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Events, deaths, births, of AUG 18
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On an 18 August:
2002 At about 05:00 UT, Asteroid 2002 NY 40 (discovered on 14 July 2002), about 800 m across, passes 530'000 km from Earth.
1999 Chechnya war:      ^top^
  • Russia officially apologizes for accidentally dropping bombs on Georgia, Tbilisi accepts the apology without reservation, hails "new neighborly relations" with Moscow.
  • Sirazhdin Ramazanov appointed Prime Minister of the Islamic State of Dagestan by rebels fighting in the republic.
  • Russian command in north Caucasus says up to 15'000 soldiers are expected to deploy in Dagestan — five airborne batallions, special unit, Interior Ministry troops, riot police, all backed by Dagestani police and armed volunteers.
  • Russian aircraft strike TV and radio broadcast facilities in Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, villages controlled by Dagestani Islamic militants.
          — http://www.cdi.org/issues/Europe/aug.html
    • 1991 USSR: coup attempt against Gorbachev begins.      ^top^
         Soviet hard-liners launch a coup aimed against President Gorbachev, vacationing in the Crimea. (The coup would collapsed three days later, the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.)
          Hard-line elements of the Soviet government and military begin a coup attempt against President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. The coup attempt signified a decline in Gorbachev's power and influence, while one of his most ardent opponents, Boris Yeltsin, came out of the event with more power than ever.
          Since coming to power in 1985, Gorbachev had pressed forward with significant reforms on two fronts. First, he called for a liberalization of the Soviet government's economic and political policies. He pushed for an economy that would rely more on free market policies and argued that the closed communist political system would need to be democratized. Second, he strenuously pursued better relations with the West, particularly the United States. His efforts were acclaimed in the West, and President Ronald Reagan, an avowed anticommunist, came to consider Gorbachev a friend and respected colleague. In the Soviet Union, however, Gorbachev found his policies attacked twofold. On one side were hard-line communists who believed that Gorbachev's policies were leading the Soviet Union to ruin and a status as a second-class world power.
          On the other side were more radical reformers such as Boris Yeltsin, who, after being a popular mayor of Moscow, served as president of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. Yeltsin constantly complained that Gorbachev was not moving fast or far enough with his reforms; in July 1990, Yeltsin demonstrated his dissatisfaction by announcing that he was resigning from the Communist Party. By August 1991, hard-line elements of the Soviet government and military decided to act and staged a coup against Gorbachev. Gorbachev was put under house arrest, and his enemies demanded that he resign as leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev refused, but many outside of Russia began to feel that his government could not survive.
          Yeltsin and many of his supporters, who had taken refuge in the Russian Parliament, then stepped in. Yeltsin correctly perceived that if the coup were successful, even the limited reforms begun by Gorbachev would be destroyed. He called on the Russian people to strike and take to the streets to oppose the coup. The people responded by the thousands, and the poorly organized coup collapsed only a few days later. The damage to the Gorbachev regime was nonetheless disastrous. In December 1991, with the Soviet Union crumbling around him, he resigned as leader of the nation. Yeltsin emerged from the crisis as Gorbachev's heir apparent. When Gorbachev announced his resignation in December, Yeltsin immediately removed all flags of the former Soviet Union from government buildings in the state of Russia and continued to serve as the leader of the most powerful of the former soviet socialist republics.
    1983 Samantha Druce, age 12y 119d, is youngest woman to swim English Channel.
    1982 Wang Labs in bankrupcy.      ^top^
          Wang Laboratories fell prey to the intense competition of the computer industry and filed for Chapter 11. It was a hard fall for one of the industry's oldest and most ambitious companies. The brainchild of An Wang, a Chinese-born computer whiz with a Ph.D. from Harvard, Wang Laboratories was founded in the 1951 and grew profitable as a major supplier of microcomputers. By the 1970s, the company had become a "multi-national colossus." However, Wang's headstrong tendencies-he was once described as a "humble egomaniac"-coupled with the company's failure to keep pace with the Personal Computer (PC) eventually eroded profits. On the eve of declaring bankruptcy, Wang's stock shrunk to $.75 a share. However, the world had not heard the last of Wang: the company was reborn in 1993 (and is known today as Wang Global) and has become a leading systems integrator and provider of information technology services worldwide.
    1982 1st time NYSE tops 100 M figure, 132.69 M shares traded
    1977 Xerox abandons Alto PC.      ^top^
          Xerox executives decide not to market the Alto personal computer, developed by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. The Alto, which boasted a graphical user interface and a mouse, might have given Xerox a leading position in personal computing. Instead, Apple's cofounder Steve Jobs, who saw a working version of Alto during a visit to Xerox PARC in December 1979, incorporated many of Alto's ideas into the interfaces for the Apple Lisa and the Apple Macintosh, released in 1984.
    1971 Vietnam: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw troops from Vietnam      ^top^
          Australia and New Zealand announce the end of the year as the deadline for withdrawal of their respective contingents from Vietnam. The Australians had 6'000 men in South Vietnam and the New Zealanders numbered 264. Both nations agreed to leave behind small training contingents. Australian Prime Minister William McMahon proclaimed that the South Vietnamese forces were now able to assume Australia's role in Phuoc Tuy province, southeast of Saigon and that Australia would give South Vietnam $28 million over the next three years for civilian projects. Total Australian losses for the period of their commitment in Vietnam were 473 dead and 2,202 wounded; the monetary cost of the war was $182 million for military expenses and $16 million in civilian assistance to South Vietnam. —
    1970 The Chicago Board of Trade posted the single biggest day of trading in its 122-year history when a record 309 million bushels of grain changed hands, which bested the previous record by 13%.
