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On an August 01:
2002 The UN releases its “report on Jenin”, about “Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” from the beginning of March to 07 May 2002. It is mainly about human rights violations in the Jenin refugee camp (03 to 18 April 2002). The UN investigation was opposed by Israel, which denied access to Jenin and the West Bank.
2002 Chinese girl Yukun Jia, 12 [photo >], is found missing, together with her luggage, from her group of some 26 Chinese kids from three Beijing schools, accompanied by half-a-dozen adults, just arrived at 11:00 from China at San Francisco International Airport on their way to a US Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Two days later it is discovered that relatives she has in Massachusetts came for her, took her as soon as she cleared Customs, and that she is safe and happy with them. She had had to deny having any relatives or friends in the US in order to be allowed to leave China.
2001 In Azerbaidjan a law goes into effect switching the alphabet from Cyrillic to an Aseri Latin.
2001 Derek Zavislake, owner of a small Toronto coffee shop, reports that he has received a bill for C$2.4 billion (US$1.6 billion) from Canada's postal service for his coffee beans mailings, a computer error.
2000 A US military court in Germany sentenced Army Staff Sgt. Frank Ronghi to life in prison without parole for sexually assaulting and killing Merita Shabiu, an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl, while on peacekeeping duty in Kosovo.
1997 Boeing's management not equal to its purchase of McDonnell-Douglas
      Boeing purchases its archrival, McDonnell-Douglas. The deal, valued at $16.3 billion, seemingly leaves Boeing as the unchallenged king of commercial aircraft production. Investors initially bid Boeing’s stock as high as $60.50 shortly before the deal is closed. However, with a downturn in orders from Asia, Boeing’s stock sank to a low of $43 in October 1997. The New York Times at the time cited Wall Street’s fears about management’s ability to ease the workforce woes and production delays that had left the company with a backlog of orders.
1996 In a political victory for President Clinton, a federal jury in Little Rock, Ark., acquitted two Arkansas bankers of misapplying bank funds and conspiracy to boost his political career. (The jury deadlocked on seven other counts.)
1996 At the Atlanta Olympics, Michael Johnson broke his world track record by more than three-tenths of a second, winning the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds.
1995 Egipto y Jordania sellan en Alejandría su reconciliación tras cinco años de crisis en sus relaciones como consecuencia de la guerra del Golfo.
1995 Westinghouse Electric Corporation buys CBS for $5.4 billion. Founded in 1886, Westinghouse was primarily a power company before making a play to become a media power.
1994 Llamamiento a la reconciliación germano-polaca de los presidentes de ambos países, Roman Herzog y Lech Walesa, en Varsovia.
1994 FCC auction for paging frequencies      ^top^
      The Federal Communications Commission auctions off ten licenses for advanced paging and messaging and sold portions of the airwaves for interactive television services on 01 01 August994. The auction brought in more than 10 times what the agency had expected, indicating the rapidly accelerating demand of both businesses and consumers for handheld computers, pagers, and other wireless devices.
1994 Pope's $8.75 million book advance      ^top^
      Newspapers report 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, would become 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.
1994 Squirrel crashes NASDAQ computers. NASDAQ's computer-based trading network went down temporarily when a squirrel caused a power outage. Although the stoppage lasts only 34 minutes, it infuriates brokers because the system already crashed twice in the previous month.
1990 Iraq pulls out of talks with Kuwait
1990 IBM sells its typewriter and keyboard businesses. The move signaled IBM's increasing focus on the personal computer market. IBM also discontinued production of several of its PS/2 systems due to poor sales.
1990 Ashton Tate released a new version of its software package, dBase IV. Ashton Tate had dominated the database market in the 1980s but began to slide in the 1990s. At the height of the company's success in the mid-1980s, founder George Tate died of a heart attack at his desk.
1987 Crossbow flight record (2,005 yds 1'9") set by Harry Drake in Nevada
1975 Helsinki Pact signed by 35 nations      ^top^
     A 35-nation summit in Helsinki, Finland, concluded with the signing of an accord dealing with European security, human rights and East-West contacts.
