On This Day

[Kestra]

On July 26, 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Go to article.)

On July 26, 1884, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the presidential election of 1884. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)


1788 New York became the 11th state to ratify the Constitution.

1856 Playwright George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland.

1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labor Party.He was succeeded by Clement Attlee.

1948 President Harry S. Truman signed executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment. and then came Clintons' DADO.

1952 Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

1953 Fidel Castro began a revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba.

1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.

1964 Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and six others were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the handling of a union pension fund.

1971 Apollo 15 was launched on a manned mission to the moon.

1990 The House of Representatives reprimanded Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., for ethics violations.

1990 President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act.

1990 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a young woman later identified as Kimberly Bergalis had been infected with the AIDS virus, apparently by her dentist.

2000 A federal judge approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.

2006 A jury in Houston found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the drowning of her children in a bathtub in the second trial she faced on the charges; she was committed to a state mental hospital.

[Kestra]

On August 1, 1936, 100,000 saluted Adolf Hitler on his entrance at the opening of the Berlin Olympics. (Go to article.)

On August 1, 1863, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the Draft Riot in New York City. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1790 The first U.S. census was completed, showing a population of nearly 4 million people.

1876 Colorado was admitted to the union as the 38th state.

1914 Germany declared war on Russia at the onset of World War I.

1942 Rock musician Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead was born in San Francisco.

1943 Race-related rioting erupted in New York City's Harlem section, resulting in several deaths.

1944 An uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation.

1966 Charles Joseph Whitman shot and killed 14 people at the University of Texas before he was gunned down by police.

1981 The music video cable channel MTV made its debut.

1988 Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program.

1995 Westinghouse Electric Corp. struck a deal to buy CBS for $5.4 billion.

2005 King Fahd of Saudi Arabia died. Crown Prince Abdullah, the king's half-brother, became the country's new monarch.

2005 Baltimore Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for 10 days following a positive test for steroids.

2007 The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people.

2009 Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, the democracy icon who had swept away a dictator, died in Manila at age 76.

[Kestra]

On Aug. 3, 1958, the nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. (Go to article.)

On August 3, 1878, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about famed agnostic Robert Ingersoll. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1492 Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that would take him to the present-day Americas.

1778 The opera house La Scala opened in Milan, Italy, with a performance of Antonio Salieri's "Europa riconosciuta."

1914 At the outbreak of World War I, British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey remarked: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

1914 Germany declared war on France.

1923 Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, one day after President Warren G. Harding died of a heart attack.

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, a charge Hiss denied.

1949 The National Basketball Association was formed.

1981 U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Ronald Reagan that they would be fired.

1994 Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice.

2003 Golfer Annika Sorenstam completed a career Grand Slam by winning the Women's British Open.

2008 Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn died at age 89.

2009 Iran's supreme leader formally endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term as president.

[Kestra]

On August 5, 1963 the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater. (Go to article.)

On August 5, 1882, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the gubernatorial campaign of Alexander Stephens, the former Confederate vice president. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1861 The federal government levied an income tax for the first time.

1884 The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

1924 The comic strip "Little Orphan Annie" by Harold Gray made its debut.

1957 "American Bandstand," hosted by Dick Clark, made its network TV debut on ABC.

1962 Actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home at age 36. (Her death was ruled a probable suicide from an overdose of sleeping pills.)

1966 The album "Revolver" by the Beatles was released.

1969 The U.S. space probe Mariner 7 flew by Mars, sending back photographs and scientific data.

1981 The federal government began firing striking air traffic controllers.

2001 Afghanistan's ruling Taliban jailed eight foreign aid workers, including two Americans, for allegedly preaching Christianity.

2009 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term as Iran's president.

[Kestra]

On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, that instantly killed an estimated 66,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. (Go to article.)

On August 6, 1904, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the 1904 presidential campaign. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1825 Bolivia declared its independence from Peru.

1890 The electric chair was used for the first time, to execute a convicted murderer at Auburn State Prison in New York.

1890 Hall of fame pitcher Cy Young made his major league debut with the Cleveland Spiders of the National League.

1914 Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia, and Serbia declared war against Germany at the outbreak of World War I.

1926 Gertrude Ederle of New York became the first American woman to swim the English Channel.

1962 Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth.

1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

1965 The album "Help!" by the Beatles was released.

1978 Pope Paul VI died at age 80.

1998 Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky testified before a grand jury about her relationship with President Bill Clinton.

