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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June 25 is Log Cabin Day
Color TV Day
National Columnists Day
National Catfish Day
National Strawberry Parfait Day

June 25, 1630- The fork was introduced to American dining by Gov Winthrop of Massachusetts.

Publication of Federalist Paper #81: The Judiciary and the Distribution of the Judicial Authority written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788.

Virginia Ratification Day
On June 25, 1788 Virginia became the tenth state.

• Capital: Richmond
• Nickname: Old Dominion
• Bird: Cardinal
• Flower: Dogwood
• Tree: Flowering Dogwood
• Motto: Thus always to tyrants

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

Custer Day, Aniversary of “Custer’s Last Stand” at the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana in 1876. Lt. Col. Custer and the 210 men of U.S. 7th Cavalry were killed by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians

June 25, 1950 – North Korea invaded South Korea, initiating the Korean War.

The Cuban government seized 2.35 million acres under a new agrarian reform law in 1959.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in 1962) that the use of unofficial, non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.

On June 25, 1968 – Bobby Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He was the first player to debut with a grand-slam.

1981 – The U.S. Supreme Court decided that male-only draft registration was constitutional.

1990 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. “The right to die” decision was made in the Curzan vs. Missouri case.

In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decided (1998) that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 was unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (1998) that those infected with HIV are protected by the Americans With Disabilities Act.

2000 – U.S. and British researchers announced that they had completed a rough draft of a map of the genetic makeup of human beings. The project was 10 years old at the time of the announcement.

June 21 is Go Skate Day
Summer Solstice
National Peaches and Cream Day
World Sauntering Day
World Handshake Day

First day of summer

1749 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, was founded.

Publication of Federalist Paper #80: The Powers of the Judiciary written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788.

1788 – The U.S. Constitution went into effect when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

New Hampshire Day, the ninth state

• Capital: Concord
• Nickname: Granite State
• Bird: Purple finch
• Flower: Purple lilac
• Tree: White birch
• Motto: Live free or die

See our page for New Hampshire for interesting facts and trivia about New Hampshire.

1834 – Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical mechanical reaper for farming. His invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size.

1877 – The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants convicted of murder, were hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

June 21, 1838 – Wheatstone’s discovery of the stereoscopic viewer was described in a paper, On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved Phenomena of Binocular Vision, which he read to the Royal Society, London. This is the visual effect whereby pictures of an object drawn from slightly different viewpoints for individual eyes could be viewed with his stereoscope and give the perception of the object in three dimensions. He read a second part to this paper on 15 Jan 1852. This principle was later popularized with photographs to make stereo view cards.

June 21, 1893 – The Ferris Wheel was introduced at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL. It was invented by George Washington Ferris, a Pittsburgh bridge builder, for the purpose of creating an attraction like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Each of the 36 cars carried 60 passengers, making a full passenger load of 150 tons. Ferris didn’t use rigid spokes: instead, he used a web of taut cables, like a bicycle wheel. Supported by two 140 foot steel towers, its 45 foot axle was the largest single piece of forged steel at the time in the world. The highest point of the wheel was 264 feet. The wheel and cars weighed 2100 tons, with another 2200 tons of associated levers and machinery. Ferris died just four years later, at the age of only 38.

1948 – Columbia Records introduced the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York. Made of nonbreakable Vinilyte plastic, and designed for the new speed of 33-1/3 r.p.m., the records were developed by Dr. Peter Goldmark of Columbia Records. The 12 inch record could play 23 minutes per side, as compared to only 4 minutes per side on the earlier 78 rpm record. The LP was also an improvement by the quietness of its surfaces and its greatly increased fidelity. The first LP featured violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Columbia originated the term “LP” itself, which was copyrighted. Thus, although many other firms could make long-playing records, only Columbia could make an LP.

1963 – France announced that they were withdrawing from the North Atlantic NATO fleet.

1973 – In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test for obscenity in U.S. law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may ban materials found to be obscene according to local standards. The Miller Test has three parts:

1. Whether “the average person, applying contemporary community standards”, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
2. Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law,
3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.

2001 – 2001-06-21 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.

June 20 is Ice Cream Soda Day
National Vanilla Milkshake Day

In 451 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoths forces defeated Attila the Hun in northeast France.

1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States in 1782.

1787-  Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention of 1787 to call the government the “United States”.

1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath on June 20, 1789.

1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool, England. It was the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.

1837 Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne following the death of her uncle King William IV on this date in 1837. She was 18 years old. She ruled for 63 years till 1901.

Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph in 1840.

West Virginia Admission Day on June 20, 1863 as the thirty-fifth state.

• Capital: Charleston
• Nickname: Mountain State
• Bird: Cardinal
• Flower: Rhododendron
• Tree: Sugar Maple
• Motto: Mountaineers are always

See our page for West Virginia for other interesting facts and trivia about West Virginia.

1877 Alexander Graham Bell installed the world’s first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

1893 Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.

On June 20, 1945, the United States Secretary of State, Edward Reilly Stettinius, Jr., approved the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to America.

Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, made its television debut in 1948.

The so-called “red telephone” was established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963.

In 1975 the movie “Jaws”, based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider was released.