      The United States, the Soviet Union, Canada and every European nation (except Albania) sign 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. During Richard M. Nixon's presidency, he and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger fashioned a foreign policy toward the Soviet Union that came to be known as "detente" — literally, a lessening of tensions between Russia and America. The policy enjoyed some success during the early 1970s, as Nixon visited the Soviet Union and discussions about arms reduction began. By the summer of 1975, however, the spirit of detente was flagging. Nixon resigned in disgrace in 01 August974 over the Watergate scandal. The United States withdrew from Vietnam without securing victory; in April 1975, South Vietnam fell to communist forces. Progress on arms reduction talks with the Soviets came to a standstill. In July 1975, however, the Soviet Union and the United States attempted to reinvigorate the policy of detente by calling the CSCE in Helsinki.
      On 01 August the attendees signed the Helsinki Final Act. The act established the CSCE as an ongoing consultative organization, and set out a number of issues (grouped together in what came to be known as "baskets") to be discussed in the coming months and years. These included economic and trade issues, arms reduction, and the protection of human rights. For a brief moment, detente seemed to have been revived, but the CSCE soon became the cause for heated debates between the United States and the Soviet Union, primarily over the issue of human rights in Russia. After the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, dissidents and reformers in the Soviet Union formed what was known as the Helsinki Group, a watchdog organization to monitor the Russian government's adherence to the protection of human rights. The Soviets crushed the Helsinki Group, arresting many of its top leaders. Human rights groups in the United States and elsewhere loudly protested the Soviet actions. The US government criticized the Russians for not adhering to the spirit of the Helsinki agreement. The Soviets resented what they referred to as intrusions into their domestic matters. By mid-1978, the CSCE ceased to function in any important sense. It was revived by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, and served as a foundation for his policy of closer and friendlier relations with the United States.
     — Representantes de 35 Estados de Europa y América firman el acta final de la Conferencia de Helsinki, tratado que regula las relaciones entre países con regímenes políticos diversos y protege los derechos humanos y las libertades individuales.
1975 E.L. Doctorow receives a record $1.85 million for the paperback rights to Ragtime.
1972 1st article exposing Wategate scandal (Bernstein-Woodward)
1965 Guerra del Vietnam: el Vietcong consigue aislar la base estadounidense de Da Nang.
1964 North Vietnamese accuse South Vietnam and US of attack      ^top^
      The North Vietnamese government accuses 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 30 July, 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, US 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 02 August North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the destroyer USS Maddox which was conducting a De Soto mission in the area. Two days after the first attack, there was another incident that still remains unclear. The Maddox, joined by destroyer USS C. Turner Joy, engaged what were thought at the time to be more attacking North Vietnamese patrol boats. Although it was questionable whether the second attack actually happened or not, the incident provided the rationale for retaliatory air attacks against the North Vietnamese and the subsequent Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which became the basis for the initial escalation of the war in Vietnam and ultimately the insertion of US combat troops into the area. On this same day, in 1969, the US 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 5690.
1961 Whitney Young Jr named executive director of National Urban League
1960 Benin (Dahomey) gains independence from France
1958 Las tropas estadounidenses se retiran del territorio cubano. (???)
1958 US 1st class postage up to $0.04 (had been $0.03 for 26 years)
1957 The United States and Canada reached agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command.
1954 The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam into two countries at the 17th parallel. US complicity in the overthrow of South Vietnam's president made it impossible to stay uninvolved in the war.
1954 Italia ratifica el tratado sobre la Comunidad Defensiva Europea.
1953 Northern Rhodesia becomes part of Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland
1950 King Leopold of Belgium abdicates, Baudouin becomes king — Balduino presta juramento como rey de Bélgica.
1950 La URSS se reintegra al Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU.
1950 Territory of Guam created
1950 Lead elements of the US 2nd Infantry Division arrive in Korea from the United States.
1946 Los griegos se manifiestan mediante referéndum a favor del regreso del rey Jorge II.
1946 US President Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
1946 US President Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Sen. William J. Fulbright. In 1946, the Atomic Energy Commission was established.
1944 Adam Clayton Powell is elected 1st Black congressman from North-East US.
1944 Warsaw uprising begins      ^top^
      During World War II, an advance Soviet armored column under General Konstantin Rokossovski reaches the Vistula River along the eastern suburb of Warsaw, prompting the Poles in the city to launch a major uprising against the Nazi occupation. The revolt is spearheaded by Polish General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski, 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 has ties with the Polish government-in-exile in London and is anti-Communist in its ideology, hopes to gain at least partial control of Warsaw before the Soviets arrive.
