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On an 26 August:
2002 Gateway (GTW) introduces its new all-in-one Profile 4 computer, resembling the floating, flat-screen IMac of Apple (AAPL), with either a 15- or 17-inch flat-screen monitor connected to the computer's keyboard. Like the IMac, the Profile 4 offers various disk-drive options including CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, and combination a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. Unlike the IMac, the Profile 4 runs on either Pentium 4 or Celeron high-speed processors, both produced by Intel (INTC). It also includes graphics delivered via chips made by Nvidia (NVDA). An entry-level Profile 4 will cost $999 compared to the $1299 starting point for the IMac.

2002 Free at last, thanks to DNA
      After 17 years in prison, Eddie Joe Lloyd [photo >] is freed. He had been found guilty of raping and murdering Michelle Jackson, 16, on 24 January 1984, in Detroit. He had confessed but recent DNA tests showed that he couldn't have been the killer. Lloyd was a patient at the Detroit Psychiatric Institute and on medication when police said that he confessed on audiotape. DNA tests just completed show Lloyd didn't commit the crime, and Detroit police and prosecutors joined in calling on Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Leonard Townsend to release Lloyd from prison.
      The case has bolstered calls for a probe into Detroit police methods. While throwing out the conviction, Townsend, who was the original trial judge, put part of the blame on Lloyd. “Even though he may have lied about what he did, the fault falls on him,”' Townsend said. “I never heard this gentleman say, `I didn't do it.’”
      Lloyd becomes the 110th convicted person in the United States and the first in Michigan to be exonerated by DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project, which seeks to use DNA evidence to help innocent prisoners. DNA testing techniques were not available to help defendants until the last decade or so. The DNA break could lead to even more scrutiny of the Detroit Police Department, which has been the target of an investigation by the US Justice Department since 2000 for fatal shootings by officers, claims of prisoner mistreatment and other alleged misconduct.
     Barry Scheck, an attorney with the Innocence Project, and Saul Green, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, will ask federal officials to investigate Detroit police in the Lloyd case. Lloyd was sentenced to life in prison in the rape and murder of Jackson after his purported confession. Lloyd had contacted police after overhearing details about the case at a convenience store. Detroit Police Inspector William Rice, who was present when Lloyd “confessed”, said the department agreed that the conviction should be thrown out. But he said that at the time, the confession Lloyd gave was compelling. But Scheck said it wasn't really a confession. He said police got it by telling Lloyd that he could help “smoke out” the real perpetrator and provided him with details of the crime that he couldn't have known.
prisoner ID bracelet is removed

Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan said his office doesn't believe there was willful wrongdoing by police. The DNA evidence in Jackson's slaying was gathered from a bottle and the long johns used to strangle the girl, found at the crime scene, as well as from vaginal slides discovered three weeks ago. The DNA doesn't match any samples in the FBI's database, meaning Lloyd couldn't have committed the crime. The case illustrates the need for recording interrogations, and for using special caution when questioning people who are mentally ill or mentally retarded.
If Michigan had the death penalty, Lloyd would have been sentenced to death, for the judge lamented that the court could not impose the death penalty. The Innocence Project has been working on the Lloyd case for seven years. Other recent cases the project has handled include that of a St. Louis man who spent nearly 18 years behind bars for rape. A Michigan law that went into effect in 2001 allows inmates to ask the court for DNA testing and a new trial if they can show the tests might prove their innocence.
[< photo: prisoner identification bracelet is removed from Lloyd's wrist]

1998 US export restrictions on encryption challenged. A federal judge rules that export regulations on encryption technology are unconstitutional. The judge affirms an earlier ruling she had made, prohibiting the government from prosecuting a mathematics professor at the University of Illinois. The battle over encryption export restrictions, however, would wage on, as the government would appeal the decision.

1996 Newspapers report that China has cracked down on Internet access, blocking some 100 Web sites containing content that the government found objectionable.

1994 Fugitive financier brought to justice (or 1996?)
One of America's most notorious fugitives, financier Robert Vesco, finally landed in jail on a thirteen-year sentence for "economic crimes against the state." The Detroit native was found guilty of defrauding Cuba's state-run pharmaceutical agency during the development of TX, a plant-based "wonder drug" that was reputed to help prevent AIDS and cancer. It wasn't the first time that Vesco had run afoul of the law: in the early 1970s he was charged with making illegal contributions to Richard Nixon's reelection campaign. The government indicted the financier, but rather than serve time, he fled to Latin America. Vesco was also charged with trying to swindle mutual fund investors out of $224 million.

1993 Russian President Boris Yeltsin signs a friendship treaty with the Czech Republic after condemning the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
1991 In an address to the Supreme Soviet, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised national elections in a last-ditch effort to preserve his government, but leaders of Soviet republics told him the hour of central power had passed.

1985 The Yugo car, manufactured in Yugoslavia, is introduced to the US market as a lower-cost alternative, it would quickly became infamous for its poor quality of construction and be the butt of many jokes.

1980 Extorsionist's 450-kg bomb destroys casino
      Workers at Harvey's Resort and Casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, discover a 450-kg bomb disguised as a copy machine in an executive suite. A ransom note attached to device demands $3 million to be paid in return for instructions on how to defuse the bomb. As experts from the bomb squad examined the complex, handmade explosive containing a control box with 28 switches, the hotel is evacuated and the adjoining streets shut down. However, the nearby casino remains open to the gamblers so addicted that they are willing to gamble their lives.
      The extortionist demands that a helicopter fly $3 million in cash to an area south of the Lake Tahoe airport where a strobe light would give further coded instructions. But when the FBI violate the ransom instructions by contacting the helicopter by radio, the plan goes awry and the bomb squad is left to dismantle the bomb. From the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, experts try to do it with robots. But he bomb explodes, demolishing the hotel. Luckily, none of the gamblers are killed.
      After remaining at large for nearly a year, the four perpetrators were arrested by FBI agents in 1981. John Waldo Birges, who had lost a large amount of money at the casino in the months before the bomb exploded, orchestrated the plan with the help from his girlfriend, Ella Williams, and two other men. His sons later testified that he stole the TNT from a construction site. Birges was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Harvey's Resort and Casino was eventually rebuilt.

