1588 – This event is mentioned as history may have been quite different for the founding of the United States. The Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 huge ships, met defeat at the hands of English sailors and their smaller, more maneuverable vessels. Then a series of wicked Atlantic storms off the coast of Southern England took their toll. Only half of the 130 Spanish ships managed to limp ... at best ... home. The 60 or so English ships, plus the weather, saved England from the Spanish invaders.
    1680 – The Pueblo Revolt began, an uprising of most of the Pueblo Indians against the Spanish Colonizers in the province of Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico.   The Pueblo Revolt killed 400 Spanish and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. Twelve years later the Spanish returned and were able to reoccupy New Mexico with little opposition.
    1755 - Under the orders of Governor Charles Lawrence, the British Army begins to forcibly deport the Acadians from Nova Scotia to the American Colonies.  
    1776 – Word of the Declaration of Independence reached London.
    1814 - Esther Hobart McQuigg Morris (1814-1902) was born at Tioga County, NY, but eventually moved to Wyoming Territory, where she worked in the women’s rights movement and had a key role in getting a women’s suffrage bill passed. Morris became justice of the peace of South Pass City, WY, in 1870, one of the first times a woman held public office in the US. She represented Wyoming at the national suffrage convention in 1879.
    1821 – Missouri became the 24th state.
    1844 - Brigham Young chosen Mormon Church head following Joseph Smith death.
    1846 - Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution, named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest of $500,000 made it possible.
    1866 - Birthday of Mathew Henson (1866-1955), famous African-American explorer, born at Charles County, MD. He met Robert E. Peary while working in a Washington, DC, store in 1888 and was hired to be Peary’s valet. He accompanied Peary on his seven subsequent Arctic expeditions. During the successful 1908—09 expedition to the North Pole, Henson and two of the four Eskimo guides reached their destination Apr 6, 1909. Peary arrived minutes later and verified the location. Henson’s account of the expedition, “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole”, was published in 1912. In addition to the Congressional medal awarded all members of the North Pole expedition, Henson received the Gold Medal of the Geographical Society of Chicago and, at 81, was made an honorary member of the Explorers Club at New York, NY.
http://www.matthewhenson.com/
http://www.arcticice.org/henson.htm
    1866 - The first queen to visit the United Sates was Queen Emma, widow of King Kamehameha IV of the Sandwich Islands (later to be re-named Hawaii), who arrived in New York City from England on the Cunard liner Java. She was received on August 14, 1866 by President Andrew Johnson and introduced to his family. American business had already started to invest in the island, bringing coffee, potatoes, hybrid sugarcane, horses and cattle.
    1874 – Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), 31st president of the United States, was born in West Branch, IA.  His parents were poor and he was orphaned at 9, but he amassed a fortune as a mine engineer and owner.  With the start of World War I, he directed the evacuation of 200,000 Americans from Europe. It was the first of a series of massive economic, evacuation and food relief activities that spanned half a century. He was Secretary of Commerce in the Administrations of Harding and Coolidge and was elected President on the Republican ticket in 1928.  The crash of the stock market on Oct. 29, 1929, plunged the nation into its worst economic crisis in history. His policies were attacked as insufficient to spur economic revival. He was voted out of office in 1932 under the cloud of the Great Depression, called the "Hoover Depression" by his opponents.
  1876 - Thomas Alva Edison of Menlo Park, NJ, obtained a patent for a “method of preparing autographic stencils for printing”. He went on to improve the “mimeograph,” which, until the advent of the photocopier, was the most widespread method of paper communication and duplication.
    1878 - The temperature at Denver, CO, soars to an all-time record high of 105 degrees.
    1885 - America's first commercially operated electric streetcar began operation in Baltimore.   
   1896 - Birthday of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953) at Washington, DC.   American short story writer and novelist: “The Yearling”.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug08.html.
    1897- Actor Jack Haley (1897-1979), the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz”, was born in in Boston.
    1899 – Charles Darrow (1899-1967), one of the creators of Monopoly, was born in Philadelphia.   
    1899 - Birthday of American choreographer Russell Markert (1899-1990) at Jersey City, NJ. He founded and directed the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes from 1932 to 1971.
    1899 - A.T. Marshall of Brockton, MA patented the refrigerator. It was not practical in cost for many households and “ice” refrigerators were common until perhaps World War II.
    1900 - Birthday of bandleader Lucky Millinder, Anniston, AL.
