Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

August 1

1981
MTV, cable's first 24-hour music channel, debuts. The first video played was Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles.

1966
Texas Tower Massacre: 25-year-old University of Texas student Charles J. Whitman barricades himself into a university tower and shoots and kills 13 people, wounding 31 others, before being killed by police. His wife and mother were found slain in their homes.

1961
Six Flags Over Texas: The first park of the Six Flags chain opens in Arlington, Texas.

1946
Atomic Energy Commission: Pres. Truman signs the McMahan Act establishing the agency. It also authorized the Army and Navy to manufacture atomic weapons.

1944
World War II - Warsaw Uprising: 200,000 Polish civilians and ill-equipped soldiers are slaughtered over the next two months while fighting German storm troopers. Russia refused to lend assistance.

1944
World War II - Anne Frank: The young diarist makes her last entry. Her family was found by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps. Her diary described their previous 756 days of hiding.

1914
World War I: Germany declares war on Russia, after Russia began a general mobilization in support of Serbia.

1906
First U.S. diamond mine: John Huddleson discovers two diamonds (each about three carats) in Pike County, Arkansas, and establishes the only North American diamond mine.

1876
Colorado becomes the 38th state.

1834
Slavery Abolition Act: Slavery is abolished in the British colonies. However, slaves had to continue to work without pay for four years to receive full emancipation.

1794
Whiskey Rebellion: Western Pennsylvania farmers revolt in protest to an excise duty on stills and spirits distilled in the U.S. Pres. Washington later ordered in the militia and managed to end the rebellion without bloodshed.

1790
First U.S. Census: The first counting of U.S. inhabitants is completed, showing a population of 3.9 million.

1789
First U.S. Customs officers: Customs officers begin collecting revenues as per the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789.

1776
First Jew killed in the American Revolution: Francis Salvador is killed by Indians who were fighting for the British.

1774
Oxygen: English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers the element which composes one-fifth of our air.

1973
Tempestt Bledsoe, American actress. TV: The Cosby Show (Vanessa).

1953
Robert Cray, American blues guitarist, singer. Music: Strong Persuader (1986) and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1988).

1942
Jerry Garcia (Jerome John Garcia), American singer, with the Grateful Dead.

1942
Giancarlo Giannini, Italian actor, the sad-eyed protagonist of Lina Wertmuller films. Film: Love and Anarchy (1973, Cannes Best Actor) and Seven Beauties (1976).

1941     d. 1996
Ron Brown, American, Democratic National Party chairman, Commerce Secretary (1993-96). He and 34 other people died in a government plane crash, prompting government cover-up theories, based on Brown's being under investigation for corruption and having prepared to negotiate plea bargains implicating President Clinton.

1936
Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer.

1933
Dom DeLuise, American actor, comedian. Film: Blazing Saddles (1974) and Silent Movie (1976).

1922
Arthur Hill, Canadian Tony-winning actor. Stage: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962, Tony). TV: Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (title role).

1893     d. 1920
Alexander I, King of Greece (1917-20). Died of blood poisoning after being bitten by a pet monkey.

1889     d. 1957
John F. Mahoney, American physician. He developed penicillin treatment for syphilis (1943). This virtualy eliminated tertiary syphilis of the brain, once a leading cause of insanity throughout the world.

1870     d. 1932
Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, Soviet biologist, specializing in artificial insemination. He tried to create a human-ape hybrid via artificial insemination as part of Stalin's quest for a super-warrior. (More...)

1843     d. 1926
Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of Pres. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, US Secretary of War (1881-85). He was present when President Garfield was shot in 1881 and when McKinley was shot in 1901. He also claimed that Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth who assassinated his father, saved him from serious injury at a railroad station in Jersey City in circa 1863.

1819     d. 1891
Herman Melville, American author. Writings: Moby-Dick (1851).

1818     d. 1889
Maria Mitchell, American astronomer. She was the first professional woman astronomer in the United States and the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1905.

1815     d. 1882
Richard Henry Dana, American sailor, lawyer, author. Writings: Two Years Before the Mast (1840).

1779     d. 1843
Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, poet. He wrote The Star-Spangled Banner (1814) during the British bombardment of Ft. McHenry during the War of 1812.

1770     d. 1838
William Clark, American soldier, explorer, governor of the Missouri Territory. With Lewis he explored the American West (1804-06) establishing a route to the Pacific.

1744     d. 1829
Jean Baptiste Lamarck, French naturalist. He was the first to distinguish vertebrates from invertebrates and was one of the first to use the term biology in its modern sense. He is best known for proposing that acquired traits are inheritable (Lamarckism), which was proved wrong, but initiated interest in the idea of evolution.

1520     d. 1572
Sigismund II, King of Poland (1548-72).

10 B.C.     d. 54 A.D.
Claudius I, Roman Emperor (41-54 A.D.), took office after the murder of Caligula. He was killed by his fourth wife Agrippina.

1981     b. 1923
Paddy Chayefsky (Sidney Chayefsky), American Oscar-winning screenwriter. Film: Paint Your Wagon (1969), Network (1976, Oscar), and Altered States (1979).

1977     b. 1929
Francis Gary Powers, American CIA agent, U-2 pilot. In 1960 he was shot down over Russia, convicted of spying, and then exchanged in 1962 for Russian spy Rudolf Abel.

1944     b. 1878
Manuel Luis Quezon, Philippine statesman, first president of the Philippine Commonwealth (1935).

1926     b. 1864
Israel Zangwill, English-born writer, Zionist. He founded an organization called the Jewish Territorialist Organization (1905), to try to create a Jewish homeland, the location of which did not necessarily have to be in what is today the state of Israel. Quote: "The way [George Bernard] Shaw behaves himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many people believe in no God at all." (source: Fifth 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said) Writngs: Children of the Ghetto (1892) and The Melting Pot (1908).

1903     b. circa 1852
Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary), American wild west character, famous citizen of Deadwood, South Dakota.

1834     b. 1782
Robert Morrison, English missionary, first Protestant minister to China (1807). In 1823 he completed his Chinese translation of the entire Bible. (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

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