Category Archives: Presidential History

August 9 is:

Book Lover’s Day A day for all those who love to read. My kind of day!!
National Rice Pudding Day
Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome on August 9, 1483 with the celebration of a Mass.

The Vatican Virtual Tours offers an online 360 degree tour of the Sistine Chapel.

Indian Wars: In 1814 the Creek signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia. The Treaty was signed following the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The U.S. force was led by General Andrew Jackson.
The Upper Creek Natives were led by Chief Menawa, who fled with hundreds of survivors into Florida, where they allied with the Seminole. The surrender ended the Creek War, which the United States was fighting simultaneously with the War of 1812.

The Webster–Ashburton Treaty was signed in 1842, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

 Henry David Thoreau published Walden in 1854.

Betty Boop made her cartoon debut in Dizzy Dishes in 1930.

The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council released posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time in 1944.

Nagasaki (Japan) Memorial Day, a memorial observance for the victims of the second atomic bomb (Fat Man) in 1945. 3 days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the city of Nagasaki was destroyed by a 21 kiloton atomic bomb nicknamed Fat Boy. About 40 to 80 thousand people were estimated killed during this American-led attack towards the end of the Second World War. A few days later on August 15, Japan surrendered to the Allies, effectively bringing the War to a close by September, 1945.

Anniversary of the resignation of Richard Nixon as president of the United States in 1974.   His Vice President, Gerald Ford , became president.

August 8 is the 221st day of the year. There are 145 days remaining until the end of the year.

Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day – now that’s nasty!
National Dollar Day
National Frozen Custard Day Frozen custard is a cold dessert similar to ice cream, but made with eggs in addition to cream and sugar. It is usually kept at a warmer temperature compared to ice cream, and typically has a denser consistency.

1844 – After the killing of Joseph Smith on June 27, Bringham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons.
Per Wikipedia: Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were killed by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, United States on June 27, 1844. The brothers had been in jail awaiting trial when an armed mob of about 200 men stormed the facility, their faces painted black with wet gunpowder. Hyrum was killed first, having been shot in the face. As he fell, Hyrum shouted, “I’m a dead man, Joseph!” After emptying the pistol with which he tried to defend himself, Smith was then shot several times while trying to escape from a second-story window and fell from that window as he died.

On August 8, 1863, following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sent a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which was refused upon receipt). Davis wrote, “To ask me to substitute you by someone… more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army… is to demand an impossibility.”

Public Law 62-5, passed in 1911, set the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law would come into effect in 1913.

Battle of Amiens: – On August 8, 1918, the Allies launched a series of offensive operations against German positions on the Western Front during World War I with a punishing attack at Amiens, on the Somme River in northwestern France.

1950 – Whataburger opened its first restaurant in Corpus Christi, TX.

1966 – Michael DeBakey became the first surgeon to install an artificial heart pump in a patient.

1974 – President Richard Nixon, in a nationwide television address, announced his resignation from the office of the President of the United States, effective noon the next day. Following his resignation, the Nixons flew to their home La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California.

On this day in 1988, the Chicago Cubs hosted the first night game in the history of Wrigley Field.

August 7 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 146 days remaining until the end of the year.

National Lighthouse Day
Raspberries ‘n Cream Day

Anniversary of the dedication in 1927 of the International Peace Bridge, honoring the peace that exists between Canada and the United States. Extends from Buffalo, New York, and Fort Erie, Ontario where it crosses the Niagara River.

Construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore begun in Florence in 1420.

On August 7, 1782 General George Washington ordered the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It was later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.

The United States Department of War was established in 1789. The War Department existed from 1789 until September 18, 1947, when it split into Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force and joined the Department of the Navy as part of the new joint National Military Establishment (NME), renamed the United States Department of Defense in 1949.

1794 – U.S. President George Washington invoked the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. The so-called “whiskey tax” was the first tax imposed on a domestic product by the newly formed federal government. The “whiskey tax” became law in 1791, and was intended to generate revenue for the war debt incurred during the Revolutionary War.

In 1807, Robert Fulton’s North River Steam Boat (also known as the Clermont) began chugging its way up New York’s Hudson River on its successful round-trip from New York City to Albany – 150 miles apart in 32 hours.

1957 Death of Oliver Hardy at age 65.  Comic actor best known as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted 25 years.

1959 – The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny went into circulation. It replaced the “sheaves of wheat” design, and was minted until 2008 when it was replaced by the Union shield.

