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Ray’s Today in History – August 1
From the Reach More Now headquarters in Fort Worth, this is Ray Mossholder with Today in History
AUGUST 1
From the Reach More Now headquarters in Fort Worth, this is Ray Mossholder with Today in History
THE PLACE: Lyons, in modern-day France, in the mid-second century. THE DATE: approaching August 1, 177 A.D. A group of terrified slaves, staring at instruments of torture, with the threats of authorities ringing in their ears, knew there was only one way to escape—lying about their Christian masters. They accused the Christians of incest and of eating human flesh. Outraged, a local magistrate arrested forty-eight Christians and held them for the arrival of the governor.
Christianity had come to Lyons about a quarter of a century earlier, in the early 100s. Pothinus, a Greek, established small churches in Lyons and nearby Viennes. However, the growth of Christianity was slowed by resistance and prejudice.
Now the Christians were confined to the darkest and nastiest part of the prison. The air was so bad some suffocated. Pothinus, now ninety-two years old, died after torture. His cell was only the size of a standard kitchen dishwasher.
The governor of Gaul arrived, determined to make an example of the remaining Christians. Some have suggested that he was happy to do so because he was expected to show his patriotism by sponsoring entertainment for the city. It was expensive to hire gladiators, boxers and wrestlers. It would be a lot cheaper to torture Christians for entertainment.
On this day, 1 August 177 A.D. the Christians of Lyons were brought before a mob in the amphitheater. Most of them boldly confessed their allegiance to Christ. Even those who weakened at first soon regained heart and asserted their faith.
The torturers placed some Christians in stocks; others they seated on a red hot-iron grill. After torture, they took several to the amphitheater for beasts to devour as the crowd watched. Among those was a defiant slave girl, Blandina, whom they suspended on a stake and exposed to the wild beasts. Because she appeared to be hanging on a cross like Christ, she inspired the others.
In her agony, Blandina cried out, “I am a Christian and there is nothing vile done by us.” She died comparing her death to marriage as she went to Christ her bridegroom. The crowd had to admit they had never seen any other woman endure such terrible tortures.
Just as strong-hearted as Blandina was Sanctus, a deacon from Vienne. Even when red hot plates were fastened to the most tender parts of his body, he did not shrink from confessing Christ. Looking on, the other victims saw that “nothing is fearful where the love of the Father is, and nothing is painful where there is the glory of Christ.”
The tormentors exposed the Christians’ bodies for six days and then burned them and threw the ashes into the Rhone river. Those who suffocated in prison they fed to dogs, and guards stopped other Christians from burying them. By doing this, the pagans hoped to destroy their hope of resurrection. It didn’t work and we will see these courageous Christians receive martyrs crowns in Heaven.
984 A.D. Bishop Ethelwold dies. His emphasis had been to repair the spiritual damage left by Danish invasions, to promote the Benedictine order, and build monasteries and nunneries. The English people consider him a saint because he sold the treasures of the church in order to feed the poor. Objects could be replaced, he said, but lives are not replaceable.
On this date in 1498, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets foot on the American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa and claimed it for Spain.
Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Little is known of his early life, but he worked as a seaman and then a sailing entrepreneur. He became obsessed with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route to Cathay (China), India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. At the time, Europeans knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and the route via Egypt and the Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire, as were many land routes. Contrary to popular legend, educated Europeans of Columbus’ day did believe that the world was round, as argued by St. Isidore in the seventh century. However, Columbus, and most others, underestimated the world’s size, calculating that East Asia must lie approximately where North America sits on the globe (they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed).
With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought, lying between Europe and the riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with King John II of Portugal and tried to persuade him to back his “Enterprise of the Indies,” as he called his plan. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella also rejected him at least twice. However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in January 1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage.
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña. On October 12, the expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and “Indian” captives in March 1493 and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He was given the title “admiral of the ocean sea,” and a second expedition was promptly organized. He was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century.
Fitted out with a large fleet of 17 ships with 1,500 colonists aboard, Columbus set out from Cádiz in September 1493 on his second voyage to the New World. Landfall was made in the Lesser Antilles in November. Returning to Hispaniola, he found the men he left there slaughtered by the natives, and he founded a second colony. Sailing on, he explored Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and numerous smaller islands in the Caribbean. Columbus returned to Spain in June 1496 and was greeted less warmly, as the yield from the second voyage had fallen well short of its costs.
Isabella and Ferdinand, still greedy for the riches of the East, agreed to a smaller third voyage and instructed Columbus to find a strait to India. In May 1498, Columbus left Spain with six ships, three filled with colonists and three with provisions for the colony on Hispaniola. This time, he made landfall on Trinidad. He entered the Gulf of Paria in Venezuela and planted the Spanish flag in South America on August 1, 1498. He explored the Orinoco River of Venezuela and, given its scope, soon realized he had stumbled upon another continent. Columbus, a deeply religious man, decided after careful thought that Venezuela was the outer regions of the Garden of Eden.
Returning to Hispaniola, he found that conditions on the island had deteriorated under the rule of his brothers, Diego and Bartholomew. Columbus’ efforts to restore order were marked by brutality, and his rule came to be deeply resented by both the colonists and the native Taino chiefs. In 1500, Spanish chief justice Francisco de Bobadilla arrived at Hispaniola, sent by Isabella and Ferdinand to investigate complaints, and Columbus and his brothers were sent back to Spain in chains.
He was immediately released upon his return, and Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to finance a fourth voyage, in which he was to search for the earthly paradise and the realms of gold said to lie nearby. He was also to continue looking for a passage to India. In May 1502, Columbus left Cádiz on his fourth and final voyage to the New World. After returning to Hispaniola, against his patrons’ wishes, he explored the coast of Central America looking for a strait and for gold. Attempting to return to Hispaniola, his ships, in poor condition, had to be beached on Jamaica. Columbus and his men were marooned, but two of his captains succeed in canoeing the 450 miles to Hispaniola. Columbus was a castaway on Jamaica for a year before a rescue ship arrived.
In November 1504, Columbus returned to Spain. Queen Isabella, his chief patron, died less than three weeks later. Although Columbus enjoyed substantial revenue from Hispaniola gold during the last years of his life, he repeatedly attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain an audience with King Ferdinand, whom he felt owed him further redress. Columbus died in Valladolid on May 20, 1506, without realizing the great scope of his achievement: He had discovered for Europe the New World, whose riches over the next century would help make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.
It was on August 1, 1521 that German reformer Martin Luther wrote in a letter: ‘Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world.’
It was on this date in 1779 that Francis Scott Key composer of the Star-Spangled Banner was born.
August 1, 1791, Robert Carter III, a Virginia plantation owner, frees all 500 of his slaves in the largest private emancipation in U.S. history. An 1839 mutiny aboard a Spanish ship in Cuban waters raised basic questions about freedom and slavery in the United States.
The first of August 1801 The American schooner Enterprise captured the Barbary cruiser Tripoli. Often venturing into harm’s way, America’s most famous sailing ship, the Constitution, twice came close to being destroyed on that day.
In 1818 on this date Maria Mitchell, the first female astronomer, was born in the U.S.A. On October 1, 1847, 28-year-old Mitchell, while scanning the skies with her telescope atop the roof of her father’s place of business, the Pacific National Bank on Main Street in Nantucket, discovered what she was sure was a comet. It turned out that she was right, and that what she had spotted was in fact a new comet, previously uncharted by scientists. The celestial object subsequently became known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.”
And in 1819 on this date Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, was born.
