EVENTS
- 1173 – Construction of the Tower of Pisa begins. It will take two centuries to complete.
- 1483 – Opening of the Sistine Chapel.
- 1854 – Henry David Thoreau publishes “Walden”. An American transcendentalist, Thoreau wrote the book in a span of just over two years while residing near Walden Pond, a lake in Concord Massachusetts. The book, which is also known as Walden; or, Life in the Woods is about his time living near the lake and is a reflection on living a life of simplicity and austerity.
- 1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for the two-way telegraph.
- 1930 – Betty Boop makes her debut. The animated cartoon character made her first appearance in the cartoon, Dizzy Dishes. Thought to be modeled after singer Helen Kane, Betty was shown as a woman with an exaggerated body and a child-like face. Created by animator Max Fleischer, she is one of most recognizable cartoon characters in the world.
- 1936 – Jesse Owens becomes the first American to win four medals in a single Olympics.
- 1942 – Quit India Movement Begins in India. The civil disobedience movement against the British colonists was spearheaded by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi had called for peaceful protests in a speech a day earlier at the Gowalia Tank Maidan, Mumbai. In the speech, he made a call of βdo or dieβ and asked his followers to adopt nonviolence when interacting with the British. The movement began with the British imprisoning the Congress Party leadership, including Gandhi. The British ruled India from 1858, when the British Crown took over control of the country from the British East India Company. India gained its independence on August 15, 1947.
- 1945 – The second Atomic bombing of Japan occurred as an American B-29 bomber headed for the city of Kokura, but because of poor visibility then chose a secondary target, Nagasaki. About noon, the bomb detonated killing an estimated 70,000 persons and destroying about half the city.
- 1965 – Singapore Leaves Malaysia. The Southeast Asian Island country had joined a Malaysian Federation in 1963 as part of the Malaysia Agreement. In 1965, due to disagreements between leaders of the other members of the federation and Singaporean leaders and race tensions, the Malaysian parliament decided to expel Singapore from the Federation. The country reluctantly became independent on August 9 under the leadership of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
- 1988 – Hockey great Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1776 – Amedeo Avogadro (Scientist who discovered Avogadro’s number)
- 1896 – Jean Piaget (Swiss psychologist)
- 1922 – Philip Larkin (English poet)
- 1943 – Ken Norton (Heavyweight boxing champ)
- 1944 – Sam Elliot (Actor)
- 1947 – Roy Hodgson (English football manager)
- 1963 – Whitney Houston (Singer)
- 1967 – Deion Sanders (NFL Footbal player)
- 1968 – Eric Bana (Actor)
- 1968 – Gillian Anderson (Actress)
- 1970 – Rod Brind’Amour (Hockey Player)
- 1981 – Li Jiawei (Singaporean table tennis player)
- 1982 – Tyson Gay (Sprinter)
DEATHS
- 1962 – Hermann Hesse (German writer, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1975 – Dmitri Shostakovich (Russian composer)
- 1995 – Jerry Garcia (American singer-songwriter, guitarist)
- 1996 – Frank Whittle (English engineer, inventor, developed the jet engine)
- 2012 – David Rakoff (Canadian/American author, actor)