Post by farmgal on Aug 7, 2012 16:27:25 GMT -5
August 8 is the 221st day of this leap year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 145 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 90
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1518 German reformer Martin Luther wrote in a letter: 'The Lord will provide with the trial a way out.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
1585 John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Davis_(English_explorer)
1588 Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_battle_of_Gravelines#Battle_of_Gravelines
1794 Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Whidbey
Replica of the Stourbridge Lion built at the Delaware and Hudson Railroad's Colonie Shops, NY, in 1933
1829 The first steam locomotive for railroad use in the U.S., the Stourbridge Lion, made its first run in America. It travelled at 10 m.p.h. on the wooden tracks faced with wrought iron that already existed as a gravity railway, used to carry coal from mines at Carbondale to the canal terminus at Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The 7-ton engine was built by Foster, Rastrick & Co., of Stourbridge, England for the Hudson Railroad Company. However, after the trials, it was deemed to be too heavy for continued use hauling loads of coal on those tracks
1844 The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, headed by Brigham Young, is reaffirmed as the leading body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_of_the_Twelve_Apostles_(LDS_Church)
1852 The roots of the Baptist General Conference were planted when Swedish immigrant pastor Gustaf Palmquist baptized his first three converts in the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois. Today, the denomination numbers about 140,000.
"My friend, are you saved?"
If you were a Swedish immigrant to America in the 1850s and 1860s and stood near a Swedish Baptist, chances are you would be asked that question. The curious thing about it was that the Swedes came out of the Lutheran tradition rather than the Baptist. Baptist views were not even introduced into Sweden until 1847, and that was by a sailor named Gustavus Schroeder. There was something curious about that fact, too: Schroeder was converted in a Methodist Church in the U.S.! However, before returning home, he encountered a group of Baptists, was convinced by their teaching and baptized by them. He shared his testimony with fellow Swedes.
About the same time, another Swedish sailor, Frederick Olaus Nilsson, became frightened in a storm and vowed to turn his life over to God. In New Orleans, he jumped ship and worked his way across America handing out tracts. Back in Sweden, he met Schroeder who explained Baptist views to him. Nilsson could find no one to baptize him in Sweden, so he traveled to Hamburg, Germany, where he found a Baptist pastor who came with him and baptized his family and a few others one night; persecution was severe so secrecy was essential.
Eventually Sweden's government exiled Nilsson. On his way out of the country, he stopped in Stockholm, and shared his Baptist faith with a school teacher named Gustaf Palmquest. Gustaf served as a Lutheran lay preacher and was deeply affected by the Pietist revival taking place in Scandinavia. The Pietists were trying to restore a living faith to a church that had too often grown cold.
In his capacity as a lay leader, Gustaf traveled to America in 1850 to provide spiritual instruction for a group of Swedish Pietist immigrants. In Galesburg, Illinois, he saw first-hand a Baptist revival. The power of the event convinced him to become a Baptist.
Galesburg is not far from Rock Island, Illinois. Rock Island was a booming town, owing to its strategic location in a shallow stretch of the Mississippi River that allowed flat boats to take on cargo or off load it. Gustaf witnessed and preached in Rock Island and soon formed a small following of converts.
On this day, August 8, 1852, Gustaf baptized three converts in the Mississippi River at Rock Island, thus forming the Swedish Baptist Church which later became known as the Baptist General Conference. They consider this the date at which their denomination came into being.
Gustaf did not remain in America long but when he left, he left behind him a legacy of souls who were fired up to share the gospel. They boldly asked those whom they met if they were saved.
Gustaf also compiled a hymnal which was used on both sides of the Atlantic. Along with Nilsson and a third man named Anders Wilberg, he is considered one of the three most influential founders of the Baptist General Conference.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_General_Conference
www.temple-baptist.com/history/baptist_general_conference_ex.htm
www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630490/
1854 Metal bullet cartridges were patented by Smith & Wesson.
1863 American Civil War: following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).
headquartersanv.blogspot.com/2008/07/general-lees-letter-of-resignation.html
1865 The streamlined railroad train was patented by Samuel Calthorp.
1876 Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph. Edison became interested in stencil copying methods, where writing or drawings were produced on a sheet of paper not with ink, but by making tiny pinpricks, sort of like the needle of a sewing machine. Then the paper was put in a press, and inked on one side. The ink would flow through the holes and reproduce the writing on a clean sheet. This could be done repeatedly to make multiple copies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison
1899 A.T. Marshall of Brockton, MA patented the refrigerator. It took quite a few more years for refrigerators to become common in households.
1900 First Davis Cup tennis matches, held in Boston. Keen tennis enthusiast Davis was representing the USA against a team from the British Isles. The spoils for the victorious team in the best-of-five-match competition was a giant silver trophy he had put up himself. Play was set down on a picturesque grass court at Longwood, Boston.
1908 Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Wright#Flights
1910 The Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments in the Vatican issued the decree "Quam singulari," which recommended that children be permitted to receive Holy Communion as soon as they reached the "age of discretion" (i.e., about age 7).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quam_singulari
1911 Patent #1,000,000 was issued to Francis Holton for a vehicle tire.
1911 President William Howard Taft signed a measure raising the number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives from 391 to 433, effective with the next Congress, with a proviso to add two more members when New Mexico and Arizona became states. (The number of House seats has remained at 435 ever since, except for a temporary increase to 437 after Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union.)
1911 The newsreel became a standard feature at U.S. movie screenings when the French film company Pathe began releasing weekly black-and-white features to theaters.