On this day in history in 1864, Union General Ulysses S. Grant appoints General Philip Sheridan commander of the Army of the Shenandoah. Within a few months, Sheridan drove a Confederate force from the Shenandoah Valley and destroyed nearly all possible sources of Rebel supplies, helping to seal the fate of the Confederacy.
In the summer of 1864, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had sent part of his army at Petersburg, Virginia, commanded by Jubal Early, to harass Federal units in the area of the Shenandoah and threaten Washington, D.C. The Confederates had used the same strategy in 1862, when General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson effectively relieved Union pressure on Richmond with a campaign in the Shenandoah.
In July, Early marched his army through the valley and down the Potomac to the outskirts of Washington, forcing Grant to take some of his troops away from the Petersburg defenses and protect the nation’s capital. Frustrated by the inability of Generals Franz Sigel and David Hunter to effectively deal with Early’s force in the Shenandoah, Grant turned to General Philip Sheridan, a skilled general who served with him in the west before Grant became the overall commander of Union forces in early 1864. Surprisingly, Grant had placed Sheridan, an effective infantry leader, in charge of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry division for the campaign against Lee. Now Grant handed Sheridan command of the Army of the Shenandoah, comprised of 40,000 troops that included many demoralized veterans of the summer campaign.
Sheridan wasted little time, beginning an offensive in September that routed Early’s army and then destroyed most of the agricultural resources of the region. Although this victory is not as famous as Union General William T. Sherman’s march through Georgia, which took place at the same time, it may have been even more complete. The Shenandoah Valley, so important throughout the war, was rendered useless to the Confederacy by the end of the fall.
On August 1, 1872 The first long-distance gas pipeline in the U.S. was completed. Designed for natural gas, the two-inch pipe ran five miles from Newton Wells to Titusville, Pennsylvania.
On the same date in 1873 San Francisco’s first cable cars began running, operated by Hallidie’s Clay Street Hill Railroad Company.
On this date in 1874, Patrick Francis Healy was inaugurated president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in America. Healy at the same time became the first African-American to head a predominantly white university.
August 1, 1893, a machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal is patented.
August 1, 1895, – Anglican missionaries Robert Warren Stewart, his wife Louise, their two children and seven other Christians are butchered in China.
In 1912 on the first of August the US government passed a law prohibiting movies & photos of prize fights.
On this date in 1914, four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France orders a general mobilization, and the first German army units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. During the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain all lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium. The “Great War” that ensued was one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians.
On June 28, 1914, in an event that is widely regarded as sparking the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle’s imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who wanted these Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. However, as Russia supported Serbia, an Austria-Hungary declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention.
On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. On July 29, Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia’s ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize on August 1. France and Germany declared war against each other on August 3. After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on the night of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain, Belgium’s ally, to declare war against Germany.
For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Of the initial belligerents, Germany was most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders had formatted a sophisticated military strategy known as the “Schlieffen Plan,” which envisioned the conquest of France through a great arcing offensive through Belgium and into northern France. Russia, slow to mobilize, was to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.
The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front–the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium–the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition.
In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had joined the Central Powers in October 1914, but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in early 1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately set about negotiating peace with Germany. In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies’ favor. Bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with an imminent invasion, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in November 1918.
World War I was known as the “war to end all wars” because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict–the Treaty of Versailles of 1919–forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for World War Two.
August 1, 1922, in Minnesota, 18-year-old Ralph Samuelson rides the world’s 1st water skis. The event garnered little attention and the boy didn’t patent water skis. A rich inventor who understood patents patented them and received the royalties for Samuelson’s invention.
On this date in 1937 the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany became operational. Mass torture and murder continued at Buchenwald until 1945 – eight years of ghastly horror.
August 1, 1941 The Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo plane makes its first flight. Created by Boeing for the use of the United States Navy and Marines, their initial use would be at the battle of Midway in 1942. Five of the six Avenger’s were shot from the sky during that battle, but they proved airworthy and became one of the most effective torpedo bombers of World War II. Though this plane was greatly modified after the war was over, it remained active until the 1960s.
On this day in 1942 German SS gases 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
On August 1 in 1943, a Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other American PT boats in the area assume the crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John F. Kennedy.
Japanese aircraft had been on a PT boat hunt in the Solomon Islands, bombing the PT base at Rendova Island. It was essential to the Japanese that several of their destroyers make it to the southern tip of Kolombangara Island to get war supplies to forces there. But the torpedo capacity of the American PTs was a potential threat. Despite the base bombing at Rendova, PTs set out to intercept those Japanese destroyers. In the midst of battle, Japan’s Amaqiri hit PT-109, leaving 11 crewmen floundering in the Pacific.
After five hours of clinging to debris from the decimated PT boat, the crew made it to a coral island. Kennedy decided to swim out to sea again, hoping to flag down a passing American boat. None came. Kennedy began to swim back to shore, but strong currents, and his chronic back condition, made his return difficult. Upon reaching the island again, he fell ill. After he recovered, the PT-109 crew swam to a larger island, what they believed was Nauru Island, but was in fact Cross Island. They met up with two natives from the island, who agreed to take a message south. Kennedy carved the distress message into a coconut shell: “Nauru Is. Native knows posit. He can pilot. 11 alive need small boat.”
The message reached Lieutenant Arthur Evans, who was watching the coast of Gomu Island, located next to an island occupied by the Japanese. Kennedy and his crew were paddled to Gomu. A PT boat then took them back to Rendova. Kennedy was ultimately awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, for gallantry in action.
The coconut shell used to deliver his message found a place in history—and in the Oval Office.
PT-109, a film dramatizing this story, starring Clift Robertson as Kennedy, opened in 1963.
1942, August 1, Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sank U boat-166 as it approached the Mississippi River, the first German U-boat ever sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Also on this day in 1942 Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead was born.
On August 1, 1944, Yuri Romanenko, Soviet cosmonaut who set the record for the longest stay in space with 326 days aboard the Mir Space Station
And also on this date in 1944, during World War II, an advance Soviet armored column under General Konstantin Rokossovski reaches the Vistula River along the eastern suburb of Warsaw, prompting Poles in the city to launch a major uprising against the Nazi occupation. The revolt was spearheaded by Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, who was the commander of the Home Army, an underground resistance group made up of some 40,000 poorly supplied soldiers. In addition to accelerating the liberation of Warsaw, the Home Army, which had ties with the Polish government-in-exile in London and was anti-communist in its ideology, hoped to gain at least partial control of Warsaw before the Soviets arrived.
Although the Poles in Warsaw won early gains–and Soviet liberation of the city was inevitable–Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered his authorities to crush the uprising at all costs. The elite Nazi SS directed the German defense force, which included the Kaminiski Brigade of Russian prisoners and the Dirlewanger Brigade of German convicts. In brutal street fighting, the Poles were gradually overcome by the superior German weaponry. As the rebels were suppressed, the Nazis deliberately razed large portions of the city and massacred many civilians.
Meanwhile, the Red Army gained several bridgeheads across the Vistula River but made no efforts to aid the rebels in Warsaw. The Soviets also rejected a request by the British to use Soviet air bases to airlift supplies to the beleaguered Poles. The rebels and the city’s citizens ran out of medical supplies, food, and eventually water. Finally, on October 2, the surviving rebels, including Bor-Komorowski, surrendered.
