On this day:
Wednesday, Aug. 1:
* On this day in 1981, MTV begins broadcasting in the U.S. with "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. Here's what else followed:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=782994
Thursday, Aug. 2:
* Birthday of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, architect and planner of Washington, DC, in 1754. How to enjoy his work in a day:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=557479
Friday, Aug. 3:
* Calvin Coolidge learns at 2:30 a.m. that he is president, after the death of Warren G. Harding:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=491595
Saturday, Aug. 4:
* Unable to get rid of the bubbles that he considered defects in winemaking, Dom Perignon gives up and calls it "champagne" in 1693:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=55936
Sunday, Aug. 5:
* ABC TV rolls out Dick Clark and "American Bandstand" nationwide in 1957, after Clark had emceed the show for a year:
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Monday, Aug. 6:
* Likely date that the Internet starts (1991), with Tim Berners-Lee's post on the 'WorldWideWeb' project:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=746649
Tuesday, Aug. 7:
* President Harry Truman announces the use of the first atomic bomb a day earlier in Hiroshima from aboard the USS Augusta, while returning from the Potsdam Conference (1945):
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=162167
Wednesday, Aug. 8:
* Following the defeat at Gettysburg, the costliest battle of the American Civil War, Gen. Robert E. Lee submits his resignation letter in 1863, only to have it rejected. Casualties of every battle in the war:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=744984
Thursday, Aug. 9:
* First meeting of Pres. Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941 aboard ship in the "Atlantic Charter Conference":
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=288804
Friday, Aug. 10:
* Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is founded in Cooperstown, NY in 1971. What SABR hath wrought:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=336869
Saturday, Aug. 11:
* The Second Temple in Jerusalem destroyed by the Roman Army in 70 A.D. Only the 'Wailing Wall' remains today:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=266177
Sunday, Aug. 12:
* Feast day for Saint Clare of Assisi, patron saint of television. How television changed to adopt realistic views of marriage and society:
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Monday, Aug. 13:
* U.S. Postal Service issues its first "semipostal" or fund-raising stamp for breast cancer and the Komen Foundation:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=530435
Tuesday, Aug. 14:
* Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Social Security Act into law in 1934, establishing the tax at 2%:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=145359
Wednesday, Aug. 15: Assumption Day (227)
* Birthday of Julia Child in 1912. A noted cook, author and TV personality, here's how her cookbooks rank in sales today:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=746297
Thursday, Aug. 16:
* Roy Chapman, shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, is the only player killed in a Major League baseball game when he is hit in the head in the 1st inning:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=39096
Friday, Aug. 17:
* Pre-dating the Pony Express by a year, John Wise attempts the delivery of the first air mail by balloon in 1859 from Lafayette, IN. It didn't work when the winds didn't cooperate:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=392543
Saturday, Aug. 18:
* The Wilkes Expedition, which would extensively explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads in 1838:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=94189
Sunday, Aug. 19:
* Birthday of William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd president of the U.S., in 1946. Can he run for vice-president?
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=313115
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Monday, Aug. 20:
* Exiled former Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky assassinated in Mexico City (1940). He'd also be excised from photographs by during the Stalin era:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=438859
Tuesday, Aug. 21:
* Carbon dioxide released from beneath volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon kills 1,800 people within 25 km in 1986:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=197162
Wednesday, Aug. 22:
* The first U.S. president to ride in a motor car was Theodore Roosevelt on this day in 1902. More about presidential rides:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=535676
Thursday, Aug. 23:
* Composer Oscar Hammerstein II dies in 1960. The last song he composed was "Edelweiss" for the stage version of 'The Sound of Music'. Trivia from the filming of the movie:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=318239
Friday, Aug. 24:
* St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of French Protestants or Huguenots begins in 1572 by King Charles IX. The historical story is retold in the 1994 movie, 'Queen Margot':
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=364768
Saturday, Aug. 25:
* Nine years after the Wright brothers pioneering flight at Kitty Hawk (1903), a British pilot named Wilfred Parke finally figures out how to recover from a spin:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=167616
Sunday, Aug. 26:
* Julius Caesar invades Britain in 56 B.C., then the land of the Celts:
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Monday, Aug. 27:
* Oil discovered in 1859 at Titusville, PA with the world's first oil well. How to find oil reserve estimates today:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=752966
Tuesday, Aug. 28: Total lunar eclipse (240)
* In 270 BC, Greek astronomer Aristarcus estimated the distance of the moon from the duration of an eclipse.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=142670
Wednesday, Aug. 29:
* Charlie "Bird" Parker, American saxophonist, born in 1920 in Kansas:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=380805
Thursday, Aug. 30:
* Thurgood Marshall confirmed as first African-American U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1967. The Senate vote:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=387938
Friday, Aug. 31:
* Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman begins the final stage of the Battle of Atlanta in 1864. Some of Sherman's logistical concerns:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=563978
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