1918 World War I: the Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Amiens_(1918)
1923 14-year-old Benny Goodman begins professional career as a clarinet player. At an early age of 14 Benny Goodman helped to support his family with his first musical performances at local dance halls. As a young man, he abandonded Chicago and went to New York, where he was more in demand as a sideman in various bands. Goodman played at Billie Holiday's first recording sessions, and together with Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson appeared in the first interracial jazz band to perform in public.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Goodman
1929 The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight. On the 1st of August, 1929 the Graf Zeppelin left Germany for Lakehurst, New Jersey the official point of origin for the trip. The airship flew to Germany arriving at Friedrichshafen on the 10th of August and on the 15th carrying a crew of forty, twenty passengers and thousands of pieces of mail, the airship left Germany for Kasumigaura, Japan arriving there on the 19th of August completing the "second leg" of the around the world flight.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin
1940 The "Aufbau Ost" (German: Buildup in the East) directive is signed by Wilhelm Keitel.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufbau_Ost_(1940)
Heinkel He 111 bombers during the Battle of Britain
1940 Battle of Britain began as Germany launches air attacks. The German Luftwaffe attempted to win air superiority over southern Britain and the English Channel by destroying the Royal Air Force and the British aircraft industry. This attempt came to be known as the Battle of Britain, and victory over the RAF was seen by the Germans as absolutely essential if they were eventually to mount an invasion of the British Isles.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain
1942 Six convicted Nazi saboteurs who'd landed in the U.S. were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others were spared
1945 The Soviet Union declared war on Japan, two days after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before Tokyo surrendered
1953 The United States and South Korea initialed a mutual security pact
1974 President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon%27s_resignation_speech#Resignation
1988 The first night game at Chicago's Wrigley Field was played. The park was the last major league stadium not to have lights
1989 Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission – Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-28
1990 Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward
1991 The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved membership applications from North and South Korea
1994 Israel and Jordan opened the first road link between the two once-warring countries
H. L. Hunley, suspended from a crane during its recovery from Charleston Harbor, August 8, 2000. (Photograph from the U.S. Naval Historical Center.)
2000 Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence and 5 years after being filmed by a dive team funded by novelist Clive Cussler.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.L._Hunley#Wreck
2002 Saddam Hussein organized a big military parade and then warned "the forces of evil" not to attack Iraq as he sought once more to shift the debate away from world demands that he live up to agreements that ended the Gulf War.
2002 Bankrupt telecommunications firm WorldCom said it had uncovered another $3.3 billion in bogus accounting, adding to the $3.85 billion fraud it had revealed in June 2005
2002 Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion facility after suspending nuclear work for nine months to avoid U.N. sanctions
2005 The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 was signed by President George W. Bush. At over 1,700 pages long, the Act was intended to establish a comprehensive, long-range energy policy. Among hundreds of provisions, it gave incentives for traditional energy production; for newer, more efficient energy technologies; and for conservation. However, in "authorizing" certain programs, no actual "appropriation" of the necessary funding was made. Whereas tax breaks and concessions were given to mature energy industries, the result was too weak to reduce dependance on petroleum. The Act extended Daylight Saving Time, effective in 2007, to begin three weeks earlier on the second Sunday of March and end a week later on the first Sunday of November.
2006 Sen. Joe Lieberman lost the Connecticut Democratic primary to political newcomer Ned Lamont. (However, Lieberman ended up winning re-election to the Senate by running as an independent)
2007 An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York State, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889.
2007 Barbara Morgan became the first educator to safely reach space was launched on the U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavour. en route to the International Space Station. In 1986, she was the alternate for the first teacher selected for a space mission, Christa McAuliffe (who died with six astronauts in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle 73-sec after its launch). Immediately after the Endeavour reached orbit, Mission Control announced: "For Barbara Morgan and her crewmates, class is in session." During the flight, Morgan spoke with students in Idaho, where she had taught elementary classes. In 1998, she moved to Houston for astronaut training. Since its previous flight in 2002, the Endeavour had a massive overhaul
2008 Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who ran for president in 2004 and dropped out of the 2008 race in January, admitted he had an affair in 2006 with a campaign worker
2010 2010 China floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400 people.
2011 Eager to calm a nervous nation, President Barack Obama dismissed an unprecedented downgrade by Standard & Poor's of the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, declaring: "No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple-A country."
1605 Cecilius Calvert, (d 1675) 2nd Baron Baltimore, British colonial Governor of Maryland
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilius_Calvert
1779 Benjamin Silliman (d 24 Nov 1864 age 85) American geologist and chemist who founded the American Journal of Science and wielded a powerful influence in the development of science in the U.S. He was Yale's first professor of chemistry and natural history (1802). He is best known for researching the chemical composition of a meteorite that fell in 1807, his report being the first scientific account of any American meteor, showed that meteorites are made of materials that exist on the earth. The mineral sillimanite was named after Silliman. In 1811, while experimenting with the oxy-hydric blow-pipe, he reduced many minerals previously considered as elements. His son, also named Benjamin Silliman, became a chemist who recognized that petroleum could be distilled into separate fractions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Silliman
1814 Esther Morris, (d 1902) first female Justice of the Peace in the United States. A mother of three boys, she began her tenure as justice in South Pass City, Wyoming, on February 14, 1870, and served a term of less than nine months. The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners appointed Morris as justice of the peace after the previous justice, R. S. Barr, resigned in protest of Wyoming Territory's passage of the women's suffrage amendment in December 1869
