This Day in History

[GordMay]

August 3

1977 ~ Radio Shack issues a press release introducing TRS-80 computer

1970 ~ Hurricane "Celia" becomes most expensive Gulf (of Mexico) storm in history
More: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropica...celia1970.html

1960 ~ Niger (not Nigeria) gains independence from France
Chronology - Independence of African colonies: http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/ch...ependence2.htm

1955 ~ Hurricane “Connie” begins pounding U.S. for 11 days
Max. winds: 145 mph, Min. pressure: 936 mb, Category: 4

1925 ~ Last U.S. troops leave Nicaragua (there since 1912)

1914 ~ 1st “seaworthy ship” through Panama Canal
On August 15, 1914, the canal was opened to world commerce. The first ship through was the vessel ‘Ancon’, carrying guests of honor.

1704 ~ English/Dutch fleet under Rooke/Callenburgh occupy Gibraltar

1492 ~ Columbus sets sail from Spain for "Indies"
From the Spanish port of Palos, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets sail in command of three ships: the Santa Marýa, the Pinta, and the Niýa, on a journey to find a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.
He was accompanied by a crew of 90 (aboard Santa Maria), and departed Spain half an hour before sunrise to begin the search for a water passage to Cathay.
On October 12, the expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and "Indian" captives in March 1493 and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century.
During his lifetime, Columbus led a total of four expeditions to the New World, discovering various Caribbean islands, the Gulf of Mexico, and the South and Central American mainland, but never accomplished his original goal - a western ocean route to the great cities of Asia. Columbus died in Spain in 1506 without realizing the great scope of what he did achieve: He had discovered the New World for Europe, whose riches over the next century would help make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.

[GordMay]

August 4

1351 ~ Sea battle at Zwartewaal: Willem V beats Hoeksen and English

1666 ~ Hurricane hits Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Christopher (thousands die)
1666 ~ Johan Evertsen, ltalian Admiral of Zeeland, lynched in Brielle

1790~ US Coast Guard founded as Revenue Cutter Service

1884 ~ Isoroku Yamamoto Born
A Japanese Admiral during WWII, Yamamoto planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was killed when U.S. 13th Air Force shot down his plane Apr 18, 1943

1912 ~ Raoul Wallenberg born, Stockholm, Sweden
Thanks to Steven Spielberg's epic "Schindler's List" millions learned - or were reminded - that there were people during World War II who risked their lives to save Jews. In that dark chapter in human history there was perhaps no greater example than Raoul Wallenberg, who is credited with saving as many as 100,000 Jews from the Nazi death camps.
As a Legation Counsellor in Budapest, he used his diplomatic status to save many Hungarian Jews during the later stages of World War II.
He was able to issue temporary Swedish "protective passports" claiming that the bearers were Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. He also skillfully negotiated with Nazi officials such as Adolf Eichmann for the cancellation of deportations by playing on their fear of the consequences of having perpetrated war crimes. He is thought to have saved the lives of between 20,000 and 100,000 Jews and as such is generally considered one of the most notable heroes who directly fought against The Holocaust.
His tactic was mainly to buy houses, put Jewish refugees in them and provide them with a "protection passport" (German: Schutz-Pass). The buildings were bought with embassy capital. The "protective passports" were legally speaking invalid, but Wallenberg had noticed that German and Hungarian fascist authorities were obsessed with official-looking papers and thus believed that such papers would actually protect their holders. In many cases this tactic worked. Wallenberg also housed numerous refugees at the Swedish Embassy in Budapest.
Wallenberg was arrested by the Red Army on January 17, 1945, probably on suspicion of being a spy for the United States. What happened to him since is not known — the official Russian version is that he died in captivity on July 17, 1947, but a number of testimonies have placed him alive in Siberian or Russian prisons as late as the 1960s.
More: http://www.remember.org/imagine/wallenberg.html

1925 ~ U.S. Marines depart Nicaragua after 13-year occupation

1944 ~ Anne Frank and her family arrested by Gestapo
Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the "secret annex" working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps.

