Category Archives: Presidential History

Frankenstein Day, to honor the birthday of Mary Wollenstone Shelley (August 30, 1797), author of Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818.

Melbourne, Australia was founded on August 30, 1835.

Houston, Texas was founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen in 1836. Named after former General Sam Houston, former president of the Republic of Texas. Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth most populous city in the United States.

Birthday of Huey Pierce Long (August 30, 1893), Louisiana politician and lawyer.  He was the 40th Governor of Louisiana and a member of the U. S. Senate from 1932 until his assassination in 1935.

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened on August 30th, 1956.  It is listed by Guinness World Records as the longest bridge over water (continuous).

Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1967.

1979 President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a rabbit while on a canoe trip in Georgia. He beat it away with a paddle.

August 27 is:

Global Forgiveness Day, sometimes celebrated July 7th.
National Pots de Creme Day
Pot de crème is a loose French dessert custard dating to the 17th century.
The name means “pot of custard” or “pot of creme”, which also refers to the porcelain cups in which the dessert is served.

Just Because Day – Finally, you have a chance to do something without a rhyme or reason. Most often in life, we do things because we have to, or it’s expected of us. None of those reasons apply today.

Anniversary of the death of Titian (August 27, 1576), Italian painter famous for “The Assumption of the Virgin”. For more samples of Titian’s works, see Wikiart.

1776 – Battle of Long Island: in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeated Americans under General George Washington.

1859 – Petroleum was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania, leading to the world’s first commercially successful oil well. The first oil millionaire was Jonathan Watson, a resident of Titusville. He owned the land where Col. Edwin L. Drake’s (of Seneca Oil Company) well was drilled. He had been a partner in a lumber business prior to the success of the Drake well. At one time it was said that Titusville had more millionaires per 1,000 population than anywhere else in the world.

Birthday of Lyndon B Johnson (August 27, 1908), 36th President of the United States. According to FunFacts.com:

1. Johnson was the only president to take Oath of Office on an airplane from a woman.
2. Almost every family member’s name was initialed LBJ-Lyndon Baines,Lady Bird,Lynda Bird,and Luci Baines.
3. LBJ was the youngest senate majority leader.
4. Johnson had loved the soda Fresca that a fountain was installed in the Oval Office that would dispense it.
5. He was named after W.C. Linden,a lawyer and a family friend.
6. His favorite foods were canned green peas and tapioca.
7. LBJ died one mile from the house he was born in.
8. He rejected his portrait,saying that it was “the ugliest thing he ever saw.”
9. He and his wife were married with a $2.50 wedding ring bought at Sears.
10. During the 1964 election LBJ had lead with the most electoral votes(486) until Ronald Reagan(525).

The Kellogg–Briand Pact outlawing war was signed by the first 15 nations to do so in 1928. Ultimately sixty-one nations would sign it.

1964 – The Walt Disney musical film Mary Poppins was released.

August 27, 2008, Barack Obama became the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States.

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August 22 is:

Be an Angel Day
National Tooth Fairy Day – and/or February 28
National Pecan Torte Day
National “Eat a Peach” Day
Georgia is ‘The Peach State’. “The World’s Largest Peach Cobbler” is made in Georgia every year. This dessert measures 11 feet by five feet.

Saint Columba was an Irish abbot and missionary credited with spreading Christianity in present-day Scotland. On August 22, 564, Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.

1848 – The United States annexed New Mexico . Following the Mexican-American War, from 1846–1848 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico ceded its mostly unsettled northern holdings, today known as the American Southwest and California, to the United States of America.

1864 – Twelve nations signed the First Geneva Convention. The First Geneva Convention, for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field, is one of four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It defines “the basis on which rest the rules of international law for the protection of the victims of armed conflicts.”

Theodore Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile in 1902.

From Today in Science
In 1906, the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey, began to manufacture the Victrola record player. The hand cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sold for $200. Unlike previous phonographs, which were toy-like turntables with a large speaker horn to amplify the sound, this was housed in an elegant wood cabinet in several contemporary (for the time) furniture styles. The speaker horn and turntable mechanism were totally concealed, and there were convenient storage compartments for records thus transforming the phonograph into a popular household item, and setting the pattern of wood cabinetry enclosures later imitated by radios and television sets well into the 1950s.

Nolan Ryan struck out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts on August 22, 1989.

