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On This Day In history

Birthdates which occurred on August 02:
1696 Mahmud I Ottoman sultan, fought Austrians & Russians
1754 Pierre Charles L'Enfant France, architect laid out Wash DC
1826 William Denison Whipple, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1902
1832 Henry Steel Olcott 1st president of Theosophical Society
1892 John Kieran NYC, columnist/author (Natural History of NYC)
1905 Myrna Loy Montana, actress (Jazz Singer, Thin Man, Vanity Fair)
1914 Gary Merrill Hartford Conn, actor (Young Dr Kildare, All About Eve)
1922 Carroll O'Connor NYC, actor (All in the Family, Heat of the Night)
1922 Paul Laxalt (Sen-R-Nev)
1924 James Baldwin US writer (Another Country)
1932 Lamar Hunt owns NFL KC Chiefs
1932 Peter O'Toole Ireland, actor (Lord Jim, Beckett, Lawrence of Arabia)
1934 Valery Bykovsky cosmonaut (Vostok 5, Soyuz 22, 31)
1939 Edward Pattern Atlanta Ga, singer (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
1940 Doris Kenner Passaic NJ, singer (Shirelles-Soldier Boy)
1942 Garth Hudson keyboardist (The Band)
1943 Max Wright, Detroit, actor (Buffalo Bill, Alf, Misfits of Science)
1949 Bertalan Farkas 1st Hungarian space traveler (Soyuz 36)
1952 Paul David Crews SC, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
1960 Linda Fratianne US, figure skater (Olympic-silver-1980)
1977 Edward Furlong Pasedina Calif, actor (John Connor-Terminator 2)

Deaths which occurred on August 02:
0257 Stefanus I, bishop of Rome (254-57)/heretic fighter, dies
0640 Severinus, Italian Pope (640), dies
0686 John V, 1st Greeks-Syrian Pope (685-86), dies
1075 John VIII Xiphilinus theologian/patriarch of Constantinople, dies
1100 William II, [Rufus], king of England, shot in New Forest at 44
1788 Thomas Gainsborough, English painter (Blue Boy), dies at 61
1799 Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, balloonist, dies at 54
1811 William Williams, US merchant/signer (Decl of Indep), dies at 80
1876 Wild Bill Hickok shot dead (from behind) by Jack McCall while playing poker. He held a pair of Aces & a pair of 8's (Deadwood Dakota)
1903 Martha Jane Cannary, [Calamity Jane], US desperado, dies
1922 - Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish/US physicist (telephone), dies

1923 Pres Harding dies at Palace Hotel, SF

1934 Paul Von Hindenburg dies at 86, Hitler takes over presidency
1943 Galewski, Polish? leader of uprising in Treblinka, commits suicide
1943 Zelo Bloch, Polish? Treblinka-rebel, shot to death

1956 Albert Woolson, last veteran US Union army, dies at 109

1964 Jack Kirkwood actor (Fibber McGee & Molly), dies at 69
1967 Claude A Barnett founded Associated Negro Press, dies at 78
1976 Fritz Lang, director (Cloak and Dagger, Metropolis), dies at 85
1979 Thurmon Munson killed in a plane crash at Akron Oh at 32
1985 Frank Faylen vaudevillian, dies at 79 of pneumonia
1986 Roy Marcus Cohn, US lawyer (Joseph McCarthy), dies
1988 Raymond Carver poet/short story writer (Furious Season), dies at 50
1997 William S. Burroughs, author "Naked Lunch". The godfather of the "Beat" generation

