On This Day in History - August 2 Anniversary of Iraq Invading Kuwait & "Dead Man's Hand"

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Aug 2, 1917: Mutiny breaks out on German battleship         

On August 2, 1917, with British forces settling into new positions captured from the Germans in the much-contested Ypres Salient on the Western Front of World War I, Germany faces more trouble closer to home, as a mutiny breaks out aboard the German battleship Prinzregent Luitpold, anchored at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven.  

During the August 2 mutiny, some 400 sailors marched into town calling for an end to the war and proclaiming their unwillingness to continue fighting. Although the demonstration was quickly brought under control by army officials and the sailors were persuaded to return to their ships without real violence that day, some 75 of them were arrested and imprisoned and the ringleaders of the mutiny were subsequently tried, convicted and executed. "I die with a curse on the German-militarist state," one of them, Albin Kobis, wrote his parents before he was shot by an army firing squad at Cologne. As Willy Weber, another convicted sailor, whose death sentence was later commuted to 15 years in prison, put it: "Nobody wanted a revolution, we just wanted to be treated more like human beings."  

Discontent and rebellion within the German Imperial High Seas Fleet continued throughout the following year, as things went abysmally for Germany on the battlefields of the Western Front after the initial success of their spring offensive in 1918. It was rumored that naval commanders were plotting a last-ditch attempt, against the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Reichstag government, to confront the mighty British navy and break the Allied blockade in the North Sea. The force of this rumor, combined with sinking morale, led to an even more significant mutiny at Wilhelmshaven on October 29, 1918, sparked by the arrest of some 300 sailors who had refused to obey orders.  

The unrest soon spread to another German port city, Kiel, where on November 3 some 3,000 German sailors and workers rose in revolt, taking over ships and buildings and brandishing the red flag of communism. The following day, November 4, the rebels at Kiel formed the first Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council in Germany, defying the national government and seeking to act in the spirit of the Russian soviets. On the same day, the government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire asked the Allies for an armistice, which they were granted. An isolated and internally divided Germany was forced to sue for its own armistice barely a week later, and the First World War came to an end.



Here's an event in history that I can actually remember. Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, invading Kuwait. It would annex Kuwait some months later and, early the following year, Operation Desert Shield would convert to operation Desert Storm, and Iraq would be forced to leave Kuwait.

Aug 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait 

At about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces invade Kuwait, Iraq's tiny, oil-rich neighbor. Kuwait's defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia. The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the Iraqis had established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained control of 20 percent of the world's oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf. The same day, the United Nations Security Council unanimously denounced the invasion and demanded Iraq's immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. On August 6, the Security Council imposed a worldwide ban on trade with Iraq.  

On August 9, Operation Desert Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as U.S. forces raced to the Persian Gulf. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, built up his occupying army in Kuwait to about 300,000 troops. On November 29, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw by January 15, 1991. Hussein refused to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, which he had established as a province of Iraq, and some 700,000 allied troops, primarily American, gathered in the Middle East to enforce the deadline.  

At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm, the massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire on television footage transmitted live via satellite from Iraq. Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international coalition under the supreme command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.  

During the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in an intensive air war against Iraq's military and civil infrastructure and encountered little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force or air defenses. Iraqi ground forces were helpless during this stage of the war, and Hussein's only significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel to enter the conflict, thus dissolving Arab support of the war. At the request of the United States, however, Israel remained out of the war.  

On February 24, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq's outdated and poorly supplied armed forces were rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded, 10,000 of its troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had been established deep inside Iraq. After less than four days, Kuwait was liberated, and the majority of Iraq's armed forces had either surrendered, retreated to Iraq, or been destroyed.  

On February 28, U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and on April 3 the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 687, specifying conditions for a formal end to the conflict. According to the resolution, Bush's cease-fire would become official, some sanctions would be lifted, but the ban on Iraqi oil sales would continue until Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction under U.N. supervision. On April 6, Iraq accepted the resolution, and on April 11 the Security Council declared it in effect. During the next decade, Saddam Hussein frequently violated the terms of the peace agreement, prompting further allied air strikes and continuing U.N. sanctions.  

In the Persian Gulf War, 148 American soldiers were killed and 457 wounded. The other allied nations suffered about 100 deaths combined during Operation Desert Storm. There are no official figures for the number of Iraqi casualties, but it is believed that at least 25,000 soldiers were killed and more than 75,000 were wounded, making it one of the most one-sided military conflicts in history. It is estimated that 100,000 Iraqi civilians died from wounds or from lack of adequate water, food, and medical supplies directly attributable to the Persian Gulf War. In the ensuing years, more than one million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the subsequent U.N. sanctions.


Also on this dat in history, Hindenburg died, which was probably the last major obstacle facing Hitler's desire for total power in Germany.

Aug 2, 1934: President of the Weimar Republic Hindenburg dies

On this day in 1934, Paul von Hindenburg, president of the Weimar Republic of Germany, dies, opening the door for the tyranny of Adolf Hitler, whom he had appointed chancellor in 1933.  

Hindenburg's life was one immersed in the Prussian military tradition. His father was a Prussian officer, and Hindenburg fought in the Seven Weeks' War (with Austria) at age 19, and later in the Franco-Prussian War. He was eventually promoted to the rank of general before retiring from the military in 1911.  

But it was during World War I that Hindenburg came to national prominence. He was asked to serve as the superior to Major General Erich Ludendorff, a prominent army strategist. Ludendorff succeeded in driving Russian invaders from East Prussia-but it was Hindenburg who was given the credit. As the war progressed, Hindenburg's stature grew to epic proportions, even influencing Emperor Wilhelm II to make him commander of all land forces, despite Hindenburg's rather dubious strategic skills. In fact, severe miscalculations on Hindenburg's part resulted in Germany's defeat, which Hindenburg then blamed on Ludendorff. (And which Ludendorff and the generals then blamed on the politicians.)  

A monarchist fond of authoritarian regimes, Hindenburg nevertheless took the reigns of the postwar republican government as president in 1925. Fearful of social unrest (from both the far right and far left), in light of the Depression and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which demanded heavy reparations from Germany as the terms of its surrender, Hindenburg authorized his chancellor, Heinrich Bruning, to dissolve the Reichstag (parliament) if necessary and call for new elections—which he did. Those new elections ushered in the Nazi Party as the second largest party in the Reichstag.  

Re-elected as president in 1932, Hindenburg had already lost the support of many of the more conservative elements in the government, who were flocking to Hitler's party, which they saw as the key to renewed German prestige and the bulwark against Bolshevism. After a succession of chancellors proved ineffectual in reversing Germany's economic slide, and gaining the Nazi support necessary to keep a coalition together, Hindenburg reluctantly named Hitler chancellor of Germany. Hindenburg was never an ardent Hitler supporter, but he did little to impede him as Hitler began employing terror tactics in his drive to consolidate power for the Nazis.  

When Hindenburg died, he was still a respected figure nationwide and was buried, with his wife, at Tannenberg, the sight of the great victory against the Russians during World War I. As World War II was came to a close, their bodies were removed so that the advancing Russians would not get at them. They were ultimately reburied by Americans at Marburg.


Origins of "Dead Man's Hand"

Aug 2, 1876: Wild Bill Hickok is murdered


"Wild Bill" Hickok, one of the greatest gunfighters of the American West, is murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota.  

Born in Illinois in 1837, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok first gained notoriety as a gunfighter in 1861 when he coolly shot three men who were trying to kill him. A highly sensationalized account of the gunfight appeared six years later in the popular periodical Harper's New Monthly Magazine, sparking Hickok's rise to national fame. Other articles and books followed, and though his prowess was often exaggerated, Hickok did earn his reputation with a string of impressive gunfights.  

After accidentally killing his deputy during an 1871 shootout in Abilene, Texas, Hickok never fought another gun battle. For the next several years he lived off his famous reputation, appearing as himself in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show. Occasionally, he worked as guide for wealthy hunters. His renowned eyesight began to fail, and for a time he was reduced to wandering the West trying to make a living as a gambler. Several times he was arrested for vagrancy.  

In the spring of 1876, Hickok arrived in the Black Hills mining town of Deadwood, South Dakota. There he became a regular at the poker tables of the No. 10 Saloon, eking out a meager existence as a card player. On this day in 1876, Hickok was playing cards with his back to the saloon door. At 4:15 in the afternoon, a young gunslinger named Jack McCall walked into the saloon, approached Hickok from behind, and shot him in the back of the head. Hickok died immediately. McCall tried to shoot others in the crowd, but amazingly, all of the remaining cartridges in his pistol were duds. McCall was later tried, convicted, and hanged.  

Hickok was only 39 years old when he died. The most famous gunfighter in the history of the West died with his Smith & Wesson revolver in his holster, never having seen his murderer. According to legend, Hickok held a pair of black aces and black eights when he died, a combination that has since been known as the Dead Man's Hand.


Philip II of Macedonia defeated the combined army of Athens and Thebes in 338BC on this date. Jews were expelled from Spain. Horace the Saussure climbed to the top of Mont Blanc. Napoleon was given title of "Counsel for Life". Charles X abdicated the throne to the Duke of Bordeaux. The first parachute jump in the United States occured on this day. The first mailboxes went up in Boston and New York City.  Lewis Carroll published "Alice in Wonderland". The Tower Subway in London was opened, becoming the firtst underground public transportation system to do so. The anniversary of the "Dead Man's Hand" is today, as "Wild" Bill Hickok was killed with a pair of black aces and black eights in his hand. Lincoln pennies began to be minted on this day in 1909. France and Germany declared war on one another in 1914, as World War I really got going. Hindenburg died on this day, which Hitler quickly took advantage of to assume more powers for himself and the Nazis, making himself Commander-in-Chief. An armed revolt broke out in Treblinka. The Potsdam Conference between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill ended. This was the anniversary of the Pentago reporting that North Vietnam had attacked two American vessels, which led to stepped up American involvement in Vietnam, in what would become the longest war that the United States had ever gotten involved in (since surpassed by American involvement in Afghanistan). Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Kuwait on this day in 1990.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

338 BC - A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.

216 BC - Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae - Carthaginian army lead by Hannibal defeats numerically superior Roman army under command consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro.