August 22, 2007 – The Texas Rangers rout the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, (in the first game of a double-header), the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history.

August 20 is:

National Radio Day
National Bacon Lovers Day
National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day
A handful of Pecans provide nearly 10 percent of the recommended Daily Value for zinc. If the body does not get enough zinc, it may have difficulty producing testosterone – a key hormone in initiating sexual desire in both men and women.
Texas adopted the pecan tree as its state tree in 1919. In fact, Texas Governor James Hogg liked pecan trees so much that he asked if a pecan tree could be planted at his gravesite when he died. His wish was carried out.

August 20 – Feast day of Stephen I of Hungary who, in 1000 set the foundation of the Hungarian state. Celebrated as a National Day in Hungary.

August 20, 1775 – The Spanish established the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.

Birthday of Oliver Hazard Perry (August 20, 1785), American naval officer famous for the statement “We have met the enemy and they are ours”.

1858 – Charles Darwin first published his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace’s same theory.

President Andrew Johnson formally declared the American Civil War over in 1866.

Tchaikovsky‘s 1812 Overture debuted in Moscow, Russia in 1882.

August 20, 1940: In Mexico City exiled Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, was fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He died the next day.

1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sank on the River Thames following a collision. 51 people were killed.

1993 – After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Accords were signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month.

Augusst 20, 1998, U.S. embassy bombings: the United States military launched cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum was destroyed in the attack.

August 19 is:

National Soft-Serve Ice Cream Day
The Häagen-Dazs brand was established by two Americans – Reuben and Rose Mattus – and the name was made up to sound Danish and sophisticated. The Danish language does not actually use umlauts.

Aviation Day (Birthday of Orville Wright in 1871)

August 19, 43 BC: Augustus became Roman consul.
August 19, 14: Augustus died.

From Today in Science:
In 1839, Louis Daguerre announced the invention of the daguerreotype photographic process, the first process to allow an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture. On 7 Jan 1839 an announcement was made of the discovery, but details were not divulged until 19 Aug, when the process was announced publicly, and the French government having bought the rights to the process from him, freely gave them to the world. However, this process had also been patented in England and Wales on 14 Aug 1839, only five days previously.

From Today in Science:
Birthday of Charles E Hires (August 19, 1851). American manufacturer, the inventor of his brand of root beer, sold by the Hires Co., which then dominated the market. Root beer dates all the way back to colonial settlers. As a Philadelphia pharmacist, he sampled a herb tea while visiting New Jersey. Upon his return, he created a similar drink, “Hires’ Herb Tea,” with sassafras as the main flavoring ingredient. He sold the mixture at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in tiny packets that contained his mixture of various herbs, barks, and berries, for housewives to brew as “root beer.” In 1880, Hires introduced a “new and improved” liquid version which was more convenient. He began advertising in an 1884 issue of Harper’s Weekly. By 1892 almost 3 million bottles were sold each year.

From Today in Science:
In 1856, Gail Borden of Brooklyn, NY, was issued a U.S. patent for his process for condensed milk (No. 15,553). Condensed milk could be preserved for long periods of storage, and in this form milk became more readily available in large cities than had been possible before. His company’s advertising slogan “The milk from contented cows” was one of the great American advertising campaigns. The Borden company is today one of the largest dairy product concerns in the world. The familiar flat-topped cans of Borden’s condensed milk are still available, as are Borden’s ice cream, cheese and other products – all with the seal of approval by Borden’s famous mascot, Elsie, the cow.

From Today in Science:
Birthday of Orville Wright (August 19, 1871), American aviator and inventor who with his brother, Wilbur, invented the first powered airplane, Flyer, capable of sustained, controlled flight (17 Dec 1903). At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville made the first ever manned powered flight, airborn for 12-sec. By 1905, they had improved the design, built and and made several long flights in Flyer III, which was the first fully practical airplane (1905), able to fly up to 38-min and travel 24 miles (39-km). Their Model A was produced in 1908, capable of flight for over two hours of flight. They sold considerable numbers, but European designers became strong competitors. After Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company in 1915.

American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, was shot from behind and killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas on August 19, 1895.

August 19, 1919: Afghanistan became independent.

Birthday of William J. Clinton (August 19, 1946), 42nd president of the United States.

Aug 19, 2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ended, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait.