    1968 Vietnam: Communists launch new offensive      ^top^
          The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launch a limited offensive in the south with 19 separate attacks throughout South Vietnam. In the heaviest fighting in three months, Communist troops attacked key positions along the Cambodian border in Tay Ninh and Binh Long provinces, northwest of Saigon. In Tay Ninh, 600 Viet Cong, supported by elements of two North Vietnamese divisions, attacked the provincial capital, capturing several government installations. US reinforcements from the Twenty-fifth Infantry Division were rushed to the scene and after a day of house-to-house fighting expelled the communists from the city.
    1966 Vietnam: Australians defeat VC at Long Tan      ^top^
          The First Australian Task Force (ATF) inflicts a major defeat on Viet Cong forces in Phuoc Tuy Province. Australia had first sent troops to Vietnam in 1962 and eventually expanded its commitment in response to President Lyndon Johnson's call for "Free World Military Forces" to form an alliance of "Many Flags" in South Vietnam. By 1966, the First Australian Task Force included two infantry battalions and associated logistical support elements; it had also been joined by a New Zealand unit made up of two infantry companies and a Special Air Service troops. In the Battle of Long Tan, the ATF acquitted itself very well, inflicting a major defeat on the communist forces, killing 245 while sustaining 17 dead.
    1966 The first batch of redesigned US $100 bills featuring the motto "In God We Trust" is printed.
    1965 Vietnam: Marines launch Operation Starlite      ^top^
          After a deserter from the First Vietcong Regiment had revealed that an attack was imminent against the US base at Chu Lai, the Marines launch Operation Starlite in the Van Tuong peninsula in Quang Ngai Province. In this, the first major US ground battle of the Vietnam War, 5,500 Marines destroyed a Viet Cong stronghold, scoring a resounding victory. During the operation, which lasted six days, ground forces, artillery from Chu Lai, close air support, and naval gunfire combined to kill nearly 700 Vietcong soldiers. US losses included 45 Marines dead and more than 200 wounded.
    1963 First Black graduate from University of Mississippi.      ^top^
          James Meredith, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, graduates with a degree in political science. His enrollment in the university a year earlier was met with deadly riots, and he subsequently attended class under heavily armed guard. A former serviceman in the US Air Force, Meredith applied and was accepted to the University of Mississippi in 1962, but his admission was revoked when the registrar learned of his race. A federal court ordered "Ole Miss" to admit him, but when he tried to register on September 20, 1962, he found the entrance to the office blocked by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. On September 28, the governor was found guilty of civil contempt and was ordered to cease his interference with desegregation at the university or face arrest and a fine of $10'000 a day. Two days later, Meredith was escorted onto the Ole Miss campus by US Marshals, setting off riots that resulted in the deaths of two students. He returned the next day and began classes. Meredith, who was a transfer student from all-black Jackson State College, graduated the next year. In 1966, Meredith returned to the public eye when he began a lone civil rights march in an attempt to encourage voter registration by African Americans in the South. Known as the "March Against Fear," Meredith intended to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. However, on June 6, just two days into the march, he was sent to a hospital by a sniper's bullet. Other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael, arrived to continue the march on his behalf. It was during the March Against Fear that Carmichael, who was leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, first spoke publicly of "Black Power" — his concept of militant African American nationalism. James Meredith later recovered and rejoined the march he had originated, and on 26 June the marchers successfully reached Jackson, Mississippi.
    1961 Construction of Berlin Wall completed
    1946 Wilkes joins the Moore School lectures      ^top^
          English mathematician Maurice Wilkes of Cambridge University joined the seminal Moore School lectures ten days after they started. Wilkes, who was trying to establish a computer lab at Cambridge, had studied documents about the Moore School's ENIAC computer and was interested in creating a stored memory digital computer himself. He received a last minute invitation to attend the landmark Moore School lectures, which introduced electronic computing to scientists at major universities, but he was unable to secure funding. Finally, he paid for the trip himself.
    1943 Final convoy of Jews from Salonika Greece arrive at Auschwitz
    1941 Hitler suspends euthanasia program      ^top^
          Adolf Hitler, so skilled at manipulating public opinion, could on occasion be influenced by it. He orders that the systematic murder of the mentally ill and handicapped be brought to an end because of protests within Germany.
          In 1939, Dr. Viktor Brack, head of Hitler's Euthanasia Department, oversaw the creation of the T.4 program, which began as the systematic killing of children deemed "mentally defective." Children were transported from all over Germany to a Special Psychiatric Youth Department and killed. Later, certain criteria were established for non-Jewish children. They had to be "certified" mentally ill, schizophrenic, or incapable of working for one reason or another. Jewish children already in mental hospitals, whatever the reason or whatever the prognosis, were automatically to be subject to the program. The victims were either injected with lethal substances or were led to "showers" where the children sat as poison gas flooded the room through pipes. The program was then expanded to adults.
          It wasn't long before protests began mounting within Germany, especially by doctors and clergy. Some had the courage to write Hitler directly and describe the T.4 program as "barbaric"; others circulated their opinions more discreetly. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and the man who would direct the systematic extermination of European Jewry, had only one regret: that the SS had not been put in charge of the whole affair. "We know how to deal with it correctly, without causing useless uproar among the people."
