On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on August 12:
1753 Thomas Bewick England, artist (British Birds, Aesop's Fables)
1757 ALF, alien life form (ALF)
1762 George IV king of England (1820-30)
1774 Robert Southey English poet laureate, biographer of Nelson
1781 Robert Mills US, architect (Washington Monument)
1820 Oliver Mowat a founder of the Canadian Confederation
1859 Katharine Lee Bates US, author (America the Beautiful)
1867 Edith Hamilton US, writer (Mythology)
1876 Mary Roberts Rinehart mystery writer (Miss Pinkerton)
1880 Christy Mathewson HOF baseball pitcher (Won 37 in 1908)
1881 Cecil B deMille Mass, directed God (10 Commandments)
1884 Frank Swinnerton England, novelist (Summer Storm, Sanctuary)
1887 Erwin Schrodinger Austria, physicist (had a cat)
1889 Zerna Sharp, creator of the "Dick and Jane" reading books,
1904 Frank Ervin harness racer (Hambletonian 1959, 66)
1911 Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) Mexico, actor (Around World in 80 Days)
1912 Jane Wyatt Campgaw NJ, actress (Father Knows Best, Star Trek)
1913 Kurt Kaszner Vienna Austria, actor (Cmdr Fitzhugh-Land of the Giants)
1915 Alex Wojciechowicz NFL center (Lions, Eagles)
1919 Michael Kidd [Milton Greenwald] choreographer (7 Brides for 7 Bros)
1921 Marjorie Reynolds Buhl Idaho, actress (Peggy-Life of Riley)
1925 Norris McWhirter author (Guinness Book of World Records)
1925 Ross McWhirter author (Guinness Book of World Records)
1927 Ralph Waite White Plains NY, actor (John-Waltons, Roots)
1929 Buck Owens Sherman Texas, country singer (Hee Haw)
1931 William Goldman author (Lord of the Flies-Nobel 1983)
1932 Porter Wagoner country singer, discovered Dolly Parton (Y'All Come)
1936 John Poindexter US Chief of Staff
1939 George Hamilton Memphis Tn Actor/tannist, (Love at 1st Bite, Where the Boys Are)
1941 Deborah Walley Bridgeport Ct, actress (Mothers-in-Law)
1941 Jennifer Warren NYC, actress (Slap Shot, Fatal Beauty, Mutant)
1949 Mark Knopfler guitar/vocals (Dire Straits-Sultans of Swing)
1951 Charles E Brady Jr Pinehurst NC, USN Commander/astronaut
1951 Hector Rodriguez Cuba, lightweight judo (Olympic-gold-1976)
1954 Pat Metheny jazz guitarist (As Wichita Falls)
1960 Morty Black heavy metal rocker (TNT-7 Seas)
1961 Pete De Freitas rocker (Echo & the Bunnymen-Heaven Up Here)
1961 Roy Hay guitarist (Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me)
Deaths which occurred on August 12:
0875 Louis II, king of Italy/emperor of France, dies at about 50
1350 Philip VI, king of France
1827 William Blake, poet/painter
1900 Wilhelm Steinitz Prague, Chess champion (1866-1894)
1944 Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.
1964 Ian L Fleming, British journalist/writer (James Bond), dies at 56
1982 Henry Fonda actor (On Golden Pond), dies at 77 from heart disease
1990 Air Force Staff Sergeant John Campisi of West Covina, California, died after being hit by a military truck in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first US casualty of the Persian Gulf crisis.
1992 John Cage, avante-garde composer(well if you say so), dies of a stroke at 79
2000 Loretta Young, film actress
Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
12-Aug-2003 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Private 1st Class Daniel R. Parker Mosul - Ninawa Non-hostile - vehicle accident
US Private 1st Class Timmy R. Brown Jr. Taji (near) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Staff Sergeant Richard S. Eaton Jr. Ramadi - Anbar Non-hostile - illness - heat related?