1978 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice, 65, is elevated to the papacy as John Paul I. His unexpected death only 34 days later left a profound sadness for millions of people who had been drawn to him by his warm personality. Conspiracy theories centered on the Vatican bank and its Bishop Marcinkus. 1957, the Soviet Union announced it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.

1975 Venice stops sinking into sea: The ancient city of Venice was founded more than 1500 years ago, built on 118 small islands. By the early 1960s, rising seawater and floods threatened Venice. Scientists determined that Venice was sinking, and that much of the city would disappear if swift measures were not taken. An international plan began to show significant results on 26 August 1975.

1968 Protesters at opening of Democratic National Convention
As the Democratic National Convention got underway in Chicago, Illinois, thousands of antiwar demonstrators took to Chicago's streets to protest the Vietnam War and its support by the top Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. During the four-day convention, the most violent in US history, police and national guardsmen clashed with protesters outside the International Amphitheater, and hundreds of people, including innocent bystanders, were beaten by the Chicago police. The violence even spilled into the convention hall, as guards roughed up delegates and members of the press, including CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace, who was punched in the face. On August 29, Humphrey secured the nomination and the convention ended.
In the convention's aftermath, a federal commission investigating the convention described one of the confrontations as a "police riot" and blamed Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for inciting his police to violence. Nevertheless, eight political radicals — the so-called "Chicago Eight" — were arrested on charges of conspiring to incite the violence, and in 1969 their trial began in Chicago, sparking new waves of protest in the city.

1966 A portentous drop for the Dow
After a four-year period of growth and gain, the markets posted their first significant drop. The Dow sunk to 776.22, a decline which effectively wiped out half of the gains the markets had racked up during the run, which stretched from a missile-crisis low in '62 to a peak in the winter of '66. It was a whisper of the tough economic times that would come with the dawn of the '70s.

1964 LBJ nominated at Democratic convention in Atlantic City, NJ

1957 Russia tests an intercontinental ballistic missile      ^top^
      The Soviet Union announces that it has successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of being fired "into any part of the world." The announcement caused great concern in the United States, and started a national debate over the "missile gap" between America and Russia.
      For years after World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union had been trying to perfect a long-range missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Building on the successes of Nazi Germany in developing the V-1 and V-2 rockets that pummeled Great Britain during the last months of World War II, both American and Russian scientists raced to improve the range and accuracy of such missiles. (Both nations relied heavily on captured German scientists in their efforts.) In July 1957, the United States seemed to win the race when the Atlas, an ICBM with a speed of up to 30'000 km/h and an effective range of 8000 km, was ready for testing.
      The test, however, was a disaster. The missile rose only about 1500 m into the air, tumbled, and plunged to earth. Just a month later, the Soviets claimed success by announcing that their own ICBM had been tested, had "covered a huge distance in a brief time," and "landed in the target area." No details were given in the Russian announcement and some commentators in the United States doubted that the ICBM test had been as successful as claimed. Nevertheless, the Soviet possession of this "ultimate weapon," coupled with recent successful test by the Russians of atomic and hydrogen bombs, raised concerns in America. If the Soviets did indeed perfect their ICBM, no part of the United States would be completely safe from possible atomic attack.
      Less than two months later, the Soviets sent the satellite Sputnik into space. Concern quickly turned to fear in the United States, as it appeared that the Russians were gaining the upper hand in the arms and space races. The American government accelerated its own missile and space programs. The Soviet successes — and American failures — became an issue in the 1960 presidential campaign. Democratic challenger John F. Kennedy charged that the outgoing Eisenhower administration had allowed a dangerous "missile gap" to develop between the United States and the Soviet Union. Following his victory in 1960, Kennedy made missile development and the space program priorities for his presidency.

1944 DeGaulle enters a freed Paris (515 years to the day after Joan of Arc)
      General Charles de Gaulle enters Paris, which had formally been liberated the day before. As he entered the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, French collaborationists take a few sniper shots at him. "There are many moments that go beyond each of our poor little lives," he was quoted at the time. "Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyrized! But Paris liberated!"
      For de Gaulle, the liberation of Paris was the end of a long history of fighting Germans. He sustained multiple injuries fighting at Verdun in World War I. He escaped German POW camps five times, only to be recaptured each time. (At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, it was hard for de Gaulle to be inconspicuous.) At the beginning of World War II, de Gaulle was commander of a tank brigade. He was admired as a courageous leader and made a brigadier general in May 1940. After the German invasion of France, he became undersecretary of state for defense and war in the Reynaud government, but when Reynaud resigned, and Field Marshal Philippe Pétain stepped in, a puppet of the German occupiers, de Gaulle left for England.
      On 18 June 1940, de Gaulle took to the radio airwaves to make an appeal to his fellow French not to accept the armistice being sought by Pétain, but to continue fighting under his command. Ten days later, Britain formally acknowledged de Gaulle as the leader of the "Free French Forces," which was at first little more than those French troops stationed in England, volunteers from Frenchmen already living in England, and units of the French navy.
      De Gaulle would prove an adept wartime politician, finally winning recognition and respect from the Allies and his fellow countrymen. He returned to Paris from Algiers, where he had moved the headquarters of the Free French Forces and formed a "shadow government" in September 1943. On the eve of the Normandy invasion, de Gaulle demanded that his government be regarded as the "official" government of all liberated areas of France. General Dwight Eisenhower, commander of the D-Day invasion, agreed to "not recognize" any government entity other than de Gaulle's. De Gaulle went on to head two provisional governments before resigning.

