Post by farmgal on Aug 20, 2012 16:52:42 GMT -5
August 21 is the 234rd day of this leap year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 132 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 77
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1680 Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt. On August 13, the Pueblos closest to Santa Fe invaded the capital. The Spaniards were armed with arquebuses (a heavy, portable matchlock gun), swords, daggers and shields. The warriors had bows and arrows, small shields, lances and rocks. Other tribes joined the Pueblos By August 16, the Spanish began to get an advantage. But just in time, the Cochiti and Santo Domingo warriors arrived. Lacking firepower, the warriors blocked the stream coming into Casa Reales. Soon the Spaniards began to lose their animals from thirst and hunger. Governor Otermin called a meeting, and it was decided they would try to fight their way out rather than die of thirst and hunger. On August 21, the Spaniards broke the siege and left Santa Fe. They would not stop their southward flight until they reached the area that today is El Paso, Texas.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt
1770 James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook
1772 King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot.
1821 Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarvis_Island
1831 Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner
1841 The first U.S. patent for a venetian blind was issued to John Hampson of New Orleans, Louisiana on a "manner of retaining in any desired position the slats of Venetian Blinds" (No. 2223) It is said the first U.S. installation of Venetian blinds was in 1761 in St. Peter's Church, Third and Pine streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_blind
1852 Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Selkirk
1858 First Lincoln-Douglas debate (Illinois). The debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were held during the 1858 campaign for a US Senate seat from Illinois. The debates were held at 7 sites throughout Illinois.
Douglas, a Democrat, was the incumbent Senator, having been elected in 1847. He had chaired the Senate Committee on Territories. He helped enact the Compromise of 1850. Douglas then was a proponent of Popular Sovereignty, and was responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The legislation led to the violence in Kansas, hence the name "Bleeding Kansas"
Lincoln was a relative unknown at the beginning of the debates. In contrast to Douglas' Popular Sovereignty stance, Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as half-slave and half-free states. The Lincoln-Douglas debates drew the attention of the entire nation.
Although Lincoln would lose the Senate race in 1858, he would beat Douglas out in the 1860 race for the US Presidency.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln-Douglas_debates_of_1858
Ruins of Free State Hotel after the attack
1863 Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence,_Kansas#Bleeding_Kansas_and_the_Civil_War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Massacre
1871 It was reported today that Rabbi Elkan Herzman has been fired from his position at an Orthodox synagogue in Chicago for eating ice cream on the Jewish fast day of Tish’a B’Av. According to the report first published in the Jewish Times, the issue was not so much one of violating the law about the fast as one of hypocrisy.
1874 Popular 19th century preacher Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was accused by Theodore Tilton of committing adultery with his wife. The resulting trial ended in a 9-3 hung jury decision, in Beecher's favor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ward_Beecher#Beecher-Tilton_scandal
1878 American Bar Association organizes at Sarasota, NY. The ABA was founded on August 21, 1878, in Saratoga Springs, New York, by 100 lawyers from 21 states. There was no national code of ethics; there was no national organization to serve as a forum for discussion of the increasingly intricate issues involved in legal practice.
The original ABA constitution, which is still substantially the charter of the Association, defined the purpose of the ABA as being for "the advancement of the science of jurisprudence, the promotion of the administration of justice and a uniformity of legislation throughout the country...."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bar_Association
1883 A tornado hit Rochester, MN, killing 31 persons and wrecking 1351 dwellings.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_MN#History
1888 The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs. Burroughs of St. Louis, Missouri, received patents on four adding machine applications (No. 388,116-388,119), the first U.S. patents for a "Calculating-Machine" that the inventor would continue to improve and successfully market. One year after making his first patent application on 10 Jan 1885, he incorporated his business as the American Arithmometer Corporation of St. Louis, in Jan 1886, with an authorized capitalization of $100,000. After Burrough's early death in 1898, after moving from St. Louis to Detroit, Michigan, that company reorganized as the Burroughs Adding Machine Co., incorporated in Jan 1905, with a capital of $5 million. The new name was in tribute to the inventor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adding_machine
1888 A tornado swarm occurred in Maryland and Delaware. Many waterspouts were seen over Chesapeake Bay.
1903 A 12 horsepower single-cylinder Model F Packard mud-covered automobile arrived in New York, completing a trip across the U.S. from San Francisco. It was driven by “Tommy” Fetch from the Packard Motor Car works, with Marius Krarup, a journalist. They left San Fransisco on 21 Jun 1903, after dipping the car's rear wheels in the Pacific Ocean. The 51 days of actual running time gave an average run of almost 80 miles per day. They had crossed the Utah desert and the Colorado mountains and, according to the New York Times report, during their journey replaced only three tires and a broken front spring. Vermont doctor Horatio Nelson with mechanic Crocker Sewell, had completed a similar, but two days slower, trip in a Winton car the previous month
1911 The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Theft_and_vandalism
Arthur Rose Eldred in 1912, shortly after receiving the Eagle award and his Bronze Honor medal for saving a life.
1912 The first boy reached the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America. He was Arthur R. Eldred of Oceanside, NY. Eldred had earned the required 21 merit badges and been tested by the local review board. A National Board of Review tested him again. This was to be BSA's first Eagle Scout and the national officers were not going to lose the PR opportunity.
Eldred received notice of the award in a letter from West dated August 21, 1912. He finally received the award itself on Labor Day, 1912. A few weeks after becoming the first Eagle Scout, Eldred helped to save another Scout from drowning and was awarded the Bronze Honor Medal for his actions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rose_Eldred
1918 World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_the_Somme
1918 A tornado struck Tyler, MN, killing 36 persons and destroying most of the business section of the town resulting in a million dollars damage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler,_MN#Tornado
1922 Curly Lambeau & Green Bay Football Club granted NFL franchise. The third-oldest team in pro football got its name from a World War I era company whose involvement with the team was over almost before it began. According to the Packers official site, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, and numerous fan sites, the team was named for the Indian Packing Company in 1919. This company happened to employ Earl "Curly" Lambeau, one of the founding athletes of the team, who would later become the team's head coach.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers
1930 Pioneer linguistic educator Frank C. Laubach wrote in a letter: 'If this entire universe has a desperate need of love to incarnate itself, then "important duties" which keep us from helping little people are not duties but sins.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_C._Laubach
1938 A classic recording was made this day. Fats Waller waxed "Ain’t Misbehavin"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_Misbehavin%27_(song)
1942 World War II: a Nazi flag is installed atop the Mount Elbrus.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Elbrus#History
1942 World War II: the Guadalcanal campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal_campaign#Battle_of_the_Tenaru
1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbarton_Oaks_Conference
1944 World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically important town of Falaise, France.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falaise_pocket
1945: At the urging of Lt. Colonel Judah Nadich, the rabbi serving as senior Jewish chaplain in Europe, General Eisenhower issued an order reversing the policy that would have required Jewish displaced persons to return to their native countries.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Nadich
1945 Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_K._Daghlian
1945 President Truman ends Lend-Lease program. Arrangements were made-notably with Great Britain and China-to continue shipments, on a cash or credit basis, of goods earmarked for them under lend-lease appropriations. Total lend-lease aid exceeded $50 billion, of which the British Commonwealth received some $31 billion and the USSR received over $11 billion. Within 15 years after the termination of lend-lease, settlements were made with most of the countries that had received aid, although a settlement with the USSR was not reached until 1972.