August 6 is:

Wiggle Your Toes Day
National Fresh Breath Day
National Root Beer Float Day

Hiroshima Day, anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima, Japan from a Boeing B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, in 1945. Around 70,000 people were killed instantly.

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus. According to legend, Jesus and three of his apostles, Peter, James, and John, went to a mountain. Jesus began to shine with bright rays of light. Moses and Elijah appear next to him. Jesus is called “Son” by a voice assumed to be God. The apostles consider this “transfiguration” as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.

August 6, 1806, Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicated, ending the Holy Roman Empire.

Birthday of Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, (August 6, 1861), wife of Theodore Roosevelt, first lady 1901-1909. Roosevelt’s mother and his first wife, Alice, both died on the same day (Feb 14, 1884). He married Edith, a friend since childhood, in 1886. At one time he had asserted that “I utterly disbelieve in and disapprove of second marriages; I have always considered that they argued weakness in a man’s character.”

Birthday of Sir Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881), Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin.

From Today in Science
In 1890, the electric chair was used for the first time. William Kemmler was executed with 1,300 volts of alternating current in Auburn, N.Y. for murdering a woman with an axe. The state had legalized death by electricity on 4 Jun 1888, which was upheld despite a legal challenge. The Medico-Legal Society was appointed to manage the technical details. Thomas Edison wished the public to associate AC with danger and death, and promoted the electric chair to discredit Tesla’s AC system of electricity which competed with his own DC system. The execution was botched. The first shock lasted only 17 seconds. As the body appeared to move, a much longer second jolt was given until it produced a smell of burning flesh.

1930 – Judge Joseph Force Crater stepped into a taxi in New York and disappeared, never to be seen again. He was a New York City trial court judge and his disappearance increased public unrest about corruption in the city government, leading to the downfall of the Tammany Hall political machine. Bank records revealed a cash withdrawal of $20,000 just prior to his appointment as a judge.

1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee released files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

National Oyster Day
National Underwear Day
Work Like a Dog Day
Although the origins of “Work like a dog” are not known, it most likely refers to actual working dogs. Sheep dogs and sled dogs are good examples. They are bred to work hard – working even gives them pleasure.
Alternately, in olden days, the two sawyers who worked on a tree sawing planks were the top-dog and the under-dog. A “dog”in those days was a manual worker.

On August 5, 1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed what is now St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. for Queen Elizabeth.

On August 5, 1620 – The Mayflower and the Speedwell departed from Southampton, England in their first attempt to reach North America.
Shortly after, the Speedwell started taking on water so the ships landed at Dartmouth, Devon. The leaks were sealed and the ships sailed again. They got as far as Plymouth, Devon when the Speedwell was again leaking. It was decided to sell the Speedwell and transfer the passengers and crew to the Mayflower. Of the combined 121 passengers, 102 were chosen to make the trip. The reduced party finally sailed on Sept 6th.

On August 5, 1735 New York Weekly Journal writer, John Peter Zenger, was acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true.  Read more about this on BenneyDavis.com.

Birthday of Guy de Maupassant (August 5, 1850), French novelist, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story.

In 1861 – American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levied the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).

The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor on August 5, 1884..

Aug 5, 1923, Henry Sullivan became the first American to swim the English Channel. He finished in 27 hours and 25 minutes.

August 5 – 1962: Film actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead at her home. She was 35 years old.

1981 – President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.

Reagan had offered the union “Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization” (PATCO) an 11% wage increase. The union demanded a 100% increase which amounted to $700 million. PATCO’s strike, as it turned out, was illegal. Reagan echoed the words of Calvin Coolidge when he told his Transportation Secretary, Drew Lewis, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, at any time.”

August 4 is:

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
Per Wikipedia: The chocolate chip cookie was invented by American chefs Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides in 1938. Wakefield invented the recipe during the period when she owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts. In this era, the Toll House Inn was a popular restaurant that featured home cooking. It is often incorrectly reported that she accidentally developed the cookie, and that she expected the chocolate chunks would melt, making chocolate cookies. In fact, she stated that she deliberately invented the cookie. She said, “We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So I came up with Toll House cookie.” She added chopped up bits from a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar into a cookie. The original recipe in Toll House Tried and True Recipes is called “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies”. Wakefield gave Nestle the recipe for her cookies and was paid with a lifetime supply of chocolate from the company.

Coast Guard Day, anniversary of the establishment in 1790 of the Revenue Cutter Service. It merged with the Life Saving Service in 1915 to become the United States Coast Guard.