          Finally, in 1941, Bishop Count Clemens von Galen denounced the euthanasia program from his pulpit. Hitler did not need such publicity. He ordered the program suspended, at least in Germany. But 50'000 people had already fallen victim to it. It would be revived in occupied Poland.
    1936 41.4ºC — Hottest afternoon ever in Iowa
    1930 Eastern Airlines begins passenger service
    1927 Nicola Sacco sends this last letter to his son      ^top^
         It is just nine days before his execution together with Vanzetti for a crime they may not have committed and after a trial that would later be recognized as unfair. He tells Dante to care for his mother — "instead of crying, be strong" — and to always consider the plight of the "weak ones that cry for help."
    "Yes, Dante, they can crucify our bodies today as they are doing," Sacco tells his son, "but they cannot destroy our ideas, that will remain for the youth of the future to come."
    THE FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER
    1920 US woman suffrage amendment ratified      ^top^
          The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. The amendment was the culmination of more than 70 years of struggle by woman suffragists. Its two sections read simply: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex" and "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." America's woman suffrage movement was founded in the mid 19th century by women who had become politically active through their work in the abolitionist and temperance movements.
          In July 1848, 200 woman suffragists, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, met in Seneca Falls, New York, to discuss women's rights. After approving measures asserting the right of women to educational and employment opportunities, they passed a resolution that declared "it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise." For proclaiming a woman's right to vote, the Seneca Falls Convention was subjected to public ridicule, and some backers of women's rights withdrew their support. However, the resolution marked the beginning of the woman suffrage movement in the US. The first national women's rights convention was held in 1850 and then repeated annually, providing an important focus for the growing woman suffrage movement. In the Reconstruction era, the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution was adopted, granting African American men the right to vote, but Congress declined to expand enfranchisement into the sphere of gender. In 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to push for a woman suffrage amendment to the US Constitution. Another organization, the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone, was formed in the same year to work through the state legislatures. In 1890, these two groups were united as the National American Woman Suffrage Association. That year, Wyoming became the first US state to grant women the right to vote.
          By the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in American society was changing drastically: Women were working more, receiving a better education, bearing fewer children, and three more states (Colorado, Utah, and Idaho) had yielded to the demand for female enfranchisement. In 1916, the National Woman's Party (formed in 1913 at the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage) decided to adopt a more radical approach to woman suffrage. Instead of questionnaires and lobbying, its members picketed the White House, marched, and staged acts of civil disobedience. In 1917, America entered World War I, and women aided the war effort in various capacities, which helped to break down most of the remaining opposition to woman suffrage. By 1918, women had acquired equal suffrage with men in 15 states, and both the Democratic and Republican parties openly endorsed female enfranchisement. In January 1918, the woman suffrage amendment passed the House of Representatives with the necessary two-thirds majority vote. In June 1919, it was approved by the Senate sent to the states for ratification. Campaigns were waged by suffragists around the country to secure ratification, and on 18 August 1920, Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the amendment. On 26 August it was formally adopted into the Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.
    1914 US President Wilson issues Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping US out of World War I.
    1868 Pierre Janssan discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse
    1864 Battle of Weldon Railroad, Virginia: day 1 of 3.      ^top^
          Union General Ulysses S. Grant tries to cut a vital Confederate lifeline into Petersburg, Virginia, with an attack on the Weldon Railroad. Although the Yankees succeeded in capturing a section of the line, the Confederates simply used wagons to bring supplies from the railhead into the city. Grant's spring campaign against General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia ended at Petersburg, 30 km south of Richmond. In June, Grant ceased frontal assaults, and the two armies settled into trenches for a siege. Grant sought to break the stalemate by severing the Weldon and Petersburg Railroad, which ran south to Weldon, North Carolina. The line was one of two that now supplied Lee's army from other points in the South. Grant's first attack, on 22 June, failed. Now Grant attacked with General Gouvernor K. Warren's corps at the Globe Tavern. On 18 August, Warren's men succeeded in capturing part of the line. In a battle that raged for the next five days, the Confederates tried to recapture the line, but the Yankees remained in control of a short section around the tavern. Despite control over this area, the Union did not prevent the Weldon line from supplying Lee's army. The Confederates simply stopped their trains one day south of Petersburg and used wagons to haul the cargo around the break. On 25 August, a Confederate offensive would return control of the railroad to the Rebels; but nearly four months later, Grant would finally succeed in destroying the railroad.
    1846 General Stephen W Kearney's US forces capture Santa Fe, NM
    1838 1st US marine expedition
    1835 Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago
    1834 Mt Vesuvius erupts
    1817 Gloucester, Mass, newspapers tell of wild sea serpent seen offshore
    1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great arrives in Zaandam.
    1688 Bunyan's last sermon      ^top^
          Puritan clergyman John Bunyan, 69, preaches his last sermon, before dying 13 days later. In 1678 he had authored The Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory describing the difficulties encountered in the Christian life, while journeying through this world.