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 DAUGHTREY ROBERT NORLAN DEL RIO TX.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED,ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1965 HAIL WILLIAM WARREN LOS ANGELES CA.
1967 CUNNINGHAM CAREY A. COLLINGSVILLE AL.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1989 IDENTIFIED 04/01/98]
1967 HYNDS WALLACE G. JR. SUMTER SC.
1969 TALKEN GEORGE FRANCIS CHICO CA.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
0216 BC Hannibal Barca wins his greatest victory over the Romans at Cannae.
0047 BC Caesar defeats Pharnaces at Zela in Syria and declares, "veni, vidi, vici," (I came, I saw, I conquered).
0257 St Stephen I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0640 Severinus ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0686 John V ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1375 1st roller skating rink opens (London)
1492 Jews are expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella
1552 The treaty of Passau gives religious freedom to Protestants living in Germany.
1610 Henry Hudson explores bay later named after him the Hudson Bay
1776 The Continental Congress, having decided unanimously to make the Declaration of Independence, affixes the signatures of the other delegates to the document.
1791 Samuel Briggs and his son, patent nail-making machine
1819 1st parachute jump in US
1832 1,300 Illinois militia defeat Sac & Fox indians, end Black Hawk War
1858 1st street mailboxes-Boston, Mass
1864 2nd Saratoga Racetrack (NY) opens
1865 Lewis Carroll publishes "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
1877 SF Public Library opens with 5,000 volumes
1903 Unsuccessful uprising of Macedonians against Turkey
1906 Chicago White Sox begin record 19 game win streak
1909 1st Lincoln head pennies minted
1909 Army Air Corps formed as Army takes 1st delivery from Wright Brothers
1914 Sherlock Holmes Adventure "His Last Bow" takes place
1914 Belgian govt receives German ultimatum
1914 German press falsely reports that French bombed Nuremberg
1914 German troops overthrows Luxembourg
1914 Germany and Turkey signs secret treaty
1914 Great Britain mobilizes
1914 Postdam Conference ended
1914 Russian troops invade Eastern Prussia
1920 Marcus Garvey presents his "Back To Africa" program in NYC
1921 A jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious "Black Sox" scandal.
1923 Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.
1932 Charlie Grimm replaces Roger Hornsby as manager of Chicago Cubs
1934 1st airplane train, plane tows 3 mail gliders behind it
1934 Adolph Hitler becomes commander-in-chief of Germany
1934 William Franks twirls an indian club overhead 17,280 times in 1 hour
1938 1st test of a yellow baseball (Dodgers vs Cardinals)
1939 Hatch Act prohibits political activity by federal workers
1939 Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.
1941 Jews are expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia
1941 German 11st Army surrounds 20 Russian divisions at Oeman
1942 Col-Gen Hoth' Panzer army reaches Kotelnikovo
1943 Armed revolt breaks out in Treblinka
1943 PT-109 rammed & sunk
1944 Jewish survivors of Kovono Ghetto emerge from their bunker
1958 Jordan and Iraq disolve their Arab Federation, after 3 months
1961 Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club
1962 NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,600 m
1964 North Vietnam fires on a US destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin
1964 Race riot in Jersey City NJ
1965 Morley Safer's sends 1st Vietnam report indicating we are losing
1967 New Orleans Saints 1st pre-season game, they lose to LA Rams 16-77
1967 US's Lunar Orbiter 5 launched; enters lunar orbit Aug 5
1972 Gold hits record $70 an ounce in London
1975 Billy Martin named manager of NY Yankees (1st time)
1983 US District Court begins trying Yonkers accuse of race discrimination
1985 NASA launches space vehicle S-209
1986 Jackie Joyner-Kersee (US) sets record for heptathlon (7161 pts)
1986 TODAY/PC born today
1987 Don Brown sets flight record for handbow (1,336 yds 1'3")
1987 Michael Andretti runs fastest Indy car race in history (171.49 MPH)
1989 NASA confirmed Voyager 2's discovery of 3 more moons of Neptune designated temporarily 1989 N2, 1989 N3 & 1989 N24

1990 Iraq invades & occupies Kuwait

1991 Funk singer Rick James, arrested on sexual torture charges
1991 Space shuttle STS 43 (Atlantis 9) launched
1992 Tom Seaver, R Fingers, Hal Newhouser, and B McGowan enter Hall of Fame
2000 Republicans awarded Texas Gov. George W. Bush their 2000 presidential nomination at the party's convention in Philadelphia and ratified Dick Cheney as his running mate.
2001 Muslim terrorists seized 36 Filipinos on the southern island of Basilan and beheaded at least four.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Costa Rica : Virgin of Angels feast
Grenada : Emancipation Day
Lesotho : National Tree Planting Day
Malawi : Bank Holiday
Bahamas, Barbados, Turks & Caicos Island : Emancipation Day (1838) ( Monday )
British Commonwealth : Bank Holiday ( Monday )
Canada : Civic Holiday (1st Monday) ( Monday )
Colorado : Colorado Day (1876) ( Monday )
Jamaica : Independence Day (1962) ( Monday )
St Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla : August Monday ( Monday )
US : National Smile Week begins ( Monday )
Grasmere England : Rush-Bearing Day ( Saturday )
National Psychiatric Technician Week (Day 2)
National HAIRitage Month

