August 5^th is

Mustard Day

Oyster Day

Underwear Day

Work Like a Dog Day

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MORE! Guy de Maupassant, Bertha Benz and Elena Kagan, click

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World Festivals and National Holidays

Andorra – La Vella Festival
(flowers, music and dancing)

Anguilla – Constitution Day

Burkina Faso – Independence Day

Croatia – Victory and Thanksgiving Day

El Salvador – San Salvador:
Fiesta de San Salvador

Spain – Ceuta: Nuestra Señora de África

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 25 – After the short-lived Xin dynasty collapses, Guangu claims the throne and restores the Han dynasty

910 – In England, the last major Danish raiding force is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, led by King Edward the Elder and Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians

1305 – William Wallace is captured by the English near Glasgow and taken to London

1397 – Guillaume Dufay born, Belgian-Italian composer and theorist

1529 – The Treaty of Cambrai is signed, after negotiations conducted primarily by Louise of Savoy for the French and Margaret of Austria for her nephew, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor; also known as the Paix des Dames, or the Ladies’ Peace

1540 – Joseph Justus Scaliger born, French religious scholar and historian whose work expands ‘Classical’ history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and ancient Egyptian history in addition to Greek and Roman

1565 – Paola Massarenghi born, Italian composer; her only composition to survive is a spiritual madrigal, Quando spiega l’insegn’al sommo padre

1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador

1620 – The Mayflower departs from Southhampton on a first attempt to reach America

1623 – Antonio Cesti born, Italian organist and composer

1716 – Austrian forces win a decisive victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Petrovaradin (now part of Serbia)

1811 – Ambroise Thomas born, French composer, operas Mignon and Hamlet; Conservatoire de Paris director (1871-1895)

1824 – Constantine Kanaris leads Greek fleet to victory over Ottoman Empire at Samos

1843 – James Scott Skinner born, Scottish violinist and composer

1850 – Guy de Maupassant born, influential French novelist and short-story writer

1861 – U.S. Army abolishes flogging

1861 – U.S. government levies first federal income tax as a wartime measure – 3% of all income over $800; rescinded in 1872

1874 – Japan begins its first postal savings system, modeled after the UK system

1876 – Mary Ritter Beard born, American historian and author, social justice and women’s rights activist; On Understanding Women, America Through Women’s Eyes, and Woman As Force In History: A Study in Traditions and Realities

1877 – Tom Thompson born, influential Canadian artist

Round Lake, Mud Bay, Fall 1915 by Tom Thomson

1880 – Gertrude Rush born, American lawyer and jurist, first black woman attorney in Iowa, co-founder of the National Bar Association

1884 – Cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty laid on Bedloe’s Island in NY Harbor

1888 – Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim – first long-distance auto trip; now called the Bertha Benz Memorial route

1889 – Conrad Aiken born, American poet and novelist

1890 – Erich Kleiber born, Austrian conductor and composer

1906 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, King of Iran, agrees to convert the government to a constitutional monarchy

1914 – First electric traffic signal lights installed in Cleveland OH

1918 – Betty Oliphant born, Canadian ballet dancer and co-founder National Ballet School of Canada

1924 – NY Daily News debuts comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” by Harold Gray

Debut of Little Orphan Annie

1926 – Harry Houdini spends 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping

1926 – Betsy Jolas born, important post-WWII French composer

1930 – Neil Armstrong born, American astronaut; first man to walk on the moon

1932 – Tera de Marez Oyens born, Dutch composer; chamber music and song cycles

1944 – Polish insurgents free 348 Jewish prisoners from Warsaw German labor camp

1957 – American Bandstand makes its national network debut on ABC

1959 – Isley Brothers record “Shout”

1963 – Limited Test Ban Treaty signed by U.S., Britain, and Soviet Union; no nuclear tests in space, underwater, or in the atmosphere

1966 – Groundbreaking for the original New York World Trade Center

1966 – The Beatles release their album Revolver

1969 – NASA Mariner 7 space probe passes Mars, sending back photographs and scientific data

1974 – President Nixon says he expects to be impeached for ordering Watergate investigation halted

1981 – President Reagan makes carries out his threat, and begins firing the striking air traffic controllers

1986 – Artist Andrew Wyeth’s 240 drawings and paintings of Helga Testorf are revealed

1989 – Five Central American presidents meet about dismantling Contra bases

1999 – Music by Johann Sebastian Bach thought to have been destroyed during WWII is found in the Ukraine, part of musical estate of Bach’s son, Carl Phillipp Emanuel Bach

2010 – The U.S Senate confirms Elena Kagan as the Supreme Court’s fourth woman justice by a vote of 63-37

2011 – Standard & Poor’s lowered the U.S. government’s AAA credit rating to AA-plus

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