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Morris
1839 Nelson Miles, (d 1925) American general who served in the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War.
1857 Henry Fairfield Osborn (d 6 Nov 1935 age 78) American paleontologist and museum director who greatly influenced the art of museum display and the education of paleontologists in the United States and Great Britain. In 1891, the American Museum of Natural History hired Osborn as the first curator of the new Department of Vertebrate Paleontology because the trustees had realized that the Museum was falling behind other institutions in developing a collection of dinosaurs and other fossil vertebrates. Within a decade, Osborn assembled a talented staff of curators and collectors, and fossils were soon streaming into the Museum from all over the world. One of Osborn's favorite groups for study was the brontotheres, and he was the first to carry out comprehensive research on them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fairfield_Osborn
1863 Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey (d 22 Sep 1948 age 85) American ornithologist and author of popular field guides. She preceded Ludlow Griscom in calling for the use of binoculars instead of shotguns when birding. By 1885, she began to write articles focusing on protecting birds. She was horrified by the fashion trend which not only used feathers, but entire birds to decorate women's hats. Five million birds a year were killed to supply this fashion craze. At age 26, Bailey collected and developed the series of articles she had written for the Audubon Magazine into her first book, Birds Through an Opera Glass, (1889). Altogether she published about 100 articles, mostly for ornithological magazines, and 10 books. including the Handbook of Birds of the Western United States (1902) and Birds of New Mexico (1928).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Augusta_Merriam_Bailey
1866 Matthew Henson, American Arctic explorer (d. 1955)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henson
1884 Sara Teasdale, American poet (d. 1933)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Teasdale
1896 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, (d 1953) American author (The Yearling)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Kinnan_Rawlings
1901 Ernest Orlando Lawrence, American physicist who was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the cyclotron, the first device for the production of high energy particles. His first device, built in 1930 used a 10-cm magnet. He accelerated particles within a cyclinder at high vacuum between the poles of an electromagnetic to confine the beam to a spiral path, while a high A.C. voltage increased the particle energy. Larger models built later created 8 x 104 eV beams. By colliding particles with atomic nuclei, he produced new elements and artificial radioactivity. By 1940, he had created plutonium and neptunium. He extended the use of atomic radiation into the fields of biology and medicine. Element 103 was named Lawrencium as a tribute to him
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Orlando_Lawrence
1907 Benny Carter, American musician (d. 2003)
1908 Arthur Goldberg, U.S. Supreme Court justice (d. 1990)
1910 Sylvia Sidney, American actress (d. 1999)
1911 Rosetta LeNoire, American actress (d. 2002)
1915 James "Jumbo" Elliott, American track coach (d. 1981)
1920 Jimmy Witherspoon, American singer (d. 1997)
1921 William Asher, American film producer (d. 2012)
1921 Webb Pierce, (d 1991) American singer, biggest hit In the Jailhouse Now.
1921 Esther Williams, American actress and swimmer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Williams
1922 Rory Calhoun, (d 1999) television and film actor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his roles in Westerns.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Calhoun
1922 Gertrude Himmelfarb, American historian
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Himmelfarb
1926 Richard Anderson, American actor
1927 Johnny Temple, American baseball player (d. 1994)
1930 Jerry Tarkanian, American basketball coach
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Tarkanian
1932 Mel Tillis, American singer (Coca-Cola Cowboy)
/url]
1933 Joe Tex, American singer (d. 1982)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Tex
1935 Donald P. Bellisario, American television producer
1937 Dustin Hoffman, American actor
1938 Connie Stevens, American singer and actress
1939 Alexander Watson, American ambassador and diplomat
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Watson_(diplomat)
1939 Phil Balsley, baritone singer with The Statler Brothers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Balsley
1940 Dennis Tito, American businessman and space tourist
1944 Brooke Bundy, American actress
1944 Uli Derickson, TWA Flight 847 survivor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uli_Derickson
1944 Michael Johnson, American pop, country and folk singer-songwriter and guitarist
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Johnson_(singer)
1946 James W. Lewis, American convicted extortionist
1947 Larry Wilcox, American actor
1949 Keith Carradine, American actor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Carradine
1950 Willie Hall, American drummer
1951 Randy Shilts, American journalist and author (d. 1994)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Shilts
1952 Robin Quivers, American radio personality
1953 Don Most, American actor
1956 Branscombe Richmond, American actor
1958 Deborah Norville, American television host
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Norville
1961 Daniel House, American musician and music executive
1961 Bruce Matthews, American football player
1961 Rikki Rockett, American drummer (Poison)
1962 Kool Moe Dee, American rapper
1963 Ron Karkovice, American baseball player
1963 Jon Turteltaub, American director
1964 Anastasia Ashman, American writer
1964 Eddie Trunk, American radio show host and author
1965 Aaron Abeyta, American musician
1966 John Hudek, American baseball player
1967 Rena Mero, American wrestler
1967 Lee Unkrich, American director and film editor
1968 Huey Morgan, American singer / guitarist (Fun Lovin' Criminals)
1970 Trev Alberts, American football player
1973 Senta Moses, American actress
1973 Scott Stapp, American singer (Creed)
1976 JC Chasez, American singer (*NSYNC)
1976 Tawny Cypress, American actress
1976 Drew Lachey, American singer
1976 Jeff Simmons, American race car driver
1977 Lindsay Sloane, American actress
1978 Countess Vaughn, American actress and singer
1979 Rashard Lewis, American basketball player
1980 Craig Breslow, American baseball player
1980 Mike Hindert, American musician
1980 Pat Noonan, American soccer player
1980 Michael Urie, American actor and director
1981 Meagan Good, American actress
1984 Devon McTavish, American soccer player
1985 Brett Ratliff, American football player
1986 Pierre Garçon, American football player
1986 Peyton List, American actress
1986 Chris Pressley, American football player
1993 Ben Breedlove, American Internet personality
1471 Thomas Kempis, 91, Dutch mystic and devotional author. Though most of his years were outwardly uneventful, his book "The Imitation of Christ" remains in print today, a guide to cultivating the inner human spirit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kempis
