This Day in History

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August 3

There are 150 days remaining in 2016.

1527 – The first known letter from North America is sent by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.

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

1778 – The theatre La Scala is inaugurated.

1852 – Harvard University wins the first Boat Race between Yale University and Harvard. The race is also the first American intercollegiate athletic event.

1900 – The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is founded.

1907 – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis fines Standard Oil of Indiana a record $29.4 million for illegal rebating to freight carriers; the conviction and fine are later reversed on appeal.

1921 – Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis confirms the ban of the eight Chicago Black Sox, the day after they were acquitted by a Chicago court.

1936 – Jesse Owens wins the 100 metre dash, defeating Ralph Metcalfe, at the Berlin Olympics.

1936 – A fire wipes out Kursha-2 in the Meshchera Lowlands, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, killing 1,200 and leaving only 20 survivors.

1949 – The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize a merger, that creates the National Basketball Association (NBA).

1977 – Tandy Corporation announces the TRS-80, one of the world's first mass-produced personal computers.

2004 – The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.

2014 – A 6.1 magnitude earthquake kills at least 617 people and injures more than 2,400 in Yunnan, China.

Births

1808 – Hamilton Fish; 1811 – Elisha Otis (Otis Elevator Company); 1900 – Ernie Pyle, John T. Scopes; 1901 – John C. Stennis; 1905 – Dolores del Río; 1924 – Leon Uris; 1926 – Tony Bennett♪ ♫; 1934 – Haystacks Calhoun; 1938 – Terry Wogan; 1940 – Martin Sheen; 1941 – Martha Stewart; 1946 – Jack Straw, John York(The Byrds); 1950 – John Landis; 1959 – John C. McGinley; 1961 – Lee Rocker(Stray Cats); 1963 – James Hetfield(Metallica); 1963 – Lisa Ann Walter, Isaiah Washington; 1977 – Tom Brady; 1984 – Ryan Lochte; 1992 – Karlie Kloss

Deaths

1966 – Lenny Bruce; 1983 – Carolyn Jones ('Morticia Addams'); 1995 – Ida Lupino; 2001 – Christopher Hewett ('Mr. Belvedere'); 2011 – Bubba Smith

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August 4

367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus by his father and associated to the throne aged eight.

1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of champagne; it is not clear whether he actually invented champagne, however he has been credited as an innovator who developed the techniques used to perfect sparkling wine.

1783 – Mount Asama erupts in Japan, killing about 1,400 people. The eruption causes a famine, which results in an additional 20,000 deaths.

1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).

1821 – The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.

1873 – American Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Cheyenne and Lakota people near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.

1889 – The Great Fire of Spokane, Washington destroys some 32 blocks of the city, prompting a mass rebuilding project.

1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.

1944 – The Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.

1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is published for the first time.

1964 – American civil rights movement: Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.

1967 - Pink Floyd released their debut album The Piper At the Gates of Dawn on which most songs were penned by Syd Barrett. In subsequent years, the record has been recognized as one of the seminal psychedelic rock albums of the 1960s.

1969 – Vietnam War: At the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuân Thuỷ begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.

1975 - Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and his wife were both badly injured when the hire car he was driving spun off the road and crashed on the Greek island of Rhodes. Plant smashed both his ankle and his elbow, and was not fully fit for the best part of two years.

1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".

1993 – A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.

2005 - American blues singer and guitarist Little Milton died. Milton had suffered a brain aneurysm on 25th July 2005 and had lapsed into a coma.

Births

1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley; 1821 – Louis Vuitton; 1834 – John Venn (Venn Diagram); 1898 – Ernesto Maserati; 1900 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; 1901 – Louis Armstrong♪ ♫; 1918 – ; 1920 – Helen Thomas (loooong time White House reporter); 1923 – Reg Grundy; 1928 – Gerard Damiano(porn writer/director); 1939 – Frank Vincent ('Phil Leotardo' on The Sopranos); 1942 – Don S. Davis (Stargate SG-1); 1944 – Richard Belzer; 1949 – John Riggins; 1955 – Billy Bob Thornton; 1956 – Gerry Cooney; 1959 – Robbin Crosby(Ratt); 1961 – Barack Hussein Obama (44th POTUS); 1962 – Roger Clemens; 1969 – Max Cavalera♪ ♫(Sepultura); 1969 – Michael DeLuise; 1971 – Jeff Gordon; 1978 – Kurt Busch; 1985 – Crystal Bowersox♪ ♫

Deaths

1265 - Peter de Montfort, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer; 1981 – Melvyn Douglas; 1990 – Ettore Maserati; 1999 – Victor Mature; 2001 – Lorenzo Music; 2005 - Little Milton♪ ♫; 2007 – Lee Hazlewood♪ ♫; 2014 – James Brady

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August 5

1100 – Henry I is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.

