August 11
3114: BC The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican
civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins.
1772: Explosive eruption blows 4,000′ off
Papandayan Java, kills 3,000.
1866: World’s 1st roller rink opens (Newport,
Rhode Island).
1885: $100,000 raised in US for pedestal for
Statue of Liberty.
1919: Green Bay Packers football club founded by George Calhoun and Curly Lambeau – named after sponsor Indian Packing Company.
August 12
3: Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem
1658 1st American police force forms (New
Amsterdam).
1833: The town of Chicago is incorporated (population 350).
1877: Thomas Edison completes 1st model for the phonograph, a device that recorded sound onto
tinfoil cylinders.
1930: Clarence Birdseye granted a patent for method of quick freezing food (patent US 1773079 A).
August 13
1521: Spanish conquistadors under Hernán
Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in
Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire.
1732: Voltaire’s tragic play “Zaire” premieres in Paris.
1868: Earthquakes kill 25,000 & causes $300 million damages in Peru & Ecuador.
1913: Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley
of Sheffield, England.
1942: The ‘Manhattan Project’ commences, under
the direction of US General Leslie Groves: its aim –
to deliver an atomic bomb.
1956: Elvis Presley releases music single
“Don’t Be Cruel”
August 14
1040: King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare’s play). The latter does succeed him as King.
1846: Henry David Thoreau jailed for refusing to
pay taxes.
1862: Abraham Lincoln receives the first group of
African Americans to confer with a US president.
1925: Mount Rushmore Monument first proposed.
1945: V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone).
August 15
1620: Mayflower sets sail from Southampton, England, with 102 Pilgrims.
1906: 1st freight delivery tunnel system begins, underneath Chicago.
1914: A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the living quarters of the
architect’s Wisconsin home, Taliesin, murders seven people and burns the living quarters to the ground.
1918: 1st full length cartoon (Sinking of Lusitania).
August 16
1501: Michelangelo awarded the contract to create
his statue of David by the Overseers of the Office
of Works (the Operai) of the Duomo, Florence’s
cathedral church.
1858: Britain’s Queen Victoria telegraphs
U.S. President James Buchanan for 1st time by
transatlantic telegraph cable, he replies “”it is a
triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle.”
1898: Edwin Prescott patents roller coaster.
August 17
1563: King Charles IX of France declared an adult at 13.
1787: Jews are granted permission in Budapest Hungary to pray in groups.
1859: 1st air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette, Indiana.
1903: Joe Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University & begins the Pulitzer Prizes in America.
1908: Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) opens new HQ
at Clay & Montgomery, San Francisco.
1933: MLB player Lou Gehrig plays record 1,308th
consecutive game.
1946: George Orwell publishes “Animal Farm” in the
United Kingdom.