The United Nations Secretariat Building at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
1950 The United Nations moved into its new permanent facilities in New York City
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#History
1951 Harlem Globetrotters play in Olympic Stadium, Berlin before 75,052. In 1951, the 25th anniversary tour begins and is highlighted by the team's 4,000th career game. On April 9, a United States record crowd of 31,684 fans watched the Globetrotters defeat the College All-Stars, 55-34 at the Rose Bowl. On April 25, Globetrotters embark on their first South America tour. The tour highlight is when the team played before a crowd of 50,041 fans at Rio de Janeiro's Estadio Municipal. On August 21, the Globetrotters play before 75,000 fans packed into Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Just prior to the game, a helicopter lands on the field and emerging from the helicopter was the Globetrotters' special guest, 1948 U.S. Olympian Jesse Owens.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Globetrotters
1953 Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reaches record 83,075 feet. Douglas test pilot Bill Bridgeman soon took the revamped D-558-II to Mach 1.88 and an unofficial altitude record of 79,494 feet. After it was delivered to NACA, the white rocket plane reached 83,235 feet on Aug. 21, 1953. And not long afterward, in timing which was not entirely coincidental, NACA research pilot Scott Crossfield edged the Skyrocket past Mach 2.0. He thus became the first human to fly at twice the speed of sound, just before the Air Force could reach that milestone.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Carl
1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day. In March, President Eisenhower signed into law legislation enabling Hawai'i to become the 50th state. A general plebiscite held June 27 offered voters a choice between becoming a state or not becoming a state. Votes for accepting statehood won overwhelmingly. Statehood was finalized August 21 with a presidential proclamation admitting Hawai'i to the Union.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawai%27i#Political_changes_of_1954.E2.80.94the_State_of_Hawaii_.281959.E2.80.93present.29
1961 Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Mr._Postman
1963 Xa Loi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalises Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xa_Loi_Pagoda_raids
1965 Gemini 5 launched into Earth orbit (2 astronauts). At 9:00 AM EST Gemini 5 lifts off on a long, important mission. There will be no headline-grabbing spacewalk on this mission, but the tasks performed by Gordo Cooper and Pete Conrad on Gemini 5 will be vital steps on America's journey to the Moon. The goal for Gemini 5 was to spend 8 days in orbit, giving the United States the lead as far as time spent in space, as well as approximating the length of time an Apollo mission was estimated to require in space.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_5
1968 Nicolae Ceaucescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
1968 James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Anderson,_Jr
1968 After 5 years Russia once again jams Voice of America radio
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America
1968 William Dana reaches 262,500 feet (last high-altitude X-15 flight). Dana flew the X-15 research airplane 16 times, reaching a top speed of 3,89 miles per hour and a peak altitude of 310,000 feet (almost 59 miles high). The X-15 research aircraft was developed to provide in-flight information and data on aerodynamics, structures, flight controls, and the physiological aspects of high-speed, high-altitude flight. A follow on program used the aircraft as a testbed to carry various scientific experiments beyond the Earth's atmosphere on a repeated basis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Dana_(pilot)
1969 An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire, a major catalyst of the formation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_of_Islamic_Cooperation
1971 A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.
1976 Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paul_Bunyan#Operation_Paul_Bunyan
1976 RCA Victor Records announced that sales of Elvis Presley records had passed the 400 million mark
1979 Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Godunov
1980 Linda Ronstadt debuted on Broadway in "The Pirates of Penzance"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt
1982 Rollie Fingers (Brewers) becomes first pitcher to get save #300. Almost as famous for his handlebar mustache as his pitching, the lanky righthander retired as the greatest relief artist in baseball, lasting 17 years. When he finally called it quits in 1985, Fingers held the major-league records for most career saves (341) and World Series saves (7).
Milwaukee's Rollie Fingers recorded his 300th career save in a 3-2 win at Seattle, becoming the first player to reach that milestone.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollie_Fingers
1982 Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Civil_War
1983 The temperature at Fayetteville, NC, soared to 110 degrees to establish a state record.
1986 Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range. The gas was carbon dioxide which, being more dense than air, hugged the ground and flowed down valleys. The cloud travelled as far as 15 miles (25 km) from the lake. It was moving fast enough to flatten vegetation, including a few trees. In addition to the human deaths caused by suffocation, 845 people were hospitalized and 3,000 cattle died. Lake Nyos is a few square kilometres in area, and is around 200 m deep. It is situated in the crater formed from the collapse of the pipe feeding a now extinct volcano.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos
1987 "Mack Lobell" set harness racing's trotting record (1:52)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Lobell
1987 Early morning thunderstorms produced severe weather in eastern Iowa and west central Illinois. Thunderstorms produced wind gusts to 82 mph at Moline IL, and tennis ball size hail at Independence IA. Rock Island IL was drenched with 3.70 inches of rain. Total damage for the seven county area of west central Illinois was estimated at twelve million dollars.
1988 Thunderstorms spawned several tornadoes in Iowa, produced wind gusts to 63 mph in the Council Bluffs area, and drenched Sioux Center IA with up to 6.61 inches of rain.
