Holidays
Lammas Day
British festival day. It is the forerunner of America's Thanksgiving and Canada's Harvest Festival.
What Happened On
MTV
August 1, 1981
Cable's first 24-hour music channel debuts. The first video MTV played was Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles.
Charles Whitman
Charles Whitman
Texas Tower Massacre
August 1, 1966
25-year-old University of Texas student Charles J. Whitman barricades himself into a university tower and over the course of 90 minutes shoots and kills 16 people, wounding 31 others, before being killed by police. He had stabbed his wife and mother to death the night before. It's suspected that the violent tendencies he had been experiencing were caused by a tumor found in his brain on autopsy. He had sought professional help for "overwhelming violent impulses," including fantasies about shooting people from the tower. In a note he left behind, he claimed he loved both his wife and mother and killed them to spare them future humiliation and suffering.
The morning of the shooting he purchased a Sears Model 60 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun, a Universal M1 carbine, six additional ammunition magazines, and 14 boxes of ammunition. Whitman sawed off the barrel and butt stock of the shotgun, and packed it along with a Remington 700 6-mm bolt-action hunting rifle, a .35-caliber pump rifle, a .30-caliber carbine (M1), a 9-mm Luger pistol, a Galesi-Brescia .25-caliber pistol, a Smith & Wesson M19 .357 Magnum revolver, and more than 700 rounds of ammunition. He then proceeded to the campus tower where he began his killing spree.
The TV movie The Deadly Tower (1975), featuring Kurt Russell as Whitman, was based on these events.
Anne Frank's Last Diary Entry
August 1, 1944
The young diarist Anne Frank makes her last entry. Her family was found by the Nazis three days later and taken to concentration camps. Her diary described their previous 756 days of hiding. Anne died in a Nazi concentration camp. Her father Otto Frank was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust.
Pigeons Poop on Hitler's Games
August 1, 1936
During the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Olympics, known as "Hitler's Games," thousands of pigeons were released. When a ceremonial cannon was fired, it startled the pigeons causing them to poop over the spectators below.
First Televised Olympics
August 1, 1936
Germany begins broadcasting the 1936 Olympic games. The games were transmitted from the Paul Nipkow TV Station to about two dozen viewing rooms set up around Berlin. An estimated 150,000 people watched the broadcasts. Projection sets were used to produce 8 x 10 foot images.
Aeronautical Division's first dirigible and first airplane
Aeronautical Division's first dirigible and first airplane
First Air Force Established
August 1, 1907
The U.S. Army established the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps under the command of Capt. Charles deForest Chandler. It was the predecessor to the United States Air Force.
They purchased their first dirigible in July of 1908 and their first airplane in August of 1909.
First Cable Streetcar
August 1, 1873
Andrew Hallidie's cable streetcar has its test run on Clay Street Hill, San Francisco. It went into operation a month later.
Photo Credit: André Karwath aka Aka
Photo Credit: André Karwath aka Aka
Slavery Abolition Act
August 1, 1834
Slavery is abolished in the British colonies. However, the Act did not extend to the territories in the possession of the East India Company, or to the Island of Ceylon, or to the Island of Saint Helena. It also only freed slaves below the age of six. Older slaves had to continue to work as "apprentices." The apprenticeships were finally ended in 1838.
Photo Credit: Chris Hagerman
Photo Credit: Chris Hagerman
Six Flags Over Texas
August 1, 1961
The first park of the Six Flags chain opens in Arlington, Texas.
Atomic Energy Commission
August 1, 1946
U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the McMahan Act establishing the Atomic Energy Commission. It also authorized the Army and Navy to manufacture atomic weapons.
World War II - Warsaw Uprising
August 1, 1944
200,000 Polish civilians and ill-equipped soldiers are slaughtered over the next two months while fighting German storm troopers. Russia refused to lend assistance.
World War I
August 1, 1914
Germany declares war on Russia, after Russia began a general mobilization in support of Serbia. Three days earlier, Austria had declared war on Serbia in retaliation for the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip a month earlier. Soon other countries joined the conflict and the great war was on. More than 16 million people would die as a result of the war.
First U.S. Diamond Mine
August 1, 1906
John Huddleson discovers two diamonds (each about three carats) in Pike County, Arkansas, and establishes the only North American diamond mine.
