August 5th

 

Birthdays

Guy DeMaupassant 1850
Conrad Aiken 1889
Andrew Alford 1904
John Huston 1906
Robert Taylor 1911
David Brian 1914
Jeri Southern 1926
Richie Ginterh 1930
Neil A. Armstrong 1930
Vern Gosdin 1934
Cammie King 1934
John Saxon 1935
Zakes Mokae 1935
Damita Jo 1940
Bobby Braddock 1940
Rick Huxley (Dave Clark Five) 1942
Sammi Smith 1943
Jimmy Webb 1946
Erika Slezak 1946
Loni Anderson 1946
Greg Leskiw (Guess Who) 1947
Rick Derringer 1947
Holly Palance 1950
Samantha Sang 1953
Maureen McCormick 1956
Pat Smear (Foo Fighters) 1959
Pete Burns (Dead Or Alive) 1959
Mark O'Connor 1961
Tawney Kitaen 1961
Patrick Ewing 1962
Adam Yauch (M.C.A. of the Beastie Boys) 1964
Jonathon Silverman 1966
Terri Clark 1968
Brendon Ryan Barrett 1986
 

Misc. History


1833 - The village of Chicago was incorporated. The population was approximately 250.

1861 - The U.S. federal government levied its first income tax. The tax was 3% of all incomes over $800. The wartime measure was rescinded in 1872.

1864 - During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Adm. David G. Farragut were led into Mobile Bay, Alabama.

1884 - On Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, the cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1914 - The electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio.

1921 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a baseball game was done by Harold Arlin. KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA described the action between the Pirates and Philadelphia.

1921 - The cartoon "On the Road to Moscow", by Rollin Kirby, was published in the "New York World". It was the first cartoon to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1923 - Henry Sullivan became the first American to swim across the English Channel.

1924 - In the New York "Daily News" debuted the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," by Harold Gray.

1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.

1953 - During the Korean conflict prisoners were exchanged at Panmunjom. The exchange was labeled Operation Big Switch.

1960 - For the first time two major league baseball clubs traded managers. Detroit traded Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland's Joe Gordon.

1962 - Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home. The "probable suicide" was caused by an overdose of sleeping pills. Monroe was 36 at the time of her death.

1963 - The Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The treaty banned nuclear tests in space, underwater, and in the atmosphere.

1964 - U.S. aircraft bombed North Vietnam after North Vietnamese boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

1969 - The Mariner 7, a U.S. space probe, passed by Mars. Photographs and scientific data were sent back to Earth.

1974 - U.S. President Nixon said that he expected to be impeached. Nixon had ordered the investigation into the Watergate break-in to halt.

1974 - "Tank McNamara", the comic strip, premiered in 75 newspapers.

1981 - The U.S. federal government started firing striking air traffic controllers.

1983 - David Crosby was sentenced to eight years in prison. He had been charged with drug and firearm possession. He was paroled in 1986.

1984 - Toronto’s Cliff Johnson set a major league baseball record by hitting the 19th pinch-hit home run in his career.

1986 - It was revealed that artist Andrew Wyeth had secretly created 240 drawings and paintings of his neighbor. The works of Helga Testorf had been created over a 15-year period.

1989 - In Honduras, five Central American presidents began meeting to discuss the timetable for the dismantling of the Nicaraguan Contra bases.

1990 - U.S. President Bush angrily denounced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1991 - An investigation was formally launched by Democratic congressional leaders to find out if the release of American hostages was delayed until after the Reagan-Bush presidential election.

1991 - Iraq admitted to misleading U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons.

1992 - Federal civil rights charges were filed against four Los Angeles police officers. The officers had been acquitted on California State charges. Two of the officers were convicted and jailed on violation of civil rights charges.

1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began not cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors.

1998 - Marie Noe of Philadelphia, PA was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, accused of smothering eight of her children to death between 1949 and 1968. Noe later received 20 years' probation.

1999 - In Malibu, CA, Robert Downey Jr. was sentenced to three years in prison for missing scheduled drug tests.

1999 - Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) hit his 500th career homerun. He also set a record for the fewest at-bats to hit the 500 homerun mark.

2002 - The U.S. closed its consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The consulate was closed after local authorities removed large concrete blocks and reopened the road in front of the building to normal traffic.


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