1943 The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.
1942 7000 Jews rounded up in Vichy Free Zone of France
1940 The LaSalle car, manufactured by Cadillac, is discontinued after fourteen years of production. Intended to boost profits during a lag in luxury car sales, the LaSalle was a moderately priced alternative to the opulence of the Cadillac. The company chose to market the car under a new name so as not to lessen the value of the Cadillac name.

1932 Relief for Depression Homeowners
The nation was stuck in the depths of the Depression: the unemployment rolls were swelling and an increasing number of Americans couldn't keep up with payments on their homes. In a move to offer some relief to the public, the controller of currency announced a temporary halt on foreclosures of first mortgages.

1920: 19th Amendment to US Constitution is ratified: women may vote.
     The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is adopted into the US Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. 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.

     The US'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. On 19 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 women'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 America.
      The first national woman'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 the Republican-dominated Congress failed to expand its progressive radicalism 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 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 that helped 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 and sent to the states for ratification. Campaigns were waged by suffragists around the country to secure ratification, and on 18 August 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land.
      The package containing the certified record of the action of the Tennessee legislature was sent by train to the nation's capital, arriving in the early hours of 26 August. At 08:00. that morning, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed it without ceremony at his residence in Washington. None of the leaders of the woman suffrage movement were present when the proclamation was signed, and no photographers or film cameras recorded the event. That afternoon, Carrie Chapman Catt, head of the National American Suffrage Association, was received at the White House by President Woodrow Wilson and Edith Wilson, the first lady.

1907 Houdini escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 sec

1863 Engagement at White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia
1863 Siege of Fort Wagner, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues

1862 Second Bull Run campaign begins      ^top^
     Confederate General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson encircles the Union Army under General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
      The stage is set for the Second Battle of Bull Run on this day when Confederate cavalry under General Fitzhugh Lee enter Manassas Junction and capture the rail center. Union General John Pope's Army of Virginia was soon on its way, and the two armies would clash on August 29.
      In August 1862, the action shifted from the James Peninsula, southeast of Richmond, to northern Virginia. The peninsula had been the scene of a major campaign in June, when Union General George McClellan and his Army of the Potomac attempted to capture Richmond, but were thwarted by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the Seven Days' Battles.
      By August, it was clear that McClellan would not make another attempt on the Confederate capital. President Lincoln began moving troops from McClellan's force to General John Pope's Army of Virginia in the northern part of the state. Lee sent one of his corps, commanded by General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, to keep an eye on the growing Federal presence.
      Pope's army was scattered around the area east of Washington from Manassas to the Shenandoah Valley. Approaching the area with the intent of driving Pope away, Jackson and his force captured Bristoe Station southwest of Manassas. On 26 August the Confederates captured Manassas and began looting and destroying Pope's huge supply depot located there. Pope was surprised by the large Rebel force operating in his rear, but he also realized that Jackson was detached from the rest of Lee's army and so he began gathering his forces around Manassas.
      But Pope soon had a new problem: He could not find Jackson. From 26 August until the beginning of Second Bull Run on August 29, Pope's men searched for Jackson, who had hidden his army in the trees along Bull Run. On 29 August, Jackson surprised Pope and the battle was on. The rest of Lee's army showed up, and the result was a major victory for the Confederacy.

1858 The first news dispatch sent by commercial telegraph is received, by the New York Sun. The dispatch announces that Britain and France have signed a peace treaty with China. The dispatch is printed in the Sun the following day.
1847 Liberia is proclaimed an independent republic.

1839 Amistad mutinous slave ship captured off Long Island
      The USS. Washington, a US Navy brig, seizes the Cuban schooner Amistad off the coast of Long Island, New York, and escorts it to New London, Connecticut. Two months before, the Africans aboard the slave ship had seized control of the vessel in a bloody mutiny. In 1807, the US Congress joined with Great Britain in abolishing the African slave trade; although the trading of slaves within the US was not prohibited. Despite the international ban on the import of African slaves, Spain and Portugal continued to transport and accept captive Africans to their American colonies until the 1860s. On 28 June 1839, fifty-three slaves recently captured in Africa left Havana, Cuba, aboard the Amistad schooner for a life of slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Principe. Three days later, Sengbe Pieh, a Membe African known as Cinque, freed himself and the other slaves and planned a mutiny. Early in the morning of 02 July, in the midst of a storm, the Africans rose up against their captors and, using sugar cane knives found in the hold, killed the captain of the vessel and a crewmember. Two other crewmembers were either thrown overboard or escaped, and José Ruiz and Pedro Montes, the two Cubans who had purchased the slaves, were captured. Cinque ordered the Cubans to sail the Amistad east back to Africa. During the day Ruiz and Montes complied, but at night they would turn the vessel in a northerly direction, toward US waters. After almost nearly two difficult months at sea, during which time over a dozen Africans perished, the so-called "black schooner" was first spotted by US vessels.
      On 26 August the USS. Washington seizes the Amistad and escorts it to New London. Ruiz and Montes are freed and the Africans are imprisoned pending an investigation of the Amistad revolt. The two Cubans demanded the return of their supposedly Cuban-born slaves, while the Spanish government called for the Africans' extradition to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder. In opposition to both groups, US abolitionists advocated the return of the illegally bought slaves to Africa.
      The story of the Amistad mutiny garnered widespread attention, and US abolitionists succeeded in winning a trial in a US court. Before a federal district court in Connecticut, Cinque, who was taught English by his new US friends, testified on his own behalf. On 13 January 1840, Judge Andrew Judson ruled that the Africans were illegally enslaved, that they would not be returned to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder, and that they should be granted free passage back to Africa. The Spanish authorities and US President Martin Van Buren appealed the decision, but another federal district court upheld Judson's findings.
      President Van Buren, in opposition to the abolitionist faction in Congress, appealed the decision again, and on 22 February 1841, the US Supreme Court began hearing the Amistad case. US Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829, joined the Africans' defense team. In Congress, Adams had been an eloquent opponent of slavery, and before the nation's highest court he presented a coherent argument for the release of Cinque and the thirty-four other survivors of the Amistad. On 09 March 1841, the Supreme Court ruled, with only one dissent, that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and had thus exercised a natural right to fight for their freedom.
      In November 1841, with the financial assistance of their abolitionist allies, the Amistad Africans departed from the US aboard the Gentleman on a voyage back to West Africa. Some of the Africans helped establish a Christian mission in Sierra Leone, but most, like Cinque, returned to their homelands in the African interior. One of the survivors, who was a child when taken aboard the Amistad as a slave, eventually returned to the United States. Originally named Margru, she studied at Ohio's integrated and coeducational Oberlin College in the late 1840s, before returning to Sierra Leone as evangelical missionary Sara Margru Kinson.

