On This Day In History
19 August 1960. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 5 (also known as Korabl-Sputnik 2), which carried the dogs Belka and Strelka, who became the first dogs to survive a space flight. pic.twitter.com/M8IBlKAE6D
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 19, 2022
19 August 1977. Comedy actor, Groucho Marx, died (aged 86). He was the supreme exponent of the quick witted comment as a member of the sibling comedy group, The Marx Brothers. pic.twitter.com/hjFFCsx8Ai
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 19, 2022
19 August 1980. Otto Frank died (aged 91). He was the father of Anne Frank and arranged for the publication of her famous diary, which became a world-wide best seller. He was the only one of his family to survive the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/09jpQwRqzj
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 19, 2022
19 August 1987. Michael Ryan (aged 27), shot dead 16 people in Hungerford, including his mother, then killed himself. It’s one of the worst mass shooting incidents in the UK. It was followed by stricter gun laws. pic.twitter.com/d7K9XunVJK
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 19, 2022
Quote from Charlie Charles IV on August 19, 2022, 5:00 pm
19 August 1960. Francis Gary Powers, the US pilot of the U-2 spy plane, which was shot down in the Soviet Union, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he was released on 8 February 1962. pic.twitter.com/UO5ZtenXe5
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 19, 2022
Was that what Bridge of Spies is based on ?
Sounds like you're right, BR. 👏
August 20th
1597 1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East
1619 1st known African Americans in English North America (approx. 20) land at Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia. They are then sold or traded into servitude.
1741 Alaska first sighted by Danish explorer Vitus Bering at head of Russian expedition
1866 President Andrew Johnson formally declares US Civil War over
1905 Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen forms the first chapter of T'ung Meng Hui, a union of all secret societies determined to bringing down the Manchus (Qing dynasty)
1968 During the night 250,000 Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia in response to the Prague Spring
1993 Oslo Peace Accords signed, after secret negotiations in Norway, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the following month
Did You Know?
British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"
Today in History in 1940
Would You Believe?
Longest US men's single tennis tournament match Palmer Presbrey defeats T S Tailer, 19-21, 8-6, 6-1, 6-4, an 80 game 1st-round contest
Today in History in 1888
This day 245 years ago – 20 August 1775 – Tucson, Arizona was founded by Hugh O'Conor, an Irishman who had served in the Spanish Army.
O'Conor established the military fort, Presidio de San Augstín, with about 400-500 people inside.
Today, the city's inhabitants number 545,975. pic.twitter.com/DT61EgBowr
— This Day in Irish History (@ThisDayIrish) August 20, 2020
#OTD in 1612 eight women and two men, the 'Pendle Witches', were hanged for witchcraft. Ann Whittle, Alice Nutter and others were executed on the testimony of a 9-year old child and aggrieved neighbours, during a spate of witch hunts in England. https://t.co/pkT50phn50 pic.twitter.com/05fRbdxI6q
— On This Day She (@OnThisDayShe) August 20, 2022
On this day in 1619, traffickers brought the first enslaved Africans to a VA colony on the James River. They sold some enslaved people for food and sold others to white enslavers in Jamestown. To overcome racial inequality, we must confront our history. https://t.co/he98ILkSDi
— Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) August 20, 2022
20 August 1858. Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution through natural selection in an article in the Journal of Proceedings of the Linnean Society. Darwin decided to publish his theory after he received an essay from Alfred Russel Wallace which contained similar ideas. pic.twitter.com/vLE1NvgKyJ
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
20 August 1882. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which celebrates the defeat of Napoleon in Russia, premiered in Moscow, conducted by Ippolit Al’tani, under a tent near the then-unfinished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which also memorialised the 1812 defence of Russia. pic.twitter.com/ZZyeGgv5tU
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
20 August 1885. The Mikado, an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan, set in Japan, opened in America, at the 5th Avenue Theatre, New York City. It remains the most frequently performed work of Gilbert and Sullivan and is especially popular with amateur and school productions. pic.twitter.com/pF8s5fVADm
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
20 August 1912. William Booth, the co-founder of the the Salvation Army, died (aged 83). He sought to bring salvation to the “poor, destitute, and the hungry”and attempted to turn working class people away from drinking alcohol. pic.twitter.com/a7svEkHlfD
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
20 August 1953. The Soviet Union announced it had detonated a hydrogen bomb (“H-Bomb”). With the USSR now a nuclear power, the Cold War entered its most dangerous phase. pic.twitter.com/ZG0pTy3nrD
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
20 August 1968. Forces of the Soviet Union, supported by their Warsaw Pact Allies, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany and Hungary invaded Czechoslovakia to crush the democratic “Prague Spring”. pic.twitter.com/ej8gJzMRa1
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
20 August 1988. A ceasefire was finally agreed by the United Nations in the Iran–Iraq War, after almost 8 years of bitter fighting. Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, emerged from the conflict with enhanced power in the region. pic.twitter.com/mHXepNFkm2
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
20 August 1989. The pleasure steamer, Marchioness, sank in the River Thames after being hit twice by the dredger Bowbelle: 51 people were killed. The boat had been hired for a birthday party. An inquiry in 2000 concluded that a lack of lookout crew on both vessels was to blame. pic.twitter.com/wYbBh9vOuo
— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) August 20, 2022
August 21st
1192 Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)
1703 The Edirne Event: Turkish army removes Sultan Mustafa II, lessening the power of the sultans
1772 King Gustav III of Sweden completes a coup d'etat by adopting a new Constitution and installing himself as an enlightened despot, ending 50 years of parliamentary rule
1888 American inventor William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine
1911 "Mona Lisa" stolen from the Louvre by Vincenzo Perugia; recovered in 1913
1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th US state
1991 Conservative coup in the Soviet Union is crushed by popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin in three days