2001 President George W. Bush received a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S." as part of his daily intelligence briefing. gee, i wonder what that means?... oh yeah... go read "My Pet Goat" then; bomb, invade, occupy Iraq.

2007 The Crandall Canyon Mine in central Utah collapsed, trapping six coal miners. (All six miners died, along with three rescuers.)

2008 The government declared that Army scientist Bruce Ivins was solely responsible for the anthrax attacks that killed five in 2001. (Ivins had committed suicide on July 29.)

2008 A U.S. military jury convicted Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, of supporting terrorism in the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay.

2009 Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice by a Senate vote of 68-31.

[Kestra]

On Aug. 13, 1961, Berlin was divided as East Germany sealed off the border between the city's eastern and western sectors in order to halt the flight of refugees. (Go to article.)

On August 13, 1898, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about disease and the Spanish-American War. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1521 Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez captured present-day Mexico City from the Aztecs.

1704 The Battle of Blenheim was fought during the War of the Spanish Succession, resulting in a victory for English and Austrian forces.

1899 Movie director Alfred Hitchcock was born in London.

1932 Adolf Hitler rejected the post of vice-chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out "for all or nothing."

1934 The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp made its debut.

1942 Walt Disney's animated feature "Bambi" premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

1960 The first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1, a balloon satellite.

1981 President Ronald Reagan signed a historic package of tax and budget reductions.

1995 Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle died of liver cancer at age 63.

2003 Libya agreed to set up a $2.7 billion fund for families of 270 people killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.

2004 The 28th summer Olympic games opened in Athens.

2008 American Michael Phelps swam into history as the winningest Olympic athlete ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals.

2009 Guitar virtuoso Les Paul died at age 94.

[Kestra]

On Aug. 20, 1968, the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the ''Prague Spring'' liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime. (Go to article.)

On August 20, 1904, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the presidential election of 1904. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1833 Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, was born in North Bend, Ohio.

1914 German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.

1918 Britain opened an offensive on the Western front during World War I.

1940 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

1953 The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

1955 Hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.

1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure.

1977 The United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft carrying a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

1992 The Republican National Convention in Houston nominated President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term.

1998 Retaliating for deadly embassy bombings in East Africa, the United States launched cruise missile strikes against al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and what was described as a chemical plant in Sudan.

2009 Voting in Afghanistan's presidential election was marred by rampant ballot-box stuffing. (Hamid Karzai was declared the winner in November.)

2009 The only man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 returned home to Libya after his release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

[Kestra]

On Aug. 21, 1959, President Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. (Go to article.)

On August 21, 1880, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the presidential election of 1880. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1831 Nat Turner launched a short-lived, violent slave rebellion in Virginia.

1858 The first of seven debates between U.S. Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place in Ottawa, Ill.

1878 The American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y.

1904 Jazz musician and bandleader William "Count" Basie was born in Red Bank, N.J.

1940 Exiled Russian Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky died in Mexico City from wounds inflicted by an assassin.

1983 Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., ending a self-imposed exile in the United States, was shot dead moments after stepping off a plane at Manila International Airport. guess that wasn't such a wise choice.

1987 Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine ever court-martialed for spying, was convicted in Quantico, Va., of passing secrets to the KGB.

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 Yeltsin.

2000 Rescue efforts to reach the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk ended with divers announcing that none of the 118 sailors had survived.

2002 A jury in San Diego convicted David Westerfield of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. (He was later sentenced to death.)

2006 British prosecutors announced that 11 people had been charged in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners bound for the United States.

2009 Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.

[Kestra]

On Aug. 29, 1991, the Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the U.S.S.R., suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the institution. (Go to article.) ya'd never know tho hear the rightee tightees sceech about communism.

On August 29, 1908, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the phonograph and the presidential election of 1908. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)


1533 The last Incan king, Atahualpa, was murdered on orders from Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.

1632 English philosopher John Locke was born in Somerset.

1877 Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormon Church, died in Salt Lake City at age 76.

1944 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.

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. that was back in the day when they really had to filibustered and not just say it.

1958 Pop singer Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Ind.

1965 Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space.

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

1996 President Bill Clinton's chief political strategist, Dick Morris, resigned amid a scandal over his relationship with a prostitute.

2000 Pope John Paul II endorsed organ donation and adult stem cell study but condemned human cloning and embryo experiments.

2008 Republican John McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice-presidential running mate. yeah, they figured since Hillary was running they needed a woman, any woman didn't matter as vp.