1965 ~ Cook Islands enters into free association with New Zealand

1980 ~ Hurricane ‘Aline’ strikes Carbbean then Texas (272 die)

1986 ~ OPEC lowers oil production 20%

[GordMay]

August 5

1986 ~ U.S. Senate votes for SDI-project (Star Wars)

1963 ~ Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed
Representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater, or in the atmosphere. The treaty was hailed as an important first step toward the control of nuclear weapons.

1962 ~ Marilyn Monroe found dead of apparent self-inflicted drug OD at 35

1945 ~ U.S. Atom Bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Aug 6th in Japan)
"Little Boy" is the nick name given to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945. Little Boy was dropped from the Enola Gay, one of the B-29 bombers that flew over Hiroshima on that day.
After being released, it took about a minute for Little Boy to reach the point of explosion. Little Boy exploded at approximately 8:15 a.m. (Japan Standard Time) when it reached an altitude of 2,000 ft above the building that is today called the "A-Bomb Dome."
Little Boy generated an enormous amount of energy in terms of air pressure and heat. In addition, it generated a significant amount of radiation (Gamma ray and neutrons) that subsequently caused devastating human injuries.
The radiation generated by the bomb caused long-term problems to those affected. Many people died within the first few months and many more in subsequent years because of radiation exposure. Some people had genetic problems which sometimes resulted in having malformed babies or being unable to have children.
It is believed that more than 140,000 people died by the end of the year. They were citizens including students, soldiers and Koreans who worked in factories within the city. The total number of people who have died due to the bomb is estimated to be 200,000.

1937 ~ ‘Ranger’ (U.S.) beats ‘Endeavour II’ (England) in 17th America's Cup

1858 ~ First transatlantic telegraph cable completed
After several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean is completed, a feat accomplished largely through the efforts of American merchant Cyrus West Field.

1815 ~ Edward J Eyre born (British explorer, Governor of Jamaica)

1781 ~ Battle at Doggers Bank: Dutch fleet vs English fleet
On August 5, 1781 rear-admiral J.A. Zoutman, with a flotilla of 17 men-at-war at his command, battled with a British fleet at Dogger Bank. This British fleet consisted of 19 fully armed and well trained warships under the command of admiral Sir Hyde Parker. Although in the minority the Dutch flotilla managed to hold 'ground' and the British fleet was forced to withdraw.

[GordMay]

August 6

1181 ~ Supernova observed by Chinese & Japanese astronomers
First seen on August 6, 1181 from southern China, and independently found one day later from Japan, this "guest star" remained visible for 185 days. One of only eight supernovae in the Milky Way observed in recorded history, it appeared in the constellation Cassiopeia .
The radio source 3C58 (or G130.7+3.1) is thought to be the remnant from this event. Similar to the Crab Nebula, 3C 58 is a filled-center supernova remnant, extending now about 9x5 arc minutes. It contains a pulsar which rotates about 15 times per second.

1497 ~ John Cabot returns to Bristol from North-America

1825 ~ Bolivia gains independence from Peru (National Day)

1890 ~ ‘Old Sparky’ Energized
At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. After he was strapped in, a charge of approximately 700 volts was delivered for only 17 seconds before the current failed. Although witnesses reported smelling burnt clothing and charred flesh, Kemmler was far from dead, and a second shock was prepared. The second charge was 1,030 volts and applied for about two minutes, whereupon smoke was observed coming from the head of Kemmler, who was clearly deceased. An autopsy showed that the electrode attached to his back had burned through to the spine. Dr. Southwick applauded Kemmler's execution with the declaration, "We live in a higher civilization from this day on," while American inventor George Westinghouse, an innovator of the use of electricity, remarked, "They would have done better with an axe."