August 18 is:

Bad Poetry Day
National Ice Cream Pie Day
Per Foodimentary.com

• In the U.S., all ice cream needs to have a minimum of 10% milkfat if it is to be labeled “ice cream”. This includes custard based (French Style) ice creams.
• The udder of a cow can hold between 25-50 lbs. of milk.
• An average dairy cow can produce enough milk in her lifetime to make a little over 9,000 gallons of ice cream.

Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, became the first English child born in the Americas on August 18, 1587.

Birthday of Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774), American explorer who, with William Clark, led an expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific.

Birthday of Lucy Webb Hayes (August 18, 1831), wife of Rutherford B Hayes; first lady 1877-1881. Lucy Hayes became known as “Lemonade Lucy” because she forbade the serving of alcohol in the White House. It is reported that the President and Lucy began each day by kneeling for morning prayers and ended each day in the singing of hymns. Hayes had a firm conviction that government officials should conduct themselves at all times with discretion and dignity.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1920, guaranteeing women’s suffrage.

Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Birthday of Eleanor Rosalynn Carter (August 18, 1927), wife of Jimmy Carter, first lady 1977-1981. She was politically active during her White House years, sitting in on Cabinet and policy meetings as well as serving as her husband’s closest adviser. She died Nov 19, 2023.

1938 – The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York, United States with Ontario, Canada over the Saint Lawrence River, was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Birthday of Benney D. Davis (August 18, 1943), co-editor of this website and love of my life.

2008 – President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, resigned due to the threat of impeachment.

August 17 is:

National Thriftshop Day
National Vanilla Custard Day

In 1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Ralegh under the charge of Sir Richard Grenville landed in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.

Grenville decided to leave Ralph Lane and 107 men to establish the colony at the north end of Roanoke Island, promising to return in April 1586 with more men and fresh supplies. Lane built a small fort on the island and ordered the exploration of the surrounding areas.

As April 1586 passed, there was no sign of Grenville’s relief fleet. Meanwhile in June, bad blood resulting from their destruction of the village spurred an attack on the fort, which the colonists were able to repel. Soon after the attack, when Sir Francis Drake paused on his way home from a successful raid in the Caribbean and offered to take the colonists, including the metallurgist Joachim Gans, back to England, they accepted. On this return voyage, the Roanoke colonists introduced tobacco, maize, and potatoes to England.

Robert Fulton‘s North River Steamboat left New York, New York, for Albany, New York, August 17, 1807, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, Washington, opened on August 17, 1907.

1978 – Double Eagle II became first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

1986 A bronze statue of a pig was dedicated at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. See Parent Map.com for facts about Rachel, the pig.

August 17, 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he had an “improper physical relationship” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admitted before the nation that he “misled people” about the relationship.

August 16 is:

National Tell a Joke Day
National Rum Day Rum was manufactured, distilled, and made long before any other spirit. It’s history is a vast one filled with stories, and fables. It was the first branded spirit made. Rations of rum were given to sailors in the British Army to be mixed with lime juice because it fought off the scurvy.
National Bratwurst Day

1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoed a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members rioted outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.

1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurated the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal forced a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.

On August 16, 1896, an American prospector named George Carmack, his Tagish wife Kate Carmack (Shaaw Tláa), her brother Skookum Jim (Keish) and their nephew Dawson Charlie (K̲áa Goox̱) discovered gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush. It is not clear who discovered the gold: George Carmack or Skookum Jim, but the group agreed to let George Carmack appear as the official discoverer because they feared that mining authorities would be reluctant to recognize a claim made by an Indian.

In 1920 – Ray Chapman, shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, was hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and died early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909. Chapman’s death was one of the examples used to emphasize the need for wearing batting helmets (although the rule was not adopted until over 30 years later).

on August 16, 1927 – The Dole Air Race began from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, during which six out of the eight participating planes crashed or disappeared.

The Dole Air Race, also known as the Dole Derby, was a tragic air race across the Pacific Ocean from northern California to the Territory of Hawaii in August 1927. Of the 15-18 airplanes entered, eleven were certified to compete but three crashed before the race, resulting in three deaths. Eight eventually participated in the race, with two crashing on takeoff and two going missing during the race. A third, forced to return for repairs, took off again to search for the missing and was itself never seen again. In all, before, during, and after the race, ten lives were lost and six airplanes were total losses. Two of the eight planes successfully landed in Hawaii.

The first issue of Sports Illustrated was published in 1954.