257 - St Stephen I ends his reign as Catholic Pope

1057 - Frederik van Lotharingen elected as 1st Belgium Pope Stephen IX [X]

1492 - Jews are expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

1542 - French troops leave Flanders

1552 - Treaty of Passau: Emperor Charles V accepts Lutheran religion

1578 - Battle of Rijmenam

1581 - Leiden University names Snellius math professor

1610 - Henry Hudson enters bay later named after him, the Hudson Bay

1665 - French expedition against Barbarians in Tunis/Algiers

1704 - Duke of Marlborough beats French & Bavarians at Blenheim

1718 - Austrian joins Triple Alliance

1738 - France offers emperor Karel VI mediation in war against Turkey

1776 - Members of the Continental Congress (56 of them) began formally adding their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.  

1782 - George Washington creates Honorary Badge of Distinction

1786 - Utrechtse Vroedschap flees

1787 - Horace the Saussure reaches top of Mont Blanc

1790 - The first US Census is conducted.

1791 - Samuel Briggs and his son Samuel Briggs, Jr. received a joint patent for their nail-making machine. They were the first father-son pair to receive a patent.

1798 - British under Adm Horatio Nelson beat French at Battle of Nile

1802 - Napoleon declared "Counsel for Life"

1819 - 1st parachute jump in US
1824 - In New York City, Fifth Avenue was opened.     

1830 - Charles X of France abdicates in favour of his grandson the Duc de Bordeaux

1831 - Ten day campaign begins, Dutch army occupies Belgium

1832 - Battle of Bad Axe, Wisconsin: 1,300 Illinois militia defeat Sauk & Fox Native Americans ending the Black Hawk War in the US

1858 - 1st mailboxes installed in Boston and NYC streets

1858 - Government of India transferred from East India Company to Crown

1861 - Skirmish at Dug Springs, MI
1861 - The United States Congress passed the first income tax. The revenues were intended for the war effort against the South. The tax was never enacted.    

1864 - 2nd Saratoga Racetrack (NY) opens

1865 - Lewis Carroll publishes "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

1865 - Trans Atlantic Cable being laid by SS Great Eastern snaps & is lost

1870 - Tower Subway, the world's first underground tube railway, opens in London.

1873 - 1st trial run of SF cable car, Clay Street between Kearny & Jones

1875 - 1st roller skating rink opens (London)

1877 - SF Public Library opens with 5,000 volumes

1884 - Dutch Queen Emma appointed regent

1887 - Rowell Hodge patented barbed wire.

1892 - Charles A Wheeler patents a prototype of the escalator

1894 - Death duties 1st introduced in Britain

1894 - Dutch Society for Women Suffrage gets royal charter

1903 - Unsuccessful uprising of Macedonians against Turkey

1906 - Chicago White Sox begin AL record 19 game win streak

1907 - Walter Johnson, 19, debuts with Washington & loses 3-2 to Detroit

1909 - 1st Lincoln head pennies minted

1909 - Army Air Corps formed as Army takes 1st delivery from Wright Brothers

1911 - Haiti's dictator Simon flees on US warship near Jamaica

1912 - 18th US Golf Open: John McDermott shoots a 294 at CC of Buffalo NY

1914 - Belgian government receives German ultimatum

1914 - German press falsely reports that French bombed Nuremberg

1914 - German troops overthrows Luxembourg

1914 - Germany & Turkey signs secret treaty

1914 - Great Britain mobilizes

1914 - Postdam Conference ended

1914 - Russian troops invade Eastern Prussia

1914 - Sherlock Holmes Adventure "His Last Bow" takes place

1916 - World War I: Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.

1918 - Japan announces that it is deploying troops to Siberia in the aftermath of World War I.

1920 - Marcus Garvey presents his "Back To Africa" program in NYC

1921 - Chicago jury brings in not guilty verdict against the Black Sox. Eight White Sox players were acquitted of throwing the 1919 World Series.   

1922 - China, hit by a typhoon; about 60,000 die

1924 - Joe Hauser sets record of 14 total bases in a game

1926 - John Barrymore and Mary Astor starred in the first showing of the Vitaphone System. The system was the combining of picture and sound for movies.
1928 - Benito Mussolini signs peace treaty with Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

1929 - Phillies Don Hurst sets NL record of 6 consecutive games with a HR

1931 - Spanish Catalonia agrees (99+%) for autonomous status

1932 - Charlie Grimm replaces Roger Hornsby as manager of Chicago Cubs

1932 - The positron (antiparticle of the electron) is discovered by Carl D. Anderson.

1934 - 1st airplane train, plane tows 3 mail gliders behind it

1934 - Adolph Hitler becomes commander-in-chief of Germany

1934 - William Franks twirls an indian club overhead 17,280 times in 1 hour

1937 - The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 is passed in America, essentially rendering marijuana and all its by-products illegal.
1938 - Bright yellow baseballs were used in a major league baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Cardinals. It was hoped that the balls would be easier to see.  
1939 - Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Roosevelt urging the U.S. to have an atomic weapons research program.      

1938 - 1st test of a yellow baseball (Dodgers vs Cardinals)
1939 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed the Hatch Act. The act prohibited civil service employees from taking an active part in political campaigns.  

1939 - Hatch Act prohibits political activity by federal workers

1940 - Clermont-Ferrand sentences Gen Charles de Gaulle to death

1940 - KL-House of saxon & commandos focus on Gross Rosen, Silesia

1941 - German 11st Army surrounds 20 Russian divisions at Oeman

1941 - Hungarian Ruthenia, expels Jews

1941 - Jews are expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia

1942 - 250 Dutch Catholic Jews arrested, transported to Amersfoort camp

1942 - Col-Gen Hoth' Pantser army reaches Kotelnikovo

1943 - Armed revolt breaks out in Treblinka

1943 - The U.S. Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, sank by the Solomon Islands after being attacked by a Japanese destroyer. The boat was under the command of Lt. John F. Kennedy.       

1943 - RAF bombs Hamburg

1943 - Sunderland seaplanes sinks U-706 & U-106

1943 - Uprising at Treblinka Concentration Camp (crematorium destroyed)

1944 - Amsterdam soccer team "The Volewijckers" plays in orange shirts

1944 - Jewish survivors of Kovono Ghetto emerge from their bunker

1944 - Turkey breaks diplomatic relationship with Nazi-Germany

1945 - Potsdam Conference, where the victorious Allied leaders -  Stalin, Truman and Churchill -ended. it had focused on planning the postwar governance of Germany,

1953 - Betty Jack Davis, singer (w/Skeeter Davis), killed in car crash

1953 - KCPQ TV channel 13 in Tacoma-Seattle, WA (IND) begins broadcasting

1954 - Tahar Ben Ammar appointed premier of Tunisia

1955 - USSR performs nuclear test

1958 - Jordan & Iraq disolve their Arab Federation, after 3 months

1959 - 41st PGA Championship: Bob Rosburg shoots a 277 at Minneapolis GC

1959 - Milwaukee Brave Bill Bruton hits 2 bases loaded triples

1959 - SF Giants 1st baseman Willie McCovey hits 1st of his 521 HRs

1961 - Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club

1961 - Cyrille Adula becomes premier of Congo

1961 - St Louis Cards (NFL) beat Toronto Argonauts (CFL) 36-7 in Toronto

1962 - NASA civilian test pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 32,600 m

1963 - 30th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 20, Green Bay 17 (65,000)

1964 - Dutch government gives Indonesia export guarantees

1964 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Milwaukee Jaycee Golf Open

1964 - The Pentagon reported the first of two North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1964 - Race riot in Jersey City NJ

1965 - Morley Safer's sends 1st Vietnam report indicating we are losing

1966 - Radio Vila (New Hebrides) begins transmitting

1967 - New Orleans Saints 1st pre-season game, they lose to LA Rams 16-77

1967 - US's Lunar Orbiter 5 launched; enters lunar orbit Aug 5

1967 - The second Blackwall Tunnel opens in Greenwich, London.

1968 - 35th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Green Bay 34, All-Stars 17 (69,917)

Singer-Songwriter Bob DylanSinger-Songwriter Bob Dylan
1969 - Bob Dylan makes surprise appearance at Hibbing HS Minn 10th reunion

1969 - Pres Nixon visits Romania

1970 - Baltimore defeats KC 10-8, Orioles 23rd straight win over the Royals

1970 - France performs nuclear test at Fangataufa Island

1972 - Gold hits record $70 an ounce in London

1973 - George Brett gets his 1st hit

1975 - 104°F (40°C) at Providence, Rhode Island (state record)

1975 - 107°F (42°C) at Chester/New Bedford, Massachusetts (state record)

1979 - "Broadway Opry '79" closes at St James Theater NYC after 6 perfs

1979 - Gilda Radner Live From New York opens on Broadway

1980 - Fascist bomb attack on Bologna Italy train station, 86 killed

1980 - US swimmers set 3 world records at National championships

1981 - Australia set 151 to win, all out 121, Botham 5-11 in 14 overs

1981 - Donna Caponi Young wins LPGA Boston Five Golf Classic

1982 - Oakland's Rickey Henderson steals his 100th base of the season

1982 - Roger Ebert's Movie News premieres on ABC FM network

1983 - STS-8 vehicle moves to launch pad

1983 - US District Court begins trying Yonkers accuse of race discrimination
1983 - U.S. House of Representatives approved a law that designated the third Monday of January would be a federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The law was signed by President Reagan on November 2.  