Religious Observances
Yorkshire, England : St Wilfred
RC : Memorial of Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop (opt)
Old RC : Feast of St Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, bishop

Religious History
1776 English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'Use all the ability which God gives, and He will give you more.'
1907 The Vatican issued the decree "Ne temere," declaring that marriages of Catholics were valid only if celebrated before a duly qualified priest and at least two witnesses.
1946 English literary scholar and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'Apologetic work is so dangerous to one's faith. A doctrine never seems dimmer to me than when I have just successfully defended it.'
1948 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot penned this prayer in his journal: 'Father, teach me the speed of eternity. Synchronize my movements with the speed of Thine Own heart then, hasting or halting, I shall be in good time.'
1982 Presbyterian apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'There is the constant danger of slipping into the idea that if a person has sufficient faith, he will always be healed. This is clearly not what the Bible teaches.'

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."

Media Reports of the Apocalypse...
USA Today:
WE'RE DEAD!

Letters To God From The Dog...
Dear God,
Are there dogs on other planets or are we alone? I have been howling at the moon and stars for a long time, but all I ever hear back is the horny beagle across the street.

You Might Be An Engineer If...
You have no life - and you can PROVE it mathematically.

Dumb Laws...
New Mexico:
State officials ordered 400 words of "sexually explicit material" to be cut from Romeo and Juliet.

1923 Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes president upon the death of Warren G. Harding.

DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT
At around midnight, a messenger brought a telegram to the Coolidge homestead saying President Harding had died. John Coolidge woke his son to tell him the sad news. Before he and Grace went downstairs, they knelt and prayed. Coolidge said he asked God to bless the American people and to give him the power to serve them. The Coolidges sent a telegram to Mrs. Harding expressing their condolences. Congressman Porter Dale, who was among those starting to arrive, expressed concern that the country was without a President. Coolidge asked his father if he was still a notary and when he said he was, asked him to administer the oath. Prior to doing so, in respect for this duty, John Coolidge went off and shaved.

The swearing in took place in the sitting room of the Coolidge home, the same room in which both his sister and stepmother had died, and adjoining the room in which his mother had died. At 2:47 AM by the light of an oil lamp on the center table on which lay a Bible, Coolidge and his father faced one another, in the presence of Mrs. Coolidge and several others, as John Coolidge administered the presidential oath to his son, making him the 30th President of the United States. (Coolidge did not place his hand on the Bible while being sworn in. It was not customary in Vermont or New Hampshire at the time to do so.) As one of the President's most famous biographers Claude Fuess said later, "Democracy has never had a finer triumph when great power was conferred under such plain surroundings."

Part of the statement Coolidge gave to the press on this occasion said: "Reports have reached me which I fear are correct, that President Harding is gone. The world has lost a great and good man. I mourn his loss. He was my Chief and my friend. It will be my purpose to carry out his policies, which he has begun for the service of the American people... I have faith that God will direct the destinies of our nation." Coolidge's father was asked later how he knew he could administer the presidential oath to his son. He said "I didn't know that I couldn't."

Aurora Pierce, the family housekeeper, slept upstairs during the swearing in. Coolidge had been asked whether she should be awakened, but he said to let her sleep, probably knowing she would have much to do in the morning, including cooking breakfast for extra guests. Her faithful care of the homestead for many years after, eschewing modern conveniences and change, helped to make the historic property highly representative of how it looked at the time the Coolidge family resided there. She died in 1956.

Coolidge was asked later if he thought he was up to the task of serving as President. He said "I think I can swing it." He said later "When a duty comes to us, with it a power comes to enable us to perform it", as other presidents who faced extraordinary challenges discovered. Prior to leaving to go to Washington, the Coolidges stopped to visit the grave of his family and his mother. He said it had been a comfort to be near her last resting place, even in the dead of night. "Some way, that morning, she seemed very near to me."