1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson meets Thomas Carlyle
      Ralph Waldo Emerson met influential British writer Thomas Carlyle, with whom he would correspond for 38 years. Carlyle and the English romantic poets would have an important effect on Emerson's work.
      Ralph Waldo Emerson came from a long line of American ministers. He enjoyed a sheltered childhood in Boston, and attended Harvard Divinity School. Although Emerson accepted a position as pastor of a Boston Church in 1829, the death of his wife in 1831 deepened his existing religious doubts. He resigned two years later, explaining to his congregation that he had started to doubt the sacraments. He moved to Concord, then set off for Europe where he met leading writers and thinkers of the day. During a visit to a Paris botanical garden, he decided to become a "naturalist."
      In 1836, Emerson published an anonymous booklet called Nature, that questioned traditional concepts of God and nature. Influenced by Hindu texts and English Romanticism, he argued that man can rise above the material world and discover a sense of transcendent spirituality. Nature defined the philosophy that would inform his future essays, lectures and poetry. He championed individual spirit, instinct and intellect over traditional religion, education and thought.
      In the 1840s, Emerson would join the Transcendentalist movement, and found The Dial, a magazine of Transcendentalist thought edited at first by Margaret Fuller, then by Emerson. His two volumes of essays, published in 1841 and 1844, including essays like Self Reliance, made him world famous. His 1847 poetry collection, May-Day and Other Pieces included Concord Hymn, about the battle of Concord which included the famous line "the shot heard round the world." In Representative Men (1850), he wrote sketches of his role models including Napoléon and Shakespeare.
      Emerson's later work became less idealistic and more pragmatic. In The Conduct of Life, considered by some critics to be his most mature work, he takes a compassionate, philosophic approach to human frailty. Enerson's writings were extremely influential with American writers including Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and many others. He died in Concord in 1882 and is buried in the same cemetery as Louisa May Alcott.

1804 Lewis and Clark promote Patrick Gass to sergeant      ^top^
      Following the death of Sergeant Charles Floyd, Lewis and Clark promote Patrick Gass as his replacement. Barely three months into their journey to the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lost the only man to die on the journey. On August 20, 1804, Sergeant Charles Floyd died from a disease Lewis diagnosed as "Biliose Chorlick," or bilious colic. Based on the symptoms described, Floyd's appendix had probably ruptured and he died of peritonitis. After burying Floyd on a high bluff above the Missouri River, the expedition moved on toward the Pacific Ocean. Two days later, the captains held an election among the men to determine Floyd's replacement. Private Patrick Gass received a majority of the votes. A native of Pennsylvania, Gass had joined the US Army in 1799 at the age of 28. He proved to be a reliable soldier and soon won promotion to sergeant. When a call for volunteers to join Lewis and Clark's journey of exploration to the Pacific was released, Gass jumped at the chance. Lewis overrode the commander's objections to giving up his best noncommissioned officer, and Gass joined the Corps of Discovery as a private. Gass proved himself a capable man in the first weeks of the mission. The captains agreed with their men — Gass was the best choice to replace Floyd as one of the two sergeants on the expedition.
      On this day, Lewis issues an order promoting Gass to the rank of "Sergeant in the corps of volunteers for North Western Discovery." Gass would prove more than equal to the task. He served faithfully during the long journey to the Pacific and kept a careful journal throughout the journey, an important historical contribution. After the expedition returned, Lewis and Clark released Gass from duty, giving him a letter testifying to his excellent service. Gass settled in Wellsburg, West Virginia, where he prepared for the publication of his journal. Appearing seven years before the official narrative of the journey was published, A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery was a well-crafted account of the journey that continues to be useful to historians. Having already completed the adventure of a lifetime, Gass still had many decades ahead of him. He served again in the army, lost an eye during the War of 1812, married at the age of 58, and fathered seven children. For most of his later years, Gass was the sole surviving member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He lived until 1870, dying only a few months short of his 100th birthday.

1789 The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approves the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.
La Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen: s'inspire des idées des philosophes: Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau et exprime l'idéal de la Révolution; établit la séparation des pouvoirs législatifs, exécutifs et judiciaires.
( Décrétés par l'Assemblée Nationale dans les séances des 20,21,23,24 et 26 août 1789, acceptés par le roi.)