1984 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1985 - 5 die in a train crash in Westminster Colo

1985 - Delta Lockheed L-1011 crashes at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, 137 die

1985 - NASA launches space vehicle S-209

1986 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee (US) sets record for heptathlon (7161 pts)

1986 - TODAY/PC born today

1987 - 25th Tennis Fed Cup: Germany beats USA in Vancouver Canada (2-1)

1987 - Chris Johnson wins Columbia Savings LPGA National Golf Pro-Am

1987 - Cin Red Eric Davis becomes 7th & earliest 30 HR 30 steal man

1987 - Don Brown sets flight record for handbow (1,336 yds 1'3")

1987 - Eric Davis is 7th to hit 30 HRs & steal 30 bases in one season

1987 - Kevin Seitzer (KC Royals), gets 6 hits in one baseball game

1987 - Michael Andretti runs fastest Indy car race in history (171.49 MPH)

1987 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1987 - "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was re-released. The film was 50 years old at the time of its re-release.  

1988 - Raymond Acevedo is retired from singing group Menudo

1988 - System Enhancement Association settles case with PKware (ARC vs PKARC)

1989 - NASA confirmed Voyager 2's discovery of 3 more moons of Neptune designated temporarily 1989 N2, 1989 N3 & 1989 N24

1990 - Iraq invaded the oil-rich country of Kuwait. Iraq claimed that Kuwait had driven down oil prices by exceeding production quotas set by OPEC. The Emir fled to Saudi Arabia.  

1990 - Yankees rookie Kevin Maas hits his 10th home run in just 77 at bats

1991 - Funk singer Rick James, arrested on sexual torture charges

1991 - Hedy Lamaar is arrested for shoplifting in LA

1991 - Mike Jeffcoat is 1st AL pitcher to get an RBI since 1972

1991 - Space shuttle STS 43 (Atlantis 9) launched

1992 - "Death & the Maiden" closes at Brooks Atkinson NYC after 159 perfs

1992 - Dottie Mochrie wins LPGA Welch's Golf Classic

1992 - Tom Seaver, R Fingers, Hal Newhouser, & B McGowan enter Hall of Fame

1993 - NYC radio (WFAN) personality Don Imus' lung collapes

1993 - Peter Angelos & William DeWitt purchase Orioles

1993 - Train crash in tunnel at Vega de Anzo Spain, 12 killed

1993 - Shamrock Broadcasting, a Disney company, officially takes ownership of Cleveland's WMMS-FM/100.7 & WHK-AM/1420

1994 - Congressional hearings begin on White Water

1994 - Explosion in lead/zinc mine in Guangxi China, 120+ killed

1994 - NY Supreme Court refuses Howard Stern's non financial disclosure

1994 - Noureddine Morceli runs world record 3000m (7:25.11)

1995 - China ordered the expulsion of two U.S. Air Force officers. The two were said to have been caught spying on military sights.  
1998 - 26th du Maurier Golf Classic

1998 - 30th Curtis Cup: US wins 10-8 at The Minikahda Club (Minneapolis, Minnesota, US)

2012 - 23 people are killed after two blasts in a fruit market in Lahore, Pakistan

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug02.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Roger Waters Responds to Allegations of Anti-Semitism

Yes, Roger Waters finally, and officially, responded to the stories alleging that he was anti-Semitic, and possibly even a Nazi sympathizer. Ridiculous allegations to be sure, of course. But then again, we are living in the age when the FOX News Nation is a serious political force to be reckoned with, and is taken as the gospel truth by many, many people - including prominent, powerful people.

So, Waters probably needed to answer what are, in fact, absurd and offensively exaggerated claims, that show more the ignorance and extreme political leanings of those who make such claims, rather than on Roger Waters himself.

Here is the link to the official Roger Waters Facebook Page, where his letter can be found, and the content of the letter can be found below it:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/roger-waters-the-wall/an-open-letter-from-roger-waters/688037331210720

There has been some comment on the Internet about the Wall Show in Belgium to which I feel I should respond.

One Alon Onfus Asif, an Israeli living in Belgium, came to The Wall show in Belgium last week and being an observant sort of chap Alon noticed a Star of David on the Pig that is destroyed by the audience at the end of the show. Then Alon dutifully videoed our Pig on his phone, posted this video, and alerted Israeli Daily, Yediot Ahronot. This story was duly picked up by the ever watchful Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the entirely predictable resulting rant is attached here:
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/07/24/massive-pig-balloon-at- roger-waters-concert-features-star-of-david-video/.

Often I can ignore these attacks but Rabbi Cooper’s accusations, are so wild and bigoted they demand a response.

Dear Rabbi Cooper,

I hold your outburst to be inflammatory and un-helpful and would suggest it can only impede progress towards peace and understanding between people. It is also extremely insulting to me personally in that you accuse me of being ‘Anti Semitic’, ‘A Jew Hater’ and ‘Nazi Sympathizer.’

I have three specific points to make:

1). Your use of the adjective “ANTI-SEMITIC”.

First I direct you to an announcement by ‘The Anti Defamation League’ an American organization, who’s declared aim is to defend Jewish people and Judaism from attack. They recently said.

“While we wish that Mr. Waters would have avoided using the Star of David, we believe there is no anti-Semitic intent here.”

I should point out that in the show, I also use the Crucifix, the Crescent and Star, the Hammer and Sickle, the Shell Oil Logo and The McDonald’s Sign, a Dollar Sign and a Mercedes sign.

2). JEW-HATING? I have many very close Jewish friends, one of whom, interestingly enough, is the nephew of the late Simon Wiesenthal. I am proud of that association; Simon Wiesenthal was a great man. Also I have two grandsons who, I love more than life itself, their Mother, my daughter in law, is Jewish and so, in consequence, I’m told, are they.

3). NAZI? Not only did my father, 2nd Lieutenant Eric Fletcher Waters, die in Italy on February 18th 1944 fighting the Nazis, but I was brought up in post war England where I received the most thorough education on the subject of Nazism and where I was spared no horrific detail of the heinous crimes committed in the name of that most foul ideology. I remember my mother’s friends Claudette and Maria, I remember their tattoos, they where survivors, two of the lucky ones.

My Mother spent the whole of the rest of her life, involved politically to make sure the future for her children and grandchildren, in fact for everyone’s children and grandchildren, black, white, Gentile, Jew, Latino, Asian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, et al, had no Sword of Damocles in the form of the despised Nazi Creed hanging over their heads.

I for my part, as best I can, have continued along my parent’s path. At the age of nearly 70, in the spirit of my Father and Mother and all they did, I have stood my ground, as best I can, in defense of Mistress Liberty.

The Wall Show, so lamely attacked by you, is many things. It is thoughtful, life affirming, ecumenical, humane, loving, anti war, anti colonial, pro universal access to the law, pro liberty, pro collaboration, pro dialogue, pro peace, anti authoritarian, anti fascist, anti apartheid, anti dogma, international in spirit, musical and satirical.

It is not.

ANTI-SEMITIC or PRO NAZI

I have often come under attack by the pro Israel lobby because of my support for BDS, (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) which I won’t go into here, anyone interested can access a speech I made at The United Nations on the 29th November last year.

However I will say this, in a functioning theocracy it is almost inevitable that the symbol of the religion becomes confused with the symbol of the state, in this case the State of Israel, a state that operates Apartheid both within its own borders and also in the territories it has occupied and colonized since 1967.

Like it or not, the Star of David represents Israel and its policies and is legitimately subject to any and all forms of non violent protest. To peacefully protest against Israel’s racist domestic and foreign policies is NOT ANTI-SEMITIC. Your contention that because I criticize the Policies of the Israeli government I should be lumped in with the Muslim Brotherhood is risible, and again a personal affront. I have spent my whole adult life advocating separation of church and state.

At every Wall Show I invite 20 vets from whatever country we are in backstage at half time to meet, exchange handshakes and good wishes and mementos. At one show, a year or so ago, an older vet, Vietnam era, at a guess, blocked my exit, he put out his hand which I took, he did not let go, he looked me in the eyes and he said “ Your Father would be proud of you.”

Tears burn my eyes.

The Wall is reaching out to you and all the other Rabbi Cooper’s out there.

Come to the show!

Love

Roger

P.S.

For the sake of some perspective. The inflatable pig that so offended young Alon has appeared at every Wall Show since September 2010, some 193 shows, yours is the first complaint. Also the pig in question represents evil, and more specifically the evil of errant government. We make a gift of this symbol of repression to the audience at the end of every show and the people always do the right thing. They destroy it.

On This Day in History - August 3 Germany and France Declare War & The Birth of the NBA

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Aug 3, 1914: Germany and France declare war on each other

On the afternoon of this day in 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a two-front war against France and Russia. Hours later, France makes its own declaration of war against Germany, readying its troops to move into the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which it had forfeited to Germany in the settlement that ended the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.  

