On This Day:

On This Day:
Saturday August 10, 2013

This is the 222nd day of the year, with 143 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: psychology

Psychology, generally, is the science of behavior; the different branches deal with the mental processes and behaviors of humans and other animals. The various applied fields include clinical psychology, counseling, industrial psychology, engineering psychology, personnel psychology, consumer psychology, positive psychology, and environmental psychology. Other branches may be more experimental.

Holidays

Ecuador: National Day / Independence Day.
Feast day of St. Lawrence of Rome.

Events

1821 - Missouri became the 24th state, and the first located entirely west of the Mississippi River.
1833 - The city of Chicago was incorporated as a village.
1846 - Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution, named after English scientist James Smithson, whose bequest had made it possible.
1921 - Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello. 
1948 - "Candid Camera" premiered on TV.
1949 - The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense. 
1969 - Leno LaBianca and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered in their Los Angeles home by members of Charles Manson's cult, one day after actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain.
1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female justice on the Supreme Court. 

Births

1874 - Herbert Clark Hoover, 31st President of the United States of America (1929-1933).
1928 - Jimmy Dean (Seth Ward), American Grammy Award-winning singer; sausage maker.
1928 - Eddie Fisher, American singer.

Deaths

1896 - Otto Lilienthal, German aeronautical pioneer.

On This Day:
Sunday August 11, 2013

This is the 223rd day of the year, with 142 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: rabbits and hares

Rabbits and hares belong to the order Lagomorpha and are ground-dwelling herbivores. The European rabbit lives in large groups, but cottontails and hares are mostly solitary animals. Generally, rabbits are smaller than hares, with smaller ears and shorter hind legs. To warn of danger, they thump the ground with a hind leg and then rely on speed to escape.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Attracta or Araght, St. Clare of Assisi, St. Tiburtius, St. Susanna, St. Equitius, St. Alexander of Comana, St. Lelia, St. Blane, St. Gerard of Gallinaro, and St. Gery or Gaugericus.
Chad: Independence Day.
Zimbabwe: Heroes' Day.

Events

1874 - Henry S. Parmalee of New Haven, Connecticut, received a patent for the sprinkler head.
1934 - The first federal prisoners arrived at the island prison Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. 
1952 - Prince Hussein was proclaimed the king of Jordan after his father, King Talal, was declared unfit to rule by the Jordanian Parliament on grounds of mental illness.
1954 - Vietnam was partitioned under the terms of the Geneva Accords.
1960 - Chad gained its independence from France.
1965 - The Watts Riots began; in the predominantly black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, racial tension reached a breaking point after two white policemen scuffle with a black motorist suspected of drunken driving.
1992 - The Mall of America, the biggest shopping mall in the country, opened in Bloomington, Minnesota.
1997 - President Bill Clinton made the first use of the historic line-item veto approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills.

Births

1807 - David Atchison, American politician, organizer of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company.
1861 - James Bryan Herrick, American physician who isolated sickle-cell anemia.
1921 - Alex Haley, American Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Deaths

1919 - Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist.
1956 - Jackson Pollock, American painter.
2006 - Mike Douglas, American actor and talk show host, on his 81st birthday.

On This Day:
Monday August 12, 2013

This is the 224th day of the year, with 141 days remaining in 2013.

Fact of the Day: sewing stitches

Sewing is an ancient process involving the stitching of cloth, animal skins, furs, or other materials using needle and thread. Its use is nearly universal among human populations and dates back to Paleolithic times (30,000 BC), predating the weaving of cloth. The first hand-powered sewing machines in the 19th century sewed 20 stitches per minute; now sewing machines can sew 1000-4000 stitches per minute!

Holidays

Feast day of St. Porcarius and his Companions, St. Jambert, archbishop of Canterbury, St. Euplus, and St. Murtagh or Muredach.
Thailand: Birthday of the Queen.
United Nations: International Youth Day.

Events

1676 - In colonial New England, King Philip's War effectively ended when Philip, chief of the Wampanoag Indians, was assassinated by a Native American working for the English.
1851 - Isaac Singer was granted a patent on his sewing machine.
1877 - Thomas Alva Edison completed the model for the first phonograph.
1896 - Gold was discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada.
1898 - Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States.
1898 - An armistice ended the Spanish-American War.
1908 - Henry Ford's first Model T rolled off the assembly line.
1935 - President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Bill.
1944 - Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest son of Joseph Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot when their explosives-laden Navy plane blew up over England.
1960 - The first successful communications satellite, Echo I, was put into Earth's orbit to relay voice and TV signals.
1966 - The last tour for the Beatles began in Chicago; and John Lennon apologized for boasting that the Beatles were more popular thanJesus Christ.
1972 - The last American combat ground troops left Vietnam. 
1992 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was concluded between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, creating the world's wealthiest trade bloc.
2000 - The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea after the hull was damaged by a series of explosions; all 118 crew members died.

Births

1781 - Robert Mills, American architect of Washington Monument, National Portrait Gallery, U.S. Treasury Building.
1881 - Cecil B. DeMille, American movie producer and director.
1911 - Cantinflas, Mexican circus clown, acrobat and actor.
1930 - Porter Waggoner, American country music singer, songwriter.

Deaths

1827 - William Blake, English poet and painter.
1964 - Ian Fleming, English novelist who created the character James Bond.
1982 - Henry Fonda, American stage and film actor.
2007 - Merv Griffin, television host and businessman.