During the 63-day ordeal, three-fourths of the Home Army perished along with 200,000 civilians. As a testament to the ferocity of the fighting, the Germans also suffered high casualties: 10,000 killed, 9,000 wounded, and 7,000 missing. During the next few months, German troops deported the surviving population, and demolition squads destroyed what buildings remained intact in Warsaw. All of its great treasures were looted or burned. The Red Army remained dormant outside Warsaw until January 1945, when the final Soviet offensive against Germany commenced. Warsaw, a city in ruins, was liberated on January 17. With Warsaw out of the way, the Soviets faced little organized opposition in establishing a communist government in Poland.
On this date in 1948 Pres Truman dedicated Idlewild Field – the Kennedy Airport in New York.
On this date in 1950 Lead elements of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division arrived in Korea from the United States.
On August 1, 1953, the Department of Health, Education & Welfare was created.
It was that same day in 1953 when English apologist and the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis, wrote in a letter: ‘How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.’
On August 1, 1954 The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel.
And on this day in 1960 Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, called for an all black state.
On August 1, 1961, amusement park lovers “head for the thrills” as Six Flags Over Texas, the first park in the Six Flags chain, opens. Located on 212 acres in Arlington, Texas, the park was the first to feature log flume and mine train rides and later, the first 360-degree looping roller coaster, modern parachute drop and man-made river rapids ride. The park also pioneered the concept of all-inclusive admission price; until then, separate entrance fees and individual ride tickets were the standard. During its opening year, a day at Six Flags cost $2.75 for an adult and $2.25 for a child. A hamburger sold for 50 cents and a soda set the buyer back a dime.
The park, which took a year and $10 million to build, was the brainchild of Texas real estate developer and oilman Angus Wynne Jr., who viewed it as a short-term way to make a buck from some vacant land before turning it into an industrial complex. Wynne reportedly recouped his personal investment of $3.5 million within 18 months and changed his mind about the park’s temporary status. With 17.5 million visitors in its first 10 years, the park became the Lone Star State’s top for-profit tourist attraction. Today, average annual attendance at the park is over 3 million.
One of Six Flags’ unique aspects was that it wasn’t just a random collection of rides; it was developed around a theme: the history of Texas. The park’s name was a nod to the six flags that had flown over the state at various times–France, Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, Texas and the United States. The park’s rides and attractions were grouped into six themed sections that represented the cultures of these governments and enabled visitors to experience everything from cowboy culture to Southern belles and pirates. Originally, the park was to be called Texas Under Six Flags, before it was decided that Texas should never be under anything.
Angus Wynne sold Six Flags in 1969 and in the coming years, the company expanded and was resold. Today, Six Flags, Inc. is the world’s largest regional theme park company and owns and operates 30 theme, water and zoological parks in North America. In 2005, almost 34 million people spent a combined 250 million hours at Six Flags parks.
Four historic events took place on August 1, 1964:
| Al Parker glided 644 miles without any motor. US Ranger 7 took 4,316 pictures and send them back to Earth before crashing on the Moon. Arthur Ashe became the first African-American to play on the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team. |
And on that same date – August 1, 1964 – the North Vietnamese government accused South Vietnam and the United States of having authorized attacks on Hon Me and Hon Ngu, two of their islands in the Tonkin Gulf.
The North Vietnamese were partly correct; the attacks, conducted just after midnight on July 30, were part of a covert operation called Oplan 34A, which involved raids by South Vietnamese commandos operating under American orders against North Vietnamese coastal and island installations. Although American forces were not directly involved in the actual raids, U.S. Navy ships were on station to conduct electronic surveillance and monitor North Vietnamese defense responses under another program called Operation De Soto.
The Oplan 34A attacks played a major role in events that led to what became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman takes a stockpile of guns and ammunition to the observatory platform atop a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas and proceeds to shoot 46 people, killing 14 people and wounding 31. A fifteenth died in 2001 because of his injuries. Whitman, who had killed both his wife and mother the night before, was eventually shot to death after courageous Austin police officers, including Ramiro Martinez, charged up the stairs of the tower to subdue the attacker.
Whitman, a former Eagle Scout and Marine, began to suffer serious mental problems after his mother left his father in March 1966. On March 29, he told a psychiatrist that he was having uncontrollable fits of anger. He purportedly even told this doctor that he was thinking about going up to the tower with a rifle and shooting people. Unfortunately, the doctor didn’t follow up on this red flag.
On July 31, Whitman wrote a note about his violent impulses, saying, “After my death, I wish an autopsy on me be performed to see if there’s any mental disorders.” The note then described his hatred for his family and his intent to kill them. That night, Whitman went to his mother’s home, where he stabbed and shot her. Upon returning to his own home, he then stabbed his wife to death.
The following morning, Whitman headed for the tower with several pistols and a rifle after stopping off at a gun store to buy boxes of ammunition and a carbine. Packing food and other supplies, he proceeded to the observation platform, killing the receptionist and two tourists before unpacking his rifle and telescope and hunting the people below.
An expert marksman, Whitman was able to hit people as far away as 500 yards. For 90 minutes, he continued firing while officers searched for a chance to get a shot at him. By the end of his rampage, 16 people were dead and another 30 were injured.
The University of Texas tower remained closed for25 years before reopening in 1999.
August 1, 1969, the U.S. command in Saigon announces that 27 American aircraft were lost in the previous week, bringing the total losses of aircraft in the conflict to date to 5,690.
On this day in 1970 the complete New American Standard Version of the Bible, the NASB was first published. The completed NASB New Testament had been released in 1963.
1971, August 1, a severe flood of the Red River in North Vietnam killed an estimated 100,000 people on this day in 1971. This remarkable flood was one of the century’s most serious weather events, but because the Vietnam War was going on at the time, relatively few details about the disaster are available.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) compiled a list of the 20th century’s top weather and climate events, based upon their natural wonder and impact on people. On the list were such major disasters as the Bangladesh cyclones of 1970 and 1991, both of which killed more than 100,000 people. The “Great Smog of London” of 1952 and the 1972 blizzard in Iran also made the list. Notably, not a single incident occurring in North American was included.
The Red River flood in North Vietnam made NOOA’s list even though relatively little is known about how or why approximately 100,000 people perished in the disaster. During the Vietnam War, information from North Vietnam was neither plentiful nor reliably accurate. What is known is that the Red River, which runs near the capital city of Hanoi, experienced a “250-year” flood. Torrential rains simply overwhelmed the dyke system around the heavily populated delta area, which is not far above sea level. As well as directly killing thousands of people, the flood also wiped out valuable crops, causing further hardship, especially as it occurred during wartime.
Though many more reservoirs have since been built in the Hanoi region, the area remains vulnerable to flooding.
It was on August 1, 1973 that a Delta Airlines DC-9 crashed in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, killing all but one of 89 aboard. The lone survivor died 6 months later
On this day in 1975 The United States, the Soviet Union, Canada and every European nation (except Albania) signed the Helsinki Final Act on the last day of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). The act was intended to revive the sagging spirit of detente between the Soviet Union and the United States and its allies. It didn’t work.
The first of August 1978, A gunman shoots his way into the Iraqi Embassy in Paris.
And on that same day in 1978 the New York Yankees who had been 7 games out of first place two weeks before, picked up all seven games to go to the top of their league.
1980 The Soyuz 37 crew returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 36
It was on this day in 1981 that Arnette Hubbard was installed as the 1st woman president of the National ‘s Bar Association.
And on that same day the 42 day old, 2nd major league baseball strike ended.