    BUNYAN ONLINE:
  • A Book for Boys and Girls
  • Christ a Complete Saviour: or, The Intercession of Christ, and Who Are Privileged in It
  • Christian Behaviour
  • Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ: or, A Plain and Profitable Discourse on John 6:37
  • A Discourse Upon the Pharisee and the Publican
  • The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded
  • Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
  • The Holy War
  • The Holy War (another site)
  • I Will Pray With the Spirit, and I Will Pray With the Understanding Also
  • The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
  • The Pilgrim's Progress
  • The Pilgrim's Progress (another site)
  • The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment
  • The Saints' Knowledge of Christ's Love: or, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ
  • Seasonable Counsel: or, Advice to Sufferers
  • The Strait Gate: or, Great Difficulty of Going to Heaven
  • A Treatise of the Fear of God
  • The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate
    • 1686 Cassini reports seeing a satellite orbiting Venus
    1590 Roanoke Colony found deserted.
          John White, the governor of the Roanoke Island colony in present-day North Carolina, returns from a supply-trip to England to find the settlement deserted. White and his men found no trace of the 100 or so colonists he left behind, and there was no sign of violence. Among the missing were Ellinor Dare, White's daughter; and Virginia Dare, White's granddaughter and the first English child born in America. 18 August was to have been Virginia's third birthday. The only clue to their mysterious disappearance was the word "CROATOAN" carved into the palisade that had been built around the settlement. White took the letters to mean that the colonists had moved to Croatoan Island, some 50 miles away, but a later search of the island found none of the settlers.
          The Roanoke Island colony, the first English settlement in the New World, was founded by English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in August 1585. The first Roanoke colonists did not fare well, suffering from dwindling food supplies and Indian attacks, and in 1586 they returned to England aboard a ship captained by Sir Francis Drake. In 1587, Raleigh sent out another group of 100 colonists under John White. White returned to England to procure more supplies, but the war with Spain delayed his return to Roanoke. By the time he finally returned in August 1590, everyone had vanished. In 1998, archaeologists studying tree-ring data from Virginia found that extreme drought conditions persisted between 1587 and 1589. These conditions undoubtedly contributed to the demise of the so-called Lost Colony, but where the settlers went after they left Roanoke remains a mystery. One theory has them being absorbed into an Indian tribe known as the Croatans.
    TO THE TOP
    Deaths which occurred on an 18 August:
    2002 Doyle Hunter, in the morning, from being shot in Friars Point, Mississippi, in the evening of 16 August 2002 by Patrick Harper, who, in the evening of 17 August wounded by a shot in the neck Friars Point Police Chief Anthony Smith who had been trying to arrest him. Just after midnight today, Friars Point officer John Martin Harris and Coahoma County sheriff's deputy Victor Randle are wounded by shots from Harper, who takes Harris hostage. At 03:00 Harper shoots and wounds sheriff's deputy Neal Mitchell and a corrections officer from a SWAT team. At 05:30, Harris calls from inside the home as Harper has fled away. At 06:30 police surround Harper in his grandmother's house and he surrenders at 08:30.
    2001 Abdo Abu Bakra, 29, Palestinian, in clash with Israeli forces making an incursion into the southern Gaza Strip early in the day.
    2001 At least 70 persons in fire of the firetrap budget Manor Hotel in Quezon City, Philippines, between 04:00 when the fire started and 07:30 when firefighters put it out.
    1994: 171 personas por un seísmo en la región argelina de Mascara. Otros 289 resultan heridos.
    1990 B.F. Skinner, 86, psychologist (Skinner Box), from Leukemia
    1988 Gary M. Little, judge involved in sex scandal, suicide.      ^top^
          The “Honorable” Gary M. Little shoots himself just hours before the Seattle Post-Intelligencer releases an article accusing him of abusing his power by sexually exploiting juvenile defendants who appeared before him. The front-page article also suggested that he had exploited his teenage students as a teacher in the 1960s and 1970s. The scandal raised questions about the judicial system, because many people in positions of power had known of the accusations for years but had chosen not to act on the information.
          In 1981, Little's first year as a judge, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer received a tip about Little's unusual relations with juvenile defendants. When the reporter investigated the matter, he found that Little, who was working as a volunteer counselor in juvenile court at the time, had been charged with third-degree assault in 1964. He was accused of assaulting a 16-year-old defendant in his apartment, but the charges had been dismissed. The paper never published the story, but it sparked an investigation by deputies working for King County prosecuting attorney Norm Maleng. Reportedly, Little had visited three male juvenile defendants in detention without their attorneys present. One boy spent the night at the judge's house, and another had spent time with him at his vacation home.
          Little never denied any of the accusations of his contact with the juveniles outside of the court but claimed that he was merely trying to help them. No evidence of sexual contact ever surfaced, but one prosecutor noted that all of the young defendants were handsome, blond, and male, and that there was strong evidence suggesting that the youths who had spent the night with Judge Little had received reduced sentences. The investigators submitted a 107-page complaint with the Judicial Conduct Commission, which dismissed the case and ordered that the information remain confidential.
          Eventually, in 1985, Judge Little was quietly removed from presiding over juvenile cases. Also that year, the first public mention of the subject was published in the Seattle Times. However, the reporter who wrote the article was soon pulled off the case, despite new evidence that came forth after its publication. The issue was once again swept under the rug, where it remained until 1988, when two reporters from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer resumed the investigation. Soon after these reporters obtained affidavits by five former students claiming that Little had used his position as a teacher to extract sexual favors from them, Little announced that he would not run for re-election.
          On the night of 18 August, 1988, Gary Little is found lying in a pool of blood outside his courtroom—three floors below the jail cell where his father, Sterling Little, hanged himself in August 1947 after being arrested in a burglary investigation. Many criticized the Judicial Conduct Commission for its secrecy on the Little case. State Senator Kent Pullen, who was the chairman of the Law and Justice Committee from 1988 to 1989, said that the commission "has almost been brainwashed into thinking its main function is to protect judges. As a result, the government process broke down completely."
    1983, 22 persons, by Hurricane Alicia on the Texas coast. It causes damages of more than $1 billion.