Les représentants du peuple français, constitués en Assemblée nationale, considérant que l'ignorance, l'oubli ou le mépris des droits de l'homme sont les seules causes des malheurs publics et de la corruption des Gouvernements, ont résolu d'exposer, dans une déclaration solennelle, les Droits naturels, inaliénables et sacrés de l'homme, afin que cette déclaration, constamment présente à tous les membres du corps social, leur rappelle sans cesse leurs droits et leurs devoirs ; afin que les actes du pouvoir législatif et ceux du pouvoir exécutif, pouvant être à chaque instant comparés avec le but de toute institution politique, en soient plus respectés ; afin que les réclamations des citoyens, fondées désormais sur des principes simples et incontestables, tournent toujours au maintien de la constitution et au bonheur de tous. En conséquence, l'Assemblée Nationale reconnaît et déclare, en présence et sous les auspices de l'Etre Suprême, les droits suivants de l'Homme et du Citoyen.

art1 : Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits ; les distinctions sociales ne peuvent être fondées que sur l'utilité commune.

art2 : Le but de toute association politique est la conservation des droits naturels et imprescriptibles de l'homme ; ces droits sont la liberté, la propriété, la sûreté et la résistance à l'oppression.

art3 : Le principe de toute souveraineté réside essentiellement dans la nation, nul corps, nul individu ne peut exercer d'autorité qui n'en émane expressément.

art 4 : La liberté consiste à pouvoir faire tout ce qui ne nuit pas à autrui ; ainsi, l'exercice des droits naturels de chaque homme n'a de bornes que celles qui assurent aux autres membres de la société la jouissance de ces mêmes droits. Ces bornes ne peuvent être déterminées que par la Loi.

art.5 : La Loi n'a le droit de défendre que les actions nuisibles à la société. tout ce qui n'est pas défendu par la Loi ne peut-être empêché, et nul ne peut-être contraint à faire ce qu'elle n'ordonne pas.

art.6 : La Loi est l'expression de la volonté générale. Tous les citoyens ont le droit de concourir personnellement, ou par leurs représentants, à sa formation. Elle doit être la même pour tous, soit qu'elle protège, soit qu'elle punisse. Tous les citoyens étant égaux à ses yeux, sont également admissible à toutes dignités, places et emplois publics, selon leur capacité, et sans autre distinction que celle de leurs vertus et de leurs talents.

art.7 : Nul homme ne peut-être accusé, arrêté ni détenu que dans les cas déterminés par la Loi, et selon les formes qu'elle a prescrites. Ceux qui sollicitent, expédient, exécutent ou font exécuter des ordres arbitraires, doivent être punis ; mais tout citoyen appelé ou saisi en vertu de la Loi, doit obéir à l'instant : il se rend coupable par la résistance.

art.8 : La Loi ne doit établir que des peines strictement et évidemment nécessaires, et nul ne peut être puni qu'en vertu d'une loi établie et promulguée antérieurement au délit, et légalement appliquée.

art.9 : Tout homme étant présumé innocent jusqu'à ce qu'il ait été déclaré coupable, s'il est jugé indispensable de l'arrêter, toute rigueur qui ne serait pas nécessaire pour s'assurer de sa personne, doit être sévèrement réprimée par la Loi.

art.10 : Nul ne doit être inquiété pour ses opinions, même religieuses, pourvu que leur manifestation ne trouble pas l'ordre public établi par la Loi.

art.11 : La libre communication des pensées et des opinions est un des droits les plus précieux de l'homme ; tout citoyen peut donc parler, écrire, imprimer librement sauf à répondre de l'abus de cette liberté dans les cas déterminés par la Loi.

art.12 : La garantie des Droits et l'Homme et du Citoyen nécessite une force publique ; cette force est donc instituée pour l'avantage de tous, et non pour l'utilité particulière de ceux auxquels elle est confiée.

art.13 : Pour l'entretien de la force publique, et pour les dépenses d'administration, une contribution commune est indispensable : elle doit être également répartie entre tous les citoyens, en raison de leurs facultés.

art.14 : Tous les citoyens ont le droit de constater, par eux mêmes ou par leurs représentants, la nécessité de la contribution publique, de la consentir librement, d'en suivre l'emploi, et d'en déterminer la quotité, l'assiette, le recouvrement et la durée.

art.15 : La société a le droit de demander comptes à tout agent public de son administration.

art.16 : Toute société dans laquelle la garantie des droits n'est pas assurée, ni la séparation des pouvoirs déterminée, n'a point de constitution.

art. 17 : La propriété étant un droit inviolable et sacré, nul ne peut en être privé, si ce n'est lorsque la nécessité publique, légalement constatée, l'exige évidemment, et sous la condition d'une juste et préalable indemnité.

1629 Cambridge Agreement, Mass Bay Co stockholders agree to emigrate
1498 In Rome, Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, 23 [06 March 1475 – 18 February 1564], is commissioned by Pope Alexander VI to carve the Pietà (or another photo, with details) Mary lamenting over the dead body of Jesus, whom she holds across her lap). The work was completed in 1501.
1429 Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.
1017 Turks defeat the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manikert, Eastern Turkey.
— 55 B.C. Roman forces under Julius Caesar invade Britain.

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Deaths which occurred on an 26 August:
2002 Joann Ball, 35; her sons Jerry Ball, 18, Tony Ball, 16, and John Ball, 14; her mother Mila Ruth Ball, 62; and her husband Willie Hasley, 40, shot in the evening near Rutledge, Crenshaw county, Alabama, at Joann's mobile home and Mila's nearby house, by unemployed Westley Devone Harris, 22, mate of Janice Denise Ball, 16 (daughter of Joann Ball), and father of her 1-year-old baby, who would be arrested on 30 August 2002 (he is out on bond after a 02 November arrest for distribution of crack cocaine).