Atlantic Crossing in a Row Boat
August 1, 1896
George Samuelson and Frank Harbo arrive in England after crossing the Atlantic in an 18-foot row boat, making this the first recorded crossing of an ocean in a rowboat. They had left New York on June 6.
Colorado
August 1, 1876
Colorado becomes the 38th U.S. state.
"Colorado" is Spanish for "colored red".
Tax collector being tarred and feathered
Tax collector being tarred and feathered
Whiskey Rebellion
August 1, 1794
Western Pennsylvania farmers revolt in protest to an excise duty on stills and spirits distilled in the U.S. Pres. Washington later ordered in the militia and managed to end the rebellion without bloodshed.
First U.S. Customs officers
August 1, 1789
Customs officers begin collecting revenues as per the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789.
First Jew Killed in the American Revolution
August 1, 1776
Francis Salvador is killed by Indians who were fighting for the British. Twenty-nine year old Salvador was shot and fell into the bushes, but was discovered and scalped by the Cherokee later that night and died of his wounds.
Salvador was also the first Jew elected to office in America (1775, South Carolina Provincial Congress). He was known as the southern Paul Revere for his warning of the British fleet's approach at Charleston, South Carolina.
Oxygen
August 1, 1774
English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers the element which composes one-fifth of our air.
Birthdays
Photo Credit: Steve Hopson
Photo Credit: Steve Hopson
Robert Cray
Born August 1, 1953
American Grammy-winning blues guitarist, singer. Music: Strong Persuader (1986) and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1988).
Photo Credit: Carl Lender
Photo Credit: Carl Lender
Jerry Garcia (Jerome John Garcia)
Born August 1, 1942 d. 1995
American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist, singer, songwriter, founding member of the Grateful Dead.
Herman Melville
Born August 1, 1819 d. 1891
American author of Moby-Dick (1851). Although he had success with two previous novels, Moby-Dick was not well received and only sold about 3,200 copies during his lifetime. It wasn't until after Melville's death that Moby-Dick became regarded as a classic. "Call me Ishmael" is one of the most famous opening lines in literature.
Melville drew his inspiration for Moby-Dick from the real-life sinking of the whaling ship Essex, in which the crew was forced into cannibalism in order to survive.
Francis Scott Key
Born August 1, 1779 d. 1843
American lawyer, poet. He wrote The Star-Spangled Banner (1814) during the British bombardment of Ft. McHenry during the War of 1812.
Key wrote the song in 1814 after seeing the American flag flying following the British bombardment of Ft. McHenry during the War of 1812.
In 1931, The Star-Spangled Banner was adopted as the national anthem after a public outcry when a 1929 Ripley's Believe It or Not cartoon pointed out there was no American national anthem.
Giancarlo Giannini
Born August 1, 1942
Italian actor, the sad-eyed protagonist of Lina Wertmuller films. Film: Love and Anarchy (1973, Cannes Best Actor) and Seven Beauties (1976).
Helicopter surveying the crash site (left) and Ron Brown
Helicopter surveying the crash site (left) and Ron Brown
Ron Brown
Born August 1, 1941 d. 1996
American, Democratic National Party chairman, Commerce Secretary (1993-96). He and 34 other people died in a government plane crash, prompting government cover-up theories, based on Brown's being under investigation for corruption and having prepared to negotiate plea bargains implicating U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Yves Saint Laurent
Born August 1, 1936 d. 2008
French fashion designer. He is credited with introducing the tuxedo suit for women.
Dom DeLuise
Born August 1, 1933 d. 2009
American actor, comedian. Film: Blazing Saddles (1974), Silent Movie (1976), Dom DeLuise: The End (1978), and History of the World, Part I (1981).
Tom Wilson
Born August 1, 1931 d. 2011
American cartoonist. Creator of Ziggy (1969).
Arthur Hill
Born August 1, 1922 d. 2006
Canadian Tony-winning actor. Stage: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962, Tony). TV: Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1971-74, title role).
Alexander I
Born August 1, 1893 d. 1920
King of Greece (1917-20). Alexander died at the age of 27 of blood poisoning after being bitten by a pet monkey.
Alexander became king after his father and older brother were forced into exile. The day after Alexander became king in 1919, he created a scandal by marrying a commoner, his childhood friend who was the daughter of his father's Master of the Horse.
John F. Mahoney
Born August 1, 1889 d. 1957
American physician. He developed penicillin treatment for syphilis (1943). This virtually eliminated tertiary syphilis of the brain, once a leading cause of insanity throughout the world.
Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov
Born August 1, 1870 d. 1932
Soviet biologist, specializing in artificial insemination. He tried to create a human-ape hybrid via artificial insemination as part of Joseph Stalin's quest for a super-warrior.
Robert Todd Lincoln
Born August 1, 1843 d. 1926
U.S. Secretary of War (1881-85). The eldest son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. He was present when President James A. Garfield was shot in 1881 and when President William McKinley was shot in 1901. He also claimed that Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth who assassinated his father, saved him from serious injury at a railroad station in Jersey City in about 1863.
Maria Mitchell
Born August 1, 1818 d. 1889
American astronomer. She was the first professional woman astronomer in the United States and the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1905.
Richard Henry Dana Jr.
Born August 1, 1815 d. 1882
American sailor, lawyer, author. Writings: Two Years Before the Mast (1840).
William Clark
Born August 1, 1770 d. 1838
American soldier, explorer, governor of the Missouri Territory. He and Meriwether Lewis explored the American West (1804-06) establishing a route to the Pacific.
Jean Baptiste Lamarck
Born August 1, 1744 d. 1829
French naturalist. He was the first to distinguish vertebrates from invertebrates and was one of the first to use the term biology in its modern sense. He is best known for proposing that acquired traits are inheritable (Lamarckism), which was proved wrong, but initiated interest in the idea of evolution.
Sigismund II
Born August 1, 1520 d. 1572
King of Poland (1548-72).
Claudius I
Born August 1, 10 B.C. d. A.D. 54
Roman Emperor (A.D. 41-54). Took office after the murder of Caligula. He was killed by his fourth wife Agrippina.
Deaths
The Melting Pot
Israel Zangwill
Died August 1, 1926 b. 1864
English-born writer, Zionist. The use of the term "melting pot" to describe American absorption of immigrants was popularized by Zangwill's play The Melting Pot.
He founded an organization called the Jewish Territorialist Organization (1905), to try to create a Jewish homeland, the location of which did not necessarily have to be in what is today the state of Israel.
He once commented on author George Bernard Shaw, "The way Shaw behaves himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many people believe in no God at all".
Writngs: Children of the Ghetto (1892) and The Melting Pot (1908).
Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary)
Died August 1, 1903 b. 1852
American wild west character, Indian fighter, famous citizen of Deadwood, South Dakota. Her dying request, "Bury me beside Wild Bill."
Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius)
Died August 1, 30 B.C. b. 83 B.C.
Roman general, politician. Antony married Cleopatra, although he was married to Octavian's sister when they met. Cleopatra bore him three children. After Antony was defeated by Octavian's forces at the Battle of Actium, he and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where they separately committed suicide.
Wilford Brimley
Died August 1, 2020 b. 1934
American actor. TV: The Waltons (1974-77, Horace Brimley), Our House (1986-88, Gus Witherspoon), and Quaker Oats commercials. Film: The China Syndrome (1979), The Thing (1982), The Natural (1984), and Cocoon (1985).
Goldy McJohn (John Raymond Goadsby)
Died August 1, 2017 b. 1945
American keyboardist, with Steppenwolf. A classically-trained pianist, he was a pioneer in the use of the electronic organ in rock and roll and heavy metal. Music: Born To Be Wild (1968) and Magic Carpet Ride (1968).
Corazon "Cory" Aquino
Died August 1, 2009 b. 1933
Philippine President (1986-92). She was the first woman Philippine President and the first female president in Asia.
Paddy Chayefsky (Sidney Chayefsky)
Died August 1, 1981 b. 1923
American Oscar-winning screenwriter. Film: Paint Your Wagon (1969), Network (1976, Oscar), and Altered States (1979).
Francis Gary Powers
Died August 1, 1977 b. 1929
American CIA agent, U-2 pilot. In 1960 he was shot down over Russia, convicted of spying, and then exchanged in 1962 for Russian spy Rudolf Abel. Abel had been convicted of spying in the hollow nickel spy case, in which he transported microfilm inside a hollowed-out nickel.
Manuel Luis Quezon
Died August 1, 1944 b. 1878
Philippine statesman, first president of the Philippine Commonwealth (1935).
Robert Morrison
Died August 1, 1834 b. 1782
English missionary, first Protestant minister to China (1807). In 1823 he completed his Chinese translation of the entire Bible.