    1976 Two US Army officers, in Korea's “demilitarized” zone, as a group of North Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attack US and South Korean soldiers.
    1961 Learned Hand, 89, Chief judge of US court of Appeals
    1960 Carlo Bonferroni, mathematician
    1959 Harvey Glatmin executed
    1947 Some 300 as naval torpedo and mine factory explodes at Cadiz, Spain.
    1943 Julien Barneuve, fictional character, dies in a fire at 15:28 on the first line of Iain Pears' 2002 novel The Dream of Scipio.
    1940 German and British flyers on the hardest day of the Battle of Britain. 69 Heinkel bombers are downed at the cost of 58 British fighter planes.
    1940 Walter P. Chrysler, US auto tycoon.      ^top^
          Chrysler began his love affair with mechanics as an apprentice in a railroad machine shop, and soon worked his way up to plant manager for the American Locomotive Company. He later went on to become president of the Buick Motor Company, making it the strongest division of General Motors. In 1919, Chrysler resigned from General Motors to take control of the Maxwell Motor Company, which became the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. The new company, featuring a car that Chrysler designed, was soon a success. Today, the Chrysler Company owns Dodge and Plymouth, and is one of the “Big Three” in the American automotive industry.
    1902 John Henry Twachtman, US Impressionist painter born on 04 August 1853. — LINKS — The White Bridge — Beneath the Snow. — Gloucester Harbor — Canal, Venice — The Grand Canal — Springtime — Wild Flowers — In the Sunlight — Arques~la~Bataille — Mother and Child — Gloucester Harbor — On the Terrace
    1896 Alfred Wordsworth Thompson, US artist born on 26 May 1840. —Life on the Towpath
    1890 Albert Dubois-Pillet, French artist born on 28 October 1846.
    1850 Honoré de Balzac, 51, French author who produced a vast collection of novels and short stories called La Comédie humaine.      ^top^
          He helped to establish the orthodox classical novel and is generally considered to be one of the greatest fiction writers of all time.
    BALZAC ONLINE:
    Balzac
  • La Comédie humaine
  • Le Chef d'Oeuvre inconnu
  • Le Colonel Chabert
  • · Le Colonel Chabert
  • Le Colonel Chabert
  • Le Colonel Chabert
  • Le Colonel Chabert
  • Les Chouans
  • El Verdugo
  • Eugénie Grandet
  • Histoire des treize ; Ferragus ; La Duchesse de Langeais ; La fille aux yeux d’or
  • Jésus-Christ en Flandres
  • L'Elixir de Longue Vie
  • L’envers de l’histoire contemporaine — Les précepteurs en Dieu
  • L’illustre Gaudissart ; La muse du département
  • Melmoth réconcilié
  • Sarrasine
  • La cousine Bette
  • La femme de trente ans
  • La Fille aux Yeux d'Or
  • La peau de chagrin
  • Le cabinet des antiques
  • Le cousin Pons
  • Le père Goriot
  • Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes
    Etudes de moeurs. 1er livre, Scènes de la vie privée. T. 1,
  • Traité des Excitants modernes
  • Une Passion dans le Désert
  • Albert Savarus
  • Le bal de Sceaux
  • La maison du chat-qui-pelote
  • La bourse
  • La vendetta
  • Madame Firmiani
  • Une double famille
  • La paix du ménage
  • La fausse maîtresse
  • Etude de femme
    Etudes de moeurs. 1er livre, Scènes de la vie privée. T. 2,
  • Mémoires de deux jeunes mariées
  • Une fille d'Eve
  • La femme abandonnée
  • La grenadière
  • Le message
  • Gobseck
  • Autre étude de femme
    Etudes de moeurs. 1er livre, Scènes de la vie privée. T. 3,
  • Clic pour La femme de trente ans
  • Clic pour Le contrat de mariage
    Etudes de moeurs. 1er livre, Scènes de la vie privée. T. 3-4,
  • Clic pour Béatrix
    Etudes de moeurs. 1er livre, Scènes de la vie privée. T. 4,
  • Clic pour La grande Bretêche
  • Clic pour Modeste Mignon
  • Clic pour Honorine
    Etudes de moeurs. 2e livre, Scènes de la vie de province. T. 1,
  • Clic pour Ursule Mirouët
  • Clic pour Eugénie Grandet
  • Clic pour Les célibataires : Pierrette
    Etudes de moeurs. 2e livre, Scènes de la vie de province. T. 2,
  • Clic pour Les célibataires : le curé de Tours
  • Clic pour Les parisiens en province : L'illustre Gaudissart
  • Clic pour Les célibataires : un ménage de garçon
  • Clic pour Les parisiens en province : la muse du département
    Etudes de moeurs. 2e livre, Scènes de la vie de province. T. 3,
  • Clic pour Les rivalités. 1, La vieille fille
  • Clic pour Les rivalités. 2, Le cabinet des antiques
  • Clic pour Le lys dans la vallée
    Etudes de moeurs. 2e livre, Scènes de la vie de province. T. 4,
  • Clic pour Illusions perdues. 1, Les deux poètes
  • Clic pour Illusions perdues. 2, Un grand homme de province à Paris
  • Clic pour Illusions perdues. 3, Eve et David
    Etudes de moeurs. 3e livre, Scènes de la vie parisienne. T. 1,
  • Clic pour Histoire des treize. 1, Ferragus
  • Clic pour Histoire des treize. 2, La duchesse de Langeais
  • Clic pour Histoire des treize. 3, La fille aux yeux d'or
  • Clic pour Le père Goriot
    Etudes de moeurs. 3e livre, Scènes de la vie parisienne. T. 2,
  • Clic pour Le colonel Chabert
  • Clic pour Facino Cane
  • Clic pour La messe de l'athée
  • Clic pour Sarrasine
  • Clic pour L'interdiction
  • Clic pour Histoire de la grandeur et de la décadence de César Birotteau
    Etudes de moeurs. 3e livre, Scènes de la vie parisienne. T. XI (sic),
  • Clic pour La maison Nucingen
  • Clic pour Pierre Grassou
  • Clic pour Les secrets de la princesse de Cadignan
  • Clic pour Les employés, ou La femme supérieure
    Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes.