1989 The U.S. space probe Voyager 2 fired its thrusters to bring it closer to Neptune's mysterious moon Triton. In the summer of 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe the planet Neptune , its final planetary target. Passing about 4,950 kilometers (3,000 miles) above Neptune's north pole, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to any planet since leaving Earth 12 years earlier. Five hours later, Voyager 2 passed about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) from Neptune's largest moon, Triton, the last solid body the spacecraft will have an opportunity to study.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2
1989 Afternoon and evening thunderstorms produced severe weather from Kansas to Minnesota and North Dakota. Thunderstorms in Minnesota produced baseball size hail from Correll to north of Appleton. Thunderstorms in north central Kansas produced wind gusts higher than 100 mph at Wilson Dam. Thunderstorms around Lincoln NE produced baseball size hail and up to five inches of rain, and Boone NE was deluged with five inches of rain in an hour and a half.
1991 Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.
1991 Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev#The_August_1991_coup
Vicki Weaver as seen from a USMS surveillance position
21 August 1992
1992 Ruby Ridge Standoff in Idaho
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge_Standoff
1993 NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft following the pressurization of the rocket thruster fuel tanks, three days before it was to begin orbiting the Red Planet. The Mars Observer was to be the first U.S. spacecraft to study Mars since the Viking missions 18 years earlier. The fate of the $980 million mission remains unknown, though a commission studied possible causes for the failure.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Observer
2001 NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
2001 The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
2007 Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph (266 km/h). Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
1567 Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and saint (d. 1622)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_de_Sales
1799 Alexander R. Reinagle, (d Apr 6, 1877) English church organist. He penned many sacred compositions, including ST. PETER, which afterward became the melody to the hymn, "In Christ There is No East or West."
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/r/e/i/reinagle_ar.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/c/n/icnoeast.htm
1800 Hiram Walden, American politician (d. 1880)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Walden
1811 William Kelly (d 11 Feb 1888, 76) American ironmaster who invented the pneumatic process of steelmaking, in which air is blown through molten pig iron to remove unwanted impurities. While a Kentucky manufacturer of iron kettles, he discovered that cold air blown on red-hot iron caused the metal to become white-hot by igniting the carbon and thus eliminating impurities. He tried to apply the new “air boiling” technique to his own product, but his customers decried “Kelly's fool steel,” and his business declined. His patent of 23 Jun 1857 won priority over the U.S. patent of Sir Henry Bessemer of Great Britain, gradually the Bessemer-Kelly process won acceptance. This process produced the first inexpensive steel, crucial in the industrial age.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kelly_(inventor)
1840 Ferdinand Hamer, a Catholic missionary to China and bishop who was killed in the Boxer rebellion in China. (d. 1900)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Hamer
1840 Persecution of the Jews of Damascus brought together Congregation B'nai Jesheran in New York City to declare: "Resolved, that we do most emphatically and solemnly deny, as well in our own name as in that of the whole Jewish people, that murder was ever committed by the Jews of Damascus, or those of any other part of the world for the purpose of using the blood or any part of a human being in the ceremonies of our religion." U.S. President Van Buren instructed his officer at Constantinople to help the persecuted Jew of Damascus
1841 Frederick Cook Atkinson (d 30 Nov 1896) Anglican chorister and composer gave us the music to which we sing "Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart."
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/a/t/k/atkinson_fc.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/o/g/sogdumyh.htm
1860: The “Hebrew Son” is scheduled to be performed tonight at the New Bowery Theatre in New York City.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery_Theatre
1866 Civilla D. Martin, (d Mar 9, 1948) teacher and songwriter, in Nova Scotia. A pastor's wife, she penned in 1904 the hymn, "Be Not Dismayed, Whate'er Betide" (a.k.a. "God Will Take Care of You").
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/a/r/t/martin_cd.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/w/i/gwiltake.htm
1884 Chandler Egan, American golfer (d. 1936)
1891 Emiliano Mercado del Toro, World's oldest living man 2004-2007 (d. 2007)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emiliano_Mercado_del_Toro
1904 William "Count" Basie, American bandleader (d. 1984)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_%22Count%22_Basie
1906 Friz Freleng, American movie animator (d. 1995)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friz_Freleng
1907 Roy Kenneth Marshall (d 27 May 1972, 64) American astronomer with the Fels Planetarium, Philadelphia, then the first director of Morehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill, N.C. He cotributed to the slim but classic work Star Maps For Beginners, by I.M. Levitt, a book on skylore and learning the constellations which first appeared in 1942 with periodic revisions over 50 years. He combined his scientific expertise with showmanship as a pioneering TV science broadcaster with a weekly Nature of Things 15 minute program. It premiered on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network on 5 Feb 1948 with a broadcast from the Fels Planetarium. It became so popular it ran year-round until 29 Aug 1952
1920 Christopher Robin Milne, inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories (d. 1996)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Robin_Milne
1924 Jack Buck, American sportscaster (d. 2002)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Buck
1924 Chris Schenkel, American sports journalist (d. 2005)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Schenkel
1924 Jack Weston, American actor (d. 1996)
1925 Judy Grable, American professional wrestler (d. 2008)
1927 Thomas S. Monson, 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7YOasV1cco
1928 Art Farmer, American trumpet player (d. 1999)
1928 Bud McFadin, American football player (d. 2006)
1929 X. J. Kennedy, American poet
1929 Marie Severin, American comic book artist and colorist
1930 Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. 2002)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Margaret
1930 Frank Perry, American film director (d. 1995)
1932 Melvin Van Peebles, American actor and screenwriter
1936 Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (d. 1999)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlain
1937 Robert Stone, American novelist
1938 Kenny Rogers, American singer and actor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers
1939 James Burton, American guitarist
1939 Clarence Williams III, American actor
1943 Hugh Wilson, American director, writer and actor
1944 Jackie DeShannon, American singer
1945 Jerry DaVanon, baseball player
1945 Patty McCormack, American actress
1945 Basil Poledouris, American film score composer (d. 2006)
1947 Carl Giammarese, American musician
1949 Loretta Devine, American actress
1950 Arthur Bremer, American criminal, who shot George C Wallace in May 1972.
1951 Char Margolis, American medium
1951 Harry Smith, American television journalist
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Smith_(television)
