On This Day in History - August 4 Freedom of the Press Established in the Colonies, the End of Feudalism in France, Anne Frank Captured

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 4, 1944:  Anne Frank captured

Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the "secret annex" working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps.  

Annelies Marie Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on June 12, 1929. She was the second daughter of Otto Frank and Edith Frank-Hollander, both of Jewish families that had lived in Germany for centuries. With the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1933, Otto moved his family to Amsterdam to escape the escalating Nazi persecution of Jews. In Holland, he ran a successful spice and jam business. Anne attended a Montessori school with other middle-class Dutch children, but with the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 she was forced to transfer to a Jewish school. In 1942, Otto began arranging a hiding place in an annex of his warehouse on the Prinsengracht Canal in Amsterdam.  

On her 13th birthday in 1942, Anne began a diary relating her everyday experiences, her relationship with her family and friends, and observations about the increasingly dangerous world around her. Less than a month later, Anne's older sister, Margot, received a call-up notice to report to a Nazi "work camp." Fearing deportation to a Nazi concentration camp, the Frank family took shelter in the secret annex the next day. One week later, they were joined by Otto Frank's business partner and his family. In November, a Jewish dentist—the eighth occupant of the hiding place—joined the group.  

For two years, Anne kept a diary about her life in hiding that is marked with poignancy, humor, and insight. The entrance to the secret annex was hidden by a hinged bookcase, and former employees of Otto and other Dutch friends delivered them food and supplies procured at high risk. Anne and the others lived in rooms with blacked-out windows, and never flushed the toilet during the day out of fear that their presence would be detected. In June 1944, Anne's spirits were raised by the Allied landing at Normandy, and she was hopeful that the long-awaited liberation of Holland would soon begin.  

On August 1, 1944, Anne made her last entry in her diary. Three days later, 25 months of seclusion ended with the arrival of the Nazi Gestapo. Anne and the others had been given away by an unknown informer, and they were arrested along with two of the Christians who had helped shelter them. They were sent to a concentration camp in Holland, and in September Anne and most of the others were shipped to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. In the fall of 1944, with the Soviet liberation of Poland underway, Anne was moved with her sister Margot to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Suffering under the deplorable conditions of the camp, the two sisters caught typhus and died in early March 1945. The camp was liberated by the British less than two months later.  

Otto Frank was the only one of the 10 to survive the Nazi death camps. After the war, he returned to Amsterdam via Russia, and was reunited with Miep Gies, one of his former employees who had helped shelter him. She handed him Anne's diary, which she had found undisturbed after the Nazi raid. In 1947, Anne's diary was published by Otto in its original Dutch as Diary of a Young Girl. An instant best-seller and eventually translated into more than 50 languages, The Diary of Anne Frank has served as a literary testament to the nearly six million Jews, including Anne herself, who were silenced in the Holocaust.  

The Frank family's hideaway at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam opened as a museum in 1960. A new English translation of Anne's diary in 1995 restored material that had been edited out of the original version, making the work nearly a third longer.

This date also marks an important anniversary in the life of George Washington:

Aug 4, 1753:  Washington becomes Master Mason

George Washington, a young Virginia planter, becomes a Master Mason, the highest basic rank in the secret fraternity of Freemasonry. The ceremony was held at the Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington was 21 years old and would soon command his first military operation as a major in the Virginia colonial militia.  

Freemasonry evolved from the practices and rituals of the stonemasons' guilds in the Middle Ages. With the decline of European cathedral building, "lodges" decided to admit non-stonemasons to maintain membership, and the secret fraternal order grew in popularity in Europe. In 1717, the first Grand Lodge, an association of lodges, was founded in England, and Freemasonry was soon disseminated throughout the British Empire. The first American Mason lodge was established in Philadelphia in 1730, and future revolutionary leader Benjamin Franklin was a founding member.  