  • Clic pour 1, Esther heureuse
  • Clic pour 2, A combien l'amour revient aux vieillards
    Etudes de moeurs. 3e-4e livres, Scènes de la vie parisienne et scènes de la vie politique. T. XII (sic),
  • Clic pour Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. 3, Où mènent les mauvais chemins
  • Clic pour Un prince de Bohême
  • Clic pour Une esquisse d'homme d'affaires
  • Clic pour Gaudissart II
  • Clic pour Les comédiens sans le savoir
  • Clic pour Un épisode sous la terreur
  • Clic pour Une ténébreuse affaire
  • Clic pour Z. Marcas
  • Clic pour Envers de l'histoire contemporaine
    		• Etudes de moeurs. 5e livre, Scènes de la vie militaire et scènes de la vie de campagne.
  • Clic pour Les Chouans
  • Clic pour Une passion dans le désert
    Etudes de moeurs. 6e livre, Scènes de la vie militaire et scènes de la vie de campagne.
  • Clic pour Le médecin de campagne
  • Clic pour Le curé de village
    Etudes philosophiques. T. 1,
  • Clic pour La peau de chagrin
  • Clic pour Jésus-Christ en Flandres
  • Clic pour Melmoth reconcilié
  • Clic pour Le chef d'oeuvre inconnu
  • Clic pour La recherche de l'absolu
    Etudes philosophiques.
  • Clic pour Massimilla Doni
  • Clic pour Gambara
  • Clic pour L'enfant maudit
  • Clic pour Les Marana
  • Clic pour Adieux
  • Clic pour Le réquisitionnaire
  • Clic pour El Verdugo
  • Clic pour Un drame au bord de la mer
  • Clic pour L'auberge rouge
  • Clic pour L'élixir de longue vie
  • Clic pour Maître Cornélius
  • Clic pour Sur Catherine de Médicis. 1, Le martyr calviniste. 2, La confidence des Ruggieri. 3, Les deux rêves
    Etudes philosophiques et études analytiques.
  • Clic pour Les proscrits
  • Clic pour Louis Lambert
  • Clic pour Séraphita
  • Clic pour La physiologie du mariage
    Etudes de moeurs. 3e livre, Scènes de la vie parisienne. Les parents pauvres. 1,
  • Clic pour La cousine Bette
  • Clic pour  Le cousin Pons
    Scènes de la vie parisienne. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. 4,
  • Clic pour La dernière incarnation de Vautrin
    Scènes de la vie politique. L'envers de l'histoire contemporaine.
  • Clic pour 2, L'initié
    Scènes de la vie de campagne.
  • Clic pour Les paysans
    Etudes analytiques.
  • Clic pour Petites misères de la vie conjugale
    Scènes de la vie parisienne. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. 4,
  • Clic pour Les petits bourgeois
    Scènes de la vie politique. L'envers de l'histoire contemporaine. 2,
  • Clic pour Le député d'Arcis

    IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
  • Albert Savarus
  • The Alkahest,
  • The Atheist's Mass
  • Beatrix,
  • The Brotherhood of Consolation,
  • Bureaucracy,
  • Catherine de' Medici,
  • The Chouans,
  • Christ in Flanders
  • Colonel Chabert
  • The Country Doctor
  • Cousin Betty
  • Cousin Pons
  • A Daughter of Eve,
  • The Deputy of Arcis,
  • A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
  • Droll Stories, vol.1
  • Droll Stories, vol.2
  • Droll Stories vol.3
  • The Duchesse de Langeais
  • Eugenie Grandet,
  • Facino Cane
  • Father Goriot
  • Ferragus,
  • Gambara,
  • The Girl with the Golden Eyes,
  • Gobseck
  • An Historical Mystery,
  • The Human Comedy (complete),
  • The Lesser Bourgeoisie,
  • The Lily of the Valley,
  • Lost Illusions Part 1 (The Two Poets)
  • Lost Illusions Part 2 (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
  • Lost Illusions Part 3 (Eve and David)
  • Louis Lambert,
  • The Magic Skin
  • Maitre Cornelius,
  • Maitre Cornelius,
  • The Marriage Contract,
  • Massimilla Doni,
  • Modeste Mignon,
  • An Old Maid,
  • A Passion in the Desert
  • Pierrette,
  • The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau,
  • Sarrasine
  • Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
  • Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan,
  • Seraphita,
  • Sons of the Soil,
  • The Two Brothers,
  • Ursula,
  • The Vicar of Tours,
  • The Village Rector
    Auf Deutsch:
  • Die schöne Imperia
  • Wie der Seneschall mit der Jungfernschaft seiner Frau zu kämpfen hatte
    		•
    1826 Paul Allen, edited 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 (vol1) — (volume 2) (1814), by Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Nicholas Biddle