    1904 – Jack Chesbro was knocked out by the White Sox after pitching 30 complete games in a row. For the year, he will win 41 games, pitching 48 complete games out of 51 starts for the New York Highlanders. All are post-1900 Major League records. His 455 innings pitched has been topped only by Ed Walsh’s 464 in 1908.  For perspective, in today’s game, pitchers are considered a workhorse if they pitch 200 innings and a complete game is a rarity.
    1905 – With President Theodore Roosevelt leading the way, peace negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War began in Portsmouth, NH.
    1909 – Leo Fender (1909-91) inventor and manufacturer of musical instruments, including the electric guitar, was born Clarence Leonidas Fender in Anaheim, CA.
    1911 - Membership in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435. Every 211,877 residents of the U.S. were represented by one member of Congress.
    1913 – Noah Berry, Jr, (1913-94) was born in NYC.  A veteran bit part actor in early films and TV, he is best known as Rocky, Jim Rockford’s dad in “The Rockford Files” that ran 1974-80.
    1918 – Birthday alto sax player Benny Carter (1918-2003).
http://www.bennycarter.com/
http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/bc/
http://www.jazzradio.org/benny.htm
http://www.riverwalk.org/profiles/carter.htm
    1918 - Two days after the Battle of Marne ended, the British Fourth Army mounted an offensive at Amiens with the objective of freeing the Amliens-Paris railways from bombardment by the German Second and Eighteenth Armies. More than 16,000 German prisoners were taken in two hours of fighting the first day. The German forces were forced back to the Hindenburg’s line by September 3. This battle is considered a turning point by many historians because of its impact on the psyche o f Germany. August 8 was described by General Erich Ludendorff as a “Black Day” for Germany.
    1918 - MESTROVITCH, JAMES I., Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 111th Infantry, 28th Division. Place and date: At Fismette, France, 10 August 1918. Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pa. Birth: Montenegro. G.O. No.: 20, W.D., 1919. Citation: Seeing his company commander lying wounded 30 yards in front of the line after his company had withdrawn to a sheltered position behind a stone wall, Sgt. Mestrovitch voluntarily left cover and crawled through heavy machinegun and shell fire to where the officer lay. He took the officer upon his back and crawled to a place of safety, where he administered first-aid treatment, his exceptional heroism saving the officer's life.
    1921 - Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello.
    1922 - Louis Armstrong, 22 years old, leaves for the Windy City. His autobiography is fascinating to read about his version of the beginnings of jazz. He perhaps is not only the best known jazz musicians, but considered even today to have been quite ahead of his time. On old records, it is easy to pick him out playing the trumpet. He had tone, melody and rhythm that still wants you to sing, dance, or tap your foot.
    1923 – Actress Rhonda Fleming was born Marilyn Louis in Hollywood.  She acted in more than forty films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and was one of the most glamorous actresses of her day. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well in Technicolor.
    1923 - Benny Goodman was 14 years old as he began his professional career as a clarinet player. He took a job in a band on a Chicago-based excursion boat on Lake Michigan.
   1923 - Birthday of singer Jimmy Witherspoon, Gurdon, AR.
   1924 – Ty Cobb stole second base once, third base twice, and home once in the Tigers’ 13-7 win over Boston.
    1926 - Birthday of trombonist Urbie Green, Mobile, AL.
1932-Birthday of singer/songwriter Mel Tillis, Pahokee, FL. Tillis was the Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year . Equally talented as a singer and as a songwriter, Tillis began his hit-making career in 1958 with "The Violet and the Rose." His top-ten singles have included "Who's Julie," "The Arms of a Fool" and "Memory Maker." Tillis has a speech impediment, but has made his stuttering a part of his act.
    1928 – Jimmy Dean (1928-2010), the founder of Jimmy Dean’s Sausage, was born in Plainview, TX.  He was also a country music singer, television host, and actor. Although he may be best known today as the creator of the sausage brand, he became a national television personality starting on CBS in 1957. He rose to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit "Big Bad John” (“...stood six foot six and weighed 245, kinda broad at the shoulder and narr’ at the hip, and everybody knew you didn’t give no lip to Big John…”  His 1963 ABC Television series, “The Jimmy Dean Show” gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national media exposure. He was formally inducted posthumously into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2010.
