Today in History

[T.E.W.Clough]

9th August 1936: Owens wins 4th gold medal

Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympic Games, setting a world record in the relay. Hitler promoted the Olympics as a showcase of Aryan supremacy, however, Ohio State University's Jesse Owens won the 100 and 200 metre events, the long jump, and on August 9, the relay. The relay team set a new world record and Hitler left the stadium rather than congratulate the African-American track stars.

 

[Caroline]

Philip Larkin is born!

"It's the birthday of the poet Philip Larkin, born in Coventry, England (1922). He was considered one of the great English poets of his time, though he only published four slim books of poetry, a total of only 117 poems. He grew up in England's Midlands. His father was a governmental official and a Nazi sympathizer who decorated the house with Nazi regalia throughout the '30s until the war started. Larkin went to Oxford and met Kingsley Amis there. They became lifelong friends. He worked as a professional librarian for more than 40 years, writing in his spare time. He was a poet who managed to write very beautiful poems that incorporated all sorts of four-letter words."

Thanks to the Writer's Almanac for the text

In 1966, he wrote in a letter, "I feel I am landed on my 45th year as if washed up on a rock, not knowing how I got here or ever had a chance of being anywhere else. ... Anyone would think I was Tolstoy, the value I put on writing, but it hasn't amounted to much."

man, you said it!

 

[Fletch]

August 9, 1937 -- Seconds before he was to open the evening's episode of the Pepsodent Company's "Amos 'n' Andy" over the NBC Red network, radio announcer Bill Hay suffers a heart seizure and collapses at the microphone.
[...] Despite the chaos, a surviving recording reveals the broadcast proceeded without a hitch --

...not even a slightly drawn-out organ solo?

Betty Boop first appears in the Paramount cartoon Dizzy Dishes, released this day in 1930. At first, strangely enough, she is a half-human half-dog.

Smokey the Bear makes his debut this day in 1944, in a poster from the United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council.

 

[Mike K.]

August 10

1921 - Franklin D. Roosevelt stricken with polio at summer home on Canadian Island of Campobello

1934 - Babe Ruth announces this is his final season as full time player

1944 - U.S. recaptures Guam from Japanese

1944 - Braves Red Barrett throws only 58 pitches to shut out Cincinnati Reds 2-0

1945 - Japan announces willingness to surrender to Allies provided status of Emperor Hirohito remain unchanged

 

[Fletch]

This day in...

1930, Chief Justice and former President William Howard Taft died.

1931, an earthquake of magnitude 8 struck northwest China.

1932, Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen founded a toy factory that in 1934 became known as LEGO.

1938, a temperature of 119°F was recorded at Pendleton, Oregon.

1942, Gen. Bernard Montgomery took command of British forces in North Africa.

1948, Candid Camera first aired on the new (and nearly affiliate-less) ABC-TV network.

1949, the U.S. Department of Defense was so named. For the previous 2 years this merger of War, Navy, and Air Force Dep'ts was called the National Military Establishment. It was soon pointed out that the acronym "NME" was not the most appropriate. lol

Born this day...

1909, Claude Thornhill, orchestra leader
1923, Rhonda Fleming, actress
1928, Eddie Fisher, singer, serial husband
1947, Ian Anderson, musician (Jethro Tull)

 

[LizzieMaine]

August 10, 1939 -- "Brazilian Bombshell" Carmen Miranda makes her US radio debut as a guest on this evening's edition of the Rudy Vallee Hour. Others on the evening's bill include Joe Cook -- the sage of Evansville, Indiana -- and actor Peter Lorre.

 

[Mike K.]

August 11

Apparently nothing worth noting ever happened. [huh]

 

[Obob]

Here's One

August 11, 1934 - Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, received federal prisoners for the first time.

Bring back "The Rock"...

Obob

 

[Mike K.]

August 12

1927 - "Wings," the only silent film to win an Oscar for best picture, opens.

 

[LizzieMaine]

This far into August 14th and nobody's yet mentioned what happened on this date in 1945. For shame.

 

[dhermann1]

August 14, 2003

The great black out!

 

[LizzieMaine]

August 15, 1937

This evening's presentation of the Chase and Sanborn Hour on NBC proves what was really wonderful about this Goldenest Year of the Golden Age Of Radio -- in a single hour's time, listeners heard Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, W. C. Fields, Don Ameche, Dorothy Lamour, Nelson Eddy -- and a fifteen minute scene from Eugene O'Neill's searing drama "Mourning Becomes Electra."

The dramatic scene did *not* feature Mortimer Snerd as Orin.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

August 15, 1939

The Wizard of Oz, premiered in Hollywood.

 

[LizzieMaine]

August 16, 1948

A wave of national mourning follows the death from throat cancer, at age 53, of baseball legend Babe Ruth -- the first athlete to really become a beloved celebrity even for those who didn't follow sports.

(Exactly 22 years later, I attend my first major league game. Red Sox vs. Minnesota, Fenway Park, Sox lose 9-6. Bah.)

 

[John Boyer]

August 16, 1930

The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

August 20:

1938 - Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam - a record that still stands.

1940 - In Mexico City exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramon Mercader. He dies the next day.

Source: Wikipedia

 

[HungaryTom]

21 August

Crushing down of the Prague Spring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring
800 Hungarians were participating
Apologies for that.
[huh]

 

[Spitfire]

Crushing down of the Prague Spring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring
800 Hungarians were participating
Apologies for that.
[huh]

I was there. And I will never forget the morning in the early hours, when I woke up in the Hotel to the sound of the russian tanks outside the windows.
Later on I slipped past the policeguard in the lobby and got out in the streets. I joined in the demonstartions against the russians until late that night. There were shooting, flames, people killed and russian soldiers who suddenly understood what they were doing.
When I came back to the hotel - after taking a lot of pictures - I hid my camera and went in to the lobby, where I was arrested by a russian army officer, who took my passport and told me not to leave the hotel.
I would be sent home the next morning by plane or train. For my own safety of course!
next morning I climbed out the window in order to get my camera, which was hidden behind som garbagecans in the hotel yard.
I went out in the streets again - took some more photos. And got arrested again. Back to the hotel. Got my camera with me to the room.
Late that night we - a lot of foreigners - were driven to the trainstation under guard. And put on a train.
A year later I was back. 21 august 1969 were even worse.
But that's another story.

 

[LizzieMaine]

August 24, 1932

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart climbs into a Lockheed Vega in Los Angeles -- and emerges a bit over 19 hours later in Newark, setting a new transcontinental speed record for a woman pilot. Her flight also marks the first *solo* transcontinental flight by a female pilot.

 

[LondonLuke]

In 1537, The Honourable Artillery Regiment was formed. Now part of the TA, it is the oldest Regiment in the British Army (Not golden era, I know, but this is..)


1944-Paris was liberated by the Allies, cue for much celebration and a rise in VD rates amongst Allied servicemen