    1795 Bénigne Gagnereaux, French painter born on 24 September 1756.— [La Révolution n'a pas besoin de peintres?]
    1678 Andrew Marvell, author [Do you marvel at Marvell?]. MARVELL ONLINE: The First Annniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord Protector, The Last Instructions to a Painter, Miscellaneous Poems, Miscellaneous Poems (another site)
    1652 de Beaune, mathematician
    1642 Guido Reni “Le Guide”, Italian Baroque era painter born on 04 November 1575. — MORE ON RENI AT ART “4” AUGUST — LINKS — Phoebus and the Hours, Preceded by Aurora — The Boy Bacchus — Drinking Bacchus — Baptism of Christ — Massacre of the Innocents — St Joseph with the Infant Jesus — a slightly different St Joseph with the Infant Jesus, from Reni's workshop — The Penitent St Mary Magdalene — a different The Penitent St Mary Magdalene — The Triumph of Samson — David with the Head of Goliath — Moses — The Abduction of Dejanira — Atalanta and Hippomenes _ an almost identical, later Atalanta and Hippomenes — Cleopatra — Charity, — Susannah & the Elders — Deianeira Abducted by the Centaur Nessus — Baptism of Christ, — The Coronation of the Virgin — Angels in Glory, after Luca Cambiaso — The Holy Family with St. Clare — Head of an Old Man — Holy Family with Two Angels — Girl Carrying a Cushion, after Parmigianino — Girl With a Crucifix, (after Parmigianino) — The Madonna and Child with Saint — The Holy Family — Portrait of an Old Woman — 24 prints at FAMSF
    1227 Temujin “Genghis Khan”, 65, Mongol conqueror.      ^top^
          Genghis Khan, the Mongol leader who forged an empire stretching from the east coast of China west to the Aral Sea, dies in camp during a campaign against the Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia. The great Khan, who was over 60 and in failing health, may have succumbed to injuries incurred during a fall from a horse in the previous year.
          Genghis Khan was born as Temujin around 1162. His father, a minor Mongol chieftain, died when Temujin was in his early teens. Temujin succeeded him, but the tribe would not obey so young a chief. Temporarily abandoned, Temujin's family was left to fend for themselves in the wilderness of the Steppes.
          By his late teens, Temujin had grown into a feared warrior and charismatic figure who began gathering followers and forging alliances with other Mongol leaders. After his wife was kidnapped by a rival tribe, Temujin organized a military force to defeat the tribe. Successful, he then turned against other clans and tribes and set out to unite the Mongols by force. Many warriors voluntarily came to his side, but those who did not were defeated and then offered the choice of obedience or death. The nobility of conquered tribes were generally executed. By 1206, Temujin was the leader of a great Mongol confederation and was granted the title Genghis Khan, translated as "Oceanic Ruler" or "Universal Ruler."
          Khan promulgated a code of conduct and organized his armies on a system of tens: 10 men to a squad, 10 squads to a company, 10 companies to a regiment, and 10 regiments to a "Tumen," a fearful military unit made up of 10'000 cavalrymen. As nomads, the Mongols were able to breed far more horses than sedentary civilizations, which could not afford to sacrifice farmland for large pastures. All of Khan's warriors were mounted, and half of any given army was made up of armored soldiers wielding swords and lances. Light cavalry archers filled most of the remaining ranks. Khan's family and other trusted clan members led these highly mobile armies, and by 1209 the Mongols were on the move against China.
          Using an extensive network of spies and scouts, Khan detected a weakness in his enemies' defenses and then attacked the point with as many as 250'000 cavalrymen at once. When attacking large cities, the Mongols used sophisticated sieging equipment such as catapults and mangonels and even diverted rivers to flood out the enemy. Most armies and cities crumbled under the overwhelming show of force, and the massacres that followed a Mongol victory eliminated thoughts of further resistance. Those who survived — and millions did not — were granted religious freedom and protection within the rapidly growing Mongol empire. By 1227, Khan had conquered much of Central Asia and made incursions into Eastern Europe, Persia, and India. His great empire stretched from central Russia down to the Aral Sea in the west, and from northern China down to Beijing in the east.
          On 18 August, 1227, while putting down a revolt in the kingdom of Xi Xia, Genghis Khan died. On his deathbed, he ordered that Xi Xia be wiped from the face of the earth. Obedient as always, Khan's successors leveled whole cities and towns, killing or enslaving all their inhabitants. Obeying his order to keep his death secret, Genghis' heirs slaughtered anyone who set eyes on his funeral procession making its way back to Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol empire. Still bringing death as he had in life, many were killed before his corpse was buried in an unmarked grave. His final resting place remains a mystery.
          The Mongol empire continued to grow after Genghis Khan's death, eventually encompassing most of inhabitable Eurasia. The empire disintegrated in the 14th century, but the rulers of many Asian states claimed descendant from Genghis Khan and his captains.
    Births which occurred on an 18 August:
    1996 Netscape Navigator 3.0 Web browser.      ^top^
          Days after Microsoft released its first Web browser, Netscape escalates the browser war by releasing Navigator 3.0, an upgrade of the company's previous browser software. Both companies offered incentives to use their browser, including free subscriptions to several prominent content sites. Although Netscape Navigator remained popular, the company was badly hurt by the browser wars and was purchased by AOL in late 1998.
    1958 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published      ^top^
          Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in the US The novel, about a man's obsession with a 12-year-old girl, had been rejected by four publishers before G.P. Putnam's Sons accepted it. The novel became a bestseller that allowed Nabokov to retire from his career as college professor.