    1928 – Eddie Fisher (1928-2010) was born in Philadelphia.  He was the most successful pop singles artist of the first half of the 1950s, “Any Time” (#2 in 1951),  “Lady of Spain” (#6 in 1952), “Oh, My Papa” (#1 in 1953), “I Need You Now” (#1 in 1954) and “Dungaree Doll (#7 in 1955), selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show.  Fisher left his first wife, actress Debbie Reynolds, to marry Reynolds' best friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, when Taylor's husband, film producer Mike Todd, died. This event garnered scandalous and unwelcome publicity for Fisher and contributed to his box office demise. He later married Connie Stevens. Fisher is the father of actresses Carrie Fisher (with Reynolds) and Joely Fisher (with Stevens).
    1929 – Grover Cleveland Alexander pitched and won his final Major League game.  His 373rd and last NL victory, at the time, tied Christy Mathewson for the most NL wins.
    1933 - Louisiana Governor O.K. Allen pardoned Huddie William Ledbetter, better known as the folksinger “Leadbelly”.  He got the name while in prison in Texas for being very strong. He was a very big man with an explosive temper, and was in for murder. He was pardoned by Texas Governor Pat Neff from a thirty year sentence, something that was unheard of in Texas and from the very conservative Neff, but it is said, he sang a song of why he should be released that so affect the warden, and then Neff, that they released him. Leadbelly was one of my father’s favorite folksingers, that he played all the time, and my first memories of my father are listening to this music in the forties. I remember sitting on his knee, perhaps the earliest recollection of my father, who I miss more and more as each year goes by.
http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/fame/ledbet.html
http://www.blueflamecafe.com/index.html
http://members.fortunecity.com/kgerald/personel/LedbetterHuddie.htm
http://www.cycad.com/cgi-bin/Leadbelly/biog.html
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/cit/citlcleadbelly.htm
    1933 - The first savings and loan association established by the federal government was the first Federal Savings and Loan Association of Miami, Florida. The creation of savings and loan institutions had been authorized by the Home Owners Loan Act of June 13, 1933, to provide a convenient place for the investment of small and large sums and to lend money to local applicants for first mortgages.
    1934 – Babe Ruth announced that this is his final season as a regular player. He says he will seek a managerial role and will pinch-hit, but will then go back on his decision and play with the Boston Braves in 1935.
    1940 – Bobby Hatfield (1940-2003) of The Righteous Brothers was born in Beaver Dam, WI.  Hatfield and Bill Medley began singing as a duo in 1962 in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group called the Paramours.  They were often told they sounded like African-American gospel singers and named their singing act "The Righteous Brothers" after a fan remarked of their singing, "that's righteous, brothers."  They were part of a sliver of rock ‘n’ roll genre known as Blue-Eyed Soul, distinctive in that these were white singers who many thought sounded like black performers.  Their first charted single as the Righteous Brothers was "Little Latin Lupe Lu” and their first #1 was "You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’”, produced by Phil Spector in 1964. Follow-up hits included the #1 "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" and "Unchained Melody," and the latter song was actually a Hatfield solo performance later re-recorded after the success of the 1990 film “Ghost“, and Hatfield remarked to friends that he had not lost any of the high notes in his tenor range since the original recording, but had actually gained one note. The duo broke up in 1968, but returned with another hit in 1974, the #3 "Rock and Roll Heaven." The Righteous Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 by Billy Joel.
    1941 - Les Brown and His Band of Renown paid tribute to baseball’s ‘Yankee Clipper’, Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees, with the recording of "Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio" on Okeh Records. From that time on, DiMaggio was called Joltin’ Joe as frequently as he was called “The Yankee Clipper”.
    1942 - Adding to the fear of the times from both the war in the Pacific and Atlantic, this event is forgotten by many today. Six Germans were electrocuted in Washington, DC. They were part of a group of eight who were tried by a military commission of seven generals. One saboteur, George John Dasch, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, and another Ernest Peter Bruger, received a life sentence. All eight were found guilty of landing in rubber boats from enemy submarines, carrying explosives, incendiaries, fuses, detonators timing devices, acids, and similar material. Four of them landed on June 13, 1942, at Amagansett, NY, on Long Island, and were discovered by Seamen Second Class John C. Cullen of the Amagansett Coast Guard Station. Four others landed on June 17, 1942, at Poine Vedra Beach near Jacksonville, FL.