There is no central Masonic authority, and Freemasons are governed locally by the order's many customs and rites. Members trace the origins of Masonry back to the erecting of King Solomon's Temple in biblical times and are expected to believe in the "Supreme Being," follow specific religious rites, and maintain a vow of secrecy concerning the order's ceremonies. The Masons of the 18th century adhered to liberal democratic principles that included religious toleration, loyalty to local government, and the importance of charity. From its inception, Freemasonry encountered considerable opposition from organized religion, especially from the Roman Catholic Church.  

For George Washington, joining the Masons was a rite of passage and an expression of his civic responsibility. After becoming a Master Mason, Washington had the option of passing through a series of additional rites that would take him to higher "degrees." In 1788, shortly before becoming the first president of the United States, Washington was elected the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22. 

Many other leaders of the American Revolution, including Paul Revere, John Hancock, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Boston Tea Party saboteurs, were also Freemasons, and Masonic rites were witnessed at such events as Washington's presidential inauguration and the laying of the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.--a city supposedly designed with Masonic symbols in mind. Masonic symbols, approved by Washington in the design of the Great Seal of the United States, can be seen on the one-dollar bill. The All-Seeing Eye above an unfinished pyramid is unmistakably Masonic, and the scroll beneath, which proclaims the advent of a "New Secular Order" in Latin, is one of Freemasonry's long-standing goals. The Great Seal appeared on the dollar bill during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, also a Mason. 

Freemasonry has continued to be important in U.S. politics, and at least 15 presidents, five Supreme Court chief justices, and numerous members of Congress have been Masons. Presidents known to be Masons include Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford. Today there are an estimated two million Masons in the United States, but the exact membership figure is one of the society's many secrets.   

Aug 4, 1873:  Custer and 7th Cavalry attacked by Indians 

While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer and his 7th Cavalry clash for the first time with the Sioux Indians, who will defeat them three years later at Little Big Horn.  

During the previous two years, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry had not fought a single battle against the hostile Indians of the western Plains. Hungry for action, Custer was pleased when the 7th Cavalry was ordered to help protect a party of surveyors laying out the route for the proposed Northern Pacific Railroad. The new transcontinental railroad (the third in the United States) was to pass through territory controlled by hostile Sioux Indians. Custer was optimistic that the assignment would give him a chance to improve his reputation as an Indian fighter.  

Initially, the military escort saw little action. The hostile Indians seemed to be avoiding or ignoring the survey party. For Custer, the mission turned into something of a lark. He spent much of his time shooting buffalo, antelope, elk, and other animals. To find good hunting, he often led the 7th Cavalry far away from the survey party and the main body of the military escort.  

On this day in 1873, Custer was far ahead of the rest of the force, camping along the Tongue River in southeastern Montana. Suddenly, a large band of Sioux warriors appeared on the horizon and attacked. The Indians were led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, but the young braves seemed to have attacked impetuously and with little planning. Custer, who had been taking an afternoon nap, reacted quickly and mounted an effective defense. After a brief skirmish, the Indians withdrew.  

Since only one soldier and one Indian were killed in the skirmish, Custer's short battle along the Tongue River seemed relatively insignificant at the time. However, Custer's easy escape in his first encounter with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse may have given him a dangerously scornful view of their fighting abilities. It helped to confirm his belief that the Plains warriors tended to flee rather than fight. As a result, when Custer again encountered Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Big Horn River three years later, his greatest fear was that they would withdraw before he could attack, and he rushed in without proper reconnaissance. That time, though, the Indians stood and fought, leaving Custer and more than 200 of his men dead.

Supernova was seen in Cassiopia. During the War of Spanish Succession, the English and the Dutch occupy Gibraltar. Freedom of the press was established in the American colonies. George Washington became a Master Mason. The feudal system was abolished in France on this day in history, in the early days of the French Revolution. This marks the anniversary of Custer's Last Stand, before 200 American soldiers were killed by Sioux warriors. Germany declared war on Belgium and, in turn, Britain then declared war on Germany, while the United States maintained it's neutrality. Anne Frank was captured. The bodies of three civil rights workers were discovered. Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Energy into existence. A revolution broke out in Burkina Faso. OPEC reduced oil production by 20%.  In 1996, the South Africa got it's first ever gold medal won by a black man, and twelve years later for South Africa, Oscar Pistorius became the first amputee to compete in the Olympics.