1926 ~ Ederle Swims Chanel
Nineteen-year-old Gertrude Ederle from New York became the first woman to swim the English Channel. She accomplished the feat in 14 hours and 31 minutes, breaking the men’s record by two hours.

1934 ~ 20 Year occupation ends, as US troops leave Haiti
More: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0310-07.htm
And: http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm


1951 ~ Typhoon floods kill 4,800 in Manchuria

1962 ~ Jamaica becomes independent after 300 years of British rule
The flag of Jamaica was adopted on August 6, 1962 which is Jamaican Independance Day.

[GordMay]

August 7

Today
2005 ~ All 7 Aboard Russia Mini-Sub Rescued Alive
Seven people on board a submarine trapped for nearly three days under the Pacific Ocean were rescued Sunday after a British remote-controlled vehicle cut away the undersea cables that had snarled their vessel, allowing it to surface.
The seven, whose oxygen supplies had been dwindling amid underwater temperatures in the mid-40s, appeared to be in satisfactory condition, naval spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said. They were examined in the clinic of a naval ship, then transferred to a larger vessel to return to the mainland.
``The crew opened the hatch themselves, exited the vessel and climbed aboard a speedboat,'' said Rear Adm. Vladimir Pepelyayev, deputy head of the naval general staff.
``I can only thank our English colleagues for their joint work and the help they gave in order to complete this operation within the time we had available - that is, before the oxygen reserves ran out,'' he said.

1998 - al-Qa'ida bombs U.S. Embassies
At 10:30 a.m. local time, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Minutes later, another truck bomb detonated outside the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, the capital of neighboring Tanzania. The dual terrorist attacks killed 224 people, and wounded more than 4,500.
More about al-Qa’ida: http://www.terrorismfiles.org/organi.../al_qaida.html

1993 ~ Tropical storm Brett ravages Venezuela (118 die)

1990 ~ George I goes to war - U.S. deploys troops to Saudi Arabia and ‘Desert Shield’ begins

1980 ~ Hurricane Allen ravages Caribbean area (about 70 die)
Hurricane Allen was the strongest hurricane of the 1980 Atlantic hurricane season and one of the strongest hurricanes in recorded history, with sustained winds reaching a maximum of 190 mph. In addition, it is one of only three Atlantic hurricanes to reach Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale on three separate occasions, the others being Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Isabel. Allen also produced the third-lowest minimum pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin at 899 mb.
More: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/tropica...allen1980.html


1964 ~ U.S. Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution
The United States Congress overwhelming approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson nearly unlimited powers to oppose "communist aggression" in Southeast Asia. The resolution marked the beginning of an expanded military role for the United States in the Cold War battlefields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

1947 ~ Kon Tiki crashes into Tuamotu’s
Kon-Tiki was the name given to a raft by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Kon-Tiki is also the name of the popular book which Heyerdahl wrote about his adventures.
Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in the south Pacific in Pre-Columbian times. His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to them at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so.
Heyerdahl and a small team went to Peru, where they used trees and other native materials to construct a balsawood raft said to be of native style. Accompanied by five companions, Heyerdahl sailed it for 101 days over 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on August 7, 1947. They had modern equipment such as radio and military expedition food, but found they could live off the fruits of the ocean, as the raft attracted lots of marine life.

1942 ~ 1st American offensive in Pacific in WW2 at Guadalcanal, Solomon Is
(US casualties 6,000 including 1,600 dead; Japan casualties about 24,000)

1915 ~ WW1 Assault up ‘Russell's Top’ at Gallipolis (232 Australians die)

1876 - Mata Hari (Gertrud Margarete Zelle) born

1779 ~ Carl Ritter born
Karl Ritter was, along with his fellow German Alexander von Humboldt, one of the founders of modern geography.

