Monday, August 15, 2005

Monday, August 15

This Day In History

  • 1057   Macbeth, the King of Scotland, was slain by the son of King Duncan.
  • 1769   Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica.
  • 1877   Thomas Edison wrote the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, PA. The letter stated that the word, “hello” would be a more appropriate greeting than “ahoy,” as suggested by Alexander Graham Bell when answering the telephone.
  • 1888   T.E. Lawrence, the British soldier who gained fame as ''Lawrence of Arabia,'' was born in Tremadoc, Wales.
  • 1911   Procter & Gamble Company of Cincinnati, OH introduced Crisco hydrogenated shortening. We still use the stuff for pie crusts today.
  • 1935   Humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were killed when their airplane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska.
  • 1939   The MGM musical ''The Wizard of Oz'' premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
  • 1944   Allied forces landed in southern France during World War II.
  • 1945   The Allies proclaimed V-J Day, one day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.
  • 1948   The Republic of Korea was proclaimed.
  • 1969   The Woodstock Music and Art Fair opened in upstate New York.
  • 1971   President Richard Nixon announced a 90-day freeze on wages, prices and rents.
  • 1997   The Justice Department decided not to prosecute senior FBI officials in connection with an alleged cover-up that followed the deadly 1992 Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho.
  • 1998   A car bomb in Omagh, Northern Ireland, killed 29 people and injured 370. It was the single deadliest act of violence in 30 years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
  • 2000   A group of 100 people from North Korea arrived in South Korea for temporary reunions with relatives they had not seen for half a century; a group of 100 South Koreans visited the North.
  • 2001   Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own   two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.
Happy Birthday To
  • 1769   Napolean Bonaparte (emperor of France; died May 5, 1821)
  • 1771   Sir Walter Scott (writer: Ivanhoe, The Talisman, The Heart of Midlothian, Rob Roy, The Fortunes of Nigel; died Sep 21, 1832)
  • 1912   Julia Child (McWilliams) (Culinary Institute of America’s Hall of Famer: chef, author: The French Chef; TV host: Dinner with Julia; died Aug 12, 2004)
  • 1923   Rose Marie (Mazetta) (comedienne, actress: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Hollywood Squares, The Doris Day Show, My Sister Eileen, Ghetto Blaster, Witchboard, Memory of Us)
  • 1924   Phyllis Schlafly (antifeminist; author)
  • 1925   Mike Connors (Krekor Ohanian) (actor: Mannix)
  • 1944   Linda Ellerbee (journalist, TV co-host: Our World; Maxwell House commercials)
  • 1950   Princess Anne (Mountbatten) (British royalty: daughter of Philip Mountbatten [Duke of Edinburgh] and Alexandra Mary Windsor [Queen Elizabeth II], sister of Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward)
  • 1972   Ben Affleck (actor)

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