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

1181 - Supernova seen in Cassiopia

1265 - Battle at Evesham: English prince Edward beats Simon de Montfort the younger

1347 - English troops conquer Ft Calais

1351 - Sea battle at Zwartewaal: Willem V beats Hoeksen & English

1558 - 1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah)

1578 - Battle of Alcazarquivir, Moroccans defeat Portuguese, 10,000 killed

1598 - London's head office of Hanze closed

1636 - Johan Mauritius appointed governor of Dutch Brazil

1666 - Hurricane hits Guadeloupe, Martinique & St Christopher; thousands die

1666 - Sea battle between Netherlands & England

1693 - Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of Champagne

1695 - French garrison of surrenders to Willem III

1704 - War of Spanish Succession, English & Dutch troops occupy Gibraltar

1730 - Crown prince Frederick of Prussia escapes to England

1735 - Freedom of the press was established after a jury acquittal of John Peter Zenger, who had been defended by Andrew Hamilton.The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous."    

1753 - George Washington became a Master Mason.    

1777 - Retired British cavalry officer Philip Astley establishes 1st circus

1789 - French National Meeting ending feudal system

1790 - The Revenue Cutter Service was formed. This U.S. naval task force was the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard.      

1791 - The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.

1821 - "The Saturday Evening Post" was published for the first time as a weekly. It would run until 1969.

1824 - Battle of Kos is fought between Turks and Greeks.

1830 - Plans for city of Chicago laid out

1854 - The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.

1855 - John Bartlett publishes "Familiar Quotations"

1862 - US government collects its 1st income tax

1864 - Land & naval action new Brazos Santiago, Texas

1870 - British Red Cross Society forms

1873 - Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the first time with the Sioux (near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed).

1879 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Aeterni Patris

1881 - 122°F (50°C), Seville, Spain (European record)

1884  Thomas Stevens became the first person to bicycle across the United States. He later bicycled around the world.  

1886 - Colombia adopts constitution

1892 - Queen Wilhelmina & Emma open Merwede Canal between Amsterdam-Rhine

1892 - Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden arrested after her father and stepmother were killed with an axe in  Fall River, Mass. 

1897 - Henry A Rucker appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for Georgia

1902 - The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.

1903 - Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto of Venice elected Pope Pius X

1909 - Ump Tim Hurst instigates a riot by spitting at A's 2nd baseman Eddie Collins, who had questioned a call, this leads to Hurst's banishment

1910 - A's Jack Coombs & White Sox Ed Walsh pitch a 16 inn scoreless tie

1914 - German army shoots Belgian priests/burns down village of Battice

1914 - German fleet under admiral Souchon fire on Algerian coast

1914 - Germany invaded Belgium and, in response, Britain declared war on Germany. 

1914 - The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality in the emerging "Great War".    

1914 - King Albert I becomes supreme commander of Belgian army

1914 - Lord Kitchener becomes British minister of War

1916 -   Denmark ceded the Danish West Indies, including the Danish Virgin Islands, to the United States for 25 million.    

1917 - Pravda calls for killing all capitalists, priests & officers

1921 - The first radio broadcast of a tennis match occurred. It was in Pittsburgh, PA.    

1922 - The death of Alexander Graham Bell, two days earlier, was recognized by AT&T and the Bell Systems by shutting down all of its switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million phones.    

1922 - Female 1st baseman Lizzie Murphy plays on AL all-star team

1925 - 1st Dutch Colijn government forms

1925 - US marines leave Nicaragua after 13-year occupation

1929 - 60,000 SA'ers/SS'ers march by Munich

1929 - Indians, in 9th with 2 outs score 9 to beat Yanks 14-6

1929 - Jones Beach in NY opens

1930 - Child labor laws estralished in Belgium

1934 - Mel Ott became the first major league baseball player to score six runs in a single game, as the NY Giants defeat the Philadelphia Phillies, 21-4. .    