1750 ~ Slave uprising at Hato Plantation on Curacao

1657 ~ English Admiral Robert Blake dies

1573 ~ Francis Drake’s fleet returns to Plymouth
More: http://www.global-travel.co.uk/drake.htm

[GordMay]

August 8

1549 ~ France declares war on England

1866 - Explorer Matthew Henson born (North Pole expedition 1908-09 w/Robert Peary)

1870 ~ ‘Magic’ (U.S.) defeats ‘Cambria’ (England) in 2nd running of America's Cup

1879 ~ Emiliano Zapata born
Emiliano Zapata, a leader of peasants and indigenous people during the Mexican revolution, is born in Anenecuilco, Mexico.

1929 ~ German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight

1963 ~ Great Train Robbery
Seven million dollars was stolen in Britain’s Great Train Robbery by a gang of fifteen thieves. Scotland Yard called the holdup up, “Britain’s biggest robbery ever attempted.”

1974 ~ President Richard M Nixon announces he'll resign his office 12PM Aug 9
In an evening televised address, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to become the first president in American history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House. "By taking this action," he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office, "I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America."

1976 ~ John Roselli, hired by CIA to kill Castro, found murdered
More: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKroselli.htm
And: http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/roselli.htm

1987 ~ Lynne Cox became 1st to swim from U.S. to Russia across Bering Strait

1988 ~ Russian troops begin pull out of Afghanistan after 9 year war

[GordMay]

August 9

1979 ~ Brighton Beach (England) goes nude

1969 ~Helter Skelter
Cult leader Charles Manson and his disciples committed one of Los Angeles’ most heinous crimes. They entered the home of movie director Roman Polanski and brutally murdered Polanski’s wife actress Sharon Tate, movie director Voityck Frykowski, famous hair stylist Jay Sebring, student Steven Parent and coffee heiress Abigail Folger.

1945 ~ US drops 2nd atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan
The 7-foot 8-inch long, five-foot diameter, 10,200-pound weapon detonated at an altitude of about 1,800 feet over the city. It was dropped from the B-29 bomber ‘Bocks Car’, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney. The bomb had a yield of about 25 kilotons, slightly more than the bomb known as "Little Boy" dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier. The weather made visibility poor, so the aircraft bypassed Kokura and chose its secondary target, Nagasaki. Because of Nagasaki's hilly terrain, the damage was somewhat less extensive than that in relatively flat Hiroshima. An estimated 40,000 people were killed outright by the bombing at Nagasaki, and about 25,000 were injured.Many thousands more would die later from related injuries, poisoning and nuclear fallout/radiation. Japan surrendered unconditionally the following day.

Atomic Bomb Decision:
http://www.dannen.com/decision/
Documents on the decision to use Atomic Bombs on the cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by the first atomic bombs used in warfare.
Documents on the decision to use the atomic bomb are reproduced here in full-text form. In most cases, the originals are in the U.S. National Archives. Other aspects of the decision are shown from accounts by the participants.

1938 ~ Tennis great Rod Laver born

1842 ~ World’s Longest ‘undefended’ border
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, settled the dispute over the location of the Maine-New Brunswick border between the United States and Canada as well as the location of the border in the westward frontier up to the Rocky Mountains. It also called for a final end to the slave trade on the high seas, to be enforced by both signatories.
The agreement was signed by United States Secretary of State Daniel Webster and United Kingdom Privy Council member Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton.

1841 ~ ‘Erie’ catches fire in Buffalo New York (250 die)
The Erie, which was called the finest boat on the lakes at that time, was owned by Charles M. Reed of Erie, Pa., and was commanded by Capt. Titus. She had just been overhauled in Buffalo and newly painted throughout. She was heavily loaded with freight, and there were about 800 passengers aboard, mostly German emigrants, who had brought with them a considerable quantity of gold coin and other valuables from the fatherland. The fire occurred at about 7:30 P.M., just at the decline of a day that was clear and pleasant, except that a strong northeast wind was blowing. All witnesses agree in saying that in a few minutes, probably not more than five, after the discovery of the fire, the vessel was completely wrapped in flames. About 250 lives were lost by drowning and burning.