1952 Glenn Hughes, British bassist and vocalist (Finders Keepers/Trapeze/Deep Purple)
1953 Ivan Stang, American writer
1954 Archie Griffin, former American football player and only two-time Heisman Trophy winner.
1954 Chip Coffey, American psychic, medium and television personality.
1956 Jon Tester, US Senator from Montana
1957 Steve Smith, American drummer (Journey)
1959 Jim McMahon, American football player
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McMahon
1961 David Morales, American disc jockey
1961 Stephen Hillenburg, American animator and cartoonist
1962 Jeff Stryker, American actor
1963 Richmond Arquette, American actor
1964 Trinity Loren, American actress and model (d. 1998)
1965 Jim Bullinger, American baseball player
1965 Caryn Mower, American actress, stuntwoman and former professional wrestler
1966 John Wetteland, American player
1967 Serj Tankian, Armenian-born singer (System of a Down)
1967 Darren Bewick, AFL footballer
1970 Craig Counsell, American baseball player
1970 Nathan Jones, American professional wrestler
1973 Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin, Russian-American computer scientist who was a computer science graduate when he co-founded Google, Inc. with Larry Page in 1998, though they had been working on their search engine ideas since a few years earlier. He was a young boy when his family moved from Russia to the U.S. His academic papers include “Extracting Patterns and Relations from the World Wide Web” and “Dynamic Data Mining.” Brin took on leave from his Ph.D. studies to devote his time to Google. Initial financing came from investors, family and friends. The name morphed from “googol” (the word for the huge number given by 1 followed by 100 zeros.) In relatively few years, the company has grown to a value exceeing Disney, McDonalds and General Motors combined
1975 Alicia Witt, American actress
1976 Jeff Cunningham, Jamaican American soccer player
1976 Ramón Vázquez, Puerto Rican baseball player
1978 Reuben Droughns, American football player
1978 Lee Gronkiewicz, American baseball player
1978 Jason Marquis, American baseball player
1979 Kelis Rogers-Jones, American singer
1980 Burney Lamar, American racing driver
1980 Paul Menard, American racing driver
1981 Tyler Winklevoss, American rower and entrepreneur
1981 Cameron Winklevoss, American rower and entrepreneur
1983 Brody Jenner, American actor
1984 Melissa Schuman, American actress
1984 B.J. Upton, American baseball player
1985 Kevin Nee, American strongman
1988 Paris Bennett, American singer and finalist on American Idol (season 5)
1989 Hayden Panettiere, American actress, model and singer
1990 Bo Burnham, American comedic singer-songwriter and internet celebrity
1994 Jacqueline Emerson, American actress and singer
1996 Jamia Simone Nash, American singer and actress
1153 Bernard of Clairvaux, French theologian (b. 1090)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Clairvaux
1245 Alexander of Hales, 59. An English scholastic theologian, Alexander is regarded as the founder of the Franciscan school of theology
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Hales
1762 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, (b 1689) English aristocrat and writer. Montagu is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her letters from Turkey, as wife to the British ambassador, which have been described by Billie Melman as “the very first example of a secular work by a woman about the Muslim Orient”.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wortley_Montagu
1796 John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (b. 1721)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McKinly
1814 Benjamin Thompson, American physicist and inventor (b. 1753)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Thompson
1854 Thomas Clayton, American lawyer and politician (b. 1777)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Clayton
1864(19th of Av, 5624) Isaac J. Levy (CSA) was killed in the trenches at Petersburg, He was 21 years old. Isaac is buried in the Hebrew Cemetery on Shockoe Hill in Richmond, in the Levy family plot.
1940 Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1879)
1940 Ernest Lawrence Thayer, American poet (b. 1863)
1960 David Barnard Steinman, 74 (b 11 Jun 1886) American engineer whose studies of airflow and wind velocity helped make possible the design of aerodynamically stable bridges. Steinman's thesis for his Ph.D. from Colombia University (1911) was published as "The Design of the Henry Hudson Memorial Bridge as a Steel Arch, and more than 20 years later he built the bridge he had planned over the Harlem River. Steinman designed more than 400 bridges, for instance Sidney Harbor Bridge in Australia, Mackinac Straits Bridge, Carquinez Strait Bridge, San Francisco (1937), Saint Johns Bridge, Portland, Ore, Deer Isle Bridge, Maine, Mount Hope Bridge, Rhode Island
1966 Martin Dooling, American soccer player (b. 1886)
1971 George Jackson, American Black Panther Party figure (b. 1941)
1974 Buford Pusser, American law enforcement official (b. 1937)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buford_Pusser
1978 Charles Eames, American designer and architect (b. 1907)
1988 Ray Eames, American designer, artist and architect (b. 1912)
1993 Tatiana Troyanos, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1938)
1995 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, at 84 (b 19 Oct 1910)Indian-American astronomer and astrophysicist who shared (with William A.Fowler) the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for formulating the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars (which has led to the discovery of black holes and neutron stars). He was one of the first scientists to combine the disciplines of physics and astronomy. Early in his career he demonstrated that there is an upper limit, now called the Chandrasekhar limit, to the mass of a white dwarf star. (A white dwarf is the last stage in the evolution of a star such as the Sun, which ends with collapse when the nuclear energy source in its centre has become exhausted.) Further, it shows that stars much more massive than the Sun must either explode or form black holes.
2003 Wesley Willis, American musician (b. 1963)
2005 Robert Moog, (b 1934) American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moog
2005 Martin Dillon, American opera singer (b. 1957)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dillon_(musician)
2007 Elizabeth P. Hoisington, American Brigadier General (b. 1918)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_P._Hoisington
2008 Jerry Finn, American record producer (b. 1969)
Holidays and observances
Christian Feast Day:
Abraham of Smolensk (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Euprepius of Verona
Maximilian of Antioch
Pope St. Pius X
Sidonius Apollinaris
August 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Apostle Thaddeus of Edessa, one of the Seventy Apostles (44)
Martyr Bassa of Edessa and her sons Theogonius, Agapius and Pistus (4th century)
Saint Abramius, archimandrite, Wonderworker of Smolensk, (1220 and his disciple St. Ephraim (1238)
Saint Abramius the Lover-of-labor of the Kiev Caves
Saint Theocleta the Wonderworker of Asia Minor (840)
Saint Cornelius, abbot of Paleostrov, (Valaam) (1420) and his disciple St. Abramius (15th century)
Saint Isaiah of Mt. Athos (14th century)
New Martyr Symeon of Samokovo (1737)
Saint Martha, schemanun of Diveyevo (1829)
New Hieromartyr Raphael, abbot of Sisatovac Monastery, Serbia (1941)
Other commemorations
Translation of the relics (1953) of Saint Nectarius (Kephalas), metropolitan of Pentapolis (1920)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_21
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_21_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
www.hymntime.com/tch/index.htm
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.christianity.com/churchhistory/
www.todayinsci.com/8/8_21.htm
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.amug.org/~jpaul/aug21.html
thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
There are 132 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 77
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1680 Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt. On August 13, the Pueblos closest to Santa Fe invaded the capital. The Spaniards were armed with arquebuses (a heavy, portable matchlock gun), swords, daggers and shields. The warriors had bows and arrows, small shields, lances and rocks. Other tribes joined the Pueblos By August 16, the Spanish began to get an advantage. But just in time, the Cochiti and Santo Domingo warriors arrived. Lacking firepower, the warriors blocked the stream coming into Casa Reales. Soon the Spaniards began to lose their animals from thirst and hunger. Governor Otermin called a meeting, and it was decided they would try to fight their way out rather than die of thirst and hunger. On August 21, the Spaniards broke the siege and left Santa Fe. They would not stop their southward flight until they reached the area that today is El Paso, Texas.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt
1770 James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook
1772 King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot.
1821 Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarvis_Island
1831 Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner
1841 The first U.S. patent for a venetian blind was issued to John Hampson of New Orleans, Louisiana on a "manner of retaining in any desired position the slats of Venetian Blinds" (No. 2223) It is said the first U.S. installation of Venetian blinds was in 1761 in St. Peter's Church, Third and Pine streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_blind
1852 Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Selkirk
1858 First Lincoln-Douglas debate (Illinois). The debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were held during the 1858 campaign for a US Senate seat from Illinois. The debates were held at 7 sites throughout Illinois.
Douglas, a Democrat, was the incumbent Senator, having been elected in 1847. He had chaired the Senate Committee on Territories. He helped enact the Compromise of 1850. Douglas then was a proponent of Popular Sovereignty, and was responsible for the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The legislation led to the violence in Kansas, hence the name "Bleeding Kansas"
Lincoln was a relative unknown at the beginning of the debates. In contrast to Douglas' Popular Sovereignty stance, Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as half-slave and half-free states. The Lincoln-Douglas debates drew the attention of the entire nation.
Although Lincoln would lose the Senate race in 1858, he would beat Douglas out in the 1860 race for the US Presidency.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln-Douglas_debates_of_1858
Ruins of Free State Hotel after the attack
1863 Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence,_Kansas#Bleeding_Kansas_and_the_Civil_War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Massacre
1871 It was reported today that Rabbi Elkan Herzman has been fired from his position at an Orthodox synagogue in Chicago for eating ice cream on the Jewish fast day of Tish’a B’Av. According to the report first published in the Jewish Times, the issue was not so much one of violating the law about the fast as one of hypocrisy.
1874 Popular 19th century preacher Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was accused by Theodore Tilton of committing adultery with his wife. The resulting trial ended in a 9-3 hung jury decision, in Beecher's favor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ward_Beecher#Beecher-Tilton_scandal
1878 American Bar Association organizes at Sarasota, NY. The ABA was founded on August 21, 1878, in Saratoga Springs, New York, by 100 lawyers from 21 states. There was no national code of ethics; there was no national organization to serve as a forum for discussion of the increasingly intricate issues involved in legal practice.
The original ABA constitution, which is still substantially the charter of the Association, defined the purpose of the ABA as being for "the advancement of the science of jurisprudence, the promotion of the administration of justice and a uniformity of legislation throughout the country...."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Bar_Association
1883 A tornado hit Rochester, MN, killing 31 persons and wrecking 1351 dwellings.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_MN#History
1888 The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs. Burroughs of St. Louis, Missouri, received patents on four adding machine applications (No. 388,116-388,119), the first U.S. patents for a "Calculating-Machine" that the inventor would continue to improve and successfully market. One year after making his first patent application on 10 Jan 1885, he incorporated his business as the American Arithmometer Corporation of St. Louis, in Jan 1886, with an authorized capitalization of $100,000. After Burrough's early death in 1898, after moving from St. Louis to Detroit, Michigan, that company reorganized as the Burroughs Adding Machine Co., incorporated in Jan 1905, with a capital of $5 million. The new name was in tribute to the inventor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adding_machine
1888 A tornado swarm occurred in Maryland and Delaware. Many waterspouts were seen over Chesapeake Bay.
1903 A 12 horsepower single-cylinder Model F Packard mud-covered automobile arrived in New York, completing a trip across the U.S. from San Francisco. It was driven by “Tommy” Fetch from the Packard Motor Car works, with Marius Krarup, a journalist. They left San Fransisco on 21 Jun 1903, after dipping the car's rear wheels in the Pacific Ocean. The 51 days of actual running time gave an average run of almost 80 miles per day. They had crossed the Utah desert and the Colorado mountains and, according to the New York Times report, during their journey replaced only three tires and a broken front spring. Vermont doctor Horatio Nelson with mechanic Crocker Sewell, had completed a similar, but two days slower, trip in a Winton car the previous month
1911 The Mona Lisa is stolen by a Louvre employee.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Theft_and_vandalism
Arthur Rose Eldred in 1912, shortly after receiving the Eagle award and his Bronze Honor medal for saving a life.
1912 The first boy reached the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America. He was Arthur R. Eldred of Oceanside, NY. Eldred had earned the required 21 merit badges and been tested by the local review board. A National Board of Review tested him again. This was to be BSA's first Eagle Scout and the national officers were not going to lose the PR opportunity.
Eldred received notice of the award in a letter from West dated August 21, 1912. He finally received the award itself on Labor Day, 1912. A few weeks after becoming the first Eagle Scout, Eldred helped to save another Scout from drowning and was awarded the Bronze Honor Medal for his actions.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_America
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rose_Eldred
1918 World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_the_Somme
1918 A tornado struck Tyler, MN, killing 36 persons and destroying most of the business section of the town resulting in a million dollars damage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler,_MN#Tornado
1922 Curly Lambeau & Green Bay Football Club granted NFL franchise. The third-oldest team in pro football got its name from a World War I era company whose involvement with the team was over almost before it began. According to the Packers official site, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, and numerous fan sites, the team was named for the Indian Packing Company in 1919. This company happened to employ Earl "Curly" Lambeau, one of the founding athletes of the team, who would later become the team's head coach.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers
1930 Pioneer linguistic educator Frank C. Laubach wrote in a letter: 'If this entire universe has a desperate need of love to incarnate itself, then "important duties" which keep us from helping little people are not duties but sins.'