1936 - Ioannis Metaxas names himself dictator of Greece

1941 - Dodger Mickey Owens is 1st to catch 3 foul flies in an inning (3rd)

1941 - Winston Churchill departs on Prince of Wales to US

1942 - 1st train with Jews departs Mechelen Belgium to Auschwitz

1942 - British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Cairo

1942 - Col-gen Jeremenko arrives in Stalingrad/welcomed by Nikita Khrushchev

1942 - German occupier orders all Dutch homing pigeons killed

1943 - British premier Churchill travels on the Queen Mary to Canada

1943 - Russian units reach suburbs of Orel

1943 - USAF bombs Germans in Troina

1944 - Anne Frank arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified. Eight people were arrested. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death. 

1944 - British 8th army reaches suburbs of Florence Italy

1945 - Golfer Byron Nelson records most tournament wins (18) in a season

1945 - Red Sox Tom McBride is 3rd to get 6 RBIs in an inning (4th)

1946 - 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake: an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.

1947 - The Supreme Court of Japan is established.

1948 - 5 day Southern States filibuster succeeds in maintaining America's poll tax

1949 - NBL & NBAA merge into National Basketball Association

1953 - Black families move into Trumbull Park housing project in Chicago

1953 - Vic Raschi sets pitcher record by driving in 7 runs & wins 15-0

1954 - Boscombe Down 1st flight of supersonic P-1 Lightning

1954 - The Government of Pakistan approves the National Anthem, written by Hafeez Jullundhry and composed by Ahmed G. Chagla.

1954 - The uranium rush began in Saskatchewan, Canada.    

1955 - Eisenhower authorizes $46 million for construction of CIA headquarters

1956 - 1st motorcycle rode over 200 mph (Wilhelm Herz-210 mph/338 kph)

1956 - Elvis Presley releases "Hound Dog"

1956 - Indonesia says it will not pay debts to the Netherlands

1956 - William Herz became the first person to race a motorcycle over 200 miles per hour. He was clocked at 210 mph.    

1957 - Florence Chadwick set a world record by swimming the English Channel in 6 hours and 7 minutes.   1957 - Juan Fangio won his final auto race and captured the world auto driving championship. It was his the fifth consecutive year to win.    

1958 - The first potato flake plant was completed in Grand Forks, ND.    

1958 - Billboard Magazine introduced its "Hot 100" chart, which was part popularity and a barometer of the movement of potential hits. The first number one song was Ricky Nelson's "Poor Little Fool."     

1958 - Dumont TV Network crumbles

1959 - "Billy Barnes Revue" opens at John Golden Theater NYC for 87 perfs

1960 - Rocket propelled USAAF research aircraft sets record at 2,150 MPH

1961 - 108°F, Spokane, WA

1961 - 28th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Philadelphia 28, All-Stars 14 (66,000)

1962 - Nelson Mandela captured by South African police

1963 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Milwaukee Jaycee Golf Open

1964 - The bodies of three civil-rights workers were found six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson   The bodies of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James E Chaney, were discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam

1964 - North Vietnamese torpedos US ships Gulf of Tonkin

1965 - Cook Islands enters into free association with New Zealand

1967 - 34th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Green Bay 27, All-Stars 0 (70,934)

1967 - British pirate radio station Radio 355 resigns air

1967 - Shortwave group ANARC's 1st convention (Chicago)

1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1967 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1968 - 100,000 attend Newport Pop Festival, Costa Mesa, Calif

1968 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Gino Paoli Golf Open

1968 - WXTV TV channel 41 in New York-Paterson, NY (UNI) begins broadcasting

1969 - Willie Stargell is 1st to hit a HR outside of Dodger Stadium

1970 - Jim Morrison arrested for drunkenness

1971 - US launches 1st satellite into lunar orbit from manned spacecraft

1972 - Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison.    