With Germany officially at war with France and Russia, a conflict originally centered in the tumultuous Balkans region—with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, and the subsequent standoff between Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Serbia’s powerful Slavic supporter, Russia—had erupted into a full-scale war. Also on August 3, the first wave of German troops assembled on the frontier of neutral Belgium, which in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan would be crossed by German armies on their way to an invasion of France. The day before, Germany had presented Belgium and its sovereign, King Albert, with an ultimatum demanding passage for the German army through its territory.  

This threat to Belgium, whose perpetual neutrality had been mandated by a treaty concluded by the European powers—including Britain, France and Germany—in 1839, united a divided British government in opposition to German aggression. Hours before Germany’s declaration of war on France on August 3, the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, went before Parliament and convinced a divided British government—and nation—to give its support to Britain’s entrance into the war if Germany violated Belgian neutrality.  

"The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime," Grey famously remarked to a friend on the night of August 3. The next day, Britain sent its own ultimatum to Berlin: halt the invasion of Belgium or face war with Britain as well. A reply was demanded by midnight that night. At noon that day, King Albert finally made a concerted appeal for help to France and Britain, as guarantors of Belgium’s neutrality according to the Treaty of 1839. To do so earlier, to call in the French and British too soon, would have risked violating his country’s neutrality before Germany had done so. When London received no answer to its ultimatum—the first German troops had in fact crossed the Belgian frontier at Gemmerich, 30 miles from the fortress city of Liege, that morning—Britain declared war on Germany.  

In August 1914, as the great powers of Europe readied their armies and navies for a fight, no one was preparing for a long struggle—both sides were counting on a short, decisive conflict that would end in their favor. "You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees," Kaiser Wilhelm assured troops leaving for the front in the first week of August 1914. Even though some military leaders, including German Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke and his French counterpart, Joseph Joffre, foresaw a longer conflict, they did not modify their war strategy to prepare for that eventuality. One man, the controversial new war secretary in Britain, Lord Horatio Kitchener, did act on his conviction that the war would be a lasting one, insisting from the beginning of the war—against considerable opposition—on the need to build up Britain’s armed forces. "A nation like Germany," Kitchener argued, "after having forced the issue, will only give in after it is beaten to the ground. This will take a very long time. No one living knows how long."



Aug 3, 1949: NBA is born      

On this day in 1949, after a damaging three-year battle to win both players and fans, the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form the National Basketball Association (NBA).  

The BAA incorporated in 1946, challenging the hegemony of the nine-year old NBL. The BAA established itself in bigger cities than the NBL, which existed only in small Midwestern cities like Fort Wayne, Sheboygan and Akron. While the NBL held its games in small gymnasiums, the upstart BAA played its games in large major-market arenas such as the Boston Garden and New York City’s Madison Square Garden. By the 1948-49 season, the BAA had begun to attract some of the country’s best players, and four NBL franchises--Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Rochester--moved to the BAA, bringing their star players with them. George Mikan, the biggest attraction in either league who by himself could virtually assure a team’s success, defected to the new league with the Minneapolis Lakers.  

On August 3, 1949, representatives from the two leagues met at the BAA offices in New York’s Empire State Building to finalize the merger. Maurice Podoloff, head of the BAA since its inception, was elected head of the new league. The new NBA was made up of 17 teams that represented both small towns and large cities across the country. Through the 1950s, though, the number of teams dwindled, along with fan support, and by the 1954-55 season, only eight teams remained. That year, the league transformed the game with the creation of the 24-second clock, making play faster-paced and more fun to watch. Fans returned, and the league, now financially solvent, expanded throughout the 1960s and 70s. Today, the NBA has 30 franchises and attracts players—and millions of fans—from countries around the world.


as well!

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

8 - Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus.

435 - Deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, exiled by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in Egypt.

881 - Battle at Saucourt: French King Louis III beats the Vikings

1108 - Louis VI, "the Fat One," King of France, crowned

1312 - Power of Luik Patriarch murders over 200

1492 - All Jews are expelled from Spain

1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships, headed for the "Indies". The voyage would lead him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.   

1527 - First known letter was sent from North America by John Rut while at St. John's, Newfoundland.

1529 - "Ladies' Peace" (treaty of Cambrai)-emperor Charles V & King French I

1557 - Dutch States-General meet at Valenciennes

1596 - David Fabricius discovers light variation of Mira (1st variable star)

1635 - The third of the Tokugawa shoguns, Iemitsu, establishes the system of alternate attendance (sankin kotai) by which the feudal daimyō are required to spend one year at Edo Castle in Tokyo and one year back home at their feudal manor, while their families remained in Tokyo as virtual political hostages. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 21, 1635).

1640 - 2,000 men VOC-army surrounds the city of Malakka

1640 - Zorilla's "Bire el Ojo," premieres in Toledo

1645 - Battle of Allersheim: French defeat Bavarians

1650 - Viceroy Willem II & Amsterdam reach accord about standing army

1676 - Nathaniel Bacon publishes "Declaration of People of Virginia"

1678 - Robert LaSalle builds 1st ship in America, Griffon

1692 - Battle at Steenkerke: French beat English/Dutch army

1704 - English/Dutch fleet under Rooke/Callenburgh occupy Gibraltar

1708 - Battle at Trencsén: Austria beats Hungarian rebellion army

1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie lands on Eriskay, Hebrides
1750 - Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It was titled "A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management."   

1778 - Teatro alla Scala opens in Milan

1797 - Emperor Francis I permits Jews who served in military in "Countries of Bohemian Crown" to marry non Jews

1829 - Gioacchino Rossini's "William Tell," premieres in Paris

1833 - HMS Beagle reaches river mouth of Rio Negro

1852 - 1st intercollegiate rowing race, Harvard beats Yale by 4 lengths

1855 - Rotterdam-Gouda railway opens

1860 - American Canoe Association founded at Lake George NY

1860 - The Second Maori War begins in New Zealand.

1861 - Federal fleet bombs Galveston Texas

1863 - Governor Seymour asks Lincoln to suspend draft in NY

1863 - Saratoga Racetrack (NY) opens

1864 - Battle of Mobile AL
1880 - The American Canoe Association was formed at Lake George, NY. 

1881 - Boers signs Convention of Pretoria: Transvaal semi-autonomous

1881 - US Nation Lawn Tennis Association removes "Nation" from name

1882 - Congress passes 1st law restricting immigration

1897 - John McNally's musical "Good Mr Best," premieres in NYC

Tire Industrialist Harvey FirestoneTire Industrialist Harvey Firestone
1900 - Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founded.

1904 - British journalist Francis Younghusband visits forbidden city Lhasa

1906 - Wash Natl's pitcher Tom Hughes hits HR to win his own game 1-0 in 10th

1913 - Wheatland Hop Riot
1914 - Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany.   

1914 - 1st seaworthy ship through Panama Canal

1914 - Belgium rejects demand to allow free crossing for German army

1914 - French fleet sails to North-Africa

1914 - German battle cruiser Goeben leaves Messina

1914 - Germany invades Belgium and declares war on France in WW I

1914 - Great Britain declares war on Germany

1914 - Turkey signs military pact with Germany

1914 - World Alliance for Promoting Intl Friendship through Churches forms

1914 - Yankee catcher Nunamaker throws out 3 would be stealers in 1 inning

1921 - 1st aerial cropdusting (Troy Ohio to kill caterpillars)

1921 - Due to a technicality, 8 Chicago White Sox accused in Black Sox scandal are acquited, however Landis throws them out of baseball
1922 - WGY radio in Schenectady, NY, presented the first full-length melodrama on radio. The work was "The Wolf", written by Eugene Walter.
1923 - Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding. 

1923 - Baseball games cancelled following the death of President Harding

1924 - Cyclist Piet Moeskops regains world sprint championist

1925 - Last US troops leave Nicaragua (there since 1912)

1926 - Traffic lights installed on Piccadilly Circus

1928 - Ray Barbuti saves US team from defeat in Amsterdam Olympics track events by winning 400 m (47.8 sec)

1930 - 2nd time in 1930, Chuck Klein of Phillies hits in 26 straight games

1933 - Yanks are shut out for 1st time after 308 games (since Aug 2, 1931)
1933 - The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.
1936 - The U.S. State Department advised Americans to leave Spain due to the Spanish Civil War.
1936 - Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.   

1939 - Jean Genets "Ondine," premieres in Paris

1940 - German occupiers forbid ritual slaughters & English & French movies

1940 - Italian troops invade British Somalia

1940 - Lithuanian SSR is accepted into USSR

1940 - Seaplane Clare makes 1st British passagiersvlucht to the US

1941 - Benzine sales limited in US

1941 - Gas sales limited in US

1941 - German troops conquer Roslavl USSR

Yankee Clipper Joe DiMaggioYankee Clipper Joe DiMaggio
1941 - Browns pitcher Johnny Niggling gets Joe DiMaggio in 4 at bats to stop DiMaggio's streak of 74 games in reaching base

1943 - Nazi occupiers attack city Orel, leave it in fire
1943 - Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private in a hospital, accusing him of cowardice. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.   

1944 - Allied troops conquer Myitkyina Burma

1944 - Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp gases 4,000 gypsies

1944 - General Montgomery visits general Dempsey's headquarter

1944 - Lt-Gen Stilwells troops occupy Myitkyina Burma

1944 - Tommy Brown, just 16 years & 8 months old, plays shortstop for Dodgers

1946 - Belgian government of Huysmans, forms

1948 - Cleveland's Satchel Paige make his 1st start & goes 7 innings

1948 - FDR advisor Alger Hiss accused to be a "communist"

1949 - Republic Indonesia proclaims cease fire
1949 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.   