In 1873, while protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashed for the first time with the Sioux near the Tongue River; only one man on each side was killed.

Birthday of Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4, 1792), one of the major English Romantic poets and regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language.

The Saturday Evening Post was published for the first time as a weekly newspaper in 1821.

1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. The case was memorialized in a popular skipping-rope rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

In reality, Lizzie’s stepmother suffered 18 or 19 blows; her father suffered 11 blows. Lizzie was acquitted of the murders on June 20, 1893.

Birthday of Barack Hussein Obama (August 4, 1961), 44th President of the United States.

It is also the birthday of Bret Baier (August 4, 1970)!

U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the United States Department of Energy in 1977.

On this date in 1984, Upper Volta’s name was changed to Burkina Faso. (For fans of Tucker Carlson’s Final Exam, the Capital is Ouagadougou.)

On August 4, 1988, Congress voted $20,000 to each Japanese-American interned during WW II.

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August 3 is:

National Watermelon Day

435 – Deposed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, was exiled by Roman Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.
From Theopedia:

Nestorianism is basically the doctrine that Jesus existed as two persons, the man Jesus and the divine Son of God, rather than as a unified person. This doctrine is identified with Nestorius (c.386-451), Patriarch of Constantinople, although he himself denied holding this belief. This view of Christ was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the conflict over this view led to the Nestorian schism, separating the Assyrian Church of the East from the Byzantine Church.

The motivation for this view was an aversion to the idea that “God” suffered and died on the cross, be it the divinity itself, the Trinity, or one of the persons of the Trinity. Thus, they would say, Jesus the perfect man suffered and died, not the divine second person of the Trinity, for such is an impossible thought — hence the inference that two “persons” essentially inhabited the one body of Jesus. Nestorius himself argued against calling Mary the “Mother of God” (Theotokos) as the church was beginning to do. He held that Mary was the mother of Christ only in respect to His humanity. The council at Ephesus (431) accused Nestorius of the heresy of teaching “two persons” in Christ and insisted that Theotokos was an appropriate title for Mary.

The problem with Nestorianism is that it threatens the atonement. If Jesus is two persons, then which one died on the cross? If it was the “human person” then the atonement is not of divine quality and thereby insufficient to cleanse us of our sins.

881 – Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu: Louis III of France defeated the Vikings, an event celebrated in Ludwigslied, a Old High German poem of 59 rhyming couplets.

Christopher Columbus set sail on his first voyage on August 3, 1492 with three ships: the Santa María ex-Gallega (“Galician”), the Pinta (“The Pint”, “The Look”, or “The Spotted One”) and the Santa Clara, nicknamed the Niña (“Girl”) after her owner Juan Niño. The Bahamas were spotted October 12th.

1678 – Robert LaSalle built Le Griffon, the first known ship to be built on the Great Lakes.

Birthday of Elisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811), American inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails. The 1854 New York World’s Fair offered a great chance at publicity. At the New York Crystal Palace, Elisha Otis amazed a crowd when he ordered the only rope holding the platform on which he was standing cut. The rope was severed by an axeman, and the platform fell only a few inches before coming to a halt. The brake he invented used toothed guiderails in the elevator shaft and a spring-loaded bar that automatically caught in the toothed rail if the elevator car if the cable failed. After the World’s Fair, Otis received continuous orders, doubling each year.

Birthday of Ernest (Ernie) Taylor Pyle (Aug 3, 1900), American journalist and spokesman of the American soldier; the most famous American correspondent in World War II.

In 1923, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, one day after President Warren G. Harding died of a heart attack.

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August 2 is:

National Ice Cream Sandwich Day

Olivier de Clisson, was found guilty of treason and was beheaded in 1343 at Les Halles in Paris. As a result, his wife, Jeanne de Clisson, (also known as the Lioness of Brittany), sold their holding, bought a fleet of ships, and took to the sea as a pirate to seek revenge against the French King and nobility.

1610 – Henry Hudson sailed into what is now known as Hudson Bay. He thought he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.

Birthday of Pierre Charles L’Enfant (August 2, 1754), French army engineer and an officer of the American Revolutionary army; honored as the designer of the plans for the city of Washington, D.C.
Quote from Bartleby.com

After much menutial search for an eligible situation, prompted I may say from a fear of being prejudiced in favour of a first opinion I could discover no one so advantageously to greet the congressional building as is that on the west end of Jenkins heights which stand as a pedestal waiting for a monument, and I am confident, were all the wood cleared from the ground no situation could stand in competition with this. some might perhaps require less labour to be rendered agreeable but after all assistance of arts none ever would be made so grand and all other would appear but of secondary nature.

