Category Archives: State History

August 21 is:

Senior Citizen’s Day
National Spumoni Day In the United States, most spumoni will include a cherry layer with cherry bits, a layer of pistachio ice cream and a layer of chocolate.
National Sweet Tea Day
Thomas Sullivan ‘accidentally’ invented the teabag when he sent out tea samples in small silk pouches to customers in 1904. The pouches proved much less messy than raw tea leaves. The rest is history.

On August 21 in 1770 – James Cook formally claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

Nat Turner was an African-American slave who led a two-day rebellion of slaves and free blacks in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831. Whites organized militias and called out regular troops to suppress the uprising. The rebellion was quashed within forty-eight hours. The rebellion caused the death of approximately sixty white men, women and children. In the aftermath of the revolt, forty-eight black men and women were tried on charges of conspiracy, insurrection, and treason. In total, the state executed 56 people, banished many more, and acquitted a few. …In the hysterical climate that followed the rebellion, close to 200 black people were killed by white militias and mobs. On November 5, 1831, Nat Turner was tried for “conspiring to rebel and making insurrection”, convicted, and sentenced to death. He was hanged on November 11 in Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner’s corpse was flayed, beheaded and quartered.

From Today in Science
On August 21, 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. By definition, a Venetian blind has horizontal slats, one above another.

1814 Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford died. American physician who invented the percolator, a pressure cooker and a kitchen stove. He is frequently credited with creating baked Alaska. When the American Revolutionary War began, Thompson was opposed to the uprising. He became a Loyalist and fled his New England home for Great Britain where he became an advisor to British military.

The first successful adding machine in the United States was patented by William Seward Burroughs on Aug 21, 1888.

Oldsmobile, a brand of American automobiles was founded in 1897.

Hawaii Statehood Day in 1959 Hawaii became the fiftieth state

• Capital: Honolulu
• Nickname: Aloha State/Paradise of the Pacific
• Bird: Nene (Hawaiin goose)
• Flower: Red Hibiscus
• Tree: Kukui (Candlenut tree)
• Motto: The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness

See our page Hawaii for more interesting facts and trivia about Hawaii.

1961 – Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.

National Girlfriends Day
National Raspberry Cream Pie Day
National Day of Switzerland Traditional founding date of Switzerland in 1291; The Old Swiss Confederacy was formed with the signing of the Federal Charter.

August 1, 1620 – The Speedwell left Delfshaven, Netherlands and reached Southampton, Hampshire in southeast England. At Southampton it met up with the Mayflower and set out for America on August 5, 1620. 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.

1790 – The first U.S. census was completed with a total population of 3,929,214 recorded. The areas included were the original thirteen colonies (now states) and Kentucky, Maine, and Tennessee. The population had grown from 350 at Jamestown, Virginia in 1610.

1801 – First Barbary War: The American schooner USS Enterprise captured the Tripolitan corsair Tripoli after a fierce but one-sided battle off the coast of modern-day Libya. Unscathed, Enterprise sent the battered pirate into port since the schooner’s orders prohibited taking prizes. Remembered in Marine hymn “From the halls of Montezuma… to the shores of Tripoli…”

1834 – Slavery was abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 went into force.

Colorado Day, a legal holiday in Colorado in honor of the admission to the Union in 1876 as the thirty-eighth state

• Capital: Denver
• Nickname: Centennial State
• Bird: Lark bunting
• Flower: Rocky Mountain Columbine
• Tree:Blue Spruce
• Motto: Nothing Without Providence

See our page Colorado for more interesting facts and trivia about Colorado.

The first Jeep was produced on August 1, 1941.

1943 – In the Solomon Islands, the U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boat PT-109 sank after being hit by the Japanese destroyer, Amagiri. The boat was under the command of Lt. John F. Kennedy. Eleven of the thirteen crew survived.

August 1, 1944: Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary. Three days later she was arrested. She was deported to Auschwitz on Sept 3, 1944 and died in early March, 1945.

The United States and Canada formed the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in 1957.

1961 – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ordered the creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nation’s first centralized military espionage organization. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Dept of Defense.

From Today in Science
In 1831, New London Bridge opened to traffic. In 1821, a committee was formed by Parliament to consider the poor condition of the existing centuries-old bridge. The arches had been badly damaged by the Great Freeze, so it was decided to build a new bridge. Building commenced under John Rennie in 1825, and completed in 1831, at the expense of the city. The bridge is composed of five arches, and built of Dartmoor granite. It was opened with great splendour by King William IV, accompanied by Queen Adelaide, and many of the members of the royal family, August 1st, 1831. In the 1960’s it was auctioned and sold for $2,460,000 to Robert McCulloch who moved it to Havasu City, Arizona. The rebuilt London Bridge was completed and dedicated on 10 Oct 1971.