    1943 – Ronnie Spector was born Veronica Yvette Bennett in NYC.  She was the lead singer of The Ronettes, a trio including her sister, Estelle and cousin Nedra Talley.  The Ronettes were a popular attraction around the greater NYC area in the early 1960s. After releasing a few singles on Colpix Records without success, they were signed by Phil Spector to Philles Records. Their relationship with Spector brought chart success with "Be My Baby", "Baby, I Love You", "The Best Part of Breakin’ Up", "Do I Love You?", and "Walking in the Rain". The group broke up in early 1967, following a European concert tour that included their appearance at the Moonlight Lounge, in Gelnhausen, Germany, where they entertained American military personnel.  Spector was a mainstay on the Oldies circuit in the late 90s and early 2000s.  In 2007, The Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
    1944 – Red Barrett of the Boston Braves threw only 58 pitches and shut out the Reds, 2-0. This is the major-league record for fewest pitches in a nine-inning game. The game takes one hour, 15 minutes, the shortest night game ever.
    1944 - American forces overcame Japanese resistance on Guam during World War II.
    1948 – Smile!  “Candid Camera” made its TV debut after being on radio for a year as “Candid Microphone”.
    1949 – President Truman signed the National Security Act Amendment, streamlining the defense agencies and replacing the Department of War with the Department of Defense.   
     1951 - Top Hits
“Too Young” - Nat King Cole
“Mister and Mississippi” - Patti Page
“Because of You” - Tony Bennett
“I Wanna Play House with You” - Eddy Arnold
    1954 – At Massena, NY, groundbreaking for the St. Lawrence Seaway began.
    1955 - Two weeks after it cracks the R&B Top Ten, Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" enters the Pop chart at #23.
    1957 – Mickey Mantle blasted a 460’ HR over the center field hedge at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, still the longest HR ever it there.
    1959 - Top Hits
“Lonely Boy” - Paul Anka
“A Big Hunk o’ Love” - Elvis Presley
“My Heart is an Open Book” - Carl Dobkins, Jr.
“Waterloo” - Stonewall Jackson
    1960 - British Decca destroyed 25,000 copies of Ray Peterson's death-rock song, "Tell Laura I Love Her." The company refused to release a song which it said was "too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility." A rival firm, however, had no such compunction, recording a cover version by a singer named Ricky Valance, which went to number one on the British chart. In the US, Ray Peterson's recording of "Tell Laura I Love Her" reached number seven on the Billboard pop chart.
    1960 – Ted Williams hit two HRs in the Red Sox’ 6-1 win over the Indians.  The first gave him 521 for his career that tied him with Mel Ott for 4th all-time.  He also announced that he will retire after the season.
    1962 - Spider-Man made his debut in issue 15 of Marvel Comics’ "Amazing Fantasy."
    1963 - Little Stevie Wonder had the number 1 song in America this week with "Fingertips - Pt. 2". Stevie was just 13 years old when the song was recorded.
    1967 - Top Hits
“Light My Fire” - The Doors
“All You Need is Love” - The Beatles
“A Whiter Shade of Pale” - Procol Harum
“I’ll Never Find Another You” - Sonny James
    1968 - Race riot in Miami Florida.
    1968 – The Bubblegum Music craze was in full gear when a group from Linden, New Jersey, who went by the unusual name of The 1910 Fruitgum Co. cracked the Hot 100 with their second hit, "123 Red Light". The record would climb to number five in the US.
    1969 - Photographer Iain Macmillan took six pictures of the Beatles crossing the street outside their Abbey Road studio in London. A police officer held up traffic while the band walked back and forth several times. Paul McCartney chose one of the pictures for the cover of the "Abbey Road" album.
    1969 – “Helter Skelter” - Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain.
    1970 - CCR's "Looking Out My Back Door" is released.
    1970 - Janis Joplin bought a tombstone for blues singer Bessie Smith's unmarked grave in a Philadelphia cemetery. Less than two months later, Joplin herself was dead of a drug overdose. Smith had died following an auto accident in 1942 at the age of 37.
    1973 - Vice-President Spiro T Agnew brands them "damned lies" regarding reports he took kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland. He vowed not to resign; that he was innocent.
    1974 - President Richard Nixon announced in a televised address that he would resign. Three days earlier he had released tape transcripts revealing he had impeded the Watergate investigation. Nixon told an audience of some 100,000,000, he had made some wrong decisions but that he was resigning because he no longer had enough support in Congress.
    1974 - Eric Clapton receives a gold record for "461 Ocean Boulevard." It's his comeback album and contains his Number One version of "I Shot the Sheriff." The album reaches the top of the charts.