US Sergeant Taft V. Williams Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
12-Aug-2004 2 | US: 1 | UK: 1 | Other: 0
UK Private Marc Ferns Basra - Basrah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Captain Michael Yury Tarlavsky Najaf Hostile - hostile fire
Afghanistan
08/12/04 Galvan, Daniel Lee Sergeant 30 Army 2nd Bat., 25th Aviation Regiment, 25th Light Infantry Div. Helicopter crash Salerno, Khowst Province Moore Oklahoma
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
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Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://www.taps.org/ (subtle hint SEND MONEY)
On this day...
0003 Venus-Jupiter in conjunction -- alleged "Star of Bethlehem"
1099 Crusaders are victorious at Battle of Ascalon
1332 Battle of Dupplin Moor; Scottish dynastic battle
1508 Ponce de Leon arrives in Puerto Rico
1553 Pope Julius III orders confiscation & burning of the Talmud
1658 1st US police corps forms (New Amsterdam)
1676 King Philip's War (vs Wampanoag Indians) ends in New England
1851 Isaac Singer granted patent for his sewing machine
1856 Anthony Fass patents accordion
1861 Texas rebels were attacked by Apaches
1862 Gen John Hunt Morgan & his raiders capture Gallatin, TX
1863 William Quantrill attacks Lawrence, Kansas 150 men and boys killed
1863 1st cargo of lumber leaves Burrard Inlet (Vancouver, BC area)
1867 Pres A Johnson defies Congress suspending Sec of War Edwin Stanton
1877 Thomas Edison invents the Edisonphone, a sound recording device
1879 1st National Archery Association tournament (Chicago)
1888 Bertha, wife of inventor Karl Benz, makes 1st motor tour
1896 Gold discovered at Klondike River at Dawson
(The Spell of the Yukon
Robert W. Service
http://www.robertwservice.com/modules/library/article.php?articleid=16 I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy -- I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it --
Came out with a fortune last fall, --
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn't all.
No! There's the land. (Have you seen it?)
It's the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it's a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there's some as would trade it
For no land on earth -- and I'm one.....)
1898 Hawaii formally annexed to US
1898 Peace protocol ends Spanish-American War, signed
1915 "Of Human Bondage," by William Somerset Maugham, published
1923 Enrico Tiraboschi is 1st to swim English Channel westward
1925 KMA-AM in Shenandoah IA begins radio transmissions
1935 Babe Ruth's final game at Fenway Park, 41,766 on hand
1935 FDR signs Social Security Bill. It created an old-age and unemployment insurance, and supplemented mothers’ pensions with Aid to Dependent Children.
1936 120ø F, Seymour, Texas (state record)
1936 Diver Marjorie Gestring is youngest Olympic gold medalist (13y 268d)
1941 French Marshal Henri Petain gave full support to Nazi Germany
1953 Ann Davidson, 1st woman to sail solo across Atlantic, arrives Miami
1953 Soviet Union conducts secret test of its 1st hydrogen bomb
1955 Pres Eisenhower raises minimum wage from $0.75 to $1 an hour
1956 William Shatner marries Gloria Rand
1959 1st ship firing of a Polaris missile, Observation Island
1960 Echo 1, 1st communications satellite, is launched
1960 Ralph Boston of the US, sets then long jump record at 26' 11¬"
1960 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 41,600 m
1961 Overnight Barbed Wire Divides Berlin. Early the next morning, East German troops sealed off all roads between East and West Berlin, and began laying down barbed wire along the border.