          Nabokov was born in 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russia, into a wealthy and privileged family. He lived in a St. Petersburg townhouse and on a country estate, and learned boxing, tennis, and chess. He grew up speaking both English and Russian, attended Cambridge, and inherited $2 million from an uncle. However, his family lost much of their wealth when the Russian Revolution forced them to flee to Germany. Nabokov earned money by teaching boxing and tennis, and creating Russian crossword puzzles. He worked during the day and wrote at night, sometimes in the bathroom so the light wouldn't bother his family. He wrote many novels and short stories in Russian.
          In 1939, the tall, athletic scholar was invited to Stanford to lecture on Slavic languages. He stayed in the US for 20 years, teaching at Wellesley and Cornell, and pursuing an avid interest in butterflies. (In fact, he was a research fellow at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology and discovered several species and subspecies of butterflies.) He and his wife, Vera, spent summers driving around the US, staying in motels, and looking for butterflies. The motels, the American landscape, and butterflies all figure prominently in various works.
          Nabokov's first novel in English was The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. His most successful books in the US were Lolita and Ada (1969), a family chronicle about a childhood romance between two close relations, which becomes a lifelong obsession between the characters. Nabokov and his wife returned to Europe in 1959, and he died in Switzerland in 1977.
    1937 Toyota Motor Company.      ^top^
          The Toyota Motor Company, Ltd., begun as a division of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, is established. The company underwent huge expansion in the 1960s and 1970s, exporting its smaller, more fuel-efficient cars to countless foreign markets. During this period, Toyota also acquired Hino Motors, Ltd., Nippondenso Company, Ltd., and Daihitsu Motor Company Ltd. Toyota has been Japan’s largest automobile manufacturer for several decades.
    1924 Mohammad Zia Ul-Haq , he would grow up to be dictator of Pakistan (1978-88) and killed on the eve of his 64th birthday.
    1922 Alain Robbe-Grillet France, novelist (Voyeur)
    1919 Walter J Hickel (Gov-R-Alaska)/US Secretary of Interior (1969-71)
    1917 Casper Weinberger US Secretary of Defense (1981-87)
    1916 Elsa Morante Italy, writer (L'isola di Arturo)
    1904 Max Factor Jr CEO (Max Factor Cosmetics)
    1894 The US Bureau of Immigration is established by Congress.
    1872 René Victor Auberjonois, Swiss artist who died in 1957.
    1869 Carl Clemens Moritz Rungius, German~US painter specialized in wildlife who died in 1959 — LINKS
    1862 Frederick Cayley Robinson, British artist who died on 04 January 1927. — LINKS
    1859 Anna Kirstine Ancher, Danish painter who married painter Michael Ancher [09 June 1849 – 1927] in 1880 and died in 1935 — MORE ON  ANNA ANCHER AT ART “4” AUGUST — LINKS — Tulips — Sunshine Room — Wedding in Skagen — Girl in the Kitchen — Carving a Stick — Sunshine in the Blue Room — Anna's Living Room — Young Woman in Front of a Mirror
    1855 Alfred Wallis, British painter who died on 29 August 1942.
    1835 Telemaco Signorini, Italian painter who died on 10 February 1901.
    1834 Marshall Field founded Chicago-based store chain
    1828 Daniel Henry Deniehy, author. DENIEHY ONLINE: The Life and Speeches of Daniel Henry Deniehy (co-author Edward Alfred Martin)
    1811 Anton Schiffer, Austrian painter who died on 13 June 1876.
    1802 Paul Emil Jacobs, German painter who died on 06 January 1866.
    1792 John 1st Earl Russell, Whig prime minister of Great Britain (1846-52, 1865-66), an aristocratic liberal, promoter of progressive legislation, and leader of the fight for passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. Prolific author of biography, history, poetry. He died on 28 May 1878.
    1778 Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen, first to circumnavigate Antarctica
    1774 Meriwether Lewis (explorer: team: Lewis and Clark)
    1758 François Louis Joseph Watteau, French painter who died on 01 December 1823. — Not to be confused with Jean~Antoine Watteau (1684~1721)
    1750 Antonio Salieri, Italian composer (Tatare)
    1685 Brook Taylor, English mathematician, discoverer of Taylor's Theorem that a function may be represented by a Taylor series,
        Taylor's theorem without the remainder was first devised by Taylor in 1712 and published in 1715, but it was not until almost a century later than Lagrange and Cauchy derived approximations of the remainder term after a finite number of terms. These forms are now called the Lagrange remainder and Cauchy remainder.
    1587 Virginia Dare, first American born of English parents (in Virginia, of course) grand-daughter of the Roanoke Island colony governor, John White, who would leave for England on 27 August 1587 to seek assistance for the 117 settlers. By the time he came back with a relief expedition in 1590, there was no trace of any of the settlers, the infant Virginia included. The mystery of the " lost colony" has never been elucidated. Were they killed by Indians? Did they join the Croatoan Indian tribe? No one knows.
    0472 Flavius Ricimer general of the Western Roman Empire, kingmaker
    Religious Observances RC : St Agapitus, martyr / RC : St Helena, empress, mother of Constantine the Great / Ang : William Porcher DuBose, priest
    Thoughts for the day :“No really great man every thought himself so.” [but his mother did]
    “That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be generous.” — George Gissing, English author and critic (1857-1903). [That is not a generous remark]
    “That is one of the bitter curses of wealth; it leaves no merit to be generous.”
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