wikipedia

 

More, Born -On This Day - 17th August:

1786: Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and politician who died in the defense of the Alamo.


1882: Samuel Goldwyn, American movie mogul who helped start MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer).


1892: Mae West, American actress in burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and movies.


1943: Robert DeNiro, American actor, won Oscars for his roles in The Godfather Part II and Raging Bull.


1960: Sean Penn, actor, screenwriter, director, political and social activist (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mystic River).

 

Today in History August 18th


1587 In the Roanoke Island colony, Ellinor and Ananias Dare become parents of a baby girl whom they name Virginia, the first English child born in what would become the United States.


1590 John White, the leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returns from a trip to England to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers is ever found.


1942 Japan sends a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.


1969 Two concert goers die at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel, New York, one from an overdose of heroin, the other from a burst appendix.


1992 Dennis Rader, the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) killer receives 10 consecutive life sentences. He had terrorized Wichita, Kansas, murdering 10 people between 1974 and 1991.

 

On This Day - 18th August:


1964: South Africa banned from Olympics
South Africa are barred from taking part in the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo over its refusal to condemn apartheid.


1971: British Army shot 'unarmed' disabled man
The British Army is accused of shooting dead an unarmed, disabled man during disturbances in Northern Ireland.

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1989: Man U sold in record takeover deal
Manchester United Football Club is sold for £20m in the biggest takeover deal in the history of British football.

 

On This Day - 18th August: (MUSIC)

1956: Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reach #1 in the charts

1964: Over 9,000 frenzied fans met The Beatles as they arrived in San Francisco, to begin an American tour. The Beatles were driven into a protective fence enclosure so that photographers could take pictures. As the 9,000 fans pressed against the fencing, it gave way, with The Beatles managing to get out split-seconds before it came crashing down.

1969: Mick Jagger was accidentally shot in the hand during filming of Ned Kelly in Australia. The film was dogged by problems: Jagger's girlfriend of the time, Marianne Faithfull, had gone to Australia to play the lead female role (Ned's sister, Maggie), but the Jagger-Faithfull relationship was breaking up, and she took an overdose of sleeping tablets soon after arrival in Sydney resulting in being hospitalised in a coma, and pulling out of the film.

1972: Police fine Paul & Linda McCartney ś800 in Sweden cannabis possession

1973: Diana Ross scored her second US No.1 single with 'Touch Me In The Morning'. The song marked a turning point in her career, coming immediately after her Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in her acting debut, Lady Sings the Blues.

1982: The City of Liverpool named four Streets after the fab four: John Lennon Drive, Paul McCartney Way, George Harrison Close and Ringo Starr Drive.

1982: George Michael was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his first solo single 'Careless Whisper.' It made George the first person to reach No.1 as a solo artist and a member of a band in the same year. It gave Epic records UK their first UK million seller and the song was No.1 in nearly 25 countries, selling over six million copies worldwide.

 

On This Day - 19th August:

* Born: 1921: Gene Roddenberry, television writer and producer, best known for the series Star Trek.

1932: 38 million Germans vote to make Adolf Hitler the official successor to President von Hindenburg.

1942: A raid on Dieppe, France by British and Canadian commandos is repulsed by the German Army.
Dieppe Raid - Wikipedia

1950: Edith Sampson becomes the first African-American representative to the United Nations.
Edith Spurlock Sampson (1901-1979) • (blackpast.org)

1967: The Beatles scored their 14th US No.1 single with 'All You Need Is Love'. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Graham Nash, Marianne Faithfull and Walker Brother Gary Leeds all sang backing vocals on the track.

1976: Gerald R Ford, who had become President of the United States after Richard Nixon resigned, wins Republican Party's presidential nomination at Kansas City convention.

1987: Hungerford Massacre in the UK; armed with semi-automatic rifles and a handgun Michael Ryan kills 16 people before committing suicide. In response, Parliament passed the Firearms (Amendment) Act of 1988 banning ownership of certain classes of firearms.
Hungerford massacre - Wikipedia

1991: Communist hard-liners place President Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest in an attempted coup that failed two days later.
1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt - Wikipedia

2004: Google Inc. stock begins selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market, with an initial price of $85; the stock ended the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares traded.

 

On August 20, 1619, “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrive in the British colony of Virginia and are then bought by English colonists. The arrival of the enslaved Africans in the New World marks a beginning of two and a half centuries of slavery in North America.

 

On This Day - 21st August (Baseball) :

• 1926: Chicago White Sox pitcher Ted Lyons no hits Boston Red Sox, 6-0 in just 67 minutes at Fenway Park
• 1931: Yankees slugger Babe Ruth becomes the first MLB player to hit 600 career home runs as NY defeats St. Louis Browns, 11-7 at Sportsman's Park
• 1948: Cleveland Indians 47-inning scoreless streak is broken as future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Lemon yields a home run to Aaron Robinson in a 3-2 loss to Chicago WS
• 1953: Baseball player representatives Ralph Kiner (NL) & Allie Reynolds (AL) hire labor leader John Norman Lewis at $15,000 to give legal advice to players in negotiations with team owners
• 1986: Red Sox Spike Owens scores 6 runs in a 24-5 rout of Cleveland Indians

 

On This Day - 21st August: (SPACE)

• 1965: Gemini 5 launched into Earth orbit (2 astronauts)
• 1972: US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus launched
• 1989: Voyager 2 begins a flyby of planet Neptune
• 1993: NASA loses contact with Mars Observer
• 2018: Water-ice first detected on the Moon by India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft (2008-9) in findings published by scientists

 

On This Day - 21st August: (Politics)

1961: Kenyan political activist Jomo Kenyatta released from jail after 9 years. Imprisoned during 1952 Mau Mau rebellion with other nationalist leaders by British authorities
1968: Warsaw Pact forces complete their invasion of Czechoslovakia by arresting the Czech leader Alexander Dubček and forcing him to sign the Moscow Protocols
1991: Conservative coup in the Soviet Union is crushed by popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin in three days
1998: P. W. Botha found guilty of contempt for repeatedly ignoring subpoenas to testify before South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

2018:
a. Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal lawyer, pleads guilty to charges including illegal payment at direction of Trump to women Trump had affairs with
b. Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull calls for and wins a leadership vote 43-35 over Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton
c. Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman, is convicted on eight counts of fraud in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia

2019: German Chancellor challenges British PM Boris Johnson to find a solution to a no-deal Brexit in 30 days at their meeting in Berlin