1962 Russia launches Vostok 4, Pavel Popovich, who lands safely Aug 15
1964 10th time Mantle switch-hits HR in a game, one goes 502 feet
1964 Race riot in Elizabeth NJ
1965 Race riot in West Side of Chicago
1967 New Orleans Saints 1st pre-season victory, beat St Louis 23-14
1969 Boston Celtics sold for an NBA record $6 million
1972 Last American combat ground troops leave Vietnam
1974 Nolan Ryan strikes-out 19 Red Sox
1974 Yankees Mickey Mantle & Whitey Ford become 1st teammates elected to hall of fame on the same day
1976 1st approach & lands test (ALT) of orbiter Enterprise
1977 High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 launched into Earth orbit
1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes 1st atmospheric flight
1978 Arron Marshall completes a record shower of 336 hours
1978 ICE is launched
1981 IBM introduces the PC and PC-DOS version 1.0
1981 Jon Erikson (US) becomes 1st to triple cross English Channel (38:27)
1985 Japanese Boeing 747 crashes, 520 die (worst in-flight toll)
1986 Don Baylor gets hits by a pitch for a record 25th time in a season
1987 Charles Cole climbs 870'Tyrolean Traverse from top of Elephant Rock
1988 Boston Red Sox set AL consecutive home victories at 23
1988 Movie "Last Temptation of Christ" is released
1988 Nelson Mandela is treated for tuberculosis at the hospital
1988 Richard Thornburgh becomes US Attorney General
1990 12th annual Macy's Tap-o-mania
1990 Iraq President Saddam Hussein says he is ready to resolve the Gulf crisis if Israel withdraws from occupied territories
1991 Creditors vote to support Greyhound Bus reorganization plan
1992 US, Mexico, and Canada agreed to form a free-trade zone North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would eliminate virtually all tariffs
1993 Pope John Paul II begins visit of US
1998 The two largest Swiss banks and representatives of Holocaust survivors and their heirs agreed on a settlement of claims against the banks.
1999 New rechargeable battery with a 50% longer life span is announced by researchers in Israel
2000 Russian nuclear submarine, the Kurst, became trapped on the floor of the Barents Sea during naval exercises.
2001 Algerian terrorists attack a convoy of farmers and slashed the throats of 17 people in Oule-d-Bouaza
2003 A balsa-mylar model airplane set a long distance flight record of 1,888.3 miles as it landed in Ireland from Newfoundland.
2003 El Salvador sent 360 soldiers to Iraq
2004 Iraqi national soccer team defeats Portugal in a preliminary match outside Athens
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Cuba : People's Victory Against Machado Tyranny
Massachusetts, Oklahoma : Indian Day
Texas : Pioneer' Day
Thailand : Queen's Birthday
World : Ponce de Leon Day (1508)
Zambia : Youth Day - - - - - ( Monday )
Yukon : Klondike Gold Day (1896)
Don't Wait...Celebrate Week (Day 5)
Middle Child's Day
National Canning Month
Religious Observances
Jewish : Tisha B'Av
Christian Feast of St Jambert, archbishop of Canterbury
Christian Feast of St Clara, female saint of wash women
Religious History
1838 Birth of Joseph Barnby, English organist and choirmaster. He composed nearly 250 hymn tunes during his life. Of these the most enduring include LAUDES DOMINI ("When Morning Gilds the Skies"), LONGWOOD ("Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart"), MERRIAL ("Now the Day is Over") and ST. ANDREW ("We Give Thee But Thine Own").
1859 Birth of Katherine Lee Bates, American English teacher. She published over 20 books, but is best remembered today for writing the patriotic hymn, "America, the Beautiful" (a.k.a. "O Beautiful for Spacious Skies").
1952 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'I must come to be aware of Satan. He may never get me into hell, but he may cause God shame in defeating me. Preserve me from the lion, Lord. Let him not swallow me up.'
1978 In Rome, the first papal funeral ever held outdoors was conducted for Pope Paul VI in St. Peter's Square.
1988 In Hollywood, the controversial religious movie "The Last Temptation of Christ" was released, sparking protests from evangelical church groups across the nation.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Monks run out of the world's best beer
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out.
The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labor -- and beer-brewing.
A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best.
But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was not able to cope with the beer's sudden popularity.
"Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone."
The abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand.
"We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks," the father abbot said on the abbey's Web site.
Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen daily: "Outsiders don't understand why we are not raising production. But for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery."
Thought for the day :
"O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!"
Katharine Lee Bates