On This Day:

On This Day:
Monday July 29, 2013

This is the 210th day of the year, with 155 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: elevator and escalators

An elevator is a car that moves in a vertical shaft to carry passengers or freight between the levels of a multi-story building. The passenger elevator was introduced in 1853. An escalator is a moving staircase used as transportation between floors or levels in subways, buildings, and other places where there are many pedestrians. The name escalator was first applied to a moving stairway shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Martha, Saints Beatrice and Simplicius, Saints Faustinus and Beatrice, St. Felix, antipope, St. William of Saint-Brieuc, St. Lupus of Troyes, and St. Olav, King of Norway.
Faroe Islands: Olavsoka / Olav's Wake.
Norway: Olsok Eve.

Events

1588 - The Spanish Armada was defeated by an English naval force under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake.
1914 - Transcontinental telephone service began with the first phone conversation between New York and San Francisco. 
1957 - Jack Paar made his debut as host of NBC's "Tonight" show.
1957 - The International Atomic Energy Agency was established.
1958 - President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which created NASA. 
1981 - Britain's Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries tuned in.
1987 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build the tunnel under the English Channel between the UK and France.
2005 - Mount Palomar Observatory astronomers announce their discovery of Eris.

Births

1805 - Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and politician.
1843 - Johannes Schmidt, a German linguist who developed the Wellentheorie ("wave theory") of language development.
1869 - Booth Tarkington, American Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
1883 - Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy (1922-1945).
1905 - Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish Nobel Peace Prize winner, secretary-general of the United Nations (1953-1961).
1907 - Melvin Belli, American attorney, author.
1926 - Don Carter, American bowler.
1938 - Peter Jennings, American TV journalist.
1966 - Martina McBride(born Martina Mariea Schiff), an American country-pop music singer-songwriter.

Deaths

1890 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter.
1900 - King Umberto I of Italy, assassinated by an anarchist (and succeeded by Victor Emmanuel).
1974 - Cass Elliot (born Ellen Naomi Cohen}, a noted American singer, best remembered as Mama Cass of the pop quartet The Mamas & the Papas.
1983 - David Niven, British stage and film actor.

On This Day:
Tuesday July 30, 2013

This is the 211th day of the year, with 154 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: Medicare

The legislation for Medicare, the health insurance program administered by the United States government for senior citizens or other people who meet special criteria, was first passed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 30, 1965. Former President Harry S. Truman was the first person to enroll in Medicare and receive a Medicare card.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Julitta of Caesarea, St. Tatwin, archbishop of Canterbury, Saints Abdon and Sennen, and St. Peter Chrysologus.
Vanuatu: Independence Day.

Events

1619 - A representative colonial assembly - the first in America - was held at Jamestown, Virginia, under the new governor of the colony, Sir George Yeardley.
1729 - The city of Baltimore was founded. 
1928 - The MGM lion roared for the first time.
1935 - The first Penguin paperback book was published.
1938 - George Eastman demonstrated his color motion picture process.
1945 - The USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters.
1952 - "The Guiding Light," a popular radio show, premiered on television.
1965 - President Lyndon Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law; it took effect the following year.
1974 - The House Judiciary Committee voted a third article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon: contempt of Congress in hindering the impeachment process. The previous two impeachment articles voted against Nixon by the committee were obstruction of justice and abuse of presidential powers.
1975 - Former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in suburban Detroit. Although presumed dead, his remains have never been found. 
1991 - The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed.

Births

1818 - Emily Bronte, British author.
1863 - Henry Ford, American auto manufacturer.
1880 - Robert McCormick, American newspaper editor and publisher of the "Chicago Tribune."
1889 - Vladimir Zworykin, called "Father of Television" for inventing the iconoscope.
1890 - Casey Stengel, American baseball player and manager.
1898 - Henry Moore, English sculptor.
1941 - Paul Anka, Canadian-American singer, songwriter.
1947 - Arnold Schwarzenegger, American actor and governor of California.

Deaths

1718 - William Penn, English Quaker leader.
1898 - Otto von Bismarck, German politician and prime minister of Prussia.