      Although the Poles in Warsaw would win early gains, and Soviet conquest of the city was inevitable, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered his authorities to crush the uprising at all cost. 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 slowly suppressed, the Nazis deliberately razed large portions of the city and massacred large numbers of civilians.
      Meanwhile, the Red Army gained several bridgeheads across the Vistula River, but made no efforts to aid the rebels in Warsaw. The British and Americans asked the Soviets to allow them to drop much-need supplies to the Home Army, and the Soviets agreed; although they explained that they were too busy re-supplying their own units to offer assistance themselves. Only a fraction of the supplies from the West ever reached the parts of Warsaw controlled by the Home Army, and the rebels and the city’s citizens soon ran out of medical supplies, food, and eventually water.
      Finally, on October 2, the surviving insurgents, including Bor-Komorowski, surrendered. During the sixty-three-day ordeal, three-fourths of the Home Army had perished, along with 200'000 civilians. As a testament to the savagery of the fighting, the Germans had also suffered high casualties: 10'000 killed, 9000 wounded, and 7000 missing. Over the next few months, German demolition squads destroyed what buildings remained intact in Warsaw, and all of its great treasures were looted or burned.
      The Red Army remained dormant outside of Warsaw until January of 1945, when the final Soviet offensive against Germany commenced. Warsaw, a city in ruins, was "liberated" on 17 January 17.
1943 Over 177 B-24 Liberator bombers attack the oil fields in Ploesti, Rumania, for a second time.
1943 Race riot in Harlem NYC
1943 Birmania proclama su independencia.
1942 Montgomery takes North Africa command      ^top^
      Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery takes command of the British Eighth Army in North Africa. In November, his decisive victory over German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at the Battle of El Alamein would push the Germans out of North Africa, and helped change the momentum of World War II. For his part in turning the tide of the war against the Axis, Montgomery was made a viscount with the title "Montgomery of Alamein." In 1945, as British Commander of Northern Europe, "Monty" officially accepted the surrender of several German armies.
1942 Ensign Henry C. White, while flying a J4F Widgeon plane, sinks U-166 as it approaches the Mississippi River, the first U-boat sunk by the US Coast Guard.
1941 Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo plane makes its first flight.
1939 Synthetic vitamin K is produced for the first time.
1937 Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany becomes operational.
1936 The Olympic games opened in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
1933 National Recovery Administration (NRA) established.
1928 Diputados croatas fundan un Parlamento separatista del resto de Yugoslavia.
1927 Se produce el primer alzamiento comunista en China, en Nantchang.
1914 The Great War erupts      ^top^
      Four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France mobilizes, and the first German army units cross into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. In addition to the countries already mentioned, Belgium also mobilizes. Shots are fired between French and German border patrols. Italy declares neutrality.
      Over the next four days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain would all line up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and Germany would launch its invasion of Belgium.
     On 28 June 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 28 July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe's great powers collapsed. On 29 July Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia's ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. On 01 August the Germans invade Luxembourg. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize on 01 August. France and Germany declared war against each other on 03 August. After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the Germany 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.
     Italy declared neutrality.
      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.
      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.
           Though the Germans enjoyed greater success on the Eastern Front, the conflict’s first major battle along the Marne effectively decided the course of the war on the Western Front. World War I would be a terrible war of attrition, won by whichever side was willing to commit the greater number of men and resources to the lethal trenches.
      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 II.
     — Alemania declara la guerra a Rusia, invade Luxemburgo y presenta un ultimátum a Bélgica. Francia ordena la movilización general.
1907 Bank of Italy opens 1st branch at 3433 Mission Street, SF.
1903 First cross-country auto trip, from New York City to San Francisco, is completed on this day. The trail was blazed by a Packard, which finished in a mere fifty-two days.
1900 El médico cubano Carlos Finlay hace público su descubrimiento del mosquito propagador de la fiebre amarilla.
1896 George Samuelson completes rowing the Atlantic (NY to England)
1893 A machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal is patented.
1880 Sir Frederick Roberts frees the British Afghanistan garrison of Kandahar from Afghan rebels.
1876 Colorado becomes 38th state of US.
1873 Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tests a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco. The cable cars would be operated by Hallidie's Clay Street Hill Railroad Company.