1887 Alexander William Doniphan, (b 1808) American lawyer and soldier best known today as the man who prevented the summary execution of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr. at the close of the 1838 Mormon War in that state. He also achieved renown as a leader of American troops during the Mexican–American War, as the author of a legal code that still forms the basis of New Mexico's Bill of Rights, and as a successful defense attorney in the Missouri towns of Liberty, Richmond and Independence.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_William_Doniphan
1911 William P. Frye, (b 1830) American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. Frye, a member of the Republican Party, spent most of his political career as a legislator, serving in the Maine House of Representatives and U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served for 30 years and died in office. Frye was a member of the Frye political family, and was the grandfather of Wallace H. White, Jr. and the son of John March Frye. He was also a prominent member of the Peucinian Society tradition.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Frye
1934 Wilbert Robinson, American baseball player (b. 1863)
1940 Johnny Dodds, American musician (b. 1892)
1965 Shirley Jackson, American author (b. 1916)
1969 Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, German eugenicist and Nazi physician (b. 1896)
1972 Andrea Feldman, American actor (b. 1948)
1973 Dean Corll, American serial killer (b. 1939)
1975 Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1928)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_%22Cannonball%22_Adderley
1983 Rolla Neil Harger age 93 (b 14 Jan 1890) American toxicologist and biochemist who was at Indiana University when he invented the first successful machine for testing human blood alcohol content, called the Drunkometer (1931). When someone blows into a breath-test bag, any alcohol in his breath is turned into acetic acid (vinegar), changing the color of crystals in the blowing tube. The more crystals that change color, the more alcohol is in the body. The Blood Breath Partition Ratio assumes that 2100mL of breath contains the same amount of alcohol as 1 mL of blood. Harger turned over the patent to the IU Foundation, for whom it became a surprise moneymaker. After Harger persuaded the Indiana legislature to pass laws restricting alcohol use by drivers, alcohol related traffic deaths were decreased.
1984 Ellen Raskin, American author (b. 1928)
1985 Louise Brooks, American actress (b. 1906)
1991 Julissa Gomez, American gymnast (b. 1972)
1991 James Irwin, (b 1930) astronaut. He served as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, the fourth human lunar landing; he was the eighth human to walk on the Moon, and he was the first of those astronauts to die
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Irwin
1995 John Adams, American football player (b. 1937)
2004 Fay Wray, American actress (b. 1907)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Wray
2005 Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (b. 1922)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bel_Geddes
2005 John H. Johnson, African-American publisher (b. 1918)
2005 Gene Mauch, (b 1925) American baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944, 1948), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), Chicago Cubs (1948–49), Boston Braves (1950–51), St. Louis Cardinals (1952) and the Boston Red Sox (1956–57).
Mauch was best known for managing four teams from 1960 to 1987. He is by far the winningest manager to have never won a league pennant (breaking the record formerly held by Jimmy Dykes), three times coming within a single victory. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies (1960-68), Montreal Expos (1969–75, Mauch was their inaugural manager), Minnesota Twins (1976–80), and California Angels (1981–82, 1985–87). His 1,902 career victories ranked 8th in major league history when he retired, and his 3,942 total games ranked 4th. He gained a reputation for playing a distinctive "small ball" style, which emphasized defense, speed and base-to-base tactics on offense rather than power hitting.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Mauch
2005 Dean Rockwell, American wrestling and football coach (b. 1912)
2007 Melville Shavelson, American film director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1917)
2008 Orville Moody, American golfer (b. 1933)
2010 Patricia Neal, American actress (b. 1926)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Neal
Holidays and observances
Christian Feast Day:
Cyriacus
Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominican Order.
Hormisdas
Largus
Mary MacKillop
Smaragdus (and companions)
August 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Saint Emilian of Cyzicus, bishop and Confessor (815)
Venerable Gregory of Sinai (1346)
Saint Myron of Crete, bishop (350)
Martyrs Eleutherius and Leonides of Constantinople, with many infants as well (4th century)
Martyr Gormizdas of Persia (418)
Saint Gregory of Kiev Caves, wonderworker (14th century)
Martyr Triandaphyllus of Thessaly (1680)
Martyr Athanasios of Macedonia
New Martyr Anastasius (Spaso) of Strumica, at Thessalonica (1794)
The twelve ascetics of Egypt
The two martyrs of Tyre
Martyr Styracius
Monk-martyr Euthymius, abbot of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist at David Gareja monastery complex, Georgia (1804)
Saint Philaret of Ichalka, Ivanovo (1913)
New Hieromartyr Nicodemus (Krotkov), archbishop of Kostroma and Galich (1938)
Other commemorations
"Tolga" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
Translation of the relics of Venerable Zosimas and Sabbatius of Solovki (1566)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_8_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_8
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.amug.org/~jpaul/aug08.html
www.christianity.com/churchhistory/
www.todayinsci.com/8/8_08.htm
There are 145 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 90
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1518 German reformer Martin Luther wrote in a letter: 'The Lord will provide with the trial a way out.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther
1585 John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in search of the Northwest Passage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Davis_(English_explorer)
1588 Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – The naval engagement ends, ending the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_battle_of_Gravelines#Battle_of_Gravelines
1794 Joseph Whidbey leads an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Whidbey
Replica of the Stourbridge Lion built at the Delaware and Hudson Railroad's Colonie Shops, NY, in 1933
1829 The first steam locomotive for railroad use in the U.S., the Stourbridge Lion, made its first run in America. It travelled at 10 m.p.h. on the wooden tracks faced with wrought iron that already existed as a gravity railway, used to carry coal from mines at Carbondale to the canal terminus at Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The 7-ton engine was built by Foster, Rastrick & Co., of Stourbridge, England for the Hudson Railroad Company. However, after the trials, it was deemed to be too heavy for continued use hauling loads of coal on those tracks
1844 The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, headed by Brigham Young, is reaffirmed as the leading body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum_of_the_Twelve_Apostles_(LDS_Church)
1852 The roots of the Baptist General Conference were planted when Swedish immigrant pastor Gustaf Palmquist baptized his first three converts in the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois. Today, the denomination numbers about 140,000.