On August 1, 1982, 46 kids and 7 adults were killed as 2 buses and several cars collided in France
On this day in 1984 The United States men’s gymnastics team won team gold medal at the LA Summer Olympics
And on this day in 1987 Rockwell International was awarded the contract to build a 5th shuttle
On August 1 in 1994, newspapers reported that publishing house Alfred A. Knopf will pay Pope John Paul II a record-breaking $8.75 million advance for his new book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. The book, a collection of essays addressing moral and theological questions, becomes a bestseller.
The figure exceeded the previous record set when Random House paid Army General Colin Powell some $6 million for his autobiography, My American Journey, which became one of the fastest selling books in America. Other multimillion-dollar book deals in the early 1990s included autobiographies of Ronald Reagan and Marlon Brando. Oprah Winfrey also received a multimillion-dollar advance for her autobiography, but she withdrew from the deal in 1993.
Another publishing record was set on this day in 1975, when E.L. Doctorow received $1.85 million for the paperback rights to Ragtime.
On August 1, 1990 Nolan Ryan became the 20th major league pitcher to win 300 games
On this day in 1996, sprinter Michael Johnson breaks the world record in the 200 meters to win gold at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Three days earlier, Johnson had also won the 400 meters, making him the first man in history to win both events at the Olympics.
Four years earlier at the Barcelona Olympics, Johnson had been the clear favorite to win the 200 meters until he came down with food poisoning 12 days before the race. Ten pounds lighter, Johnson didn’t recover his strength in time for the competition and lost in the qualifying rounds, a major disappointment for both him and the U.S. team. (Johnson did win gold, however, as a member of the world-record breaking 4 x 400 relay team in Barcelona.)
At the 1996 Olympics, things got off to a much better start. On July 29, sporting his now-famous thick gold chain and gold track shoes, he ran the 400 meters in a remarkable 43.49 seconds for a gold medal and a new Olympic record. And, as the reigning world record holder, Johnson was the heavy favorite for gold going into the 200 meter final despite a fast field. His two toughest were Frankie Fredericks of Namibia and Ato Boldon from Trinidad and Tobago. Johnson lined up in lane 3, and Fredericks, who had broken Johnson’s 22-race winning streak in the 200 on June 5, was positioned in lane 5, to Johnson’s outside. Boldon, who won bronze in the 100 meters in the 1992 Olympics, was in lane 6. At the gun Johnson stumbled slightly, but recovered quickly and passed Fredericks as they entered the first turn. Johnson then kicked it into high gear, beating his closest competition to the finish line by four strides.
After seeing his time, Johnson dropped to his hands and knees in disbelief, while Ato Boldon, who came in third behind Johnson and Fredericks, walked over to Johnson and bowed in awe. Analysis of the race later revealed that Johnson had run a 10.12 for the first 100 meters, and then blew away the field with a stunning 9.20 seconds for the last half of the race. His official time of 19.32 seconds shaved three tenths of a second off his own world record of 19.66–set six weeks prior at the Olympic trials–which had broken a 17-year-old mark.
On the same night that Johnson became the first man to win both the 200 and 400 meters in the Olympics, Marie-Jose Perec of France became the second woman to accomplish the feat. American Valerie Brisco-Hooks had won both races at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Johnson’s 200-meter record of 19.32 seconds still stands, and is considered by many in the sport to be virtually unbreakable.
On this date in 2004 Asuncion, Paraguay, a fire in the Ycua Bolanos V supermarket complex kills nearly 400 people and injures 500.
It was on August 1, 2007, that the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.
Also on this day in 2007, Citibank opened China’s first drive-through automated teller machine (ATM) at the Upper East Side Central Plaza in Beijing.
Like those of drive-through restaurants and drive-in movies, the origins of drive-through banking can be traced to the United States. Some sources say that Hillcrest State Bank opened the first drive-through bank in Dallas, Texas, in 1938; others claim the honor belongs to the Exchange National Bank of Chicago in 1946. The trend reached its height in the post-World War II boom era of the late 1950s. Today, nearly all major banks in the United States offer some type of drive-through option, from regular teller service to 24-hour ATMs.
Drive-through banking, like other developments in automobile-centered culture, caught on a bit later in the rest of the world. Switzerland, for example, didn’t get its first drive-through bank until 1962, when Credit Suisse–then known as Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA)–opened a branch in downtown Zurich featuring eight glass pavilions with drive-through banking services. Though popular at first, the branch faltered in the 1970s, when traffic problems in the city center made fewer people willing to do their banking from their cars. SKA closed the drive-through in 1983.
In December 2006, five years after joining the World Trade Organization, China opened its retail banking sector to foreign competition. Under the new regulations Citibank became one of four foreign banks–along with HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of East Asia–approved to provide banking services using the Chinese currency, renminbi. (Often abbreviated as RMB, renminbi literally means “people’s money.”) The agreement had been signed in the fall of 2006, and by early December Citi had already opened 70 regular ATMs across the Chinese mainland.
Initially, the Citibank drive-through ATM that opened in Beijing in August 2007 was available only to holders of bank cards issued abroad, as foreign banks were not yet allowed to issue their own cards in China. Other banks soon hopped on the drive-through banking bandwagon in China, including China Construction Bank, which opened the first drive-through ATM in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in May 2008.
And finally, today – August 1, 2015 –
The city of Baltimore reached a grim milestone today, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.
Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.
With their deaths, this year’s homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July’s end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July’s total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city’s violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.
“Too many continue to die on our streets,” Rawlings-Blake said then. “Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime.”
But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.
Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.
But while the city’s police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the “clearance rate” is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department’s mid-40s average.
Crime experts and residents of Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.
Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.
Perched on a friend’s stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew “mostly all” of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.
“The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they’re eating Percocet like candy and they’re not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?”
The tally of 42 homicides in May included Gray, who died in April after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a homicide in July.
Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May’s homicide spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.
“You can’t attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number” of them are, he said. “You could say it’s retaliation from drug trafficking, it’s retaliation from gangs moving in from other territories. But there have been drug markets in Baltimore for years.”
Across West Baltimore, residents complain that drug addiction and crime are part of a cycle that begins with despair among children who lack educational and recreational opportunities, and extends when people can’t find work.
“We need jobs! We need jobs!” a man riding around on a bicycle shouted to anyone who’d listen after four people were shot, three of them fatally, on a street corner in July.
More community engagement, progressive policing policies and opportunities for young people in poverty could help, community activist Munir Bahar said.
“People are focusing on enforcement, not preventing violence. Police enforce a code, a law. Our job as the community is to prevent the violence, and we’ve failed,” said Bahar, who leads the annual 300 Men March against violence in West Baltimore.
“We need anti-violence organizations, we need mentorship programs, we need a long-term solution. But we also need immediate relief,” Bahar added. “When we’re in something so deep, we have to stop it before you can analyze what the root is.”
Strained relationships between police and the public also play a role, according to Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Arrests plummeted and violence soared after six officers were indicted in Gray’s death. Residents accused police of abandoning their posts for fear of facing criminal charges for making arrests, and said emboldened criminals were settling scores with little risk of being caught.
The department denied these claims, and police cars have been evident patrolling West Baltimore’s central thoroughfares recently.
But O’Donnell said the perception of lawlessness is just as powerful than the reality.
“We have a national issue where the police feel they are the Public Enemy No. 1,” he said, making some officers stand down and criminals become more brazen.
“There’s a rhythm to the streets,” he added. “And when people get away with gun violence, it has a long-term emboldening effect. And the good people in the neighborhood think, ‘Who has the upper hand?’”
THE PLACE: Lyons, in modern-day France, in the mid-second century. The date approaching August 1, 177 A.D. A group of terrified slaves, staring at instruments of torture, with the threats of authorities ringing in their ears, knew there was only one way to escape—lying about their Christian masters. They accused the Christians of incest and of eating human flesh. Outraged, a local magistrate arrested forty-eight Christians and held them for the arrival of the governor.
Christianity had come to Lyons about a quarter of a century earlier, in the early 100s. Pothinus, a Greek, established small churches in Lyons and nearby Viennes. However, the growth of Christianity was slowed by resistance and prejudice.
Now the Christians were confined to the darkest and nastiest part of the prison. The air was so bad some suffocated. Pothinus, now ninety-two years old, died after torture. His cell was only the size of a standard kitchen dishwasher.
The governor of Gaul arrived, determined to make an example of the remaining Christians. Some have suggested that he was happy to do so because he was expected to show his patriotism by sponsoring entertainment for the city. It was expensive to hire gladiators, boxers and wrestlers. It would be a lot cheaper to torture Christians for entertainment.
On this day, 1 August 177 A.D. the Christians of Lyons were brought before a mob in the amphitheater. Most of them boldly confessed their allegiance to Christ. Even those who weakened at first soon regained heart and asserted their faith.
The torturers placed some Christians in stocks; others they seated on a red hot-iron grill. After torture, they took several to the amphitheater for beasts to devour as the crowd watched. Among those was a defiant slave girl, Blandina, whom they suspended on a stake and exposed to the wild beasts. Because she appeared to be hanging on a cross like Christ, she inspired the others.
In her agony, Blandina cried out, “I am a Christian and there is nothing vile done by us.” She died comparing her death to marriage as she went to Christ her bridegroom. The crowd had to admit they had never seen any other woman endure such terrible tortures.
Just as strong-hearted as Blandina was Sanctus, a deacon from Vienne. Even when red hot plates were fastened to the most tender parts of his body, he did not shrink from confessing Christ. Looking on, the other victims saw that “nothing is fearful where the love of the Father is, and nothing is painful where there is the glory of Christ.”
The tormentors exposed the Christians’ bodies for six days and then burned them and threw the ashes into the Rhone river. Those who suffocated in prison they fed to dogs, and guards stopped other Christians from burying them. By doing this, the pagans hoped to destroy their hope of resurrection. It didn’t work and we will see these courageous Christians receive martyrs crowns in Heaven.
984 A.D. Bishop Ethelwold dies. His emphasis had been to repair the spiritual damage left by Danish invasions, to promote the Benedictine order, and build monasteries and nunneries. The English people consider him a saint because he sold the treasures of the church in order to feed the poor. Objects could be replaced, he said, but lives are not replaceable.
On this date in 1498, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sets foot on the American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela. Thinking it an island, he christened it Isla Santa and claimed it for Spain.
Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Little is known of his early life, but he worked as a seaman and then a sailing entrepreneur. He became obsessed with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route to Cathay (China), India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. At the time, Europeans knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and the route via Egypt and the Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire, as were many land routes. Contrary to popular legend, educated Europeans of Columbus’ day did believe that the world was round, as argued by St. Isidore in the seventh century. However, Columbus, and most others, underestimated the world’s size, calculating that East Asia must lie approximately where North America sits on the globe (they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed).
With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought, lying between Europe and the riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with King John II of Portugal and tried to persuade him to back his “Enterprise of the Indies,” as he called his plan. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella also rejected him at least twice. However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in January 1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage.
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña. On October 12, the expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and “Indian” captives in March 1493 and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He was given the title “admiral of the ocean sea,” and a second expedition was promptly organized. He was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century.
Fitted out with a large fleet of 17 ships with 1,500 colonists aboard, Columbus set out from Cádiz in September 1493 on his second voyage to the New World. Landfall was made in the Lesser Antilles in November. Returning to Hispaniola, he found the men he left there slaughtered by the natives, and he founded a second colony. Sailing on, he explored Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and numerous smaller islands in the Caribbean. Columbus returned to Spain in June 1496 and was greeted less warmly, as the yield from the second voyage had fallen well short of its costs.
Isabella and Ferdinand, still greedy for the riches of the East, agreed to a smaller third voyage and instructed Columbus to find a strait to India. In May 1498, Columbus left Spain with six ships, three filled with colonists and three with provisions for the colony on Hispaniola. This time, he made landfall on Trinidad. He entered the Gulf of Paria in Venezuela and planted the Spanish flag in South America on August 1, 1498. He explored the Orinoco River of Venezuela and, given its scope, soon realized he had stumbled upon another continent. Columbus, a deeply religious man, decided after careful thought that Venezuela was the outer regions of the Garden of Eden.
Returning to Hispaniola, he found that conditions on the island had deteriorated under the rule of his brothers, Diego and Bartholomew. Columbus’ efforts to restore order were marked by brutality, and his rule came to be deeply resented by both the colonists and the native Taino chiefs. In 1500, Spanish chief justice Francisco de Bobadilla arrived at Hispaniola, sent by Isabella and Ferdinand to investigate complaints, and Columbus and his brothers were sent back to Spain in chains.
He was immediately released upon his return, and Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to finance a fourth voyage, in which he was to search for the earthly paradise and the realms of gold said to lie nearby. He was also to continue looking for a passage to India. In May 1502, Columbus left Cádiz on his fourth and final voyage to the New World. After returning to Hispaniola, against his patrons’ wishes, he explored the coast of Central America looking for a strait and for gold. Attempting to return to Hispaniola, his ships, in poor condition, had to be beached on Jamaica. Columbus and his men were marooned, but two of his captains succeed in canoeing the 450 miles to Hispaniola. Columbus was a castaway on Jamaica for a year before a rescue ship arrived.
In November 1504, Columbus returned to Spain. Queen Isabella, his chief patron, died less than three weeks later. Although Columbus enjoyed substantial revenue from Hispaniola gold during the last years of his life, he repeatedly attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain an audience with King Ferdinand, whom he felt owed him further redress. Columbus died in Valladolid on May 20, 1506, without realizing the great scope of his achievement: He had discovered for Europe the New World, whose riches over the next century would help make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.
It was on August 1, 1521 that German reformer Martin Luther wrote in a letter: ‘Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world.’
It was on this date in 1779 that Francis Scott Key composer of the Star-Spangled Banner was born.
August 1, 1791, Robert Carter III, a Virginia plantation owner, frees all 500 of his slaves in the largest private emancipation in U.S. history. An 1839 mutiny aboard a Spanish ship in Cuban waters raised basic questions about freedom and slavery in the United States.
The first of August 1801 The American schooner Enterprise captured the Barbary cruiser Tripoli. Often venturing into harm’s way, America’s most famous sailing ship, the Constitution, twice came close to being destroyed on that day.
In 1818 on this date Maria Mitchell, the first female astronomer, was born in the U.S.A. On October 1, 1847, 28-year-old Mitchell, while scanning the skies with her telescope atop the roof of her father’s place of business, the Pacific National Bank on Main Street in Nantucket, discovered what she was sure was a comet. It turned out that she was right, and that what she had spotted was in fact a new comet, previously uncharted by scientists. The celestial object subsequently became known as “Miss Mitchell’s Comet.”
And in 1819 on this date Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, was born.
On this day in history in 1864, Union General Ulysses S. Grant appoints General Philip Sheridan commander of the Army of the Shenandoah. Within a few months, Sheridan drove a Confederate force from the Shenandoah Valley and destroyed nearly all possible sources of Rebel supplies, helping to seal the fate of the Confederacy.
In the summer of 1864, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had sent part of his army at Petersburg, Virginia, commanded by Jubal Early, to harass Federal units in the area of the Shenandoah and threaten Washington, D.C. The Confederates had used the same strategy in 1862, when General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson effectively relieved Union pressure on Richmond with a campaign in the Shenandoah.
In July, Early marched his army through the valley and down the Potomac to the outskirts of Washington, forcing Grant to take some of his troops away from the Petersburg defenses and protect the nation’s capital. Frustrated by the inability of Generals Franz Sigel and David Hunter to effectively deal with Early’s force in the Shenandoah, Grant turned to General Philip Sheridan, a skilled general who served with him in the west before Grant became the overall commander of Union forces in early 1864. Surprisingly, Grant had placed Sheridan, an effective infantry leader, in charge of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry division for the campaign against Lee. Now Grant handed Sheridan command of the Army of the Shenandoah, comprised of 40,000 troops that included many demoralized veterans of the summer campaign.
Sheridan wasted little time, beginning an offensive in September that routed Early’s army and then destroyed most of the agricultural resources of the region. Although this victory is not as famous as Union General William T. Sherman’s march through Georgia, which took place at the same time, it may have been even more complete. The Shenandoah Valley, so important throughout the war, was rendered useless to the Confederacy by the end of the fall.
On August 1, 1872 The first long-distance gas pipeline in the U.S. was completed. Designed for natural gas, the two-inch pipe ran five miles from Newton Wells to Titusville, Pennsylvania.
On the same date in 1873 San Francisco’s first cable cars began running, operated by Hallidie’s Clay Street Hill Railroad Company.
On this date in 1874, Patrick Francis Healy was inaugurated president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in America. Healy at the same time became the first African-American to head a predominantly white university.
August 1, 1893, a machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal is patented.
August 1, 1895, – Anglican missionaries Robert Warren Stewart, his wife Louise, their two children and seven other Christians are butchered in China.
In 1912 on the first of August the US government passed a law prohibiting movies & photos of prize fights.
On this date in 1914, four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France orders a general mobilization, and the first German army units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. During the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain all lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium. The “Great War” that ensued was one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians.
On June 28, 1914, in an event that is widely regarded as sparking the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand had been inspecting his uncle’s imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian nationalists who wanted these Austro-Hungarian possessions to join newly independent Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. However, as Russia supported Serbia, an Austria-Hungary declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention.
On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. On July 29, Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia’s ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize on August 1. France and Germany declared war against each other on August 3. After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on the night of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain, Belgium’s ally, to declare war against Germany.
For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Of the initial belligerents, Germany was most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders had formatted a sophisticated military strategy known as the “Schlieffen Plan,” which envisioned the conquest of France through a great arcing offensive through Belgium and into northern France. Russia, slow to mobilize, was to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.
The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front–the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium–the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition.
In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had joined the Central Powers in October 1914, but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in early 1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately set about negotiating peace with Germany. In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies’ favor. Bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with an imminent invasion, Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in November 1918.
World War I was known as the “war to end all wars” because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict–the Treaty of Versailles of 1919–forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for World War Two.
August 1, 1922, in Minnesota, 18-year-old Ralph Samuelson rides the world’s 1st water skis. The event garnered little attention and the boy didn’t patent water skis. A rich inventor who understood patents patented them and received the royalties for Samuelson’s invention.
On this date in 1937 the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany became operational. Mass torture and murder continued at Buchenwald until 1945 – eight years of ghastly horror.
August 1, 1941 The Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo plane makes its first flight. Created by Boeing for the use of the United States Navy and Marines, their initial use would be at the battle of Midway in 1942. Five of the six Avenger’s were shot from the sky during that battle, but they proved airworthy and became one of the most effective torpedo bombers of World War II. Though this plane was greatly modified after the war was over, it remained active until the 1960s.
On this day in 1942 German SS gases 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia.
On August 1 in 1943, a Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive other American PT boats in the area assume the crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John F. Kennedy.
Japanese aircraft had been on a PT boat hunt in the Solomon Islands, bombing the PT base at Rendova Island. It was essential to the Japanese that several of their destroyers make it to the southern tip of Kolombangara Island to get war supplies to forces there. But the torpedo capacity of the American PTs was a potential threat. Despite the base bombing at Rendova, PTs set out to intercept those Japanese destroyers. In the midst of battle, Japan’s Amaqiri hit PT-109, leaving 11 crewmen floundering in the Pacific.
After five hours of clinging to debris from the decimated PT boat, the crew made it to a coral island. Kennedy decided to swim out to sea again, hoping to flag down a passing American boat. None came. Kennedy began to swim back to shore, but strong currents, and his chronic back condition, made his return difficult. Upon reaching the island again, he fell ill. After he recovered, the PT-109 crew swam to a larger island, what they believed was Nauru Island, but was in fact Cross Island. They met up with two natives from the island, who agreed to take a message south. Kennedy carved the distress message into a coconut shell: “Nauru Is. Native knows posit. He can pilot. 11 alive need small boat.”
The message reached Lieutenant Arthur Evans, who was watching the coast of Gomu Island, located next to an island occupied by the Japanese. Kennedy and his crew were paddled to Gomu. A PT boat then took them back to Rendova. Kennedy was ultimately awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, for gallantry in action.
The coconut shell used to deliver his message found a place in history—and in the Oval Office.
PT-109, a film dramatizing this story, starring Clift Robertson as Kennedy, opened in 1963.
1942, August 1, Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sank U boat-166 as it approached the Mississippi River, the first German U-boat ever sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Also on this day in 1942 Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead was born.
On August 1, 1944, Yuri Romanenko, Soviet cosmonaut who set the record for the longest stay in space with 326 days aboard the Mir Space Station
And also on this date in 1944, during World War II, an advance Soviet armored column under General Konstantin Rokossovski reaches the Vistula River along the eastern suburb of Warsaw, prompting Poles in the city to launch a major uprising against the Nazi occupation. The revolt was spearheaded by Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, who was the commander of the Home Army, an underground resistance group made up of some 40,000 poorly supplied soldiers. In addition to accelerating the liberation of Warsaw, the Home Army, which had ties with the Polish government-in-exile in London and was anti-communist in its ideology, hoped to gain at least partial control of Warsaw before the Soviets arrived.
Although the Poles in Warsaw won early gains–and Soviet liberation of the city was inevitable–Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered his authorities to crush the uprising at all costs. The elite Nazi SS directed the German defense force, which included the Kaminiski Brigade of Russian prisoners and the Dirlewanger Brigade of German convicts. In brutal street fighting, the Poles were gradually overcome by the superior German weaponry. As the rebels were suppressed, the Nazis deliberately razed large portions of the city and massacred many civilians.
Meanwhile, the Red Army gained several bridgeheads across the Vistula River but made no efforts to aid the rebels in Warsaw. The Soviets also rejected a request by the British to use Soviet air bases to airlift supplies to the beleaguered Poles. The rebels and the city’s citizens ran out of medical supplies, food, and eventually water. Finally, on October 2, the surviving rebels, including Bor-Komorowski, surrendered.
During the 63-day ordeal, three-fourths of the Home Army perished along with 200,000 civilians. As a testament to the ferocity of the fighting, the Germans also suffered high casualties: 10,000 killed, 9,000 wounded, and 7,000 missing. During the next few months, German troops deported the surviving population, and demolition squads destroyed what buildings remained intact in Warsaw. All of its great treasures were looted or burned. The Red Army remained dormant outside Warsaw until January 1945, when the final Soviet offensive against Germany commenced. Warsaw, a city in ruins, was liberated on January 17. With Warsaw out of the way, the Soviets faced little organized opposition in establishing a communist government in Poland.
On this date in 1948 Pres Truman dedicated Idlewild Field – the Kennedy Airport in New York.
On this date in 1950 Lead elements of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division arrived in Korea from the United States.
On August 1, 1953, the Department of Health, Education & Welfare was created.
It was that same day in 1953 when English apologist and the author of the Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis, wrote in a letter: ‘How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.’
On August 1, 1954 The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel.
And on this day in 1960 Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, called for an all black state.
On August 1, 1961, amusement park lovers “head for the thrills” as Six Flags Over Texas, the first park in the Six Flags chain, opens. Located on 212 acres in Arlington, Texas, the park was the first to feature log flume and mine train rides and later, the first 360-degree looping roller coaster, modern parachute drop and man-made river rapids ride. The park also pioneered the concept of all-inclusive admission price; until then, separate entrance fees and individual ride tickets were the standard. During its opening year, a day at Six Flags cost $2.75 for an adult and $2.25 for a child. A hamburger sold for 50 cents and a soda set the buyer back a dime.
The park, which took a year and $10 million to build, was the brainchild of Texas real estate developer and oilman Angus Wynne Jr., who viewed it as a short-term way to make a buck from some vacant land before turning it into an industrial complex. Wynne reportedly recouped his personal investment of $3.5 million within 18 months and changed his mind about the park’s temporary status. With 17.5 million visitors in its first 10 years, the park became the Lone Star State’s top for-profit tourist attraction. Today, average annual attendance at the park is over 3 million.
One of Six Flags’ unique aspects was that it wasn’t just a random collection of rides; it was developed around a theme: the history of Texas. The park’s name was a nod to the six flags that had flown over the state at various times–France, Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, Texas and the United States. The park’s rides and attractions were grouped into six themed sections that represented the cultures of these governments and enabled visitors to experience everything from cowboy culture to Southern belles and pirates. Originally, the park was to be called Texas Under Six Flags, before it was decided that Texas should never be under anything.
Angus Wynne sold Six Flags in 1969 and in the coming years, the company expanded and was resold. Today, Six Flags, Inc. is the world’s largest regional theme park company and owns and operates 30 theme, water and zoological parks in North America. In 2005, almost 34 million people spent a combined 250 million hours at Six Flags parks.
Four historic events took place on August 1, 1964:
| Al Parker glided 644 miles without any motor. US Ranger 7 took 4,316 pictures and send them back to Earth before crashing on the Moon. Arthur Ashe became the first African-American to play on the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team. |
And on that same date – August 1, 1964 – the North Vietnamese government accused South Vietnam and the United States of having authorized attacks on Hon Me and Hon Ngu, two of their islands in the Tonkin Gulf.
The North Vietnamese were partly correct; the attacks, conducted just after midnight on July 30, were part of a covert operation called Oplan 34A, which involved raids by South Vietnamese commandos operating under American orders against North Vietnamese coastal and island installations. Although American forces were not directly involved in the actual raids, U.S. Navy ships were on station to conduct electronic surveillance and monitor North Vietnamese defense responses under another program called Operation De Soto.
The Oplan 34A attacks played a major role in events that led to what became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman takes a stockpile of guns and ammunition to the observatory platform atop a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas and proceeds to shoot 46 people, killing 14 people and wounding 31. A fifteenth died in 2001 because of his injuries. Whitman, who had killed both his wife and mother the night before, was eventually shot to death after courageous Austin police officers, including Ramiro Martinez, charged up the stairs of the tower to subdue the attacker.
Whitman, a former Eagle Scout and Marine, began to suffer serious mental problems after his mother left his father in March 1966. On March 29, he told a psychiatrist that he was having uncontrollable fits of anger. He purportedly even told this doctor that he was thinking about going up to the tower with a rifle and shooting people. Unfortunately, the doctor didn’t follow up on this red flag.
On July 31, Whitman wrote a note about his violent impulses, saying, “After my death, I wish an autopsy on me be performed to see if there’s any mental disorders.” The note then described his hatred for his family and his intent to kill them. That night, Whitman went to his mother’s home, where he stabbed and shot her. Upon returning to his own home, he then stabbed his wife to death.
The following morning, Whitman headed for the tower with several pistols and a rifle after stopping off at a gun store to buy boxes of ammunition and a carbine. Packing food and other supplies, he proceeded to the observation platform, killing the receptionist and two tourists before unpacking his rifle and telescope and hunting the people below.
An expert marksman, Whitman was able to hit people as far away as 500 yards. For 90 minutes, he continued firing while officers searched for a chance to get a shot at him. By the end of his rampage, 16 people were dead and another 30 were injured.
The University of Texas tower remained closed for25 years before reopening in 1999.
August 1, 1969, the U.S. command in Saigon announces that 27 American aircraft were lost in the previous week, bringing the total losses of aircraft in the conflict to date to 5,690.
On this day in 1970 the complete New American Standard Version of the Bible, the NASB was first published. The completed NASB New Testament had been released in 1963.
1971, August 1, a severe flood of the Red River in North Vietnam killed an estimated 100,000 people on this day in 1971. This remarkable flood was one of the century’s most serious weather events, but because the Vietnam War was going on at the time, relatively few details about the disaster are available.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) compiled a list of the 20th century’s top weather and climate events, based upon their natural wonder and impact on people. On the list were such major disasters as the Bangladesh cyclones of 1970 and 1991, both of which killed more than 100,000 people. The “Great Smog of London” of 1952 and the 1972 blizzard in Iran also made the list. Notably, not a single incident occurring in North American was included.
The Red River flood in North Vietnam made NOOA’s list even though relatively little is known about how or why approximately 100,000 people perished in the disaster. During the Vietnam War, information from North Vietnam was neither plentiful nor reliably accurate. What is known is that the Red River, which runs near the capital city of Hanoi, experienced a “250-year” flood. Torrential rains simply overwhelmed the dyke system around the heavily populated delta area, which is not far above sea level. As well as directly killing thousands of people, the flood also wiped out valuable crops, causing further hardship, especially as it occurred during wartime.
Though many more reservoirs have since been built in the Hanoi region, the area remains vulnerable to flooding.
It was on August 1, 1973 that a Delta Airlines DC-9 crashed in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, killing all but one of 89 aboard. The lone survivor died 6 months later
On this day in 1975 The United States, the Soviet Union, Canada and every European nation (except Albania) signed the Helsinki Final Act on the last day of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). The act was intended to revive the sagging spirit of detente between the Soviet Union and the United States and its allies. It didn’t work.
The first of August 1978, A gunman shoots his way into the Iraqi Embassy in Paris.
And on that same day in 1978 the New York Yankees who had been 7 games out of first place two weeks before, picked up all seven games to go to the top of their league.
1980 The Soyuz 37 crew returned to Earth aboard Soyuz 36
It was on this day in 1981 that Arnette Hubbard was installed as the 1st woman president of the National ‘s Bar Association.
And on that same day the 42 day old, 2nd major league baseball strike ended.