1974 - Crawford-Butler Act allows Puerto Ricans to elect own governor

1974 - Sandra Haynie wins LPGA George Washington Golf Classic

1975 - Robert Plant is involved in a car crash in Rhodes

1976 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed a Congressional measure that established the Department of Energy.    

1977 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1979 - Italian government of Cossiga begins

1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1980 - -11] Hurricane Aline, kills 272 in Texas & Caribbean

1980 - John & Yoko begin recording "Double Fantasy"

1980 - Seattle Mariners replace manager Darrell Johnson with Maury Wills

1981 - Columbia mated with SRBs & external tank for STS-2 mission

1981 - Oliver North is assigned to White House duty

1982 - NY Met Joel Youngblood singles in Chicago day game, he is traded, then singles for Expos in Philadelphia night game

1983 - Bettino Craxi sworn in as premier of Italy

1983 - France performs nuclear test

1983 - Revolution in Burkina Faso

1983 - While warming up before 5th inning Yankee Dave Winfield accidentally kills a seagull 

1983 - New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield threw a baseball during warm-ups and accidentally killed a seagull. After the game, Toronto police arrested him for "causing unnecessary suffering to an animal." 1984 - Carl Lewis won a gold medal in the 100-metre dash at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.    

1984 - Upper Volta, an African republic, changed its name to Burkina Faso.    

1984 - Cliff Johnson sets a record with his 19th pinch hit HR

1984 - Prince's "Purple Rain," album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 24 weeks

1984 - Republic of Upper Volta becomes Bourkina Faso (National Day)

1985 - "Dreamgirls" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 1522 performances

1985 - Penny Hammel wins LPGA Jamie Farr Toledo Golf Classic

1985 - Phil Rizzuto Day, Yanks retire #10

1985 - Rod Carew, is 16th to get 3,000 hits

1985 - Tom Seaver of the Chicago White Soxbecame the 17th player to earn his 300th victory, beating the Yankees to do it.    

1985 - Rod Carew of the California angels got his 3,000th major league hit.    

1986 - The United States Football League called off its 1986 season. This was after winning only token damages in its antitrust lawsuit against the National Football League.    

1986 - OPEC lowers oil production 20%

1987 - At the Kingdome, Ruppert Jones hits a foul ball that sticks in speaker

1987 - FCC vote 4-0 to rescind fairness doctrine for broadcasters

1987 - The Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.    

1987 - A new 22-cent U.S. stamp honoring noted author William Faulkner, went on sale in Oxford, MS. Faulkner had been fired as postmaster of that same post office in 1924.    

1988 - Congress votes $20,000 to each Japanese-American interned in WW II

1988 - Hertz car rental will pay out $23 million in consumer fraud case

1989 - Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to assist end the hostage crisis in Lebanon.   

1989 - Blue Jays Dave Steib's perfect game broken up in 9th with 2 outs by NY Yankee Roberto Kelly

1990 - 95.5°F (35.3°C) in De Bilt Neth (highest Aug temp in Neth)

1990 - The European Community imposed an embargo on oil from Iraq and Kuwait. This was done to protest the Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich Kuwait.    

1991 - The Oceanos, a Greek luxury liner, sank off of South Africa's southeast coast. All of the 402 passengers and 179 crewmembers survived.    

1991 - 1st time Seattle Mariners are 9 games over .500

1991 - Deb Richard wins LPGA Phar-Mor in Youngstown Golf Tournament

1993 - Angolese air force bombs Huambo

1993 - Rwandian Hutu's & Tutsi's sign peace treaty in Arusha

1993 - Tony Gwynn gets 6 hits, 4th time in 1993 a Padre gets 5 or more hits

1994 - Dwingeloo 1, near milky way system, discovered

1994 - Howard Stern drops out of NY gubernatorial race

1994 - Truck carrying millions of bees overturns on NY parkway

1994 - Yugoslavia withdrew its support for Bosnian Serbs. The border between Yugoslavia and Serb-held Bosnia was sealed.    

