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 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 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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