August 3^rd is

Watermelon Day

◊◊

Grab Some Nuts Day

◊◊

Clean Your Floors Day

____________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Canada –
Toronto ON: Ovo Music Fest

El Salvador –
San Salvador: Fiesta de San Salvador

Equatorial Guinea – Golpe de la Libertad

Guinea-Bissau – Pidjiguiti Day

Hungary:
Dádpuszta: O.Z.O.R.A. Festival

Niger – Féte Nationale de l’Arbre

South Africa – Local Elections Day

____________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

1347 – Six burghers of  besieged French city Calais surrender to Edward III of England, hoping to relieve the siege.

1492 – Christopher Columbus sets sail from Palos de la Frontera, Spain

1527 – First known letter from North America sent by explorer John Rut to Henry VIII via the trading vessels of the otherwise unknown Master Grube, returning from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Plymouth, England

1546 – French printer Etienne Dolet, accused of heresy, blasphemy and sedition, is tortured, then burned with his books for printing reformist literature

1596 – David Fabricius discovers light variation of  Mira ( first variable star)

1678 – Robert LaSalle builds first ship in America, the Griffon

MORE! For Tony Bennett, Jesse Owens and Mary Lou Retton, click

1750 – Christopher Dock completed first known book of teaching methods, titled “A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management”

1778 – The world-famous opera house, Teatro alla Scalla, known simply as “La Scala,” opens in Milan, Italy. Premiere performance: Antonio Sallieri’s Europa riconosciuta

1852 – Harvard wins first U.S. intercollegiate athletic event, the Harvard-Yale Boat Race

1863 – Saratoga Race Course opens in Saratoga Springs NY

1873 – Inventor Andrew Hallidie successfully tests his cable car, making first San Francisco cable car trip, traveling down Nob Hill on Clay Street to Kearney and back up

1882 – US Congress passes Immigration Act, 50 cent tax to be levied on all aliens landing at U.S. ports. Exclusionary criteria instituted: any apparent convicts, lunatics, idiots or those unable to take care of themselves were denied entrance. In May, 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act had already totally banned Chinese immigration for 10 years

1887 – Rupert Brooke, British WWI poet, is born

1900 – Firestone Tire & Rubber Company founded

1907 – Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis fines Standard Oil of Indiana $29.4 million for illegal rebates to freight carriers, but conviction and fine are reversed on appeal

1926 – Tony Bennett, singer (I Left My Heart in San Francisco), is born

1933 – First Mickey Mouse Watch introduced, priced at $2.75

1936 – U.S. State Department warns Americans to leave Spain because of civil war

1936 – Jesse Owens wins first of his four Olympic gold medals in Berlin

1949 – Basketball Assoc. of America and National Basketball League merge as NBA

1963 – The Beach Boys release Surfer Girl, Brian Wilson’s first song

1968 – The Doors Hello I Love You hits #1 in the U.S. singles chart

1972 – U.S. Senate ratifies Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

1977 – Tandy Corporation unveils the TRS-80, very early mass-produced PC

1981 – PATCO strikes, President Reagan fires the air traffic controllers

1984 – Mary Lou Retton’s perfect 10 vault wins gold at L.A. Summer Olympics

1985 – Tears for Fears Shout is #1 U.S. single

1992 – U.S. Senate votes to restrict and eventually end nuclear weapons testing

1996 – Los Del Rio Macarena starts a 14 week run as #1 on the U.S. singles chart

2004 – NASA launches Messenger, which will send back 270,000 pictures of Mercury

2009 – Bolivia becomes first South American country to declare right of indigenous people to govern themselves
____________________________________________________________

Visuals

• Watermelon Slices
• International Flags
• The Burghers of Calais, sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1884)
• La Scala interior
• Jesse Owens at 1936 Berlin Olympics
• Mary Lou Retton vaulting for gold at 1984 Los Angeles Olympics