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On This Date — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
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On This Date

Things Happen:

  • 1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
  • 1777 – Revolutionary War: Battle of Oriskany.
  • 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
  • 1909 – Alice Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip.
  • 1923 – Henry Sullivan swims the English Channel.
  • 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim across the English Channel.
  • 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when an atomic bomb, “Little Boy”, is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 90,000 people were killed instantly.
  • 1960 – Cuban Revolution: In response to a United States embargo, Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
  • 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into United States law.
  • 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.
  • 2001 – White House briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” delivered to George W. Bush. This document foreshadowed the September 11, 2001 attacks.

People Are Born:

  • 1809 – Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
  • 1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)
  • 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
  • 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1955)
  • 1881 – Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (d. 1972)
  • 1891 – William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
  • 1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
  • 1902 – Dutch Schultz, American bootlegger (d. 1935)
  • 1908 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
  • 1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
  • 1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
  • 1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
  • 1934 – Piers Anthony, English writer
  • 1943 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (d. 1998)

In Later Years Others Are Born:

2 comments

1 Steve Bates { 08.06.10 at 5:34 pm }

Thank you! Despite rumors, I am still alive…

2 Bryan { 08.06.10 at 7:46 pm }

I know, you’ve been “phoned”. Have a happy one anyway.

I left a message at your place. It sounds like the “Bubba with a backhoe” syndrome that occurs around here frequently.