[Kestra]

On Aug. 30, 1963, the hot-line communications link between Washington, D.C., and Moscow went into operation. (Go to article.)

On August 30, 1884, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the presidential election of 1884. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1797 "Frankenstein" author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London.

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

1893 Huey P. Long, the "Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, was born in Winn Parish, La.

1905 Baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers.

1918 Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams was born in San Diego.

1941 Nazi forces began a siege of Leningrad during World War II that lasted nearly two and a half years.

1945 Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan and set up Allied occupation headquarters.

1965 The album "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan was released.

1967 The Senate confirmed the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first African-American justice on the Supreme Court.

1983 Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first African-American astronaut to travel in space when he blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

1989 A federal jury in New York found "hotel queen" Leona Helmsley guilty of income tax evasion but acquitted her of extortion. only peons pay taxes.

1990 President George H.W. Bush told a news conference that a "new world order" could emerge from the Persian Gulf crisis.

1993 "The Late Show with David Letterman" premiered on CBS.

1999 Residents of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored ballot.

2005 A day after Hurricane Katrina hit, floodwaters covered 80 percent of New Orleans, looting continued to spread and rescuers in helicopters and boats picked up hundreds of stranded people. it was a black eye for the past Admin

[Kestra]

On Sept. 3, 1976, the unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the planet's surface. (Go to article.)

On September 3, 1864, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the presidential campaign of 1864. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)

1189 England's King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) was crowned in Westminster.

1658 Oliver Cromwell, England's lord protector, died.

1783 The Treaty of Paris officially ended America's Revolutionary War.

1929 The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 381.17, it's pre-crash high.

1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland.

1970 Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi died at age 57.

1978 Pope John Paul I was installed as the 264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.

2004 A three-day hostage siege at a school in Beslan, Russia, ended in bloody chaos after Chechen militants set off bombs and Russian commandos stormed the building; more than 330 people were killed, most of them children.

2005 President George W. Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

2005 Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died at age 80.

2007 Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, 63, vanished after taking off in a single-engine plane in western Nevada. (His remains were discovered in October 2008 in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.)

2009 A private funeral service was held in Glendale, Calif. for singer Michael Jackson, whose body was entombed in a mausoleum. yeah, a "private funeral service" that was paid for by tax payers of Calif.

[Kestra]

On Sept. 4, 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock. (Go to article.)

On September 4, 1869, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about possible United States intervention in Cuba's first war of independence. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)


1781 Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers. do tell.

1888 George Eastman received a patent for his roll-film camera and registered his trademark: Kodak.

1917 The American expeditionary force in France suffered its first fatalities in World War I.

1951 In the first live coast-to-coast TV broadcast, President Harry S. Truman addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco.

1957 Ford Motor Co. began selling its ill-fated Edsel line.

1972 Swimmer Mark Spitz became the first person to win seven gold medals at a single Olympic Games when the United States won the 400-meter relay in Munich.

2002 Singer Kelly Clarkson was voted the first "American Idol" on the Fox TV series.

2006 "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, 44, died after a stingray's barb pierced his chest.

2007 Toy maker Mattel Inc. recalled 800,000 lead-tainted, Chinese-made toys worldwide, a third major recall in just over a month. god bless Outsourcing.

2008 Sen. John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in St. Paul, Minn.

2008 Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a sex scandal, forcing the Democrat out of office.

[Kestra]

On Sept. 6, 1901, President William B. McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. (Go to article.)

On September 6, 1902, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about William Devery, the corrupt police chief of New York City. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)


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

1941 Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas were ordered to wear yellow Stars of David. and now we're emulating this same ideology with American Muslims.

1970 Palestinian guerrillas seized control of three jetliners, which were later blown up on the ground in Jordan after the passengers and crews were evacuated.

1975 Czechoslovakian tennis player Martina Navratilova, in New York for the U.S. Open, requested political asylum.

1996 Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles hit his 500th career home run during a game against the Detroit Tigers.

1997 Britain bade farewell to Princess Diana with a funeral service at Westminster Abbey.

2004 Former President Bill Clinton underwent successful heart bypass surgery.

2005 The California Legislature became the first legislative body in the nation to approve same-sex marriages. (Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later vetoed the bill.) what! he upheld the Constitutional rights of US citizens?!

2006 President George W. Bush acknowledged previously secret CIA prisons around the world and said 14 high-value terrorism suspects had been transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for trials.

2007 Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti died at age 71.