1305 – William Wallace, who led the Scottish resistance against England, is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London where he is put on trial and executed.

1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America.

1689 – One thousand five hundred Iroquois attack the village of Lachine in New France.

1763 – Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run: British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Chief Pontiac's Indians at Bushy Run.

1816 – The British Admiralty dismisses Francis Ronalds's new invention of the first working electric telegraph as "wholly unnecessary", preferring to continue using the semaphore.

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

1861 – The United States Army abolishes flogging.

1874 – Japan launches its postal savings system, modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom.

1888 – Bertha Benz (wife of Karl Benz) drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.

1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light is installed.

1926 – Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.

1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.

1944 – World War II: Possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.

1949 – The Mann Gulch fire kills 13 firefighters in Montana.

1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuts on the ABC television network.

1958 – Herbert Hoover eclipses John Adams as having the longest retirement of any former U.S President until that time. Hoover would live another six years. His record 31 years 7 months 16 days retirement has since been eclipsed by Jimmy Carter.

1965 - Jan Berry of Jan and Dean was accidentally knocked off a camera car and broke his leg on the first day of filming a new film Easy Come, Easy Go. Several other people were also hurt, causing Paramount to cancel the movie entirely.

1968 - American country guitarist Luther Perkins died at the age of 40 as a result of severe burns and smoke inhalation. Perkins fell asleep at home in his den with a cigarette in his hand. He was dragged from the fire unconscious with severe second and third degree burns. Perkins never regained consciousness.

1975 - Drummer Sandy West and guitarist Joan Jett formed the first ever all female heavy rock band after being introduced by producer Kim Fowley. The Runaways released four studio albums.

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

1983 - Crosby Stills Nash & Young member David Crosby was sentenced to five years in jail in Texas for cocaine and firearms offences. Crosby had slept through most of his trial.

2009 - Steven Tyler was airlifted to hospital after falling off stage during a gig at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. The 61-year-old Aerosmith singer fell from a catwalk onto a couple of fans, he suffered neck and shoulder injuries. About 30 minutes after the accident, guitarist Joe Perry came out to tell the crowd that the remainder of the show had been cancelled.

2010 – The Copiapó mining accident occurs, trapping 33 Chilean miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground for 69 days.

2012 – The Oak Creek shooting took place at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people; the perpetrator was shot dead by police.

Births

1862 – Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man); 1906 – John Huston; 1911 – Robert Taylor; 1914 – Parley Baer; 1930 – Neil Armstrong; 1934 – Wendell Berry, Vern "The Voice" Gosdin♪ ♫; 1940 – Roman Gabriel; 1943 – Sammi Smith♪ ♫; 1945 – Loni Anderson; 1946 – Erika Slezak; 1947 – Rick Derringer♪ ♫; 1951 – Samantha Sang♪ ♫; 1955 – Eddie Ojeda; 1956 – Maureen McCormick; 1960 – David Baldacci; 1961 – Mark O'Connor; 1961 – Tim Wilson♪ ♫; 1962 – Patrick Ewing; 1964 – Adam Yauch (Beastie Boys' 'MCA'); 1968 – Terri Clark♪ ♫; 1982 – Lolo Jones; 1986 – Paula Creamer

Deaths

1881 – Spotted Tail; 1955 – Carmen Miranda; 1962 – Marilyn Monroe; 1968 – Luther Perkins♪ ♫; 1983 – Judy Canova; 1984 – Richard Burton; 1992 – Jeff Porcaro♪ ♫(Toto); 2000 – Sir Alec Guinness; 2002 – Chick Hearn