"My friend, are you saved?"
If you were a Swedish immigrant to America in the 1850s and 1860s and stood near a Swedish Baptist, chances are you would be asked that question. The curious thing about it was that the Swedes came out of the Lutheran tradition rather than the Baptist. Baptist views were not even introduced into Sweden until 1847, and that was by a sailor named Gustavus Schroeder. There was something curious about that fact, too: Schroeder was converted in a Methodist Church in the U.S.! However, before returning home, he encountered a group of Baptists, was convinced by their teaching and baptized by them. He shared his testimony with fellow Swedes.
About the same time, another Swedish sailor, Frederick Olaus Nilsson, became frightened in a storm and vowed to turn his life over to God. In New Orleans, he jumped ship and worked his way across America handing out tracts. Back in Sweden, he met Schroeder who explained Baptist views to him. Nilsson could find no one to baptize him in Sweden, so he traveled to Hamburg, Germany, where he found a Baptist pastor who came with him and baptized his family and a few others one night; persecution was severe so secrecy was essential.
Eventually Sweden's government exiled Nilsson. On his way out of the country, he stopped in Stockholm, and shared his Baptist faith with a school teacher named Gustaf Palmquest. Gustaf served as a Lutheran lay preacher and was deeply affected by the Pietist revival taking place in Scandinavia. The Pietists were trying to restore a living faith to a church that had too often grown cold.
In his capacity as a lay leader, Gustaf traveled to America in 1850 to provide spiritual instruction for a group of Swedish Pietist immigrants. In Galesburg, Illinois, he saw first-hand a Baptist revival. The power of the event convinced him to become a Baptist.
Galesburg is not far from Rock Island, Illinois. Rock Island was a booming town, owing to its strategic location in a shallow stretch of the Mississippi River that allowed flat boats to take on cargo or off load it. Gustaf witnessed and preached in Rock Island and soon formed a small following of converts.
On this day, August 8, 1852, Gustaf baptized three converts in the Mississippi River at Rock Island, thus forming the Swedish Baptist Church which later became known as the Baptist General Conference. They consider this the date at which their denomination came into being.
Gustaf did not remain in America long but when he left, he left behind him a legacy of souls who were fired up to share the gospel. They boldly asked those whom they met if they were saved.
Gustaf also compiled a hymnal which was used on both sides of the Atlantic. Along with Nilsson and a third man named Anders Wilberg, he is considered one of the three most influential founders of the Baptist General Conference.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_General_Conference
www.temple-baptist.com/history/baptist_general_conference_ex.htm
www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630490/
1854 Metal bullet cartridges were patented by Smith & Wesson.
1863 American Civil War: following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).
headquartersanv.blogspot.com/2008/07/general-lees-letter-of-resignation.html
1865 The streamlined railroad train was patented by Samuel Calthorp.
1876 Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph. Edison became interested in stencil copying methods, where writing or drawings were produced on a sheet of paper not with ink, but by making tiny pinpricks, sort of like the needle of a sewing machine. Then the paper was put in a press, and inked on one side. The ink would flow through the holes and reproduce the writing on a clean sheet. This could be done repeatedly to make multiple copies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison
1899 A.T. Marshall of Brockton, MA patented the refrigerator. It took quite a few more years for refrigerators to become common in households.
1900 First Davis Cup tennis matches, held in Boston. Keen tennis enthusiast Davis was representing the USA against a team from the British Isles. The spoils for the victorious team in the best-of-five-match competition was a giant silver trophy he had put up himself. Play was set down on a picturesque grass court at Longwood, Boston.
1908 Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Wright#Flights
1910 The Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments in the Vatican issued the decree "Quam singulari," which recommended that children be permitted to receive Holy Communion as soon as they reached the "age of discretion" (i.e., about age 7).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quam_singulari
1911 Patent #1,000,000 was issued to Francis Holton for a vehicle tire.
1911 President William Howard Taft signed a measure raising the number of members in the U.S. House of Representatives from 391 to 433, effective with the next Congress, with a proviso to add two more members when New Mexico and Arizona became states. (The number of House seats has remained at 435 ever since, except for a temporary increase to 437 after Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union.)
1911 The newsreel became a standard feature at U.S. movie screenings when the French film company Pathe began releasing weekly black-and-white features to theaters.