Also from Today in Science
In 1873, English inventor Andrew Smith Hallidie, in the U.S. since 1852, revolutionized transportation methods in San Francisco when he successfully tested a cable car he had designed to solve the problem of providing mass transit up San Francisco’s steep hills. He not only invented, but also manufactured, and patented the first cable car and its system of wire ropes, pulleys, tracks, and grips that made it possible. Hallidie, an engineer and one-time miner, realized the need on one foggy day in 1869 when he watched in horror as horses pulling a carriage up one of the City’s steep grades slipped on the wet cobblestoned street, the heavy carriage rolled backward downhill and the five horses dragged behind it suffered fatal injuries. Hallidie, using wire rope, had already had much success in the use of cable drawn ore cars for use in mines.

Birthdays

Birthday of William Clark (August 1, 1770), American solider and explorer who, together with Meriwether Lewis, led an expedition from St. Louis to the Pacific following the Louisiana Purchase. Their journey lasted from May 1804 to September 1806.

Birthday of Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779), American lawyer and author of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Birthday of Herman Melville (August 1, 1819), American author of “Moby Dick”

July 10 is:

Teddy Bear Picnic Day
Pick Blueberries Day
National Piña Colada Day

Birthday of John Calvin (July 10, 1509), Protestant theologian and reformer.

Alexander Mackenzie reached the Mackenzie River delta in 1789.

The first US frigate, the “United States,” was launched in Philadelphia on July 10, 1797.

The United States took possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain in 1821.

Birthday of Camille Pissarro (July 10, 1830), Danish-French Impressionist. See Wikiart for samples of his works.

Birthday of Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856), Croatian scientist who designed and built the first alternating current induction motor in 1883.

Wyoming Statehood Day 1890 forty-fourth state

• Bird: Meadowlark
• Flower: Indian paintbrush
• Tree: Cottonwood
• Capital: Cheyenne
• Nickname: Equality State/Cowboy State
• Motto: Equal rights

See our page on Wyoming for more interesting facts and trivia.

On July 10, 1913, Death Valley, California hit 134 °F (~56.7 °C), which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States.

Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called “Monkey Trial” begins on July 10, 1925 with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.

From Today in Science
Edward H Lowe Born 10 Jul 1920; died 4 Oct 1995 at age 75.
American inventor of Kitty Litter. After Navy duty (1941-45), Lowe joined his father’s company in Cassopolis, Mich., selling industrial absorbents, including sawdust and an absorbent clay called Fuller’s Earth. In 1947, Lowe suggested the use of the clay instead of ashes for his neighbor’s cat’s box to avoid sooty paw prints. It worked well and Lowe thought other cat owners would use this new cat-box filler. He filled ten brown bags with clay, wrote the name “Kitty Litter” on them and began selling it through the local pet store. By 1990, his marketing effort had grown into a clay mining and consumer product business, the largest U.S. producer of cat-box filler, now improved, 99% dust free, and sanitized against odor-causing bacteria. He held 67 US and foreign patents.

July 3 is:
Compliment Your Mirror Day
Disobedience Day
Stay out of the Sun Day
National Chocolate Wafer Day
Eat Beans Day

July 3, 1608, Québec City was founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1806, Michael Keens, a market gardener of Isleworth near London, exhibited the first cultivated strawberry that combined size, flavor, and color at the Royal Horticultural Society. The 600 strawberry varieties found today stem from five or six original wild species, and are a member of the rose family. The wild, small, fragrant forest strawberry of Europe was available to the Romans in the Middle Ages. Europeans discovered wild strawberries in Virginia when their ships landed there in 1588, grown by local American Indians. When Virginia sent a better flavored strawberry to England in 1642, and a large white strawberry from Chile was introduced in 1806, the big fruit we know today, emerged. Strawberries are unique, because they are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

July 3 – 1844: The Great Auk becomes extinct, after the last group was killed in Iceland.

Idaho Admission Day in 1890 as the forty-third state

• Capital: Boise
• Nickname: Gem state
• Bird: Mountain bluebird
• Flower: Syringa (mock orange)
• Tree: Western white pine
• Motto: It is forever

See our page Idaho for more interesting facts and trivia about Idaho.

In 1929, foam rubber was developed at the Dunlop Latex Development Laboratories in Birmingham. British scientist E.A. Murphy whipped up the first batch in 1929, using an ordinary kitchen mixer to froth natural latex rubber. His colleagues were unimpressed – until they sat on it. Within five years it was everywhere, on motorcycle seats, on London bus seats, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre seats, and eventually in mattresses.

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