1778 ~ Captain Cook reaches Cape Prince of Wales in the Bering straits

1593 Izaak Walton born (Author: ‘Compleat Angler’)
Sir Isaac Walton was pretty clear about the fact that no matter how many years you’ve spent fishing, you’ll never quite get it right, even if you read his book. He said, “Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics, that it can never be fully learned.”

378 ~ Battle of Adrianople - Romans routed by Visgoths
In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens himself, were overrun and slaughtered by the mounted barbarians. Some 20,000 of 30,000 men were killed, including Emperor Valens.
The decisive Visigoth victory at the Battle of Adrianople left the Eastern Roman Empire nearly defenseless and established the supremacy of cavalry over infantry that would last for the next millennium. Emperor Valens was succeeded by Theodosius the Great, who struggled to repel the hordes of Visigoth barbarians plundering the Balkan Peninsula.
More: http://www.roman-empire.net/army/adrianople.html

[GordMay]

August 10

1994 ~ Last British troops leave Hong Kong (been there since Sept 1841)

1977 ~ U.S. and Panama sign Panama Canal Zone accords
The Torrijos-Carter Treaties (sometimes referred to in the singular as the Torrijos-Carter Treaty), are a pair of treaties, abrogating the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty signed in 1903. The treaties guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the Panama Canal - then under US control, after 1999. This first treaty is officially called The Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal, commonly referred to as the Neutrality Treaty. Under this treaty, the U.S. retains the permanent right to defend the canal from any threat that might interfere with its continued neutral service to ships of all nations. The second treaty is called The Panama Canal Treaty. It is this treaty which insured that after the year 2000, Panama would assume full control of canal operations and become primarily responsible for its defense.

1966 ~Comet Tempel-Tuttle & the Leonid Storm
In a rare case of a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere and leaving it again, a daylight meteor was seen from Utah to Canada. During the Leonid storms of 1833 and 1966, the comet (Tempel-Tuttle) barely grazed inside our orbit, at distances of 0.0012 and 0.0031 A.U. respectively.

1945 ~ Japanese offer surrender
Japan announces willingness to surrender to Allies provided status of Emperor Hirohito remained unchanged .

1904 ~ Japanese fleet defeat Russians off Port Arthur

1866 Transatlantic cable laid - first message
The first message sent on this, finally successful, cable was: "A treaty of peace has been signed between Austria and Prussia". Queen Victoria, then at Osborne, in the Isle of Wight, sent a message to President Buchanan of the United States, . "The Queen congratulates the President on the successful completion of an undertaking which she hopes may serve as an additional bond of Union between the United States and England."

1831 ~ Hurricane hits Barbados (about 1,500 die)

1790 ~ Robert Gray's Columbia, completes 1st American around world voyage
Born in Tiverton, R.I., Gray was the discoverer of the Columbia River. He probably served in the Continental navy in the American Revolution. In 1787 he and Capt. John Kendrick were sent by Boston merchants to the northwest coast of North America with two vessels, the Columbia Rediviva and the sloop Lady Washington. In 1789, Gray was transferred to command of the Columbia, took a rich cargo of sea otter skins to Guangzhou, and in 1790 returned to Boston, the first American to circumnavigate the globe. In 1791 he went back to the Northwest coast and wintered there. On May 11, 1792, he took the Columbia past the dangerous bar and up the river later named after the ship. Though Spanish and English navigators had been familiar with the bar at the Columbia's mouth, Gray was the first to enter the river itself

1628 ~ “Wasa” sinks at Stockholm (50 die)
t has been called a monument to the Swedish sense of humour. With cannons gleaming, the crown of the Swedish armada, the ‘Wasa’ set off on 10 August in 1628 to teach the enemy Poles a lesson. Crowds lined the shore on the clear, almost windless day. But within minutes of starting her maiden voyage, the mighty warship suddenly sank, marking one of the biggest fiascos in Scandinavian history. Fleet commander, Hans Jonsson, went down with his ship.
After 333 years underwater, the “Wassa” was raised in 1961, and now sits in a Stockholm museum.

