Events On This Day In History August 8 1588 - The Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 huge ships, met defeat at the hands of English sailors and their smaller, more maneuverable vessels. Then a series of wicked Atlantic storms off the coast of Southern England took their toll. Only half of the 130 Spanish ships managed to limp ... at best ... home. The 60 or so English ships had saved England from the Spanish invaders. 1839 - Beta Theta Pi became the first Greek-letter fraternity west of the Alleghenies. The fraternity was a new arrival at Miami University in Oxford, OH. 1876 - Thomas A. Edison of Menlo Park, NJ patented the mimeograph machine. He described it as a method of preparing autographic stencils for printing. We don’t use mimeographs much these days, thanks to paper copiers and computer word processors. Mimeograph machines used to be cranked by hand and later models were electric. The mimeograph worked by first creating a spirit master which was placed on a large rotating drum. A strong smelling, purple ink would then print out on paper. We used to use these a lot in school back in the 1950s and 1960s. We remember the fumes, especially. 1911 - Membership in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435. Every 211,877 residents of the U.S. were represented by one member of Congress. 1923 - Benny Goodman was 14 years old as he began his professional career as a clarinet player. He took a job in a band on a Chicago-based excursion boat on Lake Michigan. 1934 - Bing Crosby became the first singer to record for the newly created Decca Records. His songs, Just A-Wearyin’ For You and I Love You Truly, were waxed as Decca number D-100. Place your ear next to the monitor and you’ll hear some of this classic recording... “Just a-wearyin’ for you. All the time a-feelin’ blue; Wishin’ for you, wond’rin when you’ll be comin’ home again.” We know the next verse, about “birds awake, singing for your sake” and all that, but, frankly it makes us a-wearyin’ to add it here... 1941 - Les Brown and His Band of Renown paid tribute to baseball’s ‘Yankee Clipper’, Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees, with the recording of Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio on Okeh Records. From that time on, DiMaggio adopted the nickname, Joltin’ Joe. 1960 - Tell Laura I Love Her, by Ray Peterson, wasn’t a big hit in Great Britain. Decca Records in England said the song was “too tasteless and vulgar for the English sensibility.” They destroyed 25,000 of the platters this day. 1963 - Seven million dollars was stolen in Britain’s Great Train Robbery by a gang of fifteen thieves. Scotland Yard called the holdup up, “Britain’s biggest robbery ever attempted.” All but three of the gang were identified by fingerprints. 1974 - Roberta Flack received a gold record for the single, Feel Like Makin’ Love. Flack, born in Asheville, NC and raised in Arlington, VA, was awarded a music scholarship to Howard University in Washington, DC -- at the age of 15. One of her classmates became a singing partner on several hit songs. Donny Hathaway joined Flack on You’ve Got a Friend, Where is the Love and The Closer I Get to You. She had 10 hits on the pop charts in the 1970s and 1980s. 1984 - Carl Lewis won his third gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. He won the 200-meter sprint. At the same time, Greg Louganis received his first gold medal in diving in the springboard competition. 1987 - The opening ceremonies of the Pan American Games were held in Indianapolis, Indiana. A two-hour extravaganza called "The Magic that’s America" was presented at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The big show included some 6,000 volunteer performers and stagehands who joined a 20,000-piece, animated, card section, along with 80 Disney characters and a 1,027-piece band. 1990 - This was a watershed day in the Middle East. Iraq announced that it had annexed the kingdom of Kuwait -- moving over 200,000 troops into the tiny, oil-rich country. As Iraq declared Kuwait to be its 19th Providence, U.S. President George Bush (I) warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, “A line has been drawn in the sand,” and American forces began moving into Saudi Arabia.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 15:14:19 +0000
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