August 5
Today is
Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead Day. 1729:
Thomas Newcomen, inventor of the atmospheric steam engine, died.
1858: Cyrus Field
completed the Atlantic cable, establishing telegraphic communication between the U.S.
and England. 1884: The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on
Bedloe's Island in NY Harbor. 1861: The U.S. federal government imposed its first
income tax of 3% for all incomes over $800. 1864,
Giovanni Donati
made the first spectroscopic observations of a comet (Tempel,
1864 II). 1914: The first traffic light was installed in
Cleveland, OH. 1930:
Neil
Armstrong, the first man to step foot on the moon, was born. 1940: The first American
paratrooper unit is formed at Fort Benning, GA. 1962:
Marilyn Monroe was found dead of a suicide. 1971: A British sailor
sailed around the world "in the wrong direction" (E to W). 1981: Firings began of air
traffic controllers on illegal strike. 1991:
Soichiro Honda,
who founded the Honda Motor Company, died. 1999:
Mark McGwire
became the 16th member of the 500-home run club.
| Jan |
Feb | Mar |
Apr | May |
Jun | Jul |
Aug | Sep |
Oct | Nov |
Dec |
Note: These
historical tidbits have been collected from various sources, mostly on the Internet.
As detailed in
this article, there is
a lot of wrong information that is repeated hundreds of times because most websites do
not validate with authoritative sources. On RF Cafe, events with
hyperlinks have been verified. Many years ago, I began
commemorating the birthdays of notable people and events with
special RF Cafe logos. Where
available, I like to use images from postage stamps from the country where the person
or event occurred. Images used in the logos are often from open source websites like
Wikipedia, and are specifically credited with a hyperlink back to the source where possible.
Fair Use laws permit small
samples of copyrighted content.
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