1986 Some 1700 inhabitants of the valley below Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon      ^top^
      They mysteriously died on the evening of 26 August 1986. Word of the disaster spread, and scientists arrived from around the world. What they discovered was that the crater lake, perched inside a dormant volcano, had become laden with carbon dioxide gas. This gas had suddenly bubbled out of the lake and asphyxiated nearly every living being in the surrounding valley community.
     The disaster, however odd, wasn't unique. Two years earlier, Lake Monoun, 100 km to the southeast, released a heavy cloud of toxic gas, killing 37 people. A third lake, Lake Kivu, on the Congo-Rwanda border in Central Africa, is also known to act as a reservoir of carbon dioxide and methane, a valuable natural gas that is gathered from the lake and used locally.
     These three lakes are the only ones in the world known to contain high concentrations of carbon dioxide in their waters. More typically, the gas is released into the atmosphere in harmlessly bubbling soda springs, which can be found around the world.
     The science behind the disaster is fairly simple. Lake Nyos is a deep pool of water sitting in the throat of a dormant volcano. The real culprit is a pool of hot magma, lying almost 80 km below the lake. The magma releases the carbon dioxide and other gases, which travel upward through the earth. The gases gets trapped in natural spring water, which eventually rises toward the surface and feed into the crater lake.
     The carbon dioxide, instead of being released harmlessly into the atmosphere, collects in the cold water at the bottom of the lake. The amount of gas that can be dissolved in the water is dependent on water temperature and pressure. The greater the pressure, the more gas can be trapped. None of this would be particularly hazardous if the water at the bottom of the lake were to regularly rise to the surface, where the gas could be safely released. The problem is that the waters of Lake Nyos, like many tropical lakes, are steady and still, with little annual mixing of the water layers.
     Over time, the lowest levels of the lake become more and more saturated with gas. And eventually, when they reach 100% saturation, the gas can bubble spontaneously out of the lake, creating a foaming column of carbonated water. This eruption, or release, can be triggered even before saturation is reached by a landslide, earthquake, violent storm, or other disturbance of the waters.
     The eruption itself isn't dangerous, but the suddenly released gas cloud can be fatal. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air, and when released, it pours over the rim of the crater and slides down into the surrounding low-lying valley. Carbon dioxide normally makes up 0.03% of air, and concentrations of more than 10% can be fatal. The unfortunate villagers around Lake Nyos literally suffocated under the heavy poisonous cloud of gas.
     Today, both Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun contain more gas than was released during the last disasters. At the very greatest depths, Lake Nyos is about 60% saturated with carbon dioxide, and the waters of Lake Monoun are 83% saturated. Recent scientific studies show that the gas concentrations in both lakes is increasing rapidly, and that another lethal gas release is inevitable.
     In an effort to side-step another catastrophe, an international team of scientists, supported by the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, have developed a plan to try to remove the gas from the lakes. The plan is to place large pipes in Lakes Nyos and Monoun. These pipes, each about five inches in diameter, will be placed on a floating platform and sent down to the lowest layers of water, creating a vent to the surface. Water will be pumped from the bottom of the lake, and the gas-water fountain that results releases the carbon dioxide harmlessly into the atmosphere.
     Currently, there is funding to place one pipe in Lake Monoun, which will slowly remove the gas stored in the lake over the next five years. A pipe will also be placed in Lake Nyos, which should be sufficient to prevent the further build up of carbon dioxide, but since this lake is considerably bigger than Monoun, six to ten pipes will eventually be needed to remove all the gas stored in the lake.
     The vent pipes should be placed in September 2000, just after the next rainy season. Since this plan is novel, and results a little uncertain, the scientists installing the pipes will evacuate everyone from the area while the work is underway.

1984: Truman Capote, author.
1981 Roger Nash Baldwin founder of the ACLU
1977 HA Rey, 78, author of popular constellation book
1977 Robert Schatten, mathematician

1974 Charles Augustus Lindbergh, 72, in his Hawaiian home.
      Lindbergh was the first man to the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean. Born in Detroit in 1902, he had taken up flying at the age of 20. In 1923, he bought a surplus World War I Curtiss "Jenny" biplane and toured the US as a barnstorming stunt flyer. In 1924, he enrolled in the Army Air Service flying school in Texas and graduated at the top of his class as a first lieutenant. He became an airmail pilot in 1926 and pioneered the route between St. Louis and Chicago. Among US aviators, he was highly regarded.
      In May 1919, the first transatlantic flight was made by a US hydroplane that flew from New York to Plymouth, England, via Newfoundland, the Azores Islands, and Lisbon. Later that month, Frenchman Raymond Orteig, an owner of hotels in New York, put up a purse of $25'000 to the first aviator or aviators to fly nonstop from Paris to New York or New York to Paris. In June 1919, the British fliers John W. Alcock and Arthur W. Brown made the first nonstop transatlantic flight, flying 3150 km from Newfoundland to Ireland. The flight from New York to Paris would be nearly twice that distance.
      Orteig said his challenge would be good for five years. In 1926, with no one having attempted the flight, Orteig made the offer again. By this time, aircraft technology had advanced to a point where a few people did believe such a flight might be possible. Several of the world's top aviators — including American polar explorer Richard Byrd and French flying ace René Fonck — decided to accept the challenge, and so did Charles Lindbergh.
      Lindbergh convinced the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce to sponsor the flight, and a budget of $15'000 was set. The Ryan Airlines Corporation of San Diego volunteered to build a single-engine aircraft to his specifications. Extra fuel tanks were added, and the wing span was increased to 46 feet to accommodate the additional weight. The main fuel tank was placed in front of the cockpit because it would be safest there in the event of a crash. This meant Lindbergh would have no forward vision, so a periscope was added. To reduce weight, everything that was not utterly essential was left out. There would be no radio, gas gauge, night-flying lights, navigation equipment, or parachute. Lindbergh would sit in a light seat made of wicker. Unlike other aviators attempting the flight, Lindbergh would be alone, with no navigator or co-pilot.
      The aircraft was christened The Spirit of St. Louis, and on 12 May 1927, Lindbergh flew it from San Diego to New York, setting a new record for the fastest transcontinental flight. Bad weather delayed Lindbergh's transatlantic attempt for a week. On the night of 19 May, nerves and a newspaperman's noisy poker game kept him up all night. Early the next morning, though he hadn't slept, the skies were clear, and he rushed to Roosevelt Field on Long Island. Six men had died attempting the long and dangerous flight he was about to take.
      At 07:52 EST on 20 May 1927, The Spirit of St. Louis lifted off from Roosevelt Field, so loaded with fuel that it barely cleared the telephone wires at the end of the runway. Lindbergh traveled northeast up the coast. After only four hours, he felt tired and flew within three meters of the water to keep his mind clear. As night fell, the aircraft left the coast of Newfoundland and set off across the Atlantic. At about 02:00 on 21 May, Lindbergh passed the halfway mark, and an hour later dawn came. Soon after, The Spirit of St. Louis entered a fog, and Lindbergh struggled to stay awake, holding his eyelids open with his fingers and hallucinating that ghosts were passing through the cockpit.
      After 24 hours in the air, he felt a little more awake and spotted fishing boats in the water. At about 11:00 (15:00 local time), he saw the coast of Ireland. Despite using only rudimentary navigation, he was two hours ahead of schedule and only 5 km off course. He flew past England and by 15:00. EST was flying over France. It was 20:00. in France, and night was falling.
      At the Le Bourget Aerodrome in Paris, tens of thousands of Saturday night revelers had gathered to await Lindbergh's arrival. At 22:24 local time, his gray and white monoplane slipped out of the darkness and made a perfect landing in the air field. The crowd surged on The Spirit of St. Louis, and Lindbergh, weary from his 33 1/2-hour, 5800-km journey, was cheered and lifted above their heads. He hadn't slept for 55 hours. Two French aviators saved Lindbergh from the boisterous crowd, whisking him away in an automobile. He was an immediate international celebrity.
      President Calvin Coolidge dispatched a warship to take the hero home, and "Lucky Lindy" was given a ticker-tape parade in New York and presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor. His place in history, however, was not complete.
      In 1932, Lindbergh was the subject of international headlines again when his infant son, Charles Jr., was kidnapped, unsuccessfully ransomed, and then found murdered in the woods near the Lindbergh home. German-born Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted of the crime in a controversial trial and then executed.
      In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Lindbergh became a spokesperson for US isolationism and was sharply criticized for his apparent Nazi sympathies and anti-Semitic views. After the outbreak of World War II, the fallen hero traveled to the Pacific as a military observer and eventually flew more than two dozen combat missions, including one in which he downed a Japanese aircraft. Lindbergh's wartime service largely restored public faith in him, and for many years he worked with the US government on aviation issues. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve.
      Lindbergh's autobiographical works include We (1927), The Spirit of St. Louis (1953), and The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh (1970).

