This Day in History

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August 22

565 – Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.

1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field, the death of Richard III and the end of the House of Plantagenet.

1642 – Charles I raises his standard in Nottingham, which marks the beginning of the English Civil War.

1711 – Britain's Quebec Expedition loses eight ships and almost nine hundred soldiers, sailors and women to rocks at Pointe-aux-Anglais.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold used a ruse to convince the British that a much larger force was arriving, causing them to abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix.

1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice.

1851 – The first America's Cup is won by the yacht America.

1864 – Twelve nations sign the first Geneva Convention.

1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded.

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

1941 – World War II: German troops begins the Siege of Leningrad.

1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis.

1952 – The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.

1962 - The first TV appearance of The Beatles was recorded by Manchester based Granada TV, who filmed a lunchtime session at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, (the performance was shown on 17th October 1962).

1963 – X-15 Flight 91 reaches the highest altitude of the X-15 program (107.96 km (67.08 mi) (354,200 feet)).

1968 - Ringo Starr quit The Beatles during The White Album sessions when the constant bickering and tension became too much for him. The news of Ringo's departure was kept secret, and he rejoined the sessions on September 3rd. After Ringo walked out, the remaining Beatles recorded 'Back In the USSR', with Paul on drums and John playing bass.

1979 - In Through the Out Door was released in the US, Led Zeppelin's last album while all four members were alive.

1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.

1992 – FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shoots and kills Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

2004 – Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.

Al Dvorin, the announcer who popularised the phrase "Elvis has left the building", died in a car crash, on his way home from an Elvis Presley convention in California. In the early 1970s, Colonel Parker asked Dvorin to inform fans at a gig that Presley would not be appearing for an encore. He took the stage and announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building. Thank you and goodnight."

2007 – The Texas Rangers defeat the Baltimore Orioles 30–3, the most runs scored by a team in modern Major League Baseball history. The combined run total is also Major League record.

The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day.

2015 – Eleven people are killed in England when a vintage Hawker Hunter jet crashes on the A27 in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex.

Births

1862 – Claude Debussy; 1893 – Dorothy Parker; 1898 – Alexander Calder; 1902 – Leni Riefenstahl; 1904 – Deng Xiaoping; 1908 – Henri Cartier-Bresson; 1917 – John Lee Hooker; 1920 – Ray Bradbury; 1924 – James Kirkwood, Jr. (playwright A Chorus Line); 1925 – Honor Blackman ('Pussy Galore' in Goldfinger); 1934 – Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.; 1936 – Chuck Brown♪ ♫(The Godfather of Go-Go), Dale Hawkins♪ ♫; 1939 – Valerie Harper, Carl Yastrzemski; 1941 – Bill Parcells; 1945 – David Chase; 1947 – Donna Jean Godchaux♪ ♫, Cindy Williams; 1950 – Scooter Libby; 1958 – Colm Feore, Vernon Reid(Living Colur); 1959 – Juan Croucier(Ratt); 1961 – Debbi Peterson(The Bangles); 1963 – Tori Amos; 1967 – Ty Burrell (Modern Family); 1967 – Layne Staley♪ ♫(Alice In Chains); 1970 – Giada De Laurentiis; 1972 – Paul Doucette(Matchbox Twenty); 1973 – Kristen Wiig; 1987 – Karlie Simon (porn actress)

Deaths

1922 – Michael Collins; 1977 – Sebastian Cabot; 1980 – James Smith McDonnell (of McDonnell-Douglas); 1991 – Colleen Dewhurst; 2004 - Al Dvorin; 2006 – Bruce Gary(The Knack); 2011 – Nick Ashford♪ ♫(Ashford & Simpson), Jerry Leiber♪ ♫; 2012 – Jeffrey Stone (was the model and inspiration for 'Prince Charming' in Cinderella)