1951 - William H Jackson, ends term as deputy director of CIA

1952 - 15th Olympic games close in Helsinki Finland

US General George S. PattonUS General George S. Patton 1953 - Frank Blair becomes news anchor of Today Show

1954 - 1st VTOL (Vertical Take-off & Land) flown

1955 - Automobile Association of America ends support of auto racing

1955 - Hurricane Connie begins pounding US for 11 days

1955 - Roger Moens runs world record 800 m (1:45.7)

1956 - Willie Williams of US sets 100 meter record at 10.1
1956 - Bedloe's Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.   

1957 - British offensive against imam Galeb Ben Ali of Oman

1958 - The nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine." 

1958 - The Billboard Hot 100 is founded

1959 - 27th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 5-3 at Memorial Coliseum, LA

1959 - 50 killed in uprising in Guinea-Bissau

1959 - AL beats NL 5-3 in 27th All Star Game (Dodger Stadium)

1960 - Niger gains independence from France

1962 - 29th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Green Bay 42, All-Stars 20 (65,000)

1962 - NY Met Frank Thomas hits his 6th HR in 3 games

1963 - "No Strings" closes at 84th St Theater NYC after 580 performances

1963 - Allan Sherman releases "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda"

1963 - Beatles final performance at Cavern Club in Liverpool

1966 - South African government bans Beatle records

1967 - 45,000 US soldiers sent to Vietnam

1967 - James Law rides entire NYC subway in 22 hrs 12 minutes

1968 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

1969 - Reds beats Phillies 19-17

1969 - Sandra Spuzich wins LPGA Buckeye Savings Golf Invitational

1970 - 4 day NFL strike ends

1970 - Christopher Hampton's "Philanthropist," premieres in London

1970 - Hurricane "Celia" becomes most expensive Gulf storm in history

1970 - Mairiam Hargrave of Yorkshire, passes her driving test on 40th try

Pop Star & Beatle Paul McCartneyPop Star & Beatle Paul McCartney 1971 - Paul McCartney announces formation of his group Wings

1972 - British premier Heath proclaims emergency crisis due to harbor strike

1972 - Chozen-ji/Intl Zen Dojo founded by Omori Sogen Roshi, in Hawaii

1972 - U.S. Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1973 - Flash fire kills 51 at amusement park (Isle of Man, UK)

1973 - National People's party wins Dutch Antilles National elections

1974 - "Little Night Music" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 601 perfs

1974 - "Words & Music" closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 127 perfs

1974 - Guitarist Jeff Baxter quits Steely Dan & joins Doobie Brothers

1975 - 500 drown when 2 river boats collide & sink in China's West River

1975 - Louisiana Superdome is dedicated

1975 - Poland & West germany reach accord about returning ethnic Germans

1975 - Susie Berning wins LPGA Lady Keystone Golf Open

1977 - Radio Shack issues a press release introducing TRS-80 computer 25 existed, within weeks thousands were ordered

1977 - United States Senate Hearing on MKULTRA.

1979 - Fastest jai-alai shot (188 mph), Jose Arieto at Newport Jai Alai, RI

1979 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1979 - "More American Graffiti" was released.
1979 - Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory. 

1980 - 22nd Olympic games close at Moscow, USSR

1980 - Kaline, Snider, Klein, & Tom Yawkey inducted into Hall of Fame

1980 - Sandra Post wins West Virginia LPGA Golf Classic

1981 - 13,000 Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) begin their strike

1981 - France performs nuclear test

1981 - Senegalese opposition parties, under the leadership of Mamadou Dia, launch the Antiimperialist Action Front-Suxxali Reew Mi.
1981 - U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike, and were fired.  U.S. President Reagan had warned them of their fate. The interpretation of this incident has proven controversial since.    

1982 - Clyde King replaces Gene Michaels as NY Yankee manager

1983 - John Sain of South Bend, Ind builds 3.91 m house of cards

1983 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1984 - 365.7 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange

1984 - Bomb attack on Madras India airport, 32 killed
1984 - Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
1985 - Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they'd wear clothes or stay out of sight when the mailperson came to deliver.

1985 - "Nihilator" set harness pacing mile (1:49.6) in East Rutherford, NJ

1985 - Train crash at Flaujac, France: 35 killed

1986 - Amy Alcott wins LPGA National Golf Pro-Am

1986 - Willie McCovey, Bobby Doerr, & Ernie Lombardi inducted in Hall of Fame
1987 A 22-cent stamp honoring author William Faulkner was issued. Its first-day cancellation was held in Oxford, Miss., where Faulkner had served as postmaster from 1921 until his resignation in 1924 following accusations of negligence. 

1987 - Chicago Bears beat Dallas Cowboys 17-6 in London, England (NFL expo)

1987 - Discovery in Orbital Processing Facility is powered up for STS-26

1987 - Jack Morris ties AL record with 5 wild pitches in a 4-2 lose

1987 - Twins Joe Niekro is caught with a file on the mound & is ejected
1988 - The Iran-Contra hearings ended. No official ties were made between U.S. President Reagan and the Nicaraguan Rebels.
1988 - The Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow's Red Square.   

1988 - Skip Storch swims 246 km of Hudson River from Albany to NYC

1989 - 5th jockey to win 6,000 races (Jorge Valesquez)

1989 - Lawrence Delisle drives his 4 kids into river

1989 - Rickey Henderson sets AL mark of 50 steals in 9 seasons

1989 - Cin Reds send record 20 men to bat with a record 16 hits in 1 inning as they score 14 runs in 1st inning
1989 - Hashemi Rafsanjani was sworn in as the president of Iran.
1990 - Thousands of Iraqi troops pushed within a few miles of the border of Saudi Arabia. This heightened world concerns that the invasion of Kuwait could spread.   

1990 - "Little Night Music" opens at New York State Theater NYC for 11 perfs

1990 - 98.8°F (37.1°C) in Cheltenham, Glos. (UK record)

1990 - NY Yankee Kevin Mass sets record with 10th HR in 1st 72 at bats

1990 - Radio Kuwait resigns air, due to Iraqi invasion

1990 - US announces commitment of Naval forces to Gulf regions

1990 - For 3rd time in 1990 a no-hitter is broken up with 2 outs in 8th inning. Doug Drabek of Pitts still beats Phila 11-0

1991 - Giant Victory, driven by Jack Moiseyev, wins Hambletonian

1991 - Pan Am games open in Havana

1992 - Dodgers win 3,000th game since moving to Los Angeles (3,000-2,531)

1992 - Paramount inaugurates New York Street on TV/movie lot
1992 - The U.S. Senate voted to restrict and eventually end the testing of nuclear weapons.
1992 - Russia and Ukraine agreed to put the Black Sea Fleet under joint command. The agreement was to last for three years.   

1994 - 102.4°F (39.1°C) in Tokyo Japan: record

1994 - 1st Jordanian plane to fly over Israeli airspace (King Hussein pilot)

1995 - CNN en Espanol premieres
1995 - Eyad Ismoil was flown from Jordan to the U.S. to face charges that he had driven the van that blew up in New York's World Trade Center.   

1996 - General William F. Garrison accepted responsibility for the outcome of the 1993 raid in Somalia, and he retired from military service.

1997 - 25th du Maurier Golf Classic: Colleen Walker wins

1997 - BankBoston Senior Golf Classic

1997 - Garth Brooks performs a free concert in Central Park NY for HBO

1997 - Phil Mickelson wins golf's Sprint International

1997 - Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria; 40-76 villagers killed.

2001 - The Real IRA detonate a car bomb in Ealing, London, U.K injuring seven people. (See 3 August 2001 Ealing bombing).

2004 - In New York, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
2004 - NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011.    

2005 - President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya of Mauritania is overthrown in a military coup while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia.

2009 - Bolivia became the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.

2012 - United Nations General Assembly c reproaches The United Nations Security Council over its lack of action in Syria

       

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug03.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

On This Day in History - August 1 (incomplete)

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

Aug 1, 1914: First World War erupts in Europe 

On August 1, 1914, four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, two more great European powers—Russia and Germany—declare war on each other; the same day, France orders a general mobilization. The so-called "Great War" that ensued would be one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians and the physical devastation of much of the European continent.  

The event that was widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I occurred on July 28, 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was shot to death with his wife by the Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. Over the weeks that followed, Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack, hoping to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism in the tumultuous Balkans region once and for all. However, as Russia supported Serbia, an Austria-Hungary declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention. This assurance came on July 5; Austria-Hungary subsequently sent an ultimatum to the Serbian government on July 23 and demanded its acceptance within two days at the risk of war. Though Serbia accepted all but two of the ultimatum’s terms, and Russia declared its intention to back Serbia in the case of such a conflict, Austria-Hungary went ahead with its war declaration against Serbia on July 28, one month after the assassinations.  

With that declaration, the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers was shattered: Germany warned Russia, still only partially mobilized, that to continue to full mobilization against Austria-Hungary would mean war with Germany. While insisting that Russia immediately halt mobilization, Germany began its own mobilization; when the Russians refused the German demands, Germany declared war on the czarist empire on August 1. That same day, Russia’s ally, France, long suspicious of German aggression, began its own mobilization, urging Great Britain—the third member, along with France and Russia, of the Triple Entente alliance—to declare its support. A divided British government declined to do so initially, but events soon precipitated Britain’s move towards war as well. On August 2, the first German army units crossed into Luxembourg as part of a long-planned German strategy to invade France through neutral Belgium. France and Germany declared war against each other on August 3; that night, Germany invaded Belgium, prompting Great Britain to declare war on Germany.  