1931 Frank Harris, author. HARRIS ONLINE: The Bomb — Montes the Matador and Other Stories
1929 Bromwich, mathematician

1914 The fallen of the first of the 5 days of the Battle of Tannenberg, in which the Russian Second Army under Aleksandr Vasilyevich Samsonov would be enveloped and destroyed by the Germans under P.K. Rennenkampf. The battle would end on 30 August with 13'000 Germans and 30'000 Russians killed or wounded, 92'000 Russians prisoner, 400 Russian cannons captured. Samsonov would commit suicide on 29 August 1914.

1910 William James, 68, American philosopher and psychologist, a leader of the philosophical movement of Pragmatism and of the psychological movement of functionalism, born 11 January 1842, older brother of novelist Henry James (18430415-19160228) WILLIAM JAMES ONLINE:
Essays in Radical Empiricism The Will to Believe The Principles of Psychology	Pragmatism: A New Name For Some Old Ways of Thinking Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals The Varieties of Religious Experience

1896 Thousands of Armenians, as three-day battle begins when Armenian revolutionaries attack the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople (6000 Armenians die in three days).
1894 Celia (Laighton) Thaxter, author. THAXTER ONLINE: Idyls and Pastorals — Poems for Children

1883 Some 2000 victims of pyroclastic flow as volcano starts to explode      ^top^
      Krakatoa, in eruption since 19 June, 13:00 undergoes the first of a series of increasingly violent explosions, and at 14:00 a black cloud of ash rises 27 km high. The climax would be reached at 10:00 on August 27, with tremendous explosions that were heard 3500 km away in Australia and propelled ash to a height of 80 km. Pressure waves in the atmosphere were recorded around the Earth. Explosions diminished throughout that day, and by the morning of August 28, the volcano was quiet.
      The eruption would end up killing almost 36'000 persons — both on the island itself and from the resulting 40~meter~high tidal waves that destroy 163 villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.
      The discharge of Krakatoa threw into the air nearly 21 cu km of rock fragments, and large quantities of ash fell over 800'000 sq km. Near the volcano, masses of floating pumice were so thick as to halt ships. The surrounding region was plunged into darkness for two and a half days because of ash in the air. The fine dust drifted several times around the Earth, causing a cold summer and spectacular red sunsets throughout the following year.

1874 16 Blacks lynched in Tennessee
1826 William Clark Tyler, author under the pseudonym Royall Tyler. TYLER ONLINE: The Contrast, The Contrast
1816 Robert Fagan, Irish artist, suicide. — MORE ON FAGAN AT ART “4” AUGUST — Anna Maria Ferri, the Artist's First Wife — Portrait of a Lady
1789 Pierre-François Delaunay, French artist born on 21 December 1759.
1752 Jacques-François Courtin, French artist born in 1672.
1572 Peter Ramus, mathematician
1349 Bradwardine, mathematician

1346 John of Luxembourg, less than 100 English soldiers, thousands of French, at the battle of Crécy      ^top^
      During the Hundred Years War, King Edward III's small English army annihilated a much larger French force under King Philip VI at the Battle of Crécy in Normandy. The battle, which saw an early use of the innovative and deadly longbow by the English, is regarded as one of the most decisive in history.
      On 12 July 1346, Edward landed an invasion force of about 10'000 men on the coast of Normandy. The English army marched northward, plundering the French countryside. Learning of the Englishmen's arrival, King Philip rallied an army of 12'000 men, made up of approximately 8000 mailed horseman and 4000 hired Genoese crossbowmen. At Crécy, Edward halted his army and prepared for the French assault. Late in the afternoon of 26 August Philip's army attacked.
      The Genoese crossbowmen led the assault, but they were soon overwhelmed by the English longbowmen, who could reload faster and fire much farther. In charge after charge, the French cavalry attempted to penetrate the English infantry lines, but the horses and riders were cut down in the merciless shower of arrows. At nightfall, the French finally withdrew. Nearly a third of their army lay dead on the field, including John of Luxembourg, the blind king of Bohemia. English losses were less than a hundred. The Battle of Crécy marked the decline of the mounted knight in European warfare, and also the rise of England as a world power. From Crécy, Edward marched on to Calais, which surrendered to him in 1347.