1995 - Darryl Strawberry joins the NY Yankees

1995 - Operation Storm begins in Croatia.

1996 - 24th du Maurier Golf Classic: Laura Davies

1996 - 26th Olympic games close at Atlanta, Georgia (sched)

1996 - J Bunning, E Weaver, B Foster, & N Hanlon inducted in Hall of Fame

1996 - Josia Thugwane won a gold medal after finishing first in the marathon. He became the first black South African to win a gold medal.    

1997 - Teamsters began a 15-day strike against UPS (United Parcel Service). The strikers eventually won an increase in full-time positions and defeated a proposed reorganization of the company's pension plan.   

1997 - "Keenan Ivory Wayan Show," premieres on Fox TV

1997 - 185,000 Teamsters union United Parcel Service drivers walk off the job.

2002 - Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire.

2005 - Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th — and first black — Governor General.

2006 - Dame Silvia Cartwright steps down as the Governor-General of New Zealand and is replaced by The Honourable Anand Satyanand, who is sworn in on 23 August.

2007 - NASA's Phoenix spaceship is launched.

2009 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists, who had been arrested and imprisoned for illegal entry earlier in the year. 

2010 - California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, was overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

2012 - 45 people are killed by a suicide bombing in Abyan, Yemen

2012 - South African Oscar Pistorius becomes first amputee to compete at the Olympics

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/aug04.htm

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

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Soundgarden and NIN

So, yes, I wrote a review on the concert of Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails that I went to see the other night.

I have long been a fan of Soundgarden, and enjoyed their music.

My feelings about Nine Inch Nails, on the other hand, were always a little more ambiguous, a little less certain.

There were reasons for this. First of all, they kind of popped out of nowhere to become huge, seemingly overnight. Their music was more synthetic than the other bands that I was into, and that kind of bothered me, admittedly.

Also, while I liked the music that I did know from them, I never pursued it as seriously as I did with some other bands (like Soundgarden). The lyrics seemed intelligent, but it seemed somehow darker, more against everything and, therefore, less abstract in that sense.

When they came on the radio, I listened, and hardly ever turned it off. But I did not pursue their albums, or follow them, to the degree that I did with some other bands at the time. And although I was disappointed not to have seen them that one time that my friend promised that I would have tickets to see them with David Bowie, it was still not enough for me to strongly pursue seeing them again some other time.

And let me also be clear about another thing, too: I was not entirely sure what to think about them. Or, more specifically, of Trent Reznor.

Not that I knew all that much about him, but I was a little suspicious, nevertheless. Justified or not, there were things that I had heard about him that made me approach with caution, if you will. My brother told me that he had heard somewhere that Trent Reznor apparently got off on sneaking into the bathrooms during shows, and taking a shit on the floor of men's rooms, forcing janitor's to then have to clean it up. That sounded disgusting, and frankly, degrading to everyone involved (not least of all, Reznor himself). But I was unable to find any articles on that particular subject matter and, since I learned that Reznor himself had once been a janitor, it seemed like he would have more sympathy towards them, and not simply do something like that.

A more serious, and unfortunately, substantiated, charge, was that of physical abuse. In particular, I remember hearing on the radio that one of the band members of NIN had quit the band, citing physical abuse from Reznor. I could understand anger and protest being reflected in songs, but once you start to abuse the people around you, that seems a bit excessive. It was this element of chaos surrounding Nine Inch Nails that I always seemed to subconsciously distance myself from.

Again, I have not problem with anger. Many bands that I listened to were angry on some level or other, and it was reflected in their music. Hell, almost all the music I listened to at that time was angry. From heavy metal to punk to grunge, I was able to relate to that anger on many levels. But with Nine Inch Nails, that anger seemed not only reflected in the music, but in literally anything and everything that the band, and particularly Reznor, did. And if that was all that he was about, I was turned off, because I wanted to be able to relate to the artists, to be able to express themselves not just in their music, but outside of their music, as well. While Reznor did indeed have intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics to music that I liked to listen to, his anger almost seemed to be in control of him, and his actions were part of that expression. A part of me felt uncomfortable with that, admittedly.