1870 – Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opened in London, England, United Kingdom in 1870.

The Clay Street Hill Railroad began operating the first cable car in San Francisco’s famous cable car system in 1873.

1923-Death of Warren Gamaliel Harding, twenty-ninth President of the United States. (He was president 1921-1923) He died in San Francisco, California age age 57. In June of 1923 Harding set out on a cross-country trip to “renew his connection with the people”. Arriving in San Francisco, Harding developed pneumonia and it is believed he died of heart failure. Mrs. Harding refused to grant permission for an autopsy. Vice president Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States.

In 1934 – Gleichschaltung: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg. He joinied the offices of President and Chancellor into Führer.

August 2, 1990 – Iraq invaded Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

From Today in Science
Birthday of John Tyndall (2 Aug 1820) British physicist who demonstrated why the sky is blue. His initial scientific reputation was based on a study of diamagnetism. He became known to the scientific world in 1848 as the author of a substantial work on Crystals. In 1856 he traveled with Professor Huxley to Switzerland, after which he co-authored On the Structure and Motion of Glaciers. He also published Heat as a Mode of Motion (1863), On Radiation (1865), followed by Sound, then in 1870 he published Light. Included in these works were studies of acoustic properties of the atmosphere and the blue color of the sky, which he suggested was due to the scattering of light by small particles of water.

He carried out research on radiant heat, studied spontaneous generation and the germ theory of disease, glacier motion, sound, the diffusion of light in the atmosphere and a host of related topics. He showed that ozone was an oxygen cluster rather than a hydrogen compound, and invented the fireman’s respirator and made other less well-known inventions including better fog-horns. One of his most important inventions, the light pipe, has led to the development of fibre optics.

“It is as fatal as it is cowardly to blink facts because they are not to our taste.” John Tyndall 1879

July 31 is:

National Raspberry Cake Day
Cotton Candy Day
Mutt’s Day

Pilgrim Fathers departed Leiden, Holland for England before heading to America on July 31, 1620.

Birthday of John Ericcson (July 31, 1803), American inventor of the screw propeller, pioneer in modern naval construction, builder of the famous “Monitor“.

Death in 1875 of Andrew Johnson , seventeenth President of the United States, who became president when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Johnson died in Elizabethton, Tennessee at age 66 after suffering a stroke. Following the presidency, Johnson had been elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Tennessee.

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson was one of the most dramatic events in the political life of the United States during Reconstruction. The first impeachment of a sitting United States president, it was the consummation of a lengthy political battle between the moderate Johnson and the “Radical Republican” movement that dominated Congress and sought control of Reconstruction policies. The trial concluded with Johnson’s acquittal.

There are only four kinds of office that may be attained by a citizen under the Constitution – legislative, judicial, military, and executive. Andrew Johnson is the only man to attain all these and to be both Vice-President and President.

In 2006, Fidel Castro handed over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro. This leads to a celebration in Little Havana (La Pequeña Habana in Spanish), Miami, Florida, where many Cuban Americans participated.

July 30 is:

National Cheesecake Day
Father-in-Law Day

In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convened for the first time on July 30, 1619.

City of Baltimore was founded in 1729.

Marseillais Day. The Marseillaise, the national anthem of France composed by Rouget de Lisle, was sung in Paris for the first time in 1792.

Birthday of Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818), in Thornton England; novelist of (Wuthering Heights), younger sister of Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre) and older sister of Anne.

Slave rebels, took over slave ship, La Amistad in 1839.

Birthday of Henry Ford (July 30, 1863), American inventor, automobile manufacturer, and philanthropist

From Today in Science:
In 1898, Corn Flakes were invented by William Kellogg at Battle Creek ( Michigan) Sanitarium. Sanitarium superintendent, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and Will Keith Kellogg, his younger brother and business manager, invented many grain-based foods, including a coffee substitute, a type of granola, and peanut butter to provide patients a strict nutritious diet. In 1894 they unintentionally invented a flaked cereal process based on wheat. By 1898, W.K. Kellogg had developed the first flaked corn cereal. Patients enjoyed the cereals and wanted more to take home. In 1906, the Battle Creek Toaster Corn Flake Company was founded by W.K. Kellogg.

1942 – FDR signed bill creating women’s Navy auxiliary agency (WAVES). The name was the acronym for “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service”

A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1956 was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing “In God we trust” as the U.S. national motto.