For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. The great majority of people—within government and without—assumed that their country would be victorious within months, and could not envision the possibility of a longer conflict. By the end of 1914, however, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and there was no final victory in sight for either the Allies or the Central Powers. On the Western Front—the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium—the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition, which would continue, in Europe and other corners of the world, for the next four years.



Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

30 BC - Octavian (later known as Augustus) enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic.

527 - Justinian I becomes the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire

607 - Ono no Imoko is dispatched as envoy to the Sui court in China (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607).

649 - Pope Martinus I chosen successor of Theodorus I [or 8/7]

860 - Peace of Koblenz: Charles the Bare, Louis the German & Lotharius II

902 - Aghlabidisch emir Ibrahim II destroys Taormina, Sicily

1021 - Synod of Pavia: emperor Henry II convicts married priest

1086 - Results of the Domesday inquiry presented to William the Conqueror in Salisbury (the date of compilation and the Great Domesday are historically contestable)

1177 - Peace Treaty of Venice: Emperor Frederik I & Pope Alexander III

1203 - Alexius IV Angelus appointed co-regent of Byzantium

1291 - Everlasting League forms, basis of Swiss Confederation (Independence)

1485 - Henry (VII) Tudors army sails to England

1498 - Christopher Columbus lands on "Isla Santa" (Venezuela)

1588 - English admiral Howard van Effingham beats Spanish Armada

1589 - Assination of French King Henry III by friar Jacques Clément

1619 - 1st black Americans (20) land at Jamestown, Virginia

1626 - Earl Earnest Casimir conquerors Oldenzaal

1628 - Emperor Ferdinand II demands Austria Protestant convert to Catholicism

1664 - Battle at St Gotthard: Earl Raimondo Montecucculi beats Ahmed Kiprulu

Explorer of the New World Christopher ColumbusExplorer of the New World Christopher Columbus 1690 - Battle at Staffarda: French army beats Victor Amadeus van Savoye

1711 - Surrounded Czar Peter the Great flees Azov

1714 - Monarch Georg Ludwig becomes king George I of England

1715 - 1st Doggett's Coat and Badge race (Waterman's race) held on Thames River (London Bridge to Chelsea)

1732 - Foundation laid for Bank of England

1759 - Battle at Minden, Westfalen: Ferdinand van Brunswick beats France

1774 - Joseph Priestley, English theologian and chemist author discovers oxygen

1780 - Sweden declares neutrality

1781 - English army under general Cornwallis occupies Yorktown, Virginia

1785 - Caroline Herschel becomes 1st woman discoverer of a comet

1789 - US Customs begins enforcing Tariff Act

1790 - 1st US census (population of 3,939,214; 697,624 are slaves)

1793 - France becomes 1st country to use the metric system

1794 - Whiskey Rebellion begins

1798 - Battle of Abukir on the Nile-Nelson defeats French fleet

Russian Tsar Peter the GreatRussian Tsar Peter the Great 1812 - Rare tornado hits Westchester County NY

1814 - Belgium King Willem I accept blame in Southern defeat

1820 - London's Regent's Canal opens.

1828 - Bolton and Leigh Railway opens to freight traffic.

1831 - London Bridge opens to traffic

1832 - The Black Hawk War ends.

1834 - Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire - Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect

1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin returns to Bahia Brazil

1838 - Apprenticeship system abolished in most of the British Empire. Former slaves no longer indentured to former owners.

1840 - Labourer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated.

1842 - Rotherhithe Thames Tunnel opens

1842 - Lombard Street Riot erupts

1852 - SF Methodists establish 1st black church, Zion Methodist

1855 - Castle Clinton in NYC opens as 1st US receiving station for immigrants

1861 - Brazil recognizes Confederacy

Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1863 - Battle of Little Rock, Arkansas; start of Chattanooga campaign

1863 - Cavalry action near Brandy Station-End of Gettysburg Campaign

1864 - Battle of Petersburg, VA

1867 - Blacks vote for 1st time in a US state election in the South (Tenn)

1869 - 1st voyage down Colorado River

1873 - SF's 1st cable car begins service

1876 - Colorado becomes 38th state

1881 - US Quarantine Station authorized for Angel Island, SF Bay

1883 - A papyrus offered to Brit Museum for £10,000 (forgery)

1883 - Amsterdam's Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky gets electric lights

1883 - Inland postal service begins in Great Britain

1886 - Great Britain annexes Kermadec-Island near New Zealand

1890 - Cecil Rhodes' colonies reach Lundi

1893 - Henry Perky & William Ford patent shredded wheat

1896 - George Samuelson completes rowing Atlantic (NY to England)

1901 - Burial within SF City limits prohibited

1902 - Building begins on Dutch public housing

1902 - Mine accident in Wollongong, Australia (100 die)

1903 - 1st coast-to-coast automobile trip (SF-NY) completed

1906 - Bkln Dodger Harry McIntire no-hits Pitts for 10 2/3 loses in 13th

1907 - Bank of Italy opens 1st branch at 3433 Mission Street, SF

1907 - Signal Corps of US army starts aircraft division

1907 - First Scout camp opens on Brownsea Island.

1909 - British SS Waratah disappears on Sydney to London, 300 killed

1911 - Omar N Bradley (18) begins education in West Point

1914 - British fleet reaches Scapa Flow

Last Tsar of Russia Nicholas II AleksandrovitchLast Tsar of Russia Nicholas II Aleksandrovitch 1914 - Emperor Wilhelm II declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II (WW I)

1914 - France & Germany mobilize

1914 - Trois Vierges: German 69th infantry regiment enter Luxembourg Germany declares war on Russia in WW I

1916 - Hawaii National Park forms

1917 - Frank Little, IWW organizer, lynched in Butte, MT

1918 - British troops enter Vladivostok

1918 - Pittsburgh Pirates beat Boston Braves, 2-0, in 21 innings

1919 - Queen Wilhelmina opens 1st Air Fair in Amsterdam

1919 - Treffers soccer team forms in Groesbeek

1920 - Papendrecht soccer team forms

1920 - Peace of Riga-Independence of Latvia

1922 - Hendrikus Colijn becomes political editor-in-chief of The Standard

1925 - Shortwave-radio link between Kootwijk & Netherland East-Indies

1926 - Battles between Druzen & French in Damascus

1926 - Failed assassination on Gen Primo de Rivera in Barcelona

1927 - Earliest date for a film to be considered for the Academy Awards

Baseball Great Babe RuthBaseball Great Babe Ruth 1928 - Babe Ruth hits HR # 42 & is 4 weeks ahead of his 1927 pace

1933 - Carl Hubbell sets record of consecutive scoreless innings (45 1/3)

1933 - Death penality for anti fascists in Germany

1933 - Dutch colonial regime in Batavia arrest ir Sukarno

1933 - NRA (National Recovery Administration) forms

1936 - Adolph Hitler opens 11th Olympic Games in Berlin

1936 - Benjamin E Mays named president of Morehouse College

1941 - Luftwaffe bombs German 23rd division

1941 - NY Yankee Lefty Gomez walks most (11) in a shutout (Yanks 9, St L 0)

1941 - The first Jeep is produced.

1942 - Deurne soccer team forms

1942 - German occupier demands listing of all Dutch telephone subscribers

1942 - Race riots in Harlem, New York

1943 - Japan declares Burma Independence under U Ba Maw

1943 - Race riot in Harlem NYC

Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolph HitlerDictator of Nazi Germany Adolph Hitler 1943 - Sunderland seaplanes sink U-454 & U-383

1944 - Adam Clayton Powell elected 1st black congressman from East

1944 - Anne Frank's last diary entry; 3 days later she is arrested

1944 - General Montgomery takes command of 12th & 21st army

1944 - US 90th division occupies St Hilaire-du-Harcourt

1944 - US troops enter Tessy-sur-Vir

1944 - Uprising in Warsaw

1945 - Japanese city Toyama destroyed by B-29's

1945 - Mel Ott is 1st in NL to hit 500th HR (joins Babe Ruth & Jimmy Foxx)

1945 - SVBO soccer team forms in Barger-Oosterveld

1946 - Pres Harry Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)

1947 - "Medium & The Telephone" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 211 perfs

1947 - Valleivogels soccer team forms in Scherpenzeel

1948 - The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.

1950 - 1st Major League baseball player to fight in Korea (Curt Simmons)

33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman 1950 - American Bowling Congress ends all-white-males rule

1950 - Guam adopts constitution (Organic Act)

1950 - King Leopold of Belgium abdicates, Baudouin becomes King

1950 - Territory of Guam created

1951 - David Ben-Gurion's Mapai-party wins Israeli parliamentary election

1953 - California introduces sales tax (for education)

1953 - Fidel Castro arrested in Cuba

1953 - KMBC TV channel 9 in Kansas City, MO (MET/ABC) begins broadcasting

1953 - KOBI TV channel 5 in Medford, OR (NBC) begins broadcasting

1953 - Northern Rhodesia becomes part of Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland

1953 - Red Sox Ben Flowers sets then record of 8 consecutive games in relief

1954 - Louison Bobet wins his 2nd Tour de France

1954 - WKBT TV channel 8 in La Crosse, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting

1955 - 1st microgravity research begins

1955 - Tengku Abdul Rahman forms Malacca government

Dictator Fidel CastroDictator Fidel Castro 1955 - WILL TV channel 12 in Urbana-Champaign, IL (PBS) begins broadcasting

1956 - KRCR TV channel 7 in Redding-Chico, CA (ABC) begins broadcasting

1957 - 1st coml building heated by Sun (Albuquerque NM)

1957 - Gil Hodges hits his NL record 13th career grand slam (Last by Bkln)

1957 - Glen Gorbous throws a baseball a record 136 m (445'10")

1957 - US & Canada create North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)

1958 - 1st class postage up to 4 cents (had been 3 cents for 26 years)

1958 - US atomic sub USS Nautilus 1st begins transit of North Pole "operation Sunshine"

1959 - New Continental baseball league formed

1959 - Pope John XXIII publishes encyclical Sacerdotii nostri primordia

1959 - WAAY TV channel 31 in Huntsville, AL (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting

1960 - Aretha Franklins 1st recording session

1960 - Benin (Dahomey) gains independence from France

1960 - Chubby Checker releases "The Twist"

1960 - Islamabad declared as the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.