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_C._Laubach
1938 A classic recording was made this day. Fats Waller waxed "Ain’t Misbehavin"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_Misbehavin%27_(song)
1942 World War II: a Nazi flag is installed atop the Mount Elbrus.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Elbrus#History
1942 World War II: the Guadalcanal campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalcanal_campaign#Battle_of_the_Tenaru
1944 Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbarton_Oaks_Conference
1944 World War II: Canadian and Polish units capture the strategically important town of Falaise, France.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falaise_pocket
1945: At the urging of Lt. Colonel Judah Nadich, the rabbi serving as senior Jewish chaplain in Europe, General Eisenhower issued an order reversing the policy that would have required Jewish displaced persons to return to their native countries.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Nadich
1945 Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_K._Daghlian
1945 President Truman ends Lend-Lease program. Arrangements were made-notably with Great Britain and China-to continue shipments, on a cash or credit basis, of goods earmarked for them under lend-lease appropriations. Total lend-lease aid exceeded $50 billion, of which the British Commonwealth received some $31 billion and the USSR received over $11 billion. Within 15 years after the termination of lend-lease, settlements were made with most of the countries that had received aid, although a settlement with the USSR was not reached until 1972.
The United Nations Secretariat Building at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
1950 The United Nations moved into its new permanent facilities in New York City
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#History
1951 Harlem Globetrotters play in Olympic Stadium, Berlin before 75,052. In 1951, the 25th anniversary tour begins and is highlighted by the team's 4,000th career game. On April 9, a United States record crowd of 31,684 fans watched the Globetrotters defeat the College All-Stars, 55-34 at the Rose Bowl. On April 25, Globetrotters embark on their first South America tour. The tour highlight is when the team played before a crowd of 50,041 fans at Rio de Janeiro's Estadio Municipal. On August 21, the Globetrotters play before 75,000 fans packed into Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Just prior to the game, a helicopter lands on the field and emerging from the helicopter was the Globetrotters' special guest, 1948 U.S. Olympian Jesse Owens.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Globetrotters
1953 Marion Carl in Douglas Skyrocket reaches record 83,075 feet. Douglas test pilot Bill Bridgeman soon took the revamped D-558-II to Mach 1.88 and an unofficial altitude record of 79,494 feet. After it was delivered to NACA, the white rocket plane reached 83,235 feet on Aug. 21, 1953. And not long afterward, in timing which was not entirely coincidental, NACA research pilot Scott Crossfield edged the Skyrocket past Mach 2.0. He thus became the first human to fly at twice the speed of sound, just before the Air Force could reach that milestone.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Carl
1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day. In March, President Eisenhower signed into law legislation enabling Hawai'i to become the 50th state. A general plebiscite held June 27 offered voters a choice between becoming a state or not becoming a state. Votes for accepting statehood won overwhelmingly. Statehood was finalized August 21 with a presidential proclamation admitting Hawai'i to the Union.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawai%27i#Political_changes_of_1954.E2.80.94the_State_of_Hawaii_.281959.E2.80.93present.29
1961 Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Please_Mr._Postman
1963 Xa Loi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalises Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xa_Loi_Pagoda_raids
1965 Gemini 5 launched into Earth orbit (2 astronauts). At 9:00 AM EST Gemini 5 lifts off on a long, important mission. There will be no headline-grabbing spacewalk on this mission, but the tasks performed by Gordo Cooper and Pete Conrad on Gemini 5 will be vital steps on America's journey to the Moon. The goal for Gemini 5 was to spend 8 days in orbit, giving the United States the lead as far as time spent in space, as well as approximating the length of time an Apollo mission was estimated to require in space.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_5
1968 Nicolae Ceaucescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.
1968 James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Anderson,_Jr
1968 After 5 years Russia once again jams Voice of America radio
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America
1968 William Dana reaches 262,500 feet (last high-altitude X-15 flight). Dana flew the X-15 research airplane 16 times, reaching a top speed of 3,89 miles per hour and a peak altitude of 310,000 feet (almost 59 miles high). The X-15 research aircraft was developed to provide in-flight information and data on aerodynamics, structures, flight controls, and the physiological aspects of high-speed, high-altitude flight. A follow on program used the aircraft as a testbed to carry various scientific experiments beyond the Earth's atmosphere on a repeated basis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Dana_(pilot)
1969 An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire, a major catalyst of the formation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organisation_of_Islamic_Cooperation
1971 A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.
1976 Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paul_Bunyan#Operation_Paul_Bunyan
1976 RCA Victor Records announced that sales of Elvis Presley records had passed the 400 million mark
1979 Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Godunov
1980 Linda Ronstadt debuted on Broadway in "The Pirates of Penzance"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt
1982 Rollie Fingers (Brewers) becomes first pitcher to get save #300. Almost as famous for his handlebar mustache as his pitching, the lanky righthander retired as the greatest relief artist in baseball, lasting 17 years. When he finally called it quits in 1985, Fingers held the major-league records for most career saves (341) and World Series saves (7).
Milwaukee's Rollie Fingers recorded his 300th career save in a 3-2 win at Seattle, becoming the first player to reach that milestone.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollie_Fingers
1982 Lebanese Civil War: The first troops of a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_Civil_War
1983 The temperature at Fayetteville, NC, soared to 110 degrees to establish a state record.
1986 Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range. The gas was carbon dioxide which, being more dense than air, hugged the ground and flowed down valleys. The cloud travelled as far as 15 miles (25 km) from the lake. It was moving fast enough to flatten vegetation, including a few trees. In addition to the human deaths caused by suffocation, 845 people were hospitalized and 3,000 cattle died. Lake Nyos is a few square kilometres in area, and is around 200 m deep. It is situated in the crater formed from the collapse of the pipe feeding a now extinct volcano.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos
1987 "Mack Lobell" set harness racing's trotting record (1:52)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_Lobell
1987 Early morning thunderstorms produced severe weather in eastern Iowa and west central Illinois. Thunderstorms produced wind gusts to 82 mph at Moline IL, and tennis ball size hail at Independence IA. Rock Island IL was drenched with 3.70 inches of rain. Total damage for the seven county area of west central Illinois was estimated at twelve million dollars.
1988 Thunderstorms spawned several tornadoes in Iowa, produced wind gusts to 63 mph in the Council Bluffs area, and drenched Sioux Center IA with up to 6.61 inches of rain.
1989 The U.S. space probe Voyager 2 fired its thrusters to bring it closer to Neptune's mysterious moon Triton. In the summer of 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe the planet Neptune , its final planetary target. Passing about 4,950 kilometers (3,000 miles) above Neptune's north pole, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to any planet since leaving Earth 12 years earlier. Five hours later, Voyager 2 passed about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) from Neptune's largest moon, Triton, the last solid body the spacecraft will have an opportunity to study.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2
1989 Afternoon and evening thunderstorms produced severe weather from Kansas to Minnesota and North Dakota. Thunderstorms in Minnesota produced baseball size hail from Correll to north of Appleton. Thunderstorms in north central Kansas produced wind gusts higher than 100 mph at Wilson Dam. Thunderstorms around Lincoln NE produced baseball size hail and up to five inches of rain, and Boone NE was deluged with five inches of rain in an hour and a half.