1519 ~ Magellan's 5 ships set sail to circumnavigate Earth
Ferdinand de Magellan was born about 1470 of noble parents, and probably spent his boyhood as a page of the Queen of Portugal. As a young man he was in the East India service, then in Morocco. After a slight from King Manuel, he enlisted under the Spanish king, and set forth his project for a trip round the world.
Magellan sailed from Seville, Spain, with five ships, the Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, and Santiago. Magellan was killed in April 1521 at Zebu (Phillippines), but they had already reached the eastern edge of the known world. Three years later, one ship (the Victoria) made it back to Seville, under the command of Juan Sebastián de Elcano, carrying only 18 of the original 270 crew members.

[GordMay]

August 11

1304 ~ Zierikzee - Dutch & French fleet beat Flemish fleet in battle at Zierik Sea

1718 ~ Battle at Cape Passaro
The English fleet, under Admiral George Byng (Viscount Torrington) destroyed or captured 15 of 22 Spanish ships at the Battle of Cape Passaro, near Syracuse, Sicily

1772 ~ Explosive eruption blows 4,000' off Papandayan, Java (3,000 die)

1909 ~ Liner "Arapahoe" - SOS
. The steamer Arapahoe, of the Clyde Line, while bound from New York for Charleston and Jacksonville, heavily laden and with many passengers on board, broke her tailshaft near Diamond Shoals, and was helplessly drifting ashore. The "Arapahoe" was the first U.S. ship to use the radio distress call "SOS", which brought the steamship “Huron” to her assistance.
Contrary to popular opinion, SOS (which has no stops between the letters, the signal being a continuous signal of three dots, three dashes and three dots) is not an acronym for any series of words such as Save Our Ship or Save Our Souls. The original call for distress began with the British CQ, meaning “All Stations”, used by telegraph and cable operators worldwide. The D for ’distress’ was added to CQ by the Marconi company in 1904.
In 1906, at the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference, the German’s general inquiry call, SOE, was suggested as an international distress signal. Changing the E to S gave the signal its unmistakeable character, and SOS was officially ratified as the international distress signal in 1908, although it was not officially adopted by the USA until 1912 (prompted by the Titanic tragedy).
It is interesting to note that the Titanic’s radio operator sent Marconi’s CQD code six times before using the four-year-old international SOS signal some twenty minutes later.

1984 ~ Reagan outlaws Russia - bombing begins in 5
As he prepared for his weekly radio address on August 11, 1984, President Reagan was asked to make a voice check. Reagan obliged, declaring, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Since the voice check was not actually broadcast, it was not until after he delivered his radio address that news of his "joke" began to leak out, causing consternation among America's allies and providing grist for comedians and the Soviet propaganda mill.

1999 ~ Total solar eclipse in India - North to France

[GordMay]

August 12

1992 ~ NAFTA
The United States, Mexico and Canada agreed to form a free-trade zone that would remove most barriers to trade and investment and create the world’s largest trading bloc: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

1985 ~ JAL Flight 123 crashes (520 die)
At 6:50 p.m. local time, a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747SR crashes into Mount Otsuka, 70 miles northwest of Tokyo. There were 524 people aboard, and all but four were dead by the time rescuers reached the remote crash site.

1981~ IBM introduces PC and PC-DOS version 1.0
The IBM Model 5150 PC ran on the Intel 8088 microprocessor at 4.77 mHz with one or two 160K floppy disk drives. It had 16 kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k, five 8-bit ISA slots, a 65-watt power supply, no built-in clock, no built-in serial or parallel ports, and no built-in video capability - it was available with an optional color monitor. MS-DOS 1.0/1.1 was issued with the PC (IBM later released its own operating system: PC-DOS). Prices started at $1,565. The IBM PC was a smashing success and IBM quickly became the #1 microcomputer company, with Apple dropping to #2.