1961 - Benaud rips through England team for Aussie win at Old Trafford

1961 - German DR limits traffic to West Berlin

1961 - New SF Hall of Justice opens

1961 - Whitney Young Jr named executive director of National Urban League

1962 - Boston Red Sox Bill Monboquette no-hits Chicago White Sox, 1-0

1962 - Failed assassination on president Nkrumah of Ghana

1963 - Beatles Book is sold out on its 1st day of sale

1963 - Germany FR annexes Elten village

1963 - WQAD TV channel 8 in Moline, IL (ABC) begins broadcasting

1964 - ALM (Antillian Airlines) begins operation

1964 - Beatles' "Hard Day's Night, A," single goes #1 & stays #1 for 2 weeks

1965 - Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Waterloo Golf Open

1966 - Charles Whitman wounds 31 & kills 16 at University of Texas

1967 - Izaak Samkalden becomes mayor of Amsterdam

1967 - WBRA TV channel 15 in Roanoke, VA (PBS) begins broadcasting

1968 - Canada begins replacing silver with nickel in coins

1968 - Cleveland Metroparks begins operating Zoo

1968 - WXIX TV channel 19 in Cincinnati-Newport, OH (IND) begins broadcasting

1968 - The coronation is held of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei.

1969 - 110,000 attend Atlantic City Pop Festival

1969 - 36th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: NY Jets 26, All-Stars 24 (74,208)

1969 - Mariner 6 sends close-up photo's of Mars

1970 - EAA Convention moves from Rockford Ill to Oshkosh, Wi

1970 - KTSD TV channel 10 in Pierre, SD (PBS) begins broadcasting

1970 - Willie Stargell (Pirates) ties record of 5 extra base hits in a game

1971 - Bangladesh refugee concert with George Harrison

1971 - CBS presents Masterpiece Theatre's 6 Wives of Henry VIII

1971 - George Harrison's concert for Bangladesh takes place in NYC

1971 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Bluegrass Golf Invitational

1972 - 1st article exposing Wategate scandal (Bernstein-Woodward)

1972 - Nate Colbert of SD Padres hits record tying 5 HRs in a double header

1973 - H J Witteveen appointed as director of IMF

1973 - Munson & Fisk get into a brawl at Fenway Park

1974 - Virginia Squires trade Julius "Dr J" Erving to NY Nets

1975 - 38 government leaders signs Helsinki accord

1975 - 41st NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Pittsburgh 21, All-Stars 14 (54,103)

1975 - Billy Martin replaces Bill Virdon as manager of NY Yankees

1975 - Helsinki Pact guaranteeing boundaries, rights signed by 35 nations

1975 - CSCE Final Act creates the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

1976 - 21st Olympic games close at Montreal Canada

1976 - Flash flood in Big Thompson Canyon Colo on Route 34, kills 139

1976 - Liz Taylor's 6th divorce (re-divorces Richard Burton)

1976 - Seattle Seahawks play 1st (preseason) game (SF 27, Seattle 20)

1977 - SF Giant Willie McCovey hits NL record 18th grand slammer

1977 - Former Lockheed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers crashes the news helicopter he was flying in Los Angeles

1978 - Braves stop Reds Pete Rose's hitting streak at 44 games

1978 - Commandos occupy Iraqi embassy in Paris, 1 dead

1978 - Pete Rose goes hitless, ends his 44 game hitting streak (ties NL)

1979 - Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo forms government in Portugal

1980 - Gerd Wessig of East Germany set high jump record

1980 - Waldemar Cierpinski wins 19th olympics marathon (2:11:03

1980 - Buttevant Rail Disaster kills 18 and injures dozens of train passengers in Ireland.

1981 - MTV premieres at 12:01 AM

1981 - Poland premier Jagielski resigns

1982 - Beth Daniel wins LPGA Columbia Savings Golf Classic

1982 - Greg Louganis, US becomes 1st diver to score 700 (752.67) in 11 dives

1982 - H Aaron, F Robinson, T Jackson, & H Chandler inducted in Hall of Fame

1982 - Heavy Israeli air bombardment on Beirut

1982 - Petra Schneider swims world record 400m medley (4:36.10)

1983 - New Zealand score their 1st Test Cricket match victory in England

1985 - 15.4 cm rainfall at Cheyenne, Wyoming (state record)

1985 - Emmy 12th Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 6th time

1985 - Vince Coleman steals 2 bases in 1st inning, for NL rookie record 74

1986 - Bert Blyleven becomes 10th pitcher to strike out 3,000

1986 - Cleveland sets AL attendance record for twi-night doubleheader, 65,934

1986 - Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia release from hospital after 3 week coma

1987 - Crossbow flight record (2,005 yds 1'9") set by Harry Drake in Nevada

Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike TysonHeavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson 1987 - Mike Tyson beat Tony Tucker in 12 for heavyweight boxing title

1987 - Nurse Mary R Stout chosen chairperson of Vietnam Veterans of America

1988 - Deep Rover 1-man research submarine unveiled at Crater Lake, Oregon

1988 - Rush Limbaugh begins his national radio show.

1989 - Australia take 3-0 series lead over England to regain Cricket Ashes

1990 - "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" closes at Eugene O'Neill NYC after 149 perfs

1990 - Indians' Alex Cole sets club record with 5 stolen bases in one game

1990 - Iraq pulls out of talks with Kuwait

1990 - Soyuz TM-10 launches

1990 - Stanton Cook becomes CEO of Chicago Cubs

1991 - Actress Hedy Lamarr, 77, arrested for shoplifting in Florida

1991 - Italian/Argentine Soccer star Diego Maradona retires

1992 - "Salome" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 9 performances

1992 - NBC's "Saturday Today" premieres

1992 - USA/USSR Around World Air Race begins at Santa Monica

Soccer Legend Diego MaradonaSoccer Legend Diego Maradona 1993 - "In the Summer House" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 25 perfs

1993 - "She Loves Me" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 61 performances

1993 - Missie Berteott wins LPGA Ping/Welch's Golf Championship

1993 - Reggie Jackson enshrined in Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY

1993 - Walter Koenig, Checkov of Star Trek, suffers a heart attack

1994 - 99.9°F (37.7°C) in Berlin-Dahlem: record

1994 - The Rolling Stones begin Voodoo Lounge world tour

1994 - Train crash in Havana Cuba, 6 killed

1995 - Westinghouse purchases CBS-TV network

1996 - M2, MTV's second TV channel is launched

1998 - -8] Gay & Lesbian Games #5 open in Amsterdam

2001 - An agreement is reached on the position of the minority Albanian language in the Republic of Macedonia.

2001 - Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.

2001 - Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office.

2004 - A supermarket fire kills 396 people and injures 500 in Asunción, Paraguay.

2007 - The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapses during the evening rush hour.

2012 - Typhoon Saola kills elven people and displaces over 150,000 in the Philippines

2012 - 8 Women's badminton doubles players are disqualified from the 2012 summer Olympics for "not using one's best efforts to win a match"

1498 - Christopher Columbus landed on "Isla Santa" (Venezuela).   1619 - The first black Americans (20) arrived at Jamestown, VA.   1774 - Oxygen was isolated from air successfully by chemist Carl Wilhelm and scientist Joseph Priestly.   1790 - The first U.S. census was completed with a total population of 3,929,214 recorded. The areas included were the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia   1834 - Slavery was outlawed in the British empire with an emancipation bill.   1873 - Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car. The design was done for San Francisco, CA.   1876 - Colorado became the 38th state to join the United States.   1893 - Shredded wheat was patented by Henry Perky and William Ford.   1894 - The first Sino-Japanese War erupted. The dispute was over control of Korea.   1907 - The U.S. Army established an aeronautical division that later became the U.S. Air Force.   1914 - Germany declared war on Russia at the beginning of World War I.   1936 - Adolf Hitler presided over the Olympic games as they opened in Berlin.   1944 - In Warsaw, Poland, an uprising against Nazi occupation began. The revolt continued until October 2 when Polish forces surrendered.   1946 - In the U.S., the Atomic Energy Commission was established.   1953 - The first aluminum-faced building was completed. It was the first of this type in America.   1956 - The Social Security Act was amended to provide benefits to disabled workers aged 50-64 and disabled adult children.   1957 - The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) was created by the United States and Canada.   1973 - The movie "American Graffiti" opened.   1975 - The Helsinki accords pledged the signatory nations to respect human rights.   1976 - The Seattle Seahawks played their first (preseason) game. The Seahawks lost 27-20 to San Francisco.   1978 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) ended his streak of hitting in 44 consecutive games.   1986 - John McEnroe and Tatum O'Neal were married.   1986 - Bert Blyleven (Minnesota Twins) became only the 10th pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in his career.   1988 - Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" opened.   1993 - Reggie Jackson was admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.   1995 - Westinghouse Electric Corporation announced a deal to buy CBS for $5.4 billion.   1998 - The U.S. books and music chain Borders opens its first European outlet with a 40,000-square-foot store on London's Oxford Street.   2006 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned over absolute power when he gave his brother Raul authority while he underwent an intestinal surgery.