August 16, 1977: Elvis Presley died. He was 42 years old.

August 15 is:

National Lemon Meringue Pie Day

Birthday of Florence Harding (August 15, 1860), wife of Warren G Harding; first lady 1921-1923. News of the Teapot Dome scandal began to break as Harding and his wife were returning from a vacation in Alaska. Harding began to show signs of food poisoning and fatigue, developed pneumonia, and died suddenly. His wife, who some speculated had poisoned him, refused to permit an autopsy. After his death, Mrs. Harding burned his papers and correspondence, making a diligent effort to recover and destroy even personal letters he had written.

From Today in Science
Birthday of Thomas Edward (T.E.) Lawrence, (also known as “Lawrence of Arabia,”) a British archaeological scholar. In two of his important projects, he collaborated with Leonard Woolley in the British Museum expedition excavating Carchemish, (1910-14) a Hittite city on the upper Euphrates; and in the survey of the Wilderness of Zin. Later he became best known as a military strategist, and author for his legendary war activities in the Middle East during WW I, and for his account of those activities in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926). He died in England from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash near his home in Dorset.

From Today in Science
In 1911, Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, introduced Crisco, a hydrogenated shortening to provide an economical alternative to animal fats and butter. To emphasize the purity of the product, the Crisco can came inside an additional, removable over-wrap of white paper. Crisco, the first solidified shortening product made entirely of vegetable oil, was the result of hydrogenation, a new process which produced shortening that would stay in solid form year-round, regardless of temperature.

Birthday of Julia Carolyn Child (born McWilliams, (August 15, 1912),
American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

From Today in Science
In 1914, the Panama Canal was officially opened by an American ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The United States fomented a rebellion to get the land for this canal…encouraging Panamanians to break away from Colombia. Before the Panama Canal was built, sea trade had to go all the way around South America’s sometimes stormy Cape Horn. The Panama Canal crosses a small mountain range with a series of huge locks.

From Today in Science
Wiley Post and Will Rogers died in plane crash in Alaska:
Wiley Post was an American aviator, one of the most colorful figures of the early years of U.S. aviation. He set many records. Between 15-22 Jul 1933, Wiley Post completed the first round-the-world solo flight (15,596 miles) in his Lockheed Vega 5B single-engine aircraft Winnie Mae, in 7 days 18-hr 49-min. He had made an accompanied flight around the world in 1931. Wiley Post had made his first solo flight in 1926, the year he got his flying license (signed by Orville Wright) despite wearing a patch over his left eye which he had lost in an oilfield accident.
Will Rogers was an American cowboy, vaudeville performer, humorist, newspaper columnist, social commentator, and stage and motion picture actor. Some of his more famous quotes:

• “Don’t gamble”; take all your savings and buy some good stock, and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up, don’t buy it.”
• An ignorant person is one who doesn’t know what you have just found out.
• When I die, my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read: ‘I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn’t like.’ I am so proud of that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved. And when you come to my grave you will find me sitting there, proudly reading it.
• I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

August 11 is:

National Raspberry Tart Day

Presidential Joke Day
On this day in 1984, during a sound check for a radio broadcast, President Ronald Reagan cracked the following joke:

“My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”

He didn’t know the mic was already recording, and the tape leaked. Since this little gaffe, August 11th has lived on as Presidential Joke Day.

Son and Daughter Day created so that you can let your children know how special they are.

1866 – World’s first roller rink opened in Newport, RI. The roller skate was invented in 1863 by James Plimpton.

1885 – $100,000 raised in US for pedestal for Statue of Liberty. The statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886, was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The Statue was a joint effort between America and France and it was agreed upon that the American people were to build the pedestal, and the French people were responsible for the Statue and its assembly here in the United States.

Green Bay Packers football club founded on August 11, 1919 by George Calhoun and Curly Lambeau. Lambeau solicited funds for uniforms from his employer, the Indian Packing Company. He was given $500 for uniforms and equipment, on the condition that the team be named for its sponsor. The Green Bay Packers have played in their original city longer than any other team in the NFL.

A formal peace took hold in Indochina on August 11, 1954, ending more than seven years of fighting between the French and the Communist Vietminh.

August 11, 1956 – Elvis Presley released “Don’t Be Cruel”

2015 – For the first time in Major League Baseball history, all 15 home teams won their game. Prior to this happening, the record was 12 which was reached over a century ago in 1914.