1991 Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.
1991 Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev#The_August_1991_coup
Vicki Weaver as seen from a USMS surveillance position
21 August 1992
1992 Ruby Ridge Standoff in Idaho
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge_Standoff
1993 NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft following the pressurization of the rocket thruster fuel tanks, three days before it was to begin orbiting the Red Planet. The Mars Observer was to be the first U.S. spacecraft to study Mars since the Viking missions 18 years earlier. The fate of the $980 million mission remains unknown, though a commission studied possible causes for the failure.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Observer
2001 NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
2001 The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
2007 Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph (266 km/h). Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Births ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1567 Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and saint (d. 1622)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_de_Sales
1799 Alexander R. Reinagle, (d Apr 6, 1877) English church organist. He penned many sacred compositions, including ST. PETER, which afterward became the melody to the hymn, "In Christ There is No East or West."
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/r/e/i/reinagle_ar.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/c/n/icnoeast.htm
1800 Hiram Walden, American politician (d. 1880)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Walden
1811 William Kelly (d 11 Feb 1888, 76) American ironmaster who invented the pneumatic process of steelmaking, in which air is blown through molten pig iron to remove unwanted impurities. While a Kentucky manufacturer of iron kettles, he discovered that cold air blown on red-hot iron caused the metal to become white-hot by igniting the carbon and thus eliminating impurities. He tried to apply the new “air boiling” technique to his own product, but his customers decried “Kelly's fool steel,” and his business declined. His patent of 23 Jun 1857 won priority over the U.S. patent of Sir Henry Bessemer of Great Britain, gradually the Bessemer-Kelly process won acceptance. This process produced the first inexpensive steel, crucial in the industrial age.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kelly_(inventor)
1840 Ferdinand Hamer, a Catholic missionary to China and bishop who was killed in the Boxer rebellion in China. (d. 1900)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Hamer
1840 Persecution of the Jews of Damascus brought together Congregation B'nai Jesheran in New York City to declare: "Resolved, that we do most emphatically and solemnly deny, as well in our own name as in that of the whole Jewish people, that murder was ever committed by the Jews of Damascus, or those of any other part of the world for the purpose of using the blood or any part of a human being in the ceremonies of our religion." U.S. President Van Buren instructed his officer at Constantinople to help the persecuted Jew of Damascus
1841 Frederick Cook Atkinson (d 30 Nov 1896) Anglican chorister and composer gave us the music to which we sing "Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart."
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/a/t/k/atkinson_fc.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/o/g/sogdumyh.htm
1860: The “Hebrew Son” is scheduled to be performed tonight at the New Bowery Theatre in New York City.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery_Theatre
1866 Civilla D. Martin, (d Mar 9, 1948) teacher and songwriter, in Nova Scotia. A pastor's wife, she penned in 1904 the hymn, "Be Not Dismayed, Whate'er Betide" (a.k.a. "God Will Take Care of You").
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/m/a/r/t/martin_cd.htm
www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/w/i/gwiltake.htm
1884 Chandler Egan, American golfer (d. 1936)
1891 Emiliano Mercado del Toro, World's oldest living man 2004-2007 (d. 2007)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emiliano_Mercado_del_Toro
1904 William "Count" Basie, American bandleader (d. 1984)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_%22Count%22_Basie
1906 Friz Freleng, American movie animator (d. 1995)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friz_Freleng
1907 Roy Kenneth Marshall (d 27 May 1972, 64) American astronomer with the Fels Planetarium, Philadelphia, then the first director of Morehead Planetarium, Chapel Hill, N.C. He cotributed to the slim but classic work Star Maps For Beginners, by I.M. Levitt, a book on skylore and learning the constellations which first appeared in 1942 with periodic revisions over 50 years. He combined his scientific expertise with showmanship as a pioneering TV science broadcaster with a weekly Nature of Things 15 minute program. It premiered on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network on 5 Feb 1948 with a broadcast from the Fels Planetarium. It became so popular it ran year-round until 29 Aug 1952
1920 Christopher Robin Milne, inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories (d. 1996)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Robin_Milne
1924 Jack Buck, American sportscaster (d. 2002)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Buck
1924 Chris Schenkel, American sports journalist (d. 2005)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Schenkel
1924 Jack Weston, American actor (d. 1996)
1925 Judy Grable, American professional wrestler (d. 2008)
1927 Thomas S. Monson, 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7YOasV1cco
1928 Art Farmer, American trumpet player (d. 1999)
1928 Bud McFadin, American football player (d. 2006)
1929 X. J. Kennedy, American poet
1929 Marie Severin, American comic book artist and colorist
1930 Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. 2002)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Margaret
1930 Frank Perry, American film director (d. 1995)
1932 Melvin Van Peebles, American actor and screenwriter
1936 Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (d. 1999)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilt_Chamberlain
1937 Robert Stone, American novelist
1938 Kenny Rogers, American singer and actor
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Rogers
1939 James Burton, American guitarist
1939 Clarence Williams III, American actor
1943 Hugh Wilson, American director, writer and actor
1944 Jackie DeShannon, American singer
1945 Jerry DaVanon, baseball player
1945 Patty McCormack, American actress
1945 Basil Poledouris, American film score composer (d. 2006)
1947 Carl Giammarese, American musician
1949 Loretta Devine, American actress
1950 Arthur Bremer, American criminal, who shot George C Wallace in May 1972.
1951 Char Margolis, American medium
1951 Harry Smith, American television journalist
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Smith_(television)
