August 1st is

Girlfriend’s Day

Mead (honey wine) Day

Rounds Resounding Day
(Musical) 

National Night Out

U.S. Air Force Day

World Lung Cancer Day

. World Wide Web Day

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MORE! Joseph Priestley, Maria Mitchell and Jerry Garcia, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Judaism – (begins at sundown the evening before) the burning of the Temples in Jerusalem, a day of mourning

Paganism –
Northern Hemisphere: Lammas / Lunasa
Southern Hemisphere:  Imbolc / Oimelc / Brigid 

Emancipation Day in: the Bahamas, Dominica, Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat. St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Island

Benin – Independence Day

Israel – Tisha b’Av Bank Holiday

North Cyprus –Social Resistance Day

Republic of the Congo – Parents’ Day

Switzerland – National Day *

Vanuatu – Independence Day

Nicaragua – Managua:
Treida de Santo Domingo de Guzmán

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On This Day in HISTORY

10 BC – Claudius born, future Roman emperor

30 BC – Octavian enters Alexandria, Egypt, as a Roman conqueror

527 – Justinian I becomes sole ruler of Byzantine Empire

902 – The Muslim Aghlabids army takes Taormina completing the conquest of Sicily

1291 – The Federal Charter documents the union of the three cantons that are now central Switzerland, the beginning of the Swiss Confederacy which will grow into the modern-day country; marked as National Day * in Switzerland

1579 – Luis Vélez de Guevara, Spanish author and playwright; author of over 400 plays, but best remembered for his novel, El Diablo cojuelo (“The Crippled Devil”)

1620 – The Speedwell arrives in Southampton from Delfshaven (now part of Rotterdam) to join with the Mayflower in bringing pilgrims to America, but its hull is already leaking, and needs repairs

1714 – George, elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain

George I in his coronation robes

1770 – William Clark born, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; served as Governor of Missouri Territory (1813-1820)

1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele

1779 – Frances Scott Key, “Star-Spangled Banner” lyricist, is born

1786 – Caroline Herschel discovers the first of her eight comets

1800 – The Acts of Union unite the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland

1818 – Maria Mitchell born, American astronomer and academic, discoverer of a comet, first American woman paid professional astronomer; first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Vassar College professor of astronomy (1865-1888) – when she found out she was paid less than younger male professors, she insisted on and got a salary increase; abolitionist (refused to wear cotton clothing until after the Emancipation Proclamation) and suffragist, friend of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1819 – Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, is born

1834 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 goes into effect in the British Empire; by 1840 existing slaves are emancipated

1837 – Mary Harris baptized after birth in Ireland, her exact birthdate unknown, but she became the American labor organizer and speaker ‘Mother Jones’ after her husband and children died of yellow fever; in 1902 she was called ‘the most dangerous woman in America’ because she was so successful in organizing mine workers and their families; activist for child labor laws

1841 – Lilli Suburg born, Estonian journalist, writer and feminist, established a girls school in Pärnu, published the first women’s magazine in Estonia

1881 – Stanisław Kazuro born, Polish composer and conductor

1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War erupts between Japan and China over Korea

1905 – Helen Sawyer Hogg born, American-Canadian astronomer and academic

1911 – Harriet Quimby passes her pilot’s test becoming the first woman in the United States to receive an Aero Club of America aviator’s certificate

1911 –  Jackie Ormes born, American cartoonist, first female African American cartoonist in the U.S.; her comic strips – Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger

1914 – Germany and Russia declare war on each other, one of the series of declarations that will engulf Europe in WWI

1914 – Jack Delano born, American photographer and composer

1916 – Anne Hébert born, Canadian author and poet, honored three times with the Governor General’s Award

1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party, now commemorated as the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.

1936 – The Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Berlin is presided over by Aldolf Hitler, who had ordered the building of a new 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas to outdo the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles CA. The games are the first to be televised, and radio broadcasts reach 41 countries

1942 – Jerry Garcia, Grateful Dead guitarist-songwriter, is born

1944 – The Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation breaks out in Poland

1947 – President Truman signs proclamation of Air Force Day on 40^th Anniversary of date the Aeronautical Division was established under Chief Signal Officer of the Army

1957 – The U.S and Canada form the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)

1960 – Chubby Checkers releases “The Twist”

1960 – Aretha Franklin records “Today I Sing the Blues”

1966 – Charles Whitman kills 16 people with a rifle from the tower at the University of Texas-Austin

1980 – Vigdís Finnbogadóttir takes office as Iceland’s first woman president, and first world’s first democratically elected female head of state

1984 – Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau develop prototype browser and introduce HTML at the Europe Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland, which marks the birth of the Worldwide Web.

2000 – First time a Jarvik 2000 artificial heart is put into a human patient, the first artificial heart able to maintain blood flow as well as generating a pulse

2008 – The Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway begins operation, the fastest commuter rail system in the world

2014 – The Council of Europe (COE) Convention to Prevent and Combat Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence goes into force

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