1872 The first long-distance gas pipeline in the US is completed. Designed for natural gas, the two-inch pipe ran 8 km from Newton Wells to Titusville, Pennsylvania.
1868 Rusia vende Alaska a los Estados Unidos. [fecha???]
1867 Blacks vote for 1st time in a state election in South (Tenn)
1864 Sheridan takes command of Union Army of Shenandoah.
      Union General Ulysses S. Grant appoints General Philip H. 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 DC. 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, comprising of 40'000 soldiers 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.
1863 Cavalry action near Brandy Station — End of Gettysburg Campaign
1863 Federal cavalry advance from Witteburg on a campaign to capture Little Rock, Arkansas
1863 Siege of Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues
1861 Captain John Baylor claims most of the territories of Arizona and New Mexico for the Confederacy after he routs a Union force at Fort Fillmore in southern New Mexico.
1861 Brazil recognizes Confederate States of America.
1838 Emancipation of British slaves on Bahamas
1834 Slavery abolished in British empire — Abolición de la esclavitud en todos los territorios dependientes de Gran Bretaña.
1801 The US schooner Enterprise captures the Barbary cruiser Tripoli.
1798 — 14 thermidor an VI — La flotte française est détruite par Nelson dans la rade d’Aboukir. — Battle of the Nile at Abu Qir Bay, near Alexandria, Egypt: Admiral Horatio Nelson routs the French fleet; Napoléon and his army are stranded in Egypt.
1794 — 14 thermidor an II — La Convention suspend le Tribunal révolutionnaire et Fouquier est arrêté. C'est la fin de la Terreur.
1794 Whiskey Rebellion begins.
1791 Largest private emancipation in US history: Robert Carter III, a Virginia plantation owner, frees all 500 of his slaves.
1790 The first enumeration by the US Census Bureau is completed. It shows a population of 3'939'326 located in 16 states and the Ohio territory. Virginia is the most populous state with 747'610 inhabitants. The census compilation cost $44,377.
1789 US’s First Tarriff Legislation Already mindful of the markets, the freshly formed United States Government wheeled into action in 1789, passing the nation’s first tariff legislation. The tariff was designed to protect America’s burgeoning interests in foreign trade.
1774 Oxygen is isolated from air by chemist Carl Wilhelm and scientist Joseph Priestly.
1772 Primer desmembramiento y reparto de Polonia, en provecho de Prusia, Rusia y Austria.
1759 Battle of Minden, Germany: British and Hanoverian armies defeat the French.
1740 Thomas Arne's song "Rule Britannia" is performed for the first time.
1704 Guerra de Sucesión española: La escuadra anglo-holandesa, mandada por el contraalmirante Rooke, comienza el asedio de Gibraltar.
1689 James II's 15-week siege of Londonderry, Ireland, ends in failure.
1664 The Turkish army is defeated by French and German troops at St. Gotthard, Hungary.
1619 The first Blacks (20) in British American colonies land at Jamestown, Virginia.
1498 Columbus lands in South America      ^top^
      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 03 01 August492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña. On 12 October 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 1500 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 01 01 August498. 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 720 km 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 20 May 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.
1464 Piero de Medici succeeds his father, Cosimo, as ruler of Florence.
1291 Everlasting League forms, basis of Swiss Confederation (Nat'l Day) — Fundación de la Confederación Suiza con la unión de los hombres de Uri, los de la comunidad libre del valle de Schwyz y los de la asociación de Nidwalden, fecha que los suizos conmemoran como su fiesta nacional.