When he became a musclehead, my suspicions grew further still. There is still a part of me that remains skeptical, admittedly.

Yet, this man did have intelligent lyrics, and I was also impressed with many of the things that he said and did. He got together once with Roger Waters, and the two of them really hit it off, which to me was saying something. Reznor was quite vocal in his criticisms of George W. Bush, as well, at a time when criticizing him was considered strictly verboten by many Americans, and so that seemed impressive, too.

So, I guess you can say that my feelings on NIN and Reznor were mixed. I had never been what you could call a superfan of either Nine Inch Nails or Trent Reznor, yet when I heard about them (or listened to their music), I was definitely interested.

Of course, they disappeared there for a while, only to return last year, reuniting the band, and coming out with a new album. I began to want to see them again, but never committed to tickets, or anything. Plus, again, I did not exactly listen to them all of the time. I only had a few of their albums, and none of their most recent albums, so would it even be right for me to make a point of seeing them?

Then, of course, I found out about the tour that Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails would be doing together, and figured that this would be a great opportunity to finally, finally see Nine Inch Nails, and kind of capitalize on this to finally, finally make up on my mind on the band. I was dying to see Soundgarden again, especially after missing the chance to do so last year. But to see Nine Inch Nails as well, that was the icing on the cake.

I got the tickets, and was long anticipating this show. The excitement built the closer it got, and I listened to NIN's new album a few times through Youtube, liking what I heard.

Obviously, I enjoyed the concert, and I'll have to admit that Nine Inch Nails were really, really good! Their music was on point, and Reznor's voice had not lost anything in the decades since I first heard it. They were just really awesome!

So, I did some research, looking specifically for some of those less than savory things that I had heard about Reznor, just to see if they were true. They might be, but I did not find out nearly as much as I feared I would. And the stuff that I did find (some of which I attached links to below) showed a side of Reznor that was actually impressive!

Not being the biggest fan of Nine Inch Nails heading into the show (although I definitely did like them, nevertheless), I figured this would be the one, and only, show that I would see of them.

But since it was so good, and pretty much everyone at the show seemed at least as impressed by them as I was, I might have to reconsider that! In fact, I now want to dig out my old NIN albums and give them another, closer listen, and possibly even pick up some of their more recent albums, to boot!

Yes, I might not have been the biggest fan of NIN heading into the concert. But they really performed well, and made a believer out of me! I left Jones Beach a bigger fan of Nine Inch Nails than I had ever been before, and you can't really ask for more from a concert experience than that, can you?








Here were some links, mostly to articles on NIN and Reznor, although the first one is a review of a recent show by the two acts that Chris Kelsay of the Las Vegan Sun wrote late last month:

Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell is pure audio gold; innovative Trent Reznor commands Axis stage by Chris Kelsay of lasvegassun.com, July 20, 2014:

http://lasvegassun.com/vegasdeluxe/2014/jul/20/soundgardens-chris-cornell-pure-audio-gold-innovat/




Trent Reznor's Upward Spiral by David Marchese of Spin, August 25 2013:

http://www.spin.com/featured/trent-reznor-upward-spiral-nine-inch-nails-spin-cover-september-2013/




Trent Reznor By Simon Woolridge for Juice Magazine on January 1, 2000

http://theninhotline.net/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=931




Building ‘Tension’: An Inside Look at NIN’s Massive Arena Tour by Bryan Gardiner of Wired, December 11, 2013:

http://www.wired.com/2013/12/nin-tension-tour/






Here were a couple of other interesting links that you might want to check out, as well:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nine_Inch_Nails_band_members



http://www.celebitchy.com/317672/trent_reznor_on_kanye_west_hes_dangerous_it_feels_like_he_might_implode/

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.

 

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