Trevor WholohanThis Day in History August 3rd
August 2nd 2007 22:55
This Day in History
1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage would lead him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12
1900 - Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was founded.
1914 - Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.
1923 - Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding.
1933 - The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.
1936 - Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.
1943 - Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.
1949 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.
1958 - The Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."
1979 - "More American Graffiti" was released.
1979 - Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory.
1981 - U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned.
1984 - Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
1988 - The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.
1988 - The Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow's Red Square.
1989 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers suspended their threat to execute another hostage. It had been reported that the terrorist in Lebanon had hung Lt. Col. William R. Higgins three days before.
1990 - Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.
1995 - Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges that he had driven the van that blew up in New York's World Trade Center.
2004 - In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
2004 - NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011.
Famous Birthday’s
1900 - Ernie Pyle correspondant during WW II(Died in 1945 by a Sniper)
1926 - Tony Bennett Queens NY, singer (Left a body part in SF)
1940 - Martin Sheen actor (Apocalypse Now, Wall St, The West Wing, Gunfighter)
1941 - Martha Stewart cookbook author/actress/crook (Those Two)
1963 - James Hetfield heavy metal rocker (Metallica-Helpless, Enter Sandman)
Joke of the Day
True Stories
1.AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it's not Walter who's lacking intelligence.
2.Police in Oakland, CA, spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line shouting, "Please come out and give yourself up!"
3.A man walked into a Topeka, KS, Kwik Stop and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.
4.Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words: "Give me all your money or I'll shoot," the man shouted, "That's not what I said!"
5.Dear Abby, A couple of women moved in across the hall from me. One is a middle-aged gym teacher and the other is a social worker in her mid twenties. These two women go everywhere together and I've never seen a man go into or leave their apartment. Do you think they could be Lebanese?
Where's Herman?
Fifty-one years ago, Herman James, a North Carolina mountain man, was drafted by the Army.
On his first day in basic training, the Army issued him a comb. That afternoon the Army barber sheared off all his hair.
On his second day, the Army issued Herman a toothbrush. That afternoon the Army dentist yanked seven of his teeth.
On the third day, the Army issued him a jock strap.
The Army has been looking for Herman for 51 years.
World Records
Fastest Motorcycle Speed
America's Dave Campos, riding a 23-ft long streamliner named Easyriders, set American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme (FIM) absolute speed records with an overall average speed of 322.150 mph, and completed the faster run at an average of 322.870 mph, at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA, on July 14, 1990. The Streamliner weighed 2,500 lb and was powered by two 1,500 cc Ruxton Harley-Davidson engines.
In the 16 days it took to break the record, the team endured every sort of mishap and hiccup: on the third day, Sunday July 1, the Streamliner went into a wobble and crashed at around 300 mph. Campos emerged unscathed apart from a bruised thumb, but the Streamliner needed extensive repair work that kept the team of 15 – and several of their sponsors – working nonstop for three days on repairs.
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