    1974 - Roberta Flack received a gold record for the single, "Feel Like Makin’ Love", her third US number one hit. It was a song that she was forced to mix herself after her producer quit in the middle of her fifth album. In a vague reference to her first effort, she took producer's credit on the LP as Rubina Flake.  Flack, born in Asheville, NC and raised in Arlington, VA, was awarded a music scholarship to Howard University in Washington, DC at the age of 15. One of her classmates became a singing partner on several hit songs. Donny Hathaway joined Flack on "You’ve Got a Friend", "Where is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You". She had 10 hits on the pop charts in the 1970s and 1980s.
    1975 - Top Hits
“One of These Nights” - Eagles
“Jive Talkin’” - Bee Gees
“Please Mr. Please” - Olivia Newton-John
“Just Get Up and Close the Door” - Johnny Rodriguez
    1975 - Country singer Hank Williams Junior suffered severe head injuries when he fell 150 meters while mountain climbing in Montana. When he returned to performing months later, he had switched to a country-rock sound from the pure country style made famous by his father.
    1976 - The Chicago White Sox made baseball sartorial history by donning shorts for a game against the Kansas City Royals. The Sox won, 5-2, but the shorts, a novelty thought up by owner Bill Veeck, lasted only a while.  From time to time the Sox wear the shorts in retro uni days.
    1977 – David Berkowitz, a 24-year-old postal employee said by the police to be the "Son of Sam," the .44-caliber killer who took the lives of six young people and wounded seven others in a year-long reign of terror in New York City, was taken into custody late last night in Yonkers.
    1978 – The Ulrich family of three was killed in their Ford Pinto, the event that triggered the massive litigation of the Ford Motor Company’s negligence in the safety design of the car’s fuel tank that was vulnerable to explosion when the car was rear-ended.
    1981 - The head of John Walsh’s son Adam was found in a canal near Vero Beach, FL. This inspired the creation of the television series “America’s Most wanted” and Walsh’s activism for child safety.
    1981 - Shiaway St. Pat, driven by Ray Remmen, won the Hambletonia, the most important race for three-year-old trotters, contested for the first time at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
    1983 - Top Hits
“Every Breath You Take” - The Police
“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” - Eurythmics
“She Works Hard for the Money” - Donna Summer
“Your Love’s on the Line” - Earl Thomas Conley
    1984 - Carl Lewis won his third gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. He won the 200-meter sprint. At the same time, Greg Louganis received his first gold medal in diving in the springboard competition.
    1986 - Singer David Crosby, sentenced to a five-year term for drug and weapons charges, was paroled from a prison in Huntsville, Texas after serving only five months. The convictions were overturned by a Texas appeals court in November, 1987.  Crosby said when he was released that he had kicked a ten-year drug habit and wanted to resume his musical career. He gained fame with the Byrds in the late 1960's, then teamed with Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young.
    1987 - Less than three months after they go to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 for the first time with "With or Without You," U2 return to the top of the chart with "I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For," the second single from "The Joshua Tree."(A birthday present for the Edge.)
    1988 - The first night game of Chicago’s Wrigley Field was postponed by rain with the Cubs leading the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1, in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Phillies’ Phil Bradley let off the game with a home run, but in a postponed game, all statistics are washed out.
    1990 - Iraq annexes Kuwait. The US has been sending troops to Saudi Arabia and moving the US Navy into the Mediterranean seas.
    1990 – The Magellan space probe reached Venus.
    1991 - Top Hits
“(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” - Bryan Adams
“P.A.S.S.I.O.N.” - Rhythm Syndicate
“Summertime” - D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
“She’s in Love with the Boy” - Trisha Yearwood
    1992 - The Dream Team, a specially-assembled team of NBA all-stars, defeated Croatia, 117-85, to win the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The Dream Team, coached by Chuck Daly, including Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and John Stockton.
    1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female Supreme Court justice.
    1994 - Janet Jackson tied Aretha Franklin for the most gold singles by a female artist - 14 - when "Any Time, Any Place" was certified as having sold more than 500,000 copies.
    1995 - The Canadian stage production of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" opened at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. At $17 million, it was the most expensive stage production in Canadian history.
    1995 – In the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were indicted.   Michael Fortier pleaded guilty in a plea-bargain for his testimony.
    1998 - The largest free jazz festival in the world, San Jose, California, draws 200,000 to hear Sandoval, Broadbent, Schuur, among many others.
    2006 - British authorities announced they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up 10 aircraft heading to the United States.
    2008 - American swimmer Michael Phelps won the first of a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics by smashing his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley.