History Thread...

[CMRivdogs]

August 14

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-14

Wherewere you when the lights went out?

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On August 14, 2003, a major outage knocks out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada.

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On August 14, 1795, President George Washington signs the Jay (or “Jay’s”) Treaty with Great Britain.

This treaty, known officially as the “Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America” attempted to diffuse the tensions between England and the United States that had risen to renewed heights since the end of the Revolutionary War. The U.S. government objected to English military posts along America’s northern and western borders and Britain’s violation of American neutrality in 1794 when the Royal Navy seized American ships in the West Indies during England’s war with France. The treaty, written and negotiated by Supreme Court Chief Justice (and Washington appointee) John Jay, was signed by Britain’s King George III on November 19, 1794 in London. However, after Jay returned home with news of the treaty’s signing, Washington, now in his second term, encountered fierce Congressional opposition to the treaty; by 1795, its ratification was uncertain.

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935. Press photographers snapped pictures as FDR, flanked by ranking members of Congress, signed into lawthe historic act, which guaranteed an income for the unemployed and retirees. FDR commended Congress for what he considered to be a “patriotic” act.

Roosevelt had taken the helm of the country in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression, the nation’s worst economic crisis. The Social Security Act (SSA) was in keeping with his other “New Deal” programs, including the establishment of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, which attempted to hoist America out of the Great Depression by putting Americans back to work.

Although it was initially created to combat unemployment, Social Security now functions primarily as a powerful safety net for retirees and the disabled, and provides death benefits to taxpayer dependents. The Social Security system has remained popular and relatively unchanged since 1935.

 

 

[CMRivdogs]

A little background from an earlier Bluesky post

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Sept. 24, 1924: Sculptor Gutzon Borglum begins his first visit to South Dakota. State historian Doane Robinson—impressed by Borglum's project carving Confederate leaders onto Stone Mountain, Ga.—has invited him to create similar heads on a mountain in the state's Black Hills. 

Robinson envisions a pageant of Western history sculpted onto the face of a mountain, with figures such as Lewis and Clark and Crazy Horse. Tourists would flock to see "not only the wild grandeur" of the site "but also the triumph of western civilization over that geography." 

Borglum counters with a plan to carve the heads of 4 presidents—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. His first choice for a site is a formation of high granite pillars known as the Needles. However, further study reveals these would crumble under sculpting. 
 

Eventually in August 1925 Borglum picks the location for his presidential heads, a more solid granite mountain called Mount Rushmore. The choice is not without controversy—both the Lakota Sioux and environmentalists consider it a massive act of vandalism—but it will proceed. 

 

[CMRivdogs]

August 15

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-15
 

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On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock music festival opens on a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New York town of Bethel.

Promoters John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and Michael Lang originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near the town of Woodstock, New York. The longtime artists’ colony was already a home base for Bob Dylan and other musicians. Despite their relative inexperience, the young promoters managed to sign a roster of top acts, including the Jefferson Airplane, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more.

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On August 15, 1899, in Detroit, Michigan, Henry Ford resigns his position as chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company’s main plant in order to concentrate on automobile production.

Henry Ford left his family’s farm in Dearborn, Michigan, at age 16 to work in the machine shops of Detroit. In 1888, he married Clara Bryant, and they had a son, Edsel, in 1893. That same year, Ford was made chief engineer at Edison. Charged with keeping the city’s electricity flowing, Ford was on call 24 hours a day, with no regular working hours, and when not working could tinker away at his real goal of building a gasoline-powered vehicle. He completed his first functioning gasoline engine at the end of 1893, his first horseless carriage, called the Quadricycle, by 1896.

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1914 The Panama Canal, the American-built waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is inaugurated with the passage of the U.S. vessel Ancon, a cargo and passenger ship.

 

[CMRivdogs]

August 16

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1977, Music icon Elvis Presley dies in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 42. The death of the “King of Rock and Roll” brought legions of mourning fans to Graceland, his mansion in Memphis. Doctors said he died of a heart attack, likely brought on by his addiction to prescription barbiturates.

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During the War of 1812, American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit and his army to the British without a fight. Hull, a 59-year-old veteran of the American Revolution, had lost hope of defending the settlement after seeing the large English and Indian force gathering outside Detroit’s walls. The general was also preoccupied with the presence of his daughter and grandchildren inside the fort.

Of Hull’s 2,000-man army, most were militiamen, and British General Isaac Brock allowed them to return to their homes on the frontier. The regular U.S. Army troops were taken as prisoners to Canada. With the capture of Fort Detroit, Michigan Territory was declared a part of Great Britain and Shawnee chief Tecumseh was able to increase his raids against American positions in the frontier area. Hull’s surrender was a severe blow to American morale. In September 1813, U.S. General William Henry Harrison, the future president, recaptured Detroit.

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On August 16, 1920, a gloomy day at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray “Chappie” Chapman steps into the batter's box to lead off the top of the fifth inning. The first pitch from the Yankees' Carl Mays strikes the un-helmeted Chapman in the temple, and he crumples to the ground. Though he makes his way off the field a short time later, Chapman collapses again and is rushed to the hospital. There, early the next morning, he will become the first and only Major League Baseball player to die as a direct result of being hit by a pitch.

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On August 16, 1948, baseball legend George Herman “Babe” Ruth dies from cancer in New York City. For two days following, his body lay in state at the main entrance to Yankee Stadium, and tens of thousands of people stood in line to pay their last respects. He was buried in Hawthorne, New York.

Ruth, who had a colorful personality and an unmistakable physical presence, began his major league career in Baltimore in 1914. That same year, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox and during the next five years proved himself to be a formidable left-handed pitcher and batter.

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

August 17

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On August 17, 1842, protesters burn an effigy of President John Tyler a short distance from the White House. Their actions came in response to Tyler's veto of a second attempt by Congress to re-establish the Bank of the United States. The protestors were composed primarily of members of Tyler’s own political party, the Whigs, who dominated Congress at the time.

The rioters hurled stones at the White House, shot guns into the air and hung an effigy of the president that they then set on fire. The protest is considered one of, if not the most, violent demonstrations held near the White House. As a result of the unrest, the District of Columbia decided to create its own police force.

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On August 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting president to testify before the Office of Independent Counsel as the subject of a grand-jury investigation.

The testimony came after a four-year investigation into Clinton and his wife Hillary’s alleged involvement in several scandals, including accusations of sexual harassment, potentially illegal real-estate deals and suspected “cronyism” involved in the firing of White House travel-agency personnel. The independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, then uncovered an affair between Clinton and a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. When questioned about the affair, Clinton denied it, which led Starr to charge the president with perjury and obstruction of justice, which in turn prompted his testimony on August 17.

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1862 Violence erupts in Minnesota territory as members of the Dakota tribe, starving and frustrated, attack white settlements along the Minnesota River. After six weeks of war, the U.S. military eventually overwhelm the Dakota. Subsequent trials of Dakota warriors, some of which lasted for just minutes, resulted in the largest mass execution ever in the United States.

The Dakota people, composed of four bands, lived on temporary reservations in southwestern Minnesota. For two decades, they had been poorly treated by the Federal government, local traders and settlers. They saw their hunting lands whittled down, and provisions promised by the government rarely arrived. Worse yet, a wave of white settlers surrounded them.

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On August 17, 1957, Alice Roth experiences what surely is one of the worst days any spectator has had at a Major League Baseball game. After being struck by a foul ball off the bat of future Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn, Roth is being treated for a broken nose when the Philadelphia Phillies' star fouls off the very next pitch, hitting her in the leg and breaking it. The incredibly unlikely incident is unique in baseball history.

Roth’s husband, Earl, was the Philadelphia Bulletin sports editor, so the couple regularly attended Phillies games. On this occasion, they were sitting in the press box behind the third-base dugout along with their grandsons to watch the home team play the New York Giants. Ashburn, an accomplished hitter who retired in 1962 with a .308 batting average, was adept at frustrating pitchers by fouling off pitches.

The unlucky Roth was taken to a nearby hospital. Perhaps to salvage their relationship with the sports editor of a local paper, the Phillies invited Earl Roth and his grandchildren into their clubhouse after the game, giving the kids free tickets and an autographed baseball. Visiting her in the hospital later that day, one of her grandchildren reportedly asked Roth, “Grandma, do you think you could go to an Eagles game and get hit in the face with a football?”

 

[CMRivdogs]

August 18

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-18

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On August 18, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest during a coupby high-ranking members of his own government, military and police forces.

Since becoming leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1988, Gorbachev had pursued comprehensive reforms of the Soviet system. Combining perestroika (“restructuring”) of the economy—including a greater emphasis on free-market policies—and glasnost (“openness”) in diplomacy, he greatly improved Soviet relations with Western democracies, particularly the United States. Meanwhile, though, within the USSR, Gorbachev faced powerful critics, including conservative, hard-line politicians and military officials who thought he was driving the Soviet Union toward its downfall and making it a second-rate power. On the other side were even more radical reformers—particularly Boris Yeltsin, president of the most powerful socialist republic, Russia—who complained that Gorbachev was just not working fast enough.

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1590 John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony in present-day North Carolina, returns from a supply trip to England to find the settlement completely deserted. White and his men found no trace of the 100 or so colonists he left behind, and there was no sign of violence. The Roanoke Island colony was the first English settlement in the New World, and the mystery of its collapse has never fully been solved.

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A dramatic battle in the Tennessee House of Representatives ends with the state ratifying the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution on August 18, 1920. After decades of struggle and protest by suffragettes across the country, the decisive vote is cast by a 24-year-old representative who reputedly changed his vote after receiving a note from his mother.

 

[CMRivdogs]

The letter concludes their brief exchange of correspondence over the treatment of prisoners. Both men still maintain that their own prisoners are well treated, but that they’re aware the other side is treating prisoners poorly, forcing them to retaliate. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0227

[CMRivdogs]

August 20

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-20

 

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On or about August 20, 1619, “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrive in the British colony of Virginia and are then bought by English colonists. The exact date is not definitively known (a letter from the time identified the ship's arrival coming in "the latter part of August"), but this date has been chosen by many to mark the arrival of the enslaved Africans in the New World—beginning two and a half centuries of slavery in North America.

 

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On August 20, 1794, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne proves that the fragile young republic can counter a military threat when he puts down Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket’s confederacy near present-day Toledo, Ohio, with the newly created 3,000-man strong Legion of the United States at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Although the Treaty of Paris ceded the so-called Northwest Territory, stretching west to the Mississippi River and south to Spanish Florida to the United States, the British failed to abandon their forts in the region and continued to support their Indian allies in skirmishes with American settlers. Two earlier Army expeditions into the Ohio territory by Generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair in 1790 and 1791, respectively, failed to end the unrest. In fact, St. Clair’s effort concluded with an Indian victory and 630 dead American soldiers.

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Sergeant Charles Floyd dies three months into the voyage of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, becoming the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during the journey.

Lewis and Clark left St. Louis the previous May, heading up the Missouri River with a party of 35 men, called the Corps of Discovery. Among the voyagers was Charles Floyd, a native of Kentucky who had enlisted in the U.S. military a few years earlier. When word went out asking for volunteers to join the ambitious expedition across the continent to the Pacific, Floyd was among the first to apply. Young, vigorous, and better educated than most of the soldiers, Floyd was a natural choice. The two co-captains not only selected him to join the mission, they promoted him to sergeant.

Sadly, Floyd’s part in the great voyage of the Corps of Discovery was short-lived. By late July, Lewis and Clark reported that Floyd “has been very sick for several days.” He seemed to grow better for a time, but on August 15, he was “seized with a complaint somewhat like a violent chorlick [colic]… [and] he was sick all night.” Concerned, the two captains did what they could to treat Floyd’s ailment, but the previously robust young man steadily weakened.

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On August 20, 1920, seven men, including legendary all-around athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, meet to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in Canton, Ohio. The meeting led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), the forerunner to the hugely successful National Football League.

On August 20, 1920, the owners of four Ohio League teams—the Akron Pros, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians and Dayton Triangles—met to form a new professional league. Jim Thorpe was nominated as president of the new league, as it was hoped Thorpe’s fame would help the league to be taken seriously. On September 17, the league met again, changing its short-lived name to the American Professional Football Association (APFA) and officially electing Jim Thorpe as the league’s first president.

The APFA began play on September 26, with the Rock Island Independents of Illinois defeating a team from outside the league, the St. Paul Ideals, 48-0. A week later, Dayton beat Columbus 14-0 in the first game between two teams from the APFA, the forerunner of the modern NFL.

 

[Netnerd]

Sergeant Floyd was buried on a high bluff south of what would become Sioux City. A Washington Monument-type obelisk now marks the approximate site.

[romad1]

1 hour ago, CMRivdogs said:

August 20

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-20

 

 

 

Churchill's Battle of Britain speech is today too, apparently

[CMRivdogs]

2 hours ago, Netnerd said:

Sergeant Floyd was buried on a high bluff south of what would become Sioux City. A Washington Monument-type obelisk now marks the approximate site.

We drove by there on our trip west. There is also a park nearby where they camped for a while. If I remember correctly it honors him. It’s also where Expedition members elected a new Sargent. The first democratic election west of the Mississippi or something like that

[CMRivdogs]

August 21

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-21

 

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1959 The modern United States receives its crowning star when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Hawaii (Native spelling: Hawai‘i) into the Union as the 50th state. The president also issued an order for an American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became official July 4, 1960.

 

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On August 21, 1793, prominent Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush alerts the city's mayor that an epidemic of yellow fever was fast emerging. By the time the epidemic ended, some 5,000 people had died.

Yellow fever, or American plague as it was known at the time, is a viral disease that begins with fever and muscle pain. Next, victims often become jaundiced (hence, the term “yellow” fever), as their liver and kidneys cease to function normally. Some of the afflicted then suffer even worse symptoms. Famous early American Cotton Mather described it as “turning yellow then vomiting and bleeding every way.” Internal bleeding in the digestive tract causes bloody vomit. Many victims become delirious before dying.

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1831 Believing himself chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery, Nat Turner launches the largest-ever insurrection by enslaved people in the United States. Turner, an enslaved man and educated minister, planned to capture Virginia's Southampton county armory and then march 30 miles to Dismal Swamp, where his rebels would be able to elude their pursuers. With seven followers, he killed Joseph Travis, his owner, and Travis’ family, and then set off across the countryside, hoping to rally hundreds of enslaved people to his insurrection en route to the armory.

During the next two days and nights, Turner and his rebels attacked homes throughout Southampton County and killed some 60 white men, women and children. Local white residents resisted the rebels, and then the state militia—consisting of some 3,000 men—crushed the rebellion. Only a few miles from Jerusalem, Turner and all his followers were dispersed, captured, or killed.

In the aftermath of the rebellion, scores of enslaved people were lynched, though many of them had never participated in the revolt. Turner himself was not captured until the end of October, and after confessing without regret to his role in the bloodshed, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. On November 11, he was hanged in Jerusalem.

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On August 21, 1944, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China meet in the Dumbarton Oaks estate at Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to formulate the formal principles of an organization that will provide collective security on a worldwide basis—an organization that will become the United Nations.

Following up on a promise made at the Moscow Conferences of 1943 to create an international organization to succeed the League of Nations, the Dumbarton Oaks Conference began planning its creation. Step one was the outline for a Security Council, which would be composed of the member states (basically, the largest of the Allied nations)—the United States, the USSR, China, France, and Great Britain—with each member having veto power over any proposal brought before the Council.

 

[romad1]

On 8/20/2025 at 8:11 AM, romad1 said:

Churchill's Battle of Britain speech is today too, apparently

I liked that. 

[Dan Gilmore]

Quibble: the plane on the right is a Hurricane. I think the left is too, but I can’t tell. But the message of support for allies is the important part. 👍🏻

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Dan Gilmore said:

Quibble: the plane on the right is a Hurricane. I think the left is too, but I can’t tell. But the message of support for allies is the important part. 👍🏻

Pretty deep catch! Not that likely one squadron was running multiple hardware but to the picture at hand, those are clearly both three blade props. I don't know if every series of Spitfire used 4s, but most pics I've seen of Spitfires were 4.

[CMRivdogs]

August 22

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At San Francisco's Candlestick Park on August 22, 1965, Giants pitcher Juan Marichal steps up to the plate to lead off the home half of the third inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers. After the second pitch, a ball low and away, catcher John Roseboro returns the ball to pitcher Sandy Koufax, but he offends Marichal by throwing it close to his head. Marichal’s reaction is unprecedented—he attacks Roseboro, hitting him in the head with his bat and setting off an epic, 14-minute brawl

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

August 23

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-23

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Despite worldwide demonstrations in support of their innocence, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for murder on August 23, 1927.

On April 15, 1920, a paymaster for a shoe company in South Braintree, Massachusetts, was shot and killed along with his guard. The murderers, who were described as two Italian men, escaped with more than $15,000. After going to a garage to claim a car that police said was connected with the crime, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and charged with the crime. Although both men carried guns and made false statements upon their arrest, neither had a previous criminal record. On July 14, 1921, they were convicted and sentenced to die.

Anti-radical sentiment was running high in America at the time, and the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti was regarded by many as unlawfully sensational. Authorities had failed to come up with any evidence of the stolen money, and much of the other evidence against them was later discredited. During the next few years, sporadic protests were held in Massachusetts and around the world calling for their release, especially after Celestino Madeiros, then under a sentence for murder, confessed in 1925 that he had participated in the crime with the Joe Morelli gang. The state Supreme Court refused to upset the verdict, and Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller denied the men clemency. In the days leading up to the execution, protests were held in cities around the world, and bombs were set off in New York City and Philadelphia. On August 23, Sacco and Vanzetti were electrocuted.

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On August 23, 1784, four counties in western North Carolina declare their independence as the state of Franklin. The counties lay in what would eventually become Tennessee.

The previous April, the state of North Carolina had ceded its western land claims between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River to the United States Congress. The settlers in this area, known as the Cumberland River Valley, had formed their own independent government from 1772 to 1777 and were concerned that Congress would sell the territory to Spain or France as a means of paying off some of the government’s war debt. As a result, North Carolina retracted its cession and began to organize an administration for the territory.

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On August 23, 1989, as punishment for betting on baseball, Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose accepts a settlement that includes a lifetime ban from the game. The ban is publicly announced the following morning. A heated debate continues to rage as to whether Rose, a former player who remains the game’s all-time hits leader, should be given a second chance.

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On August 23, 1947, the first Little League World Series championship game—the culmination of a three-day tournament in Williamsport, Pennsylvania—features teams from Pennsylvania. Before roughly 2,500 fans, Maynard, a team from Williamsport, defeats Lock Haven, 16-7, to win the title at Original Field. Although it is called the "World Series," 11 of the 12 teams in the tournament are from Pennsylvania; the outlier is a team from Atlantic City, N.J.