1898 ~ Armistice ends the Spanish-American War
The brief and one-sided Spanish-American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty.

1876 ~ “Madeline” (U.S.) beats “Countess Dufferin” (Canada) in 4th America's Cup

1508 ~ Juan Ponce de Leon arrives in Puerto Rico

3 ~ Venus-Jupiter in conjunction (Star of Bethlehem ?)

[GordMay]

August 13

1962 ~ Take me to Cuba
Two Americans, David Healy and Leonard Oeth, skyjack a charter plane heading to Miami, Florida, and force its pilot to fly to Cuba. Apparently unwelcome, they were later returned to the United States and jailed. Over the next few years, skyjacking became relatively common in America. But, in 1968, the trend absolutely exploded: There were at least 10 plane hijackings to Cuba in a six-month period between February and August.

1961 ~ Construction on Berlin Wall begins in East Germany
The East Berlin government was adamant in its effort to keep those in the eastern sector from moving into the non-Communist western sector. Even regular telephone and postal service between the sectors was stopped. Several days later, the barbed wire was reinforced with a concrete wall between official crossing points. The Berlin Wall stood as a barrier to freedom for the East Germans until November 9, 1989.

1940 ~ German air attack on South England (Battle of Britain begins)

1926 ~ Fidel Castro born
Fidel Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, to Angel Castro y Argiz and Lina Ruz Gonzáles.

1898 ~ U.S. Admiral George Dewey captures Manila during Spanish-American war

1868 ~ Earthquakes cause $300 million damage in Peru and Ecuador (25,000 die)

1814 ~ Cape of Good Hope formally ceded to British by the Dutch

1799 ~ English fleet under lord Seymour captures Suriname

1784 ~ Last U.S. Congress meeting in Annapolis
The Continental Congress met for the final time in Annapolis, Maryland. It moved a few more times, from Philadelphia, PA to New York City and, finally, to its permanent seat of government in Washington, DC.

1521 ~ Cortés recaptures Aztec capital
After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés re-capture Tenochtitlán (Mexico City), the capital of the Aztec empire. Cortés' men leveled the city and captured Cuauhtemoc (Montezuma's successor), the Aztec emperor.

1422 ~ William Caxton born (1st to print a book in English language)

[GordMay]

August 14

2005 ~ Cypriot Airliner Crashes North of Athens
A Cypriot airliner carrying 115 passengers and six crew crashed north of Athens on Sunday, and emergency services and local residents were searching for survivors amid the wreckage, officials said. There were reports the pilots were unconscious when the plane went down.
The Helios Airways flight HCY 522 was headed from Larnaca, Cyprus to Athens International Airport when it crashed at about 12:20 p.m. near the coastal town of Grammatikos, about 25 miles north of the Greek capital.
The Boeing 737 was due to fly onto Prague, Czech Republic after stopping in Athens.
The cause of the crash, and any possibility of terrorism, was not immediately clear.

1980 ~ 17,000 Polish workers go on strike in Lenin Shipyard Gdansk
Workers in Gdansk, Poland, seize the Lenin Shipyard and demand pay raises and the right to form a union free from communist control. The massive strike also saw the rise to prominence of labor leader Lech Walesa, who would be a key figure in bringing an end to communist rule in Poland.

1973 ~ U.S. ends secret bombing of Cambodia
After several days of intense bombing in support of Lon Nol's forces fighting the communist Khmer Rouge in the area around Phnom Penh, Operations 'Arc Light' and 'Freedom Deal' end as the United States ceases bombing Cambodia at midnight. This was in accordance with June Congressional legislation passed in June and ended 12 years of combat activity in Indochina. President Nixon denounced Congress for cutting off the funding for further bombing operations, saying that it had undermined the "prospects for world peace." The United States continued unarmed reconnaissance flights and military aid to Cambodia, but ultimately the Khmer Rouge prevailed in 1975.