1918 World War I: the Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Amiens_(1918)
1923 14-year-old Benny Goodman begins professional career as a clarinet player. At an early age of 14 Benny Goodman helped to support his family with his first musical performances at local dance halls. As a young man, he abandonded Chicago and went to New York, where he was more in demand as a sideman in various bands. Goodman played at Billie Holiday's first recording sessions, and together with Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson appeared in the first interracial jazz band to perform in public.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Goodman
1929 The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight. On the 1st of August, 1929 the Graf Zeppelin left Germany for Lakehurst, New Jersey the official point of origin for the trip. The airship flew to Germany arriving at Friedrichshafen on the 10th of August and on the 15th carrying a crew of forty, twenty passengers and thousands of pieces of mail, the airship left Germany for Kasumigaura, Japan arriving there on the 19th of August completing the "second leg" of the around the world flight.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_127_Graf_Zeppelin
1940 The "Aufbau Ost" (German: Buildup in the East) directive is signed by Wilhelm Keitel.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufbau_Ost_(1940)
Heinkel He 111 bombers during the Battle of Britain
1940 Battle of Britain began as Germany launches air attacks. The German Luftwaffe attempted to win air superiority over southern Britain and the English Channel by destroying the Royal Air Force and the British aircraft industry. This attempt came to be known as the Battle of Britain, and victory over the RAF was seen by the Germans as absolutely essential if they were eventually to mount an invasion of the British Isles.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain
1942 Six convicted Nazi saboteurs who'd landed in the U.S. were executed in Washington, D.C.; two others were spared
1945 The Soviet Union declared war on Japan, two days after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before Tokyo surrendered
1953 The United States and South Korea initialed a mutual security pact
1974 President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announces his resignation from the office of the President of the United States effective noon the next day.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon%27s_resignation_speech#Resignation
1988 The first night game at Chicago's Wrigley Field was played. The park was the last major league stadium not to have lights
1989 Space Shuttle program: STS-28 Mission – Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-28
1990 Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward
1991 The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved membership applications from North and South Korea
1994 Israel and Jordan opened the first road link between the two once-warring countries
H. L. Hunley, suspended from a crane during its recovery from Charleston Harbor, August 8, 2000. (Photograph from the U.S. Naval Historical Center.)
2000 Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor and 30 years after its discovery by undersea explorer E. Lee Spence and 5 years after being filmed by a dive team funded by novelist Clive Cussler.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.L._Hunley#Wreck
2002 Saddam Hussein organized a big military parade and then warned "the forces of evil" not to attack Iraq as he sought once more to shift the debate away from world demands that he live up to agreements that ended the Gulf War.
2002 Bankrupt telecommunications firm WorldCom said it had uncovered another $3.3 billion in bogus accounting, adding to the $3.85 billion fraud it had revealed in June 2005
2002 Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion facility after suspending nuclear work for nine months to avoid U.N. sanctions
2005 The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 was signed by President George W. Bush. At over 1,700 pages long, the Act was intended to establish a comprehensive, long-range energy policy. Among hundreds of provisions, it gave incentives for traditional energy production; for newer, more efficient energy technologies; and for conservation. However, in "authorizing" certain programs, no actual "appropriation" of the necessary funding was made. Whereas tax breaks and concessions were given to mature energy industries, the result was too weak to reduce dependance on petroleum. The Act extended Daylight Saving Time, effective in 2007, to begin three weeks earlier on the second Sunday of March and end a week later on the first Sunday of November.
2006 Sen. Joe Lieberman lost the Connecticut Democratic primary to political newcomer Ned Lamont. (However, Lieberman ended up winning re-election to the Senate by running as an independent)
2007 An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York State, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889.
2007 Barbara Morgan became the first educator to safely reach space was launched on the U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavour. en route to the International Space Station. In 1986, she was the alternate for the first teacher selected for a space mission, Christa McAuliffe (who died with six astronauts in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle 73-sec after its launch). Immediately after the Endeavour reached orbit, Mission Control announced: "For Barbara Morgan and her crewmates, class is in session." During the flight, Morgan spoke with students in Idaho, where she had taught elementary classes. In 1998, she moved to Houston for astronaut training. Since its previous flight in 2002, the Endeavour had a massive overhaul
2008 Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who ran for president in 2004 and dropped out of the 2008 race in January, admitted he had an affair in 2006 with a campaign worker
2010 2010 China floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400 people.
2011 Eager to calm a nervous nation, President Barack Obama dismissed an unprecedented downgrade by Standard & Poor's of the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, declaring: "No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple-A country."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Births ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1605 Cecilius Calvert, (d 1675) 2nd Baron Baltimore, British colonial Governor of Maryland
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilius_Calvert
1779 Benjamin Silliman (d 24 Nov 1864 age 85) American geologist and chemist who founded the American Journal of Science and wielded a powerful influence in the development of science in the U.S. He was Yale's first professor of chemistry and natural history (1802). He is best known for researching the chemical composition of a meteorite that fell in 1807, his report being the first scientific account of any American meteor, showed that meteorites are made of materials that exist on the earth. The mineral sillimanite was named after Silliman. In 1811, while experimenting with the oxy-hydric blow-pipe, he reduced many minerals previously considered as elements. His son, also named Benjamin Silliman, became a chemist who recognized that petroleum could be distilled into separate fractions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Silliman
1814 Esther Morris, (d 1902) first female Justice of the Peace in the United States. A mother of three boys, she began her tenure as justice in South Pass City, Wyoming, on February 14, 1870, and served a term of less than nine months. The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners appointed Morris as justice of the peace after the previous justice, R. S. Barr, resigned in protest of Wyoming Territory's passage of the women's suffrage amendment in December 1869
