August 10th is:
Lazy Day
National S’mores Day
National Banana Split Day
August 10, 1792: Storming of the Tuileries Palace during the French Revolution. It was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henry IV to Napoleon III. It was burned by the Paris Commune in 1871.
Missouri Admission Day in 1821, becoming the twenty-fourth state:
- Capital: Jefferson
- Nickname: Show Me State
- Bird: Bluebird
- Flower: Hawthorn
- Tree: Flowering Dogwood
- Motto: The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law
See our page Missouri for more interesting facts and trivia about the state of Missouri.
From Today in Science
In 1846, an Act of Congress signed by President James K. Polk established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust to administer the generous bequest of James Smithson, an amount over $500,000. In 1826, James Smithson, a British scientist, drew up his last will and testament, naming his nephew as beneficiary. Smithson stipulated that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he would in 1835), the estate should go “to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men.” The motives behind Smithson’s bequest remain mysterious; he had never traveled to the U.S. and seems to have had no correspondence with anyone there.
Birthday of Herbert Hoover (August 10, 1874), 29th President of the United States. Hoover Trivia:
- Hoover wrote many books including his own three-volume memoirs.
- The Hoover Dam was also named in his honor
- Hoover refused to accept a salary as president
- The Star Spangled Banner was adopted as our national anthem during his presidency.
- One line in the All in the Family theme songء “Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.”
From Today in Science
In 1897, Dr. Felix Hoffmann successfully created a chemically pure and stable form of acetylsalicylic acid. His handwritten laboratory notes—aspirin’s “birth certificate”—suggested: “Through its physical characteristics such as a sour taste without any corrosive effect, acetylsalicylic acid has an advantage over salicylic acid and will therefore be tested for its usability in this context.” His success was trademarked as Aspirin. It was a better pain reliever for his father’s rheumatoid arthritis than the salicylic acid previously used which had an unpleasant taste and side effects, such as stomach bleeding. Hoffmann had improved on the earlier work of French chemist Charles Frederic Gerhardt who derived acetylsalicylic acid from plants, though only in an impure, unstable form.
Scotland Yard disrupted major terrorist plot to destroy aircraft traveling from the United Kingdom to the United States in 2006. All toiletries are banned from commercial airplanes.