1947 ~ India granted independence within British Commonwealth

1945 ~ Japan announces unconditionally surrender to end WW II
In the afternoon of August 14, Japanese radio announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference.
Even though Japan's War Council, urged by Emperor Hirohito, had already submitted a formal declaration of surrender to the Allies, via ambassadors, on August 10, fighting continued between the Japanese and the Soviets in Manchuria and between the Japanese and the United States in the South Pacific. In fact, two days after the Council agreed to surrender, a Japanese submarine sank the ‘Oak Hill’, an American landing ship, and the ‘Thomas F. Nickel’, an American destroyer, both east of Okinawa.
The official ratification of the surrender didn’t take place until September 2, in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.

1915 ~ British transport ‘Royal Edward’ sunk by German U boat (1000 die)

1912 ~ U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua - begin 21 year occupation
Timeline Nigaragua: http://www.stanford.edu/group/arts/n..._eng/timeline/

1901 ~ SS ‘Islander’ sinks near Alaska, after hitting iceberg (70 die)

1813 ~ British warship ‘Pelican’ attacks and captures U.S. war brigantine ‘Argus’

1782 ~ Suriname forbids selling slave mothers without their babies

1551 ~ Turkish fleet under Dragut occupies Tripoli

[GordMay]

August 15

1994 ~ Carlos the Jackal captured in Khartoum Sudan
He was born in Venezuela, under the name of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, but history will remember him as Carlos the Jackal. Carlos is best known as being the mastermind behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the hostage crisis at the 1975 OPEC conference in Vienna. Carlos, who was captured in Sudan in 1994 after two decades on the run (and smuggled to France in a sack), was retried for three 1975 killings (2 French secret agents and a pro-Palestinian Lebanese turned informer) after receiving a life sentence in his absence five years earlier. In December 1997, he was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1974 ~ Hurricane/floods ravage Bangladesh (4,000 die)

1950 ~ Earthquake in India (Richter 8.6) (30,000 die)

1931 ~ Ernest Lassy completes longest canoe journey without port (6,102 mi)

1914 ~ Panama Canal open to traffic
The American-built waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is inaugurated with the passage of the U.S. vessel Ancon, a cargo and passenger ship.

1769 ~ Napolean Bonaparte, emperor of France, born

1653 ~ Dutch ship "Sperwer" stranded at Tsjedzjoe Korea

1057 ~ Malcolm slays Macbeth
At the Battle of Lumphanan, King Macbeth of Scotland is slain by Malcolm Canmore, whose father, King Duncan I, was murdered by Macbeth 17 years earlier.

I’ve received a very irate complaint regarding my “Anti-American” editorializing (propaganda) of history. The complainant was very upset with both what I choose to list, and the biased & inaccurate manner in which I present the particulars. Although I admit to neither Anti-Americanism, nor deliberate inaccuracies; I can understand that some may be displeased by my choice of historical events. History is not always ethically ennobling and honorable.

I apologize for any offense.

http://timelines.ws/

[Alan Wheeler]

No apology required Gord. Not all of us look at your posting that way. It would be poor of me not to realise you are based in the USA and for that reason, your research not to lean that way.
Example, we in NZ have had a very well liked ex political leader die. He was famouse to us in fighting for NZ's Nuclear stance against the US. But I would guess, most US citizens and maybe even the rest of the world would not know who he was. So why would I expect you to have his name mentioned. It would be a little narrow minded of me to expect such and It's a little narrow minded of the person that has complained, not to understand your point of view. As the saying goes, we each see the world through rose coloured glasses.
Thanks for the information you post and thanks for the time you take in researching and posting it. I appreciate it.

[BC Mike]

Thunder Bay, Ontario, is in Canada. The US has the most informed and the most uninformed folks going. There are so many people you will find all types, the best and the worst in large numbers. Some are grossly ignorant about the rest of the world while others will boggle you with their knowledge. I will have to check the NZ Herald to find out who died.
Michael