1790 The first U.S. census was completed, showing a population of 3,929,214 people. 1876 Colorado became the 38th state in the United States. 1936 Adolf Hitler presided over the opening of the Berlin Olympic Games. 1946 President Truman signed the congressional acts that established the Atomic Energy Commission and the Fulbright Scholarship program. 1981 MTV made its debut at 12:01 AM. The first video shown was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles.


The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/aug01.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Frontline Tackles Emeritus Assisted Living

Did anyone else see the incredible news story from PBS's Frontline that exposed Emeritus?

Wow! I mean, really!

Frontline, with the assistance of ProPublica, exposed Emeritus Assisted Living, exposing example after example about the company's systematic tendency to put profits over people. The problems that result were revealed, and time and again, proved to be to the detriment of the very people that Emeritus claims that they are serving.

Emeritus is the largest assisted living company in the United States, with $1.6 billion in revenues. There are nearly 500 facilities across the nation, with 42,000 residents within them. And the company is constantly looking to expand, to grow even more.

The question is, should it? Has the focus on growth, or more specifically, on financial growth, gotten so much attention that it now outweighs the emphasis for providing care for the residents?

If you watched the Frontline report, the answer to that question seems quite clear: a resounding yes.

There were numerous examples of the company simply being negligible in case after case, and most of the time, these failures at least appear to be attributable to the corporate focus of Emeritus on the bottom line, which is and always has been making as much profits as possible. This has become the focus so exclusively, that the quality of the care that the facilities tend to provide for those who live there has been compromised.

It is not the fault of the staff, who generally receive what can hardly be considered an enormous salary at allows them to live in largess. Far from it, in fact. It was mentioned on the show that many of the employees make around $10 an hour. Given the skill requirements to provide such care, it hardly seems fair.

Some of the specific examples that Frontline used were truly shocking and horrifying.  The first example, which the story opened to, was that of former Chicago Bears star George McAfee. He had won three championships with the Bears back in his day, and was a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

But towards the end of his life, he found himself at an Emeritus Assisted Living facility in Georgia. He had developed dementia, and one night, he wondered away from his room, and found a cleaning room unlocked. Not knowing what he was doing, he wound up drinking some powerful detergent, which burned his lips, esophagus, and lungs. He was taken to the hospital, but they knew that his case would be terminal. The family described the horror, and mentioned how, at one point, George opened his eyes and sat up, and seemed aware of what was happening to him. It was a terrible way to die.

The case made news, of course. It was a horrific way to die, but it had also happened to a famous client. Emeritus had to take responsibility. But the penalty that they had to pay was a joke - just around $600.

That was the first story, but there was no shortage of others.

Another example was that of Joan Boice. She had come in to an Emeritus facility, and had seemed in relatively decent health. But that did not last long, as she became bed-ridden, and eventually had bed sores that grew to incredible proportions. They were on her body, though, and so when the family came to visit her, these were not in evidence, as she was always in bed, with a blanket over her body. The family had trusted Emeritus to take good care of their mother, but her condition continued to deteriorate at a rapid rate, until she died.

The family was shocked, and it began to be clear that these symptoms were allowed to fester and grow completely out of proportion specifically because Emeritus staff not only did not do anything to take care of it, but outright tried to cover it up.

They built a case against Emeritus. Emeritus offered the family a settlement of over $3 million to walk away, with one of the conditions being that the family would need to hand over all the documents and evidence that they had against Emeritus over to the company. The family refused, and the trial went on. Eventually, all twelve jurors found Emeritus guilty. Here, according to the transcripts of the show (click on the link at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/life-and-death-in-assisted-living/transcript-48/):

The jury awarded punitive damages of nearly $23 million. The amount came from combining Granger Cobb’s annual compensation with that of the company’s chairman. And the 81 cents? That was to remind Emeritus of Joan’s age.

Part of the problem, perhaps, is that the Emeritus facilities look very nice from the outside. I can attest to this myself, having seen one of their facilities up close, and even having been in one once. From the outside, it does indeed look like a peaceful and pleasant place. But inside, the facility is understaffed, and there is such a huge workload, that those employees that are there hardly ever get a chance to catch their breath. There is just far too much to do, and it is unrealistic to assume that a couple of staff members can take care of such a tremendous volume of people. According to Mary Kasuba, a former nurse and resident care director of an Emeritus facility at Emerald Hills in northern California:

It looks like a nice building on the outside. But inside, you know, everybody’s just, like, scrambling to do the best they can, you know, to take care of all these people.

There was this horrifying story from an Emeritus facility in Ridgeland Pointe, in Mississippi, where another patient with dementia, Merle Fall, came to the facility. The family had liked the place, even though it cost $3500 a month, as it seemed friendly and professional. But it became clear very quickly that this impression was mistaken.

Days after her entry, the family visited their mother. She was drugged, and was still in the same clothes that she had been brought in. She smelled of urine. And she desperately wanted to leave.

They entertained the thought of possibly getting her out, but in the end, decided against it. They thought it would be best for her to remain there.

Days later, she packed her suitcase and told the caregiver that she was leaving. Somehow or other, she managed to open the window from the second floor, and dropped to the ground.

When the family was told about the accident, they came immediately. One of the daughters, Linda, said this about it:

We probably got there in less than 10 minutes. As a matter of fact, they were still putting her in the ambulance when we got there. There was not one living soul from Ridgeland Pointe out there with her. Nobody from Ridgeland Pointe ever came outside and said anything to us. Nobody expressed any regret because they never walked out the front door. We never saw them.


These, and quite a few other cases, continue to pop up in relation to Emeritus, which again, it should be reiterated, has become the largest assisted living company in the United States. The cases that I mentioned specifically were basically the tip of the iceberg. The general gist was that what Emeritus wanted more than anything else were profits. To that end, they took shortcuts. They wanted one hundred percent occupancy in their facilities.They wanted to fill up beds. They also tend to be understaffed, not wanting to pay the extra expenses involved with more employees. And finally, a huge portion, even a majority, of those people who they take in are beyond their ability to help. They are not equipped to deal with people with overpowering disabilities, or with severe dementia. Yet, a huge portion of their residents can be described as numbering among these.

Now, this particular Frontline expose about Emeritus was something that I took note of, because there is someone in my life, personally, who works there. And the stories that this person has to tell, and the complaints that the staff has, rung so similar to all the problems so prominently exposed on Frontline's show, that it was simply amazing!

Earlier this summer, the air conditioning broke down, and the temperatures inside the facility simply soared. Now, I was told that the seniors living there did not actually seem all that bothered by it, most likely because they have bad circulation, and thus are more often cold than not. At least, this was the theory of this employee of Emeritus.

Still, it took them weeks to fix the problem, and whether or not it bothered the residents, make no mistake: it was a problem. Everyone working there was drenched in sweat following the eight hour shifts.

Some of the other problems? The staff are generally treated like crap, as replaceable parts, almost. Qualified people, particularly nurses, have lost their positions entirely, and the responsibilities have fallen on the remaining staff, whether they are technically qualified or not. In other words, there is no less money, but a whole lot more work for the remaining staff, because they do not hire people to replace certain positions. They simply get rid of the position. And keep in mind, that the problem really stems from the singular focus of filling up every room, every bed. The patients often have dementia, as well as other ailments that make them in need of more than merely "assisted living". They need much more monitoring, which an understaffed facility like the one my friend works at simply cannot provide, or even come close to providing. The medications are involved and take time to prepare, as well as time to actually deliver.

Also, they have been cutting the hours of the staff, and generally take a hard line against them, to assure that it does not cost the company any extra money. To that end, they have a policy (I can't say if this is official policy, or de facto policy) that requires employees to punch in no more than five minutes early to work, and no more than five minutes late. If the employee happens to punch in or out longer than that, they are pressured and held accountable.

Another thing that I was informed of was that the staff there got a whopping $40 holiday bonus last year, and that was not even from the company, but rather money pooled from families as a token of appreciation. From the company itself? Nothing. So, $40 is a generous amount, given that it comes from regular family members of the seniors living there. But it still comes out to more or less a tank of gas, which will not help a classically underpaid and overworked staff. Emeritus itself does virtually nothing for them. Maybe other facilities are different, although I hardly see why they would be. Then again, the CEO apparently receives nice bonuses to supplement his salary, so we can all take comfort in that, right? Always nice to know that the rich get richer. And that is apparently what Emeritus is all about.





These are the websites that I used to complete this blog entry. Also, please go on PBS's Frontline website itself, where you can watch the program for yourself in it's entirety, free of charge.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/assisted-living-facilities-loosely-regulated-understaffed/story?id=19808799&.tsrc=mobifone?_device=full


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/pressroom/frontline-propublica-investigate-assisted-living-in-america/

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/11/141225823/seattle-based-venture-opens-facility-in-shanghai

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/life-and-death-in-assisted-living/life-death-in-assisted-living-a-sinking-ship/


Frontline's Facebook Address:

https://www.facebook.com/frontline?fref=ts

Leaked note to Emeritus employees, urging them to respond to the criticism likely from the Frontline show by making positive statements and reaffirming the community spirit of Emeritus employees:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/life-and-death-in-assisted-living/emeritus-note-to-staff-send-forward-oops/

http://www.mcknights.com/frontline-propublica-slam-assisted-living-sector-in-documentary-airing-tonight/article/305063/