This Week in History

August 10

1948: Candid Camera made its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone. President Harry S. Truman signed a law that eliminated the Department of War and created the U.S. Department of Defense.
1954: The groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway was held at Massena, New York.
2017: 100 year-old fruit cake by Huntley & Palmers deemed “almost eatable” after being discovered in hut used by Captain Scott’s expedition in Antarctica.

August 11

1858: The climbing team of Charles Barrington, Christian Almer and Peter Bohren ascended the Eiger in the Bernese Alps, the first successful attempt in recorded history.
1929: Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career, with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
1934: The federal prison on Alcatraz Island began receiving prisoners.
1942: Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for a frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi.

August 12

1851: American inventor Isaac Singer was granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1883: The last quagga—a subspecies of the plains zebra the looked like a small half-zebra, half-horse—died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1953: The Soviet Union detonated its first thermonuclear weapon.
1960: NASA launched Echo 1A, the agency’s first successful communications satellite.
break the American League single season HRs allowed record with 248 and counting.

August 13

1898: The first near-Earth asteroid, 433 Eros, was discovered by German astronomer Carl Gustav Witt in Berlin.
2009: The U.S. Mint issued the third of four new Lincoln pennies. This design featured Lincoln as a young lawyer, standing before the state Capitol in Springfield, Ill. It was designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Don Everhart.

August 14

1040: King Duncan I of Scotland was killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth, who ascended to the throne.
1816: The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling it from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
1842: The Second Seminole War ended, forcing the Seminoles from Florida to Oklahoma.
2019:
 “It is raining plastic,” survey published, plastic found in 90% of rain samples taken in Colorado by the US Department of the Interior and US Geological Survey.

August 15

1927: Rollo Gallagher, age unknown, of Salt Lake City, Utah, died when he broke through a thin crust of mud and fell into a boiling hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.
1944: Allied forces launched “the other D-Day,“ Operation Dragoon, the invasion of the French Riviera.
2018: Bar-hopping for pintxos (Basque tapas) in San Sebastián, Spain, named world’s best food experience in Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Eatlist.
2019:
Disney Studios is the first studio to have five films earn over $1 billion each in one year with “Toy Story 4”, “Avengers: Engame”, “Captain Marvel”, “Aladdin” and “The Lion King”.

August 16

1977: Elvis Presley died at age 42 of a drug overdose at his home in Memphis, Tenn.
1989: A solar flare from the Sun created a geomagnetic storm that affected microchips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto’s stock market.
2005: Violin virtuoso Vassar Clements died of lung cancer at his daughter’s home near Nashville, Tenn. He was 77.
2010: China surpassed Japan as world’s second-biggest economy.
2018: British Columbia, Canada, declares State of Emergency with 566 wildfires burning, prompting evacuation of 3,000 people.
2019:
Huge fire in Chalantika slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, destroys 1,200 houses and leaves up to 10,000 homeless.

ON THIS DAY… AUGUST 10 – AUGUST 16

August 10- NATIONAL LAZY DAY
In today’s plugged in world, we often find ourselves wishing for a day when we didn’t have to do anything.

August 12- WORLD
ELEPHANT DAY
Over the last decade, the number of elephants has significantly dropped by 62% and they could be mostly extinct by the end of the next decade.

August 13- NATIONAL PROSECCO DAY
Whether throwing a party with friends or hitting a festival, Prosecco will lighten any mood. 

August 14- MELON DAY
On this special day, we celebrate cantaloupes, galias, and all other muskmelons.

August 15- NATIONAL LEMON MERINGUE PIE DAY
Get ready to satisfy your sweet tooth! 

August 16 -NATIONAL ROLLER COASTER DAY
At any amusement park, it has the highest “wow” factor.