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Morris
1839 Nelson Miles, (d 1925) American general who served in the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War.
1857 Henry Fairfield Osborn (d 6 Nov 1935 age 78) American paleontologist and museum director who greatly influenced the art of museum display and the education of paleontologists in the United States and Great Britain. In 1891, the American Museum of Natural History hired Osborn as the first curator of the new Department of Vertebrate Paleontology because the trustees had realized that the Museum was falling behind other institutions in developing a collection of dinosaurs and other fossil vertebrates. Within a decade, Osborn assembled a talented staff of curators and collectors, and fossils were soon streaming into the Museum from all over the world. One of Osborn's favorite groups for study was the brontotheres, and he was the first to carry out comprehensive research on them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fairfield_Osborn
1863 Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey (d 22 Sep 1948 age 85) American ornithologist and author of popular field guides. She preceded Ludlow Griscom in calling for the use of binoculars instead of shotguns when birding. By 1885, she began to write articles focusing on protecting birds. She was horrified by the fashion trend which not only used feathers, but entire birds to decorate women's hats. Five million birds a year were killed to supply this fashion craze. At age 26, Bailey collected and developed the series of articles she had written for the Audubon Magazine into her first book, Birds Through an Opera Glass, (1889). Altogether she published about 100 articles, mostly for ornithological magazines, and 10 books. including the Handbook of Birds of the Western United States (1902) and Birds of New Mexico (1928).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Augusta_Merriam_Bailey
1866 Matthew Henson, American Arctic explorer (d. 1955)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henson
1884 Sara Teasdale, American poet (d. 1933)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Teasdale
1896 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, (d 1953) American author (The Yearling)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Kinnan_Rawlings
1901 Ernest Orlando Lawrence, American physicist who was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the cyclotron, the first device for the production of high energy particles. His first device, built in 1930 used a 10-cm magnet. He accelerated particles within a cyclinder at high vacuum between the poles of an electromagnetic to confine the beam to a spiral path, while a high A.C. voltage increased the particle energy. Larger models built later created 8 x 104 eV beams. By colliding particles with atomic nuclei, he produced new elements and artificial radioactivity. By 1940, he had created plutonium and neptunium. He extended the use of atomic radiation into the fields of biology and medicine. Element 103 was named Lawrencium as a tribute to him
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Orlando_Lawrence
1907 Benny Carter, American musician (d. 2003)
1908 Arthur Goldberg, U.S. Supreme Court justice (d. 1990)
1910 Sylvia Sidney, American actress (d. 1999)
1911 Rosetta LeNoire, American actress (d. 2002)
1915 James "Jumbo" Elliott, American track coach (d. 1981)
1920 Jimmy Witherspoon, American singer (d. 1997)
1921 William Asher, American film producer (d. 2012)
1921 Webb Pierce, (d 1991) American singer, biggest hit In the Jailhouse Now.
1921 Esther Williams, American actress and swimmer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Williams
1922 Rory Calhoun, (d 1999) television and film actor, screenwriter and producer, best known for his roles in Westerns.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Calhoun
1922 Gertrude Himmelfarb, American historian
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Himmelfarb
1926 Richard Anderson, American actor
1927 Johnny Temple, American baseball player (d. 1994)
1930 Jerry Tarkanian, American basketball coach
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Tarkanian
1932 Mel Tillis, American singer (Coca-Cola Cowboy)
/url]
1933 Joe Tex, American singer (d. 1982)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Tex
1935 Donald P. Bellisario, American television producer
1937 Dustin Hoffman, American actor
1938 Connie Stevens, American singer and actress
1939 Alexander Watson, American ambassador and diplomat
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Watson_(diplomat)
1939 Phil Balsley, baritone singer with The Statler Brothers
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Balsley
1940 Dennis Tito, American businessman and space tourist
1944 Brooke Bundy, American actress
1944 Uli Derickson, TWA Flight 847 survivor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uli_Derickson
1944 Michael Johnson, American pop, country and folk singer-songwriter and guitarist
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Johnson_(singer)
1946 James W. Lewis, American convicted extortionist
1947 Larry Wilcox, American actor
1949 Keith Carradine, American actor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Carradine
1950 Willie Hall, American drummer
1951 Randy Shilts, American journalist and author (d. 1994)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Shilts
1952 Robin Quivers, American radio personality
1953 Don Most, American actor
1956 Branscombe Richmond, American actor
1958 Deborah Norville, American television host
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Norville
1961 Daniel House, American musician and music executive
1961 Bruce Matthews, American football player
1961 Rikki Rockett, American drummer (Poison)
1962 Kool Moe Dee, American rapper
1963 Ron Karkovice, American baseball player
1963 Jon Turteltaub, American director
1964 Anastasia Ashman, American writer
1964 Eddie Trunk, American radio show host and author
1965 Aaron Abeyta, American musician
1966 John Hudek, American baseball player
1967 Rena Mero, American wrestler
1967 Lee Unkrich, American director and film editor
1968 Huey Morgan, American singer / guitarist (Fun Lovin' Criminals)
1970 Trev Alberts, American football player
1973 Senta Moses, American actress
1973 Scott Stapp, American singer (Creed)
1976 JC Chasez, American singer (*NSYNC)
1976 Tawny Cypress, American actress
1976 Drew Lachey, American singer
1976 Jeff Simmons, American race car driver
1977 Lindsay Sloane, American actress
1978 Countess Vaughn, American actress and singer
1979 Rashard Lewis, American basketball player
1980 Craig Breslow, American baseball player
1980 Mike Hindert, American musician