1952 Glenn Hughes, British bassist and vocalist (Finders Keepers/Trapeze/Deep Purple)
1953 Ivan Stang, American writer
1954 Archie Griffin, former American football player and only two-time Heisman Trophy winner.
1954 Chip Coffey, American psychic, medium and television personality.
1956 Jon Tester, US Senator from Montana
1957 Steve Smith, American drummer (Journey)
1959 Jim McMahon, American football player
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_McMahon
1961 David Morales, American disc jockey
1961 Stephen Hillenburg, American animator and cartoonist
1962 Jeff Stryker, American actor
1963 Richmond Arquette, American actor
1964 Trinity Loren, American actress and model (d. 1998)
1965 Jim Bullinger, American baseball player
1965 Caryn Mower, American actress, stuntwoman and former professional wrestler
1966 John Wetteland, American player
1967 Serj Tankian, Armenian-born singer (System of a Down)
1967 Darren Bewick, AFL footballer
1970 Craig Counsell, American baseball player
1970 Nathan Jones, American professional wrestler
1973 Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin, Russian-American computer scientist who was a computer science graduate when he co-founded Google, Inc. with Larry Page in 1998, though they had been working on their search engine ideas since a few years earlier. He was a young boy when his family moved from Russia to the U.S. His academic papers include “Extracting Patterns and Relations from the World Wide Web” and “Dynamic Data Mining.” Brin took on leave from his Ph.D. studies to devote his time to Google. Initial financing came from investors, family and friends. The name morphed from “googol” (the word for the huge number given by 1 followed by 100 zeros.) In relatively few years, the company has grown to a value exceeing Disney, McDonalds and General Motors combined
1975 Alicia Witt, American actress
1976 Jeff Cunningham, Jamaican American soccer player
1976 Ramón Vázquez, Puerto Rican baseball player
1978 Reuben Droughns, American football player
1978 Lee Gronkiewicz, American baseball player
1978 Jason Marquis, American baseball player
1979 Kelis Rogers-Jones, American singer
1980 Burney Lamar, American racing driver
1980 Paul Menard, American racing driver
1981 Tyler Winklevoss, American rower and entrepreneur
1981 Cameron Winklevoss, American rower and entrepreneur
1983 Brody Jenner, American actor
1984 Melissa Schuman, American actress
1984 B.J. Upton, American baseball player
1985 Kevin Nee, American strongman
1988 Paris Bennett, American singer and finalist on American Idol (season 5)
1989 Hayden Panettiere, American actress, model and singer
1990 Bo Burnham, American comedic singer-songwriter and internet celebrity
1994 Jacqueline Emerson, American actress and singer
1996 Jamia Simone Nash, American singer and actress
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Deaths ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1153 Bernard of Clairvaux, French theologian (b. 1090)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Clairvaux
1245 Alexander of Hales, 59. An English scholastic theologian, Alexander is regarded as the founder of the Franciscan school of theology
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Hales
1762 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, (b 1689) English aristocrat and writer. Montagu is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her letters from Turkey, as wife to the British ambassador, which have been described by Billie Melman as “the very first example of a secular work by a woman about the Muslim Orient”.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wortley_Montagu
1796 John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (b. 1721)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McKinly
1814 Benjamin Thompson, American physicist and inventor (b. 1753)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Thompson
1854 Thomas Clayton, American lawyer and politician (b. 1777)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Clayton
1864(19th of Av, 5624) Isaac J. Levy (CSA) was killed in the trenches at Petersburg, He was 21 years old. Isaac is buried in the Hebrew Cemetery on Shockoe Hill in Richmond, in the Levy family plot.
1940 Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1879)
1940 Ernest Lawrence Thayer, American poet (b. 1863)
1960 David Barnard Steinman, 74 (b 11 Jun 1886) American engineer whose studies of airflow and wind velocity helped make possible the design of aerodynamically stable bridges. Steinman's thesis for his Ph.D. from Colombia University (1911) was published as "The Design of the Henry Hudson Memorial Bridge as a Steel Arch, and more than 20 years later he built the bridge he had planned over the Harlem River. Steinman designed more than 400 bridges, for instance Sidney Harbor Bridge in Australia, Mackinac Straits Bridge, Carquinez Strait Bridge, San Francisco (1937), Saint Johns Bridge, Portland, Ore, Deer Isle Bridge, Maine, Mount Hope Bridge, Rhode Island
1966 Martin Dooling, American soccer player (b. 1886)
1971 George Jackson, American Black Panther Party figure (b. 1941)
1974 Buford Pusser, American law enforcement official (b. 1937)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buford_Pusser
1978 Charles Eames, American designer and architect (b. 1907)
1988 Ray Eames, American designer, artist and architect (b. 1912)
1993 Tatiana Troyanos, American mezzo-soprano (b. 1938)
1995 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, at 84 (b 19 Oct 1910)Indian-American astronomer and astrophysicist who shared (with William A.Fowler) the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for formulating the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars (which has led to the discovery of black holes and neutron stars). He was one of the first scientists to combine the disciplines of physics and astronomy. Early in his career he demonstrated that there is an upper limit, now called the Chandrasekhar limit, to the mass of a white dwarf star. (A white dwarf is the last stage in the evolution of a star such as the Sun, which ends with collapse when the nuclear energy source in its centre has become exhausted.) Further, it shows that stars much more massive than the Sun must either explode or form black holes.
2003 Wesley Willis, American musician (b. 1963)
2005 Robert Moog, (b 1934) American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moog
2005 Martin Dillon, American opera singer (b. 1957)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dillon_(musician)
2007 Elizabeth P. Hoisington, American Brigadier General (b. 1918)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_P._Hoisington
2008 Jerry Finn, American record producer (b. 1969)
Holidays and observances
Christian Feast Day:
Abraham of Smolensk (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Euprepius of Verona
Maximilian of Antioch
Pope St. Pius X
Sidonius Apollinaris
August 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Apostle Thaddeus of Edessa, one of the Seventy Apostles (44)
Martyr Bassa of Edessa and her sons Theogonius, Agapius and Pistus (4th century)
Saint Abramius, archimandrite, Wonderworker of Smolensk, (1220 and his disciple St. Ephraim (1238)
Saint Abramius the Lover-of-labor of the Kiev Caves
Saint Theocleta the Wonderworker of Asia Minor (840)
Saint Cornelius, abbot of Paleostrov, (Valaam) (1420) and his disciple St. Abramius (15th century)
Saint Isaiah of Mt. Athos (14th century)
New Martyr Symeon of Samokovo (1737)
Saint Martha, schemanun of Diveyevo (1829)
New Hieromartyr Raphael, abbot of Sisatovac Monastery, Serbia (1941)
Other commemorations
Translation of the relics (1953) of Saint Nectarius (Kephalas), metropolitan of Pentapolis (1920)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_21
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_21_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
www.hymntime.com/tch/index.htm
www.daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.christianity.com/churchhistory/
www.todayinsci.com/8/8_21.htm
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.amug.org/~jpaul/aug21.html
thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/