Births which occurred on a 26 August:

1957 The Edsel car ^top^
The Ford Motor Company rolls out the first Edsel automobile. The car was named after Henry Ford’s son, Edsel Bryant Ford. 110'847 Edsels were built before the company pulled the plug after three years due to lack of sales and negative press. Ironically, market research conducted just a few years earlier had pointed to the Edsel’s success; consumers had said they wanted more horsepower, tailfins, three-tone paint jobs, and wrap-around windshields. However, by 1957, fickle consumers had changed their mind, and despite a relatively low price, Edsel sales lagged. Today, due to the limited number produced, the Edsel has become a collector’s item.

1951 Witten, mathematician
1935 Geraldine Ferraro (Rep-D-NY) 1st female major-party VP candidate in the US.
1933 Ben J. Wattenberg, author.

1914 Julio Cortázar en Bruselas (ocupada por los alemanes). Será un destacado autor argentino
MÁS SOBRE LA VIDA Y LAS OBRAS DE CORTAZAR (incluye CORTAZAR ONLINE:)

1906 Dr Albert B Sabin polio vaccine discoverer
1906 Christopher Isherwood, English novelist and playwright, author of Goodbye to Berlin, the inspiration for the play I am a Camera and the musical and film Cabaret.
1904 Christopher Isherwood England, novelist/playwright (I Am a Camera)
1901 Gen Maxwell D Taylor, former US Army chief of staff
1899 Krull, mathematician
1901 The New Testament of the American Standard Version Bible is first published. This US edition of the 1881 English Revised Version (ERV) comprised the first major American Bible translation since the King James Version of 1611.
1885 Louis Henri Jean FARIGOULE ps: Jules Romains France, novelist/dramatist/poet (Men of Good Will)
1884 Earl Derr Biggers author ("Charlie Chan" detective series) BIGGERS ONLINE: The Agony Column)
1882 Édouard-Léon Cortès, French artist who died in 1969. — Notre~Dame
1880 Guillaume Apollinaire de Kostrowitsky, poet who in his 38-year life took part in all the avant-garde movements that flourished in French literary and artistic circles at the beginning of the 20th century and who helped to direct poetry into unexplored channels.
1875 Vitali, mathematician

1875 John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, Scotland, [photo >] writer and governor general of Canada, famous for The Thirty-Nine Steps,.which the perfect combination of fine writing and suspense-filled plot makes an engaging novel of intrigue, which was adapted to the screen by Hitchcock in 1935. Written in 1915, we follow protagonist Richard Hannay through England and the lowlands of Scotland as he eludes the police (after him for a murder he did not commit) and spies, and keeps Europe from war. Buchan died on 11 February 1940
— BUCHAN ONLINE: Greenmantle — Greenmantle — The Moon Endureth — The Moon Endureth — Mr. Standfast — Mr. Standfast — The Path of the King — The Power-House — Prester John — Prester John — The Thirty-Nine Steps — The Thirty-Nine Steps — The Thirty~Nine Steps —

1873 Lee DeForest, inventor of vacuum tube, in Council Bluffs. ^top^
Often called the "father of radio and the grandfather of television," he would patent the Audion vacuum radio tube in 1907, which turned radio into a practical transmission device for voice and music. Previously, wireless technology was primarily used for telegraph signals. DeForest developed techniques for amplifying and receiving sound, and devised methods for reproducing sound on film.

1874 Zona Gale, author of the stage play Miss Lulu Bett (GALE ONLINE:)
1867 Robert Russa Moton. MOTON ONLINE: Finding a Way Out: An Autobiography
1859 John William Mackail, editor of Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology
1850 Charles Richet French physiologist (anaphylaxis—Nobel 1913)
1848 Édouard Joseph Dantan, French artist who died on 7 July 1897.
1838 John Wilkes Booth (actor, assassin: shot and killed US President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC)
1824 Martha Darley Mutrie, British artist who died on 30 December 1885.
1791, Steamboat patented. John Fitch is granted a United States patent for the steamboat. Four years earlier, on August 22, 1787, Fitch demonstrated the first successful steamboat, launching a forty-five-foot craft on the Delaware River in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention. He went on to build a larger steamboat which carried passengers and freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. Fitch was granted his patent after a battle with James Rumsey over claims to the invention.
1779 Henri Voordecker, Belgian artist who died in December 1861.
1743 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier Paris, the father of modern chemistry who defined the role of oxygen and named it. He would be guillotined on 19 floréal an II (08 May 1794) for being a fermier général who had (like all others) allegedly “put into tobacco water and other substances harmful to the health of users”. The tribunal commented “La République n'a pas besoin de savants.” Portrait of Lavoisier by David.
1740 Joseph Montgolfier France, aeronaut (ballooning)
1728 Johann H. Lambert, Switzerland, mathematician, the first to provide a rigorous proof that

is irrational
1676 Sir Robert Walpole (Whig) British PM (1721-42)

Holidays Namibia : Namibia Day / US : Women's Equality Day (1973)/Susan B Anthony Day (1920) / Zanzibar : Sultan's Birthday

Religious Observances RC : St Zephyrinus, pope (198-217), martyr

Thought for the day: “You're smart when you only believe half of what you hear. Wise is when you know which half to believe.”
“You're smart if you believe only half of the above statement.”
“Suffering belongs to no language.” — Adelia Prado, Brazilian poet.
“Inflicting unspeakable suffering belongs to no language.”

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