On This Day:
Wednesday July 31, 2013

This is the 212th day of the year, with 153 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: lunar sea

A lunar sea is any flat, dark plain of lower elevation on the Moon. The term was erroneously applied to this feature of the lunar surface by telescopic observers of the 17th century; in actuality, a lunar sea (or mare) is a huge lava flow and does not contain any water. All lunar seas occur on the side of the Moon that always faces the Earth. They are the largest topographic features on the Moon and can be seen from the Earth with the unaided eye, appearing as dark patches on a paler background.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Justin de Jacobis, St. Neot, and St. Helen of Skövde.

Events

1498 - Christopher Columbus first sighted the island of Trinidad.
1777 - Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, became a major-general in the Continental Army of the U.S.
1790 - The first U.S. Patent Office opened and the first patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a method of making pearlash and potash.
1792 - The first government building's cornerstone was laid: the Philadelphia Mint.
1904 - The Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural Mountains with Russia's Pacific coast, was completed.
1919 - Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted. 
1922 - The first water skis were demonstrated, by Ralph Samuelson.
1948 - New York's International Airport was dedicated; it was later renamed John F. Kennedy Airport.
1964 - Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, took the first close-up images of the Moon.
1971 - The Apollo 15 astronauts drove a car on the Moon.
1972 - U.S. Democratic vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the ticket with George McGovern, following disclosures Eagleton had once undergone psychiatric treatment.
1981 - A seven-week-old Major League Baseball strike ended. 

Births

1867 - S.S. Kresge, American five-and-dime merchant, chain store developer.
1912 - Milton Friedman, American Nobel Prize-winning economist.
1929 - Lynne Reid Banks, English author.

Deaths

1875 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States of America.

On This Day:
Thursday August 1, 2013

This is the 213th day of the year, with 152 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: cataracts

Cataract surgery has been performed for centuries and is one of the oldest recorded forms of surgery. Ancient cataract surgical equipment has been found in Egyptian tombs. Cataract surgery has become one of the most effective and safest surgical procedures performed today. Cataracts affect 60% of all adults over the age of 60, but can affect anyone. Approximately 1.4 million cataract surgeries are performed in the United States annually. This number will increase with the aging of the Baby Boomers.

Holidays

Feast day of Saints Pistis, Elpis, and Agape (Faith, Hope, and Charity), St. Peter Julian Eymard, St. Ethelwold of Winchester, St. Almedha or Aled, St. Alphonse Liguori, and the Holy Macabees.
Switzerland: National Day (founding of Swiss Confederation, 1291).
Benin: Independence Day.
Lughnasadh / August Eve / Lammas Eve / Lady Day Eve / Feast of Bread.
Trinidad and Tobago: Emancipation Day.

Events

1492 - Italian explorer Christopher Columbus set foot on the American mainland for the first time, in present-day Venezuela.
1774 - English chemist Joseph Priestley identified oxygen.
1834 - Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire.
1873 - The first cable streetcar in America began operation on Clay Street Hill in San Francisco, California.
1876 - Colorado was admitted as the 38th state. 
1893 - A machine for making shredded wheat breakfast cereal was patented.
1914 - World War I broke out. 
1939 - Synthetic vitamin K was produced for the first time.
1944 - During World War II, the Soviets reached the Vistula River at Warsaw, prompting the Poles to launch a major uprising against the Nazi occupation.
1944 - Thirteen-year-old Anne Frank made the last entry in her diary; days later she and her family were taken to the Bergen-Belsenconcentration camp, where she died at age 15. 
1946 - President Harry Truman signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships named for Senator William J. Fulbright.
1946 - The Atomic Energy Commission was established. 
1981 - Rock music video channel MTV debuted. 

Births

1770 - William Clark, American explorer, led the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
1779 - Francis Scott Key, American attorney, poet, writer of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
1819 - Herman Melville, American author, poet.
1936 - Yves Saint-Laurent (Henry Mathieu), French fashion designer.
1942 - Jerry Garcia, American rock-and-roll musician, member of the group The Grateful Dead.

Deaths

1137 - Louis VI, King of France.