1980 Pat Noonan, American soccer player
1980 Michael Urie, American actor and director
1981 Meagan Good, American actress
1984 Devon McTavish, American soccer player
1985 Brett Ratliff, American football player
1986 Pierre Garçon, American football player
1986 Peyton List, American actress
1986 Chris Pressley, American football player
1993 Ben Breedlove, American Internet personality
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Deaths ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1471 Thomas Kempis, 91, Dutch mystic and devotional author. Though most of his years were outwardly uneventful, his book "The Imitation of Christ" remains in print today, a guide to cultivating the inner human spirit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kempis
1887 Alexander William Doniphan, (b 1808) American lawyer and soldier best known today as the man who prevented the summary execution of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr. at the close of the 1838 Mormon War in that state. He also achieved renown as a leader of American troops during the Mexican–American War, as the author of a legal code that still forms the basis of New Mexico's Bill of Rights, and as a successful defense attorney in the Missouri towns of Liberty, Richmond and Independence.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_William_Doniphan
1911 William P. Frye, (b 1830) American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. Frye, a member of the Republican Party, spent most of his political career as a legislator, serving in the Maine House of Representatives and U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served for 30 years and died in office. Frye was a member of the Frye political family, and was the grandfather of Wallace H. White, Jr. and the son of John March Frye. He was also a prominent member of the Peucinian Society tradition.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_P._Frye
1934 Wilbert Robinson, American baseball player (b. 1863)
1940 Johnny Dodds, American musician (b. 1892)
1965 Shirley Jackson, American author (b. 1916)
1969 Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, German eugenicist and Nazi physician (b. 1896)
1972 Andrea Feldman, American actor (b. 1948)
1973 Dean Corll, American serial killer (b. 1939)
1975 Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1928)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_%22Cannonball%22_Adderley
1983 Rolla Neil Harger age 93 (b 14 Jan 1890) American toxicologist and biochemist who was at Indiana University when he invented the first successful machine for testing human blood alcohol content, called the Drunkometer (1931). When someone blows into a breath-test bag, any alcohol in his breath is turned into acetic acid (vinegar), changing the color of crystals in the blowing tube. The more crystals that change color, the more alcohol is in the body. The Blood Breath Partition Ratio assumes that 2100mL of breath contains the same amount of alcohol as 1 mL of blood. Harger turned over the patent to the IU Foundation, for whom it became a surprise moneymaker. After Harger persuaded the Indiana legislature to pass laws restricting alcohol use by drivers, alcohol related traffic deaths were decreased.
1984 Ellen Raskin, American author (b. 1928)
1985 Louise Brooks, American actress (b. 1906)
1991 Julissa Gomez, American gymnast (b. 1972)
1991 James Irwin, (b 1930) astronaut. He served as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, the fourth human lunar landing; he was the eighth human to walk on the Moon, and he was the first of those astronauts to die
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Irwin
1995 John Adams, American football player (b. 1937)
2004 Fay Wray, American actress (b. 1907)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Wray
2005 Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (b. 1922)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bel_Geddes
2005 John H. Johnson, African-American publisher (b. 1918)
2005 Gene Mauch, (b 1925) American baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944, 1948), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947), Chicago Cubs (1948–49), Boston Braves (1950–51), St. Louis Cardinals (1952) and the Boston Red Sox (1956–57).
Mauch was best known for managing four teams from 1960 to 1987. He is by far the winningest manager to have never won a league pennant (breaking the record formerly held by Jimmy Dykes), three times coming within a single victory. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies (1960-68), Montreal Expos (1969–75, Mauch was their inaugural manager), Minnesota Twins (1976–80), and California Angels (1981–82, 1985–87). His 1,902 career victories ranked 8th in major league history when he retired, and his 3,942 total games ranked 4th. He gained a reputation for playing a distinctive "small ball" style, which emphasized defense, speed and base-to-base tactics on offense rather than power hitting.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Mauch
2005 Dean Rockwell, American wrestling and football coach (b. 1912)
2007 Melville Shavelson, American film director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1917)
2008 Orville Moody, American golfer (b. 1933)
2010 Patricia Neal, American actress (b. 1926)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Neal
Holidays and observances
Christian Feast Day:
Cyriacus
Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominican Order.
Hormisdas
Largus
Mary MacKillop
Smaragdus (and companions)
August 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Saint Emilian of Cyzicus, bishop and Confessor (815)
Venerable Gregory of Sinai (1346)
Saint Myron of Crete, bishop (350)
Martyrs Eleutherius and Leonides of Constantinople, with many infants as well (4th century)
Martyr Gormizdas of Persia (418)
Saint Gregory of Kiev Caves, wonderworker (14th century)
Martyr Triandaphyllus of Thessaly (1680)
Martyr Athanasios of Macedonia
New Martyr Anastasius (Spaso) of Strumica, at Thessalonica (1794)
The twelve ascetics of Egypt
The two martyrs of Tyre
Martyr Styracius
Monk-martyr Euthymius, abbot of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist at David Gareja monastery complex, Georgia (1804)
Saint Philaret of Ichalka, Ivanovo (1913)
New Hieromartyr Nicodemus (Krotkov), archbishop of Kostroma and Galich (1938)
Other commemorations
"Tolga" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos
Translation of the relics of Venerable Zosimas and Sabbatius of Solovki (1566)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_8_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_8
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.amug.org/~jpaul/aug08.html
www.christianity.com/churchhistory/
www.todayinsci.com/8/8_08.htm