1096 The crusaders under Peter the Hermit reach Constantinople.
0939 Las tropas del leonés Ramiro II vencen a las andalusíes de Abd al-Rahman III en la Batalla de Simancas.
0902 The Aghlabid rulers of Ifriqiyah (modern day Tunisia) capture Taormina, Sicily.
TO THE TOP
Deaths which occurred on an August 01:      ^top^
2002 Roy Ratliff, 37 [photo >], shot twice in the head by sheriff's deputies, at 13:00, near Lake Isabella, California. At 01:00, 160 km from there, in the Quartz Hill area outside Lancaster, California, Ratliff, at gunpoint, had forced Tamara Brooks, 16, out of the parked Ford Bronco of Eric Joshua Brown (born 01 August 1984), with whom she was on a date. Ratliff blindfolded Brown, bound him with duct tape, and tied him to a post. Then he did the same thing with Jacqueline Marris, 17, and her date, Frank Melero Jr., 19, who were parked in a pickup truck nearby (tying Melero to his seat in the pickup). Then Ratliff abandoned the Saturn which he had stolen at gunpoint on 18 July in Las Vegas from Roberta Young, 64, and her husband James Young, 69, and took of with the two kidnapped girls in the Bronco. When the Bronco is spotted off the road in the desert near Lake Isabella, deputies shoot at Ratliff and rescue the two girls, which he had raped and probably was about to kill. Ratliff had a criminal record dating to the 1980s in Nebraska and California that included prison for theft, burglary and possession of methamphetamines. He disappeared after his parole in July 2001. He was charged in October 2001 with raping a 19-year-old relative but was never apprehended.
2002 Shani Ladani, 27, Israeli man tied up and shot in the head in the morning. A resident of the Olesh moshav in the Sharon area, Ladani was taken from his place of work, a factory in the Gshuri industrial zone, at the 1967 Green Line on the Israeli side. Most of the workers at his factory are Palestinians from Tul Karm and surrounding villages.
2001 Mohammed Sharabati, 35, Palestinian shot by Israelis in Hebron, West Bank..
2001 Nazem Abu Gharbieh, 47, from Ramallah, and Ahmed Shawkat Salah, 40, from al-Khader, Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel, shot by Palestinians from the “Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade”.
2000 Du Shugui, 44, executed (presumably by a bullet to the back of the head)      ^top^
     He was a policeman in Bazhou, Hebei province, China. On 04 June 2000, in a argument over a near-collision, he yelled: "I'm with the public security bureau, I'm on an errand — and I don't think anyone in Bazhou can challenge me," drew his service revolver and shot dead a mini-van driver, an electric company maintenance man. There was a public outry, touched off by simmering anger against the high-handedness and brutality of local officials. Du's wife and son, who were traveling with him at the time of the murder, were sentenced to seven years and five years in jail for harboring a criminal after the shooting.
1988 John Cardinal Dearden, 80, US cardinal
1996 Pierre Claverie, évêque catholique d'Oran, et son chauffeur algérien, dans un attentat à la bombe commis au domicile de l'évêque.
1982 Unas 120 personas en un fallido golpe de Estado en Kenia. Son detenidas más de 3000 personas.
1981 Álvaro de Laiglesia, escritor español, director de La Codorniz.
1969 Miguel Labordeta, poeta español
1966 Ramiro Martinez and 15 others shot from UT tower by Charles Whitman, driven by brain tumor      ^top^
      Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, takes a stockpile of guns and ammunition to the observatory platform atop a 100-meter tower at the University of Texas and proceeds to shoot 46 people, killing 16. 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 February 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 disorder." (The autopsy would reveal a brain tumor) 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 heads 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 goes 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 m. For 90 minutes, he continues firing while officers seek a chance to get a shot at him. By the end of his rampage, 16 people are dead and another 30 injured. The University of Texas tower would remain closed for over 30 years before reopening in 1999.
1943 Two US sailors as PT-109 sinks; but JFK and 10 others survive      ^top^
      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 survive, 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 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.
1917 Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, MT
1917 Enrique Prat de la Riba, político catalán.
1894 Hugo Frederik Salmson, Swedish artist born on 07 July 1843 or 1844.
1893 Alessandro La Volpe, Italian artist born in 1820.
1882 Henry Kendall, 43, Australian poet, of tuberculosis — KENDALL ONLINE: Leaves From Australian Forests — Poems and Songs: 1862 — The Poems of Henry Kendall — Songs From the Mountains
1857 Charles Turner, presumably British artist, born in 1773. — Not to be confused with THE Joseph Mallord William Turner [1775-1851] — LINKS
1790 Jacob van Lint, Flemish artist born on 08 February 1723.
1494 Giovanni Santi, mediocre Urbino painter and poet at the court of art patron prince Frederico da Montefeltre. Giovanni Santi was born in 1435. — His main claim to fame is that he was the father of Raffaello Santi THE “Raphael” [06 Apr 1483 – 06 Apr 1520].
Births which occurred on an August 01:      ^top^
1981 The rock music cable TV channel MTV makes its debut.
1941 Ronald Brown, in Washington, raised in Harlem, (US Secretary of Commerce [Clinton Administration]; Democratic National Committee chairman: 1st African-American to head a major US political party. Died on April 3, 1996, in a plane crash over Croatia
1941 the Jeep         ^top^
      Parade magazine called it "...the Army's most intriguing new gadget…a tiny truck which can do practically everything." During World War I, the US Army began looking for a fast, lightweight all-terrain vehicle, but the search did not grow urgent until early 1940. At this time, the Axis powers had begun to score victories in Europe and Northern Africa, intensifying the Allies’ need for an all-terrain vehicle. The US Army issued a challenge to automotive companies, requesting a working prototype, fit to army specifications, in just forty-nine days. Willy’s Truck Company was the first to successfully answer the Army’s call, and the new little truck was christened “the Jeep.” General Dwight D. Eisenhower said that America could not have won World War II without it. Parade was so enthusiastic about the Jeep, that, on this day, it devoted three full pages to a feature on the vehicle.
1937 Barry Johnson, mathematician
1937 Alfonse D'Amato Brooklyn NY, (Sen-R-NY 1980- )
1936 Yves Saint-Laurent fashion designer (Opium, Obsession)
1931 Tom Wilson, cartoonist ("Ziggy").
1926 Leopoldo Sucre Figarella, político venezolano.
1924 Georges Charpak, francés, Premio Nobel de Física.
1898 El Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, se inaugura con Pedro Madrazo como director, en el Palacio de Bibliotecas y Museos de la calle Recoletos de Madrid, lo que actualmente es la Biblioteca Nacional de España.
1892 Kin Narita and Gin Kanie in Japan         ^top^
   They would become famous one hundred and more years later, as one of the oldest pairs of twins in the world. Kin said on their 100th birthday. "We could survive because we were twins. We need each other more than anyone else in the world." However Kin, the first born of the two sisters, died of heart failure in January 2000. Gin reached at least her 108th birthday on 1 August 2000 (at this writing).
     The two were accorded the status of national treasures in Japan and until 1999 their birthdays were lavished with media attention. On 1 01 August999, the pair attended a tree planting ceremony in Sapporo, wielding pink shovels. The centenarian twins gained national and international fame for their beaming smiles, enormous vitality and shared longevity. They appeared on numerous commercials, game shows, news programs and even graced the pages of international magazines. The twins said the simplicity of their lives, their reliance on each other and frequent walks as they grew older contributed to their extraordinary health.
1881 Otto Toeplitz, mathematician.
1875 Julio Herrera y Reissig, poeta uruguayo.
1863 Gaston Doumergue, estadista francés.
1865 Prince Napoleon Nikolaus Eugen, Swedish artist who died on 17 01 August947.
1861 Ivar Bendixson, mathematician.
1856 Daniel Hernández, Peruvian artist who died in 1932.
1854 Walter Launt Palmer, US painter who died on 16 April 1932. — LINKS
1843 Robert Todd Lincoln (son of US President Abraham Lincoln; would be rescued from train accident by Edwin Booth, brother of man who assassinated President Lincoln)
1837 José María Galván y Candela, pintor y grabador español.
1819 Herman Melville, US novelist, short-story writer, and poet.         ^top^
      He would be best known for his novels of the sea, including his masterpiece, Moby Dick (1851). Basically its story is simple. Captain Ahab pursues the white whale, Moby Dick, which finally kills him. At that level, it is an intense, superbly authentic narrative of whaling. In the perverted grandeur of Captain Ahab and in the beauties and terrors of the voyage of his ship, however, Melville dramatized his deeper concerns: the equivocal defeats and triumphs of the human spirit and its fusion of creative and murderous urges, universal metaphors inspired by Melville's private afflictions.
     Other works of Melville (which I did not find online): Mardi (1849) which begins as a Polynesian adventure but quickly sets its hero in pursuit of the mysterious Yillah, "all beauty and innocence," a symbolic quest that ends in anguish and disaster.
     Redburn (1849), Israel Potter (1855), , Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War ( poetry, 1866), John Marr, and Other Sailors; With Some Sea-Pieces (poetry, 1888)
     White-Jacket (1850) with powerful criticism of abuses in the US Navy.
     Pierre (1852), story of an artist alienated from his society.
MELVILLE ONLINE
  • Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853)
  • Benito Cereno (1855)
  • Billy Budd (written 1891, published 1924) Provoked by a false charge, the sailor Billy Budd accidentally kills the satanic master-at-arms. In a time of threatened mutiny he is hanged.
  • The Confidence-Man (1857), a despairing satire on an America corrupted by the shabby dreams of commerce.
  • The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles (1854)
  • The Lightning-Rod Man
  • Moby Dick
  • Omoo (1847) based on Melville's part in a mutiny on a whaler, jail in Tahiti, escape, and wanderings through the islands.
  • The Piazza Tales
  • Typee (1846) based on Melville's jumping ship in the Marquesas Islands and being a captive of Typee cannibals.
  • Complete on-line works

    DUPLICATE SITES:
  • Bartleby, the Scrivener
  • Moby Dick
  • Typee

    TRIPLICATE SITE:
  • Typee
    • 1815 Richard Henry Dana Dana withdrew from Harvard College when measles weakened his eyesight, and he shipped to California as a sailor in 01 August834, returning home in 1836. He studied law and in 1840 he was admitted to the bar, and published Two Years Before the Mast, a personal narrative presenting "the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is" and showing the abuses endured by his fellow sailors.
         His other works include: The Seaman's Friend (or ... Manual)(1841), a guide to the legal rights and duties of seamen.
          — a scholarly edition of Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law (1866)
          — To Cuba and Back (1859), Speeches in Stirring Times (1910), An Autobiographical Sketch (1953).
         As a lawyer, Dana aided fugitive slaves, and as US attorney for Massachusetts (1861-66) argued before the US Supreme Court the case of the Amy Warwick [67 US 635 (1862)]
    ONLINE: Poems and Prose Writings ,   Two Years Before the Mast ,  Two Years Before the Mast (another site)
    1779 Francis Scott Key, attorney, author of the Star Spangled Banner:      ^top^
         Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
          On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream; 'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner, O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
          Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand Between their loved homes and the war's desolation! Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, "In God is our trust" And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
    1770 William Clark Charlottsville VA, explorer, led the Corps of Discovery with Meriwether Lewis — CLARK ONLINE: co~author of: History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean volume 1 – volume 2 (page images)
    1744 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck believed in inheritance of acquired traits.
    1714 Richard Wilson, Welsh Romantic painter, specialized in Landscapes, who died on 15 May 1782. — LINKS — Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo — The Mawddach Valley and Cader Idris — Solitude — Francesco Zuccarelli
    1495 Jan van Scorel, Dutch painter who died on 06 December 1562. — MORE ON VAN SCOREL AT ART “4” AUGUST — LINKS — Joris van Egmond, Bishop of Utrecht — Landscape with Bathsheba — Portrait of a Man — Mary Magdalen _ Mary Magdalen
    0126 Publius Helvius Pertinax Roman emperor (193 AD)
    — 10 -BC- Claudius 4th Roman emperor (41-54 AD)
    Holidays Botswana : August Holiday / China PR : Army Day / Dahomey/Benin : Independence Day (1960) / Dominica : Queen's Birthday / Ghana : Homowo / Guyana : Commonwealth Day / Iran : 12th Imam's Birthday / Nicaragua : Fiesta Day / Scotland : Lammas Day, term day / Switzerland : Confederation Day (1291) / Trinidad & Tobago, St Lucia : Emancipation Day/Caribbean Day / US : Sports Day-good sportsmanship / Zaire : Parents Day
    Religious Observances Old RC : Feast of St Peter's Chains / RC : St Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, bishop/doctor / Santos Alfonso María de Ligorio, Arcadio, Nemesio y Rufo; Santas Fe, Esperanza y Caridad.
    Thoughts for the day : “The harder you try, the better you fail.”
    “The hardest thing to do is to disguise your feelings when sending a large crowd of visiting relatives home.”
    “Pride, like humility, is destroyed by one's insistence that he possesses it.” —     Kenneth Bancroft Clark, US educator and psychologist. [and if not destroyed by his insistence, it is by his wife] [Was Clark proud or humble about his pronouncements?].
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