On August 1, 1982, 46 kids and 7 adults were killed as 2 buses and several cars collided in France
On this day in 1984 The United States men’s gymnastics team won team gold medal at the LA Summer Olympics
And on this day in 1987 Rockwell International was awarded the contract to build a 5th shuttle
On August 1 in 1994, newspapers reported that publishing house Alfred A. Knopf will pay Pope John Paul II a record-breaking $8.75 million advance for his new book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope. The book, a collection of essays addressing moral and theological questions, becomes a bestseller.
The figure exceeded the previous record set when Random House paid Army General Colin Powell some $6 million for his autobiography, My American Journey, which became one of the fastest selling books in America. Other multimillion-dollar book deals in the early 1990s included autobiographies of Ronald Reagan and Marlon Brando. Oprah Winfrey also received a multimillion-dollar advance for her autobiography, but she withdrew from the deal in 1993.
Another publishing record was set on this day in 1975, when E.L. Doctorow received $1.85 million for the paperback rights to Ragtime.
On August 1, 1990 Nolan Ryan became the 20th major league pitcher to win 300 games
On this day in 1996, sprinter Michael Johnson breaks the world record in the 200 meters to win gold at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Three days earlier, Johnson had also won the 400 meters, making him the first man in history to win both events at the Olympics.
Four years earlier at the Barcelona Olympics, Johnson had been the clear favorite to win the 200 meters until he came down with food poisoning 12 days before the race. Ten pounds lighter, Johnson didn’t recover his strength in time for the competition and lost in the qualifying rounds, a major disappointment for both him and the U.S. team. (Johnson did win gold, however, as a member of the world-record breaking 4 x 400 relay team in Barcelona.)
At the 1996 Olympics, things got off to a much better start. On July 29, sporting his now-famous thick gold chain and gold track shoes, he ran the 400 meters in a remarkable 43.49 seconds for a gold medal and a new Olympic record. And, as the reigning world record holder, Johnson was the heavy favorite for gold going into the 200 meter final despite a fast field. His two toughest were Frankie Fredericks of Namibia and Ato Boldon from Trinidad and Tobago. Johnson lined up in lane 3, and Fredericks, who had broken Johnson’s 22-race winning streak in the 200 on June 5, was positioned in lane 5, to Johnson’s outside. Boldon, who won bronze in the 100 meters in the 1992 Olympics, was in lane 6. At the gun Johnson stumbled slightly, but recovered quickly and passed Fredericks as they entered the first turn. Johnson then kicked it into high gear, beating his closest competition to the finish line by four strides.
After seeing his time, Johnson dropped to his hands and knees in disbelief, while Ato Boldon, who came in third behind Johnson and Fredericks, walked over to Johnson and bowed in awe. Analysis of the race later revealed that Johnson had run a 10.12 for the first 100 meters, and then blew away the field with a stunning 9.20 seconds for the last half of the race. His official time of 19.32 seconds shaved three tenths of a second off his own world record of 19.66–set six weeks prior at the Olympic trials–which had broken a 17-year-old mark.
On the same night that Johnson became the first man to win both the 200 and 400 meters in the Olympics, Marie-Jose Perec of France became the second woman to accomplish the feat. American Valerie Brisco-Hooks had won both races at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Johnson’s 200-meter record of 19.32 seconds still stands, and is considered by many in the sport to be virtually unbreakable.
On this date in 2004 Asuncion, Paraguay, a fire in the Ycua Bolanos V supermarket complex kills nearly 400 people and injures 500.
It was on August 1, 2007, that the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145.
Also on this day in 2007, Citibank opened China’s first drive-through automated teller machine (ATM) at the Upper East Side Central Plaza in Beijing.
Like those of drive-through restaurants and drive-in movies, the origins of drive-through banking can be traced to the United States. Some sources say that Hillcrest State Bank opened the first drive-through bank in Dallas, Texas, in 1938; others claim the honor belongs to the Exchange National Bank of Chicago in 1946. The trend reached its height in the post-World War II boom era of the late 1950s. Today, nearly all major banks in the United States offer some type of drive-through option, from regular teller service to 24-hour ATMs.
Drive-through banking, like other developments in automobile-centered culture, caught on a bit later in the rest of the world. Switzerland, for example, didn’t get its first drive-through bank until 1962, when Credit Suisse–then known as Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA)–opened a branch in downtown Zurich featuring eight glass pavilions with drive-through banking services. Though popular at first, the branch faltered in the 1970s, when traffic problems in the city center made fewer people willing to do their banking from their cars. SKA closed the drive-through in 1983.
In December 2006, five years after joining the World Trade Organization, China opened its retail banking sector to foreign competition. Under the new regulations Citibank became one of four foreign banks–along with HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of East Asia–approved to provide banking services using the Chinese currency, renminbi. (Often abbreviated as RMB, renminbi literally means “people’s money.”) The agreement had been signed in the fall of 2006, and by early December Citi had already opened 70 regular ATMs across the Chinese mainland.
Initially, the Citibank drive-through ATM that opened in Beijing in August 2007 was available only to holders of bank cards issued abroad, as foreign banks were not yet allowed to issue their own cards in China. Other banks soon hopped on the drive-through banking bandwagon in China, including China Construction Bank, which opened the first drive-through ATM in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in May 2008.
And finally, today – August 1, 2015 –
The city of Baltimore reached a grim milestone today, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.
Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.
With their deaths, this year’s homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July’s end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July’s total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city’s violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.
“Too many continue to die on our streets,” Rawlings-Blake said then. “Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime.”
But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.
Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.
But while the city’s police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the “clearance rate” is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department’s mid-40s average.
Crime experts and residents of Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.
Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.
Perched on a friend’s stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew “mostly all” of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.
“The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they’re eating Percocet like candy and they’re not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?”
The tally of 42 homicides in May included Gray, who died in April after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a homicide in July.
Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May’s homicide spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.
“You can’t attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number” of them are, he said. “You could say it’s retaliation from drug trafficking, it’s retaliation from gangs moving in from other territories. But there have been drug markets in Baltimore for years.”
Across West Baltimore, residents complain that drug addiction and crime are part of a cycle that begins with despair among children who lack educational and recreational opportunities, and extends when people can’t find work.
“We need jobs! We need jobs!” a man riding around on a bicycle shouted to anyone who’d listen after four people were shot, three of them fatally, on a street corner in July.
More community engagement, progressive policing policies and opportunities for young people in poverty could help, community activist Munir Bahar said.
“People are focusing on enforcement, not preventing violence. Police enforce a code, a law. Our job as the community is to prevent the violence, and we’ve failed,” said Bahar, who leads the annual 300 Men March against violence in West Baltimore.
“We need anti-violence organizations, we need mentorship programs, we need a long-term solution. But we also need immediate relief,” Bahar added. “When we’re in something so deep, we have to stop it before you can analyze what the root is.”
Strained relationships between police and the public also play a role, according to Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Arrests plummeted and violence soared after six officers were indicted in Gray’s death. Residents accused police of abandoning their posts for fear of facing criminal charges for making arrests, and said emboldened criminals were settling scores with little risk of being caught.
The department denied these claims, and police cars have been evident patrolling West Baltimore’s central thoroughfares recently.
But O’Donnell said the perception of lawlessness is just as powerful than the reality.
“We have a national issue where the police feel they are the Public Enemy No. 1,” he said, making some officers stand down and criminals become more brazen.
“There’s a rhythm to the streets,” he added. “And when people get away with gun violence, it has a long-term emboldening effect. And the good people in the neighborhood think, ‘Who has the upper hand?’”
Ray’s Today in History – August 1
Ray"s Today in History – August 1