August 10th is

World Lion Day *

National Lazy Day

S’Mores Day

Skyscraper Appreciation Day *

Smithsonian Charter Day *

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MORE! Yekuno Amlak, Rica Erickson and Michael Phelps, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Anguilla – Constitution Day

Ecuador – National Day

Ireland – Killorglin: Puck Fair

Nicaragua – Managua: Dejada de
Santo Domingo de Guzmán (patron saint)

United Kingdom – Bristol:
International Balloon Fiesta

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On This Day in HISTORY

1270 – Yekuno Amlak takes the imperial throne of Ethiopia, restoring the Solomonic dynasty to power after a 100-year Zagwe dynasty interregnum

Portrait of Yekuno Amlak in a 17th century manuscript

1519 – Ferdinand Magellan’s five ships embark from Seville to circumnavigate the globe

1560 – Hieronymus Praetorius born, German late Renaissance composer and organist, noted for Masses and a cappella vocal music

1675 – The foundation stone is laid for the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London

1740 – Samuel Arnold born, English composer of theatrical music and organist at Westminster Abbey

1793 – The Musée du Louvre officially opens in Paris

1823 – Charles Keene born, English artist and illustrator for Punch magazine

John Bull, symbol of Britain, holds off suffragette demands – Punch 1870, by Charles Keene

1846 – Smithsonian Charter Day *- U.S. Congress charters Smithsonian Institution after English mineralogist James Smithson donates $500,000

1858 – Anna Haywood Cooper born, American scholar, author, educator and lecturer; one of the first African American women to earn a PhD, from the Sorbonne in 1924; A Voice from the South: by a Woman of the South, published in 1892, is one of the first Black feminist books

1865 – Aleksandr Glazunov born, Russian symphonic composer

1869 – O.B. Brown patents the motion picture projector

1883 – William Van Alen born, American architect; designer of the Chrysler Building, still a New York City landmark, and the inspiration for Skyscraper Appreciation Day *

1885 – First commercial use of an electric streetcar in Baltimore, MD

1893 – Douglas Stuart Moore born, American composer of folk operas

1894 – Dorothy Jacobs Bellanca born in Latvia, American labor leader; Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) Joint Board Secretary, and first female Vice President (1934-1946), also ACWA’s first woman full-time organizer; during the Great Depression, served on NYC Mayor’s Commission in Unity, and the Maternal and Child Welfare Committee under Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins

1905 – Eugene Dennis born, American Communist Party leader and labor organizer; notable as the named party in Dennis v. United States, a famous McCarthy Era Supreme Court case, in which he appealed a conviction which was obtained against him on the slenderest evidence, under the Alien Registration Act, for advocating the violent overthrow of the U.S. government; the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in a split decision

1908 – Rica Erickson born, Australian naturalist, botanical artist, historian and author; noted for Orchids of the West, Triggerplants and as editor of Flowers and Plants of Western Australia; member of the Royal Western Australia Historical Society; made a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her work as an author and illustrator in 1987. The Rica Erickson Nature Preserve was founded in her honor, and officially opened in 1996

1909 – Leo Fender born, American inventor of electronic musical instruments and amplifiers; founder of Fenders (Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company)

1914 – Margaret Morgan Lawrence born, American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst; first black woman physician certified by the American Board of Pediatrics; Chief of the Developmental Psychiatry Service for Infants and Children at Harlem Hospital for 21 years, as well as associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, retiring in 1984; noted for her research on development of strength in black families; author of The Mental Health Team in Schools, and Young Inner City Families; from 1932 to 1936, she was on a scholarship from the National Council of the Episcopal Church. The only black undergraduate, she was denied a place in the segregated dormitory. At first, she supported herself by working as a maid for a white family, living in the attic, but later worked as a laboratory assistant. In spite of academic excellence, she was refused admittance to Cornell Medical School because of her race, but became the third African American admitted to Columbia Medical School (1936-1940). Then she was rejected from a residency at New York Babies Hospital because of race, and rejected by Grasslands Hospital because she was a married woman. Lawrence completed a two-year pediatric residency at Harlem Hospital (1940-1942). She got her masters in science at Columbia University’s School of Public Health, where one of her teachers was Dr. Benjamin Spock; in 1948, she was the first African American to join the New York Psychiatric Institute, and the first African American psychoanalysis trainer at Columbia’s Psychoanalytic Center; she also earned certification as a pediatric psychiatrist (1951)

1921 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt is stricken with polio at Campobello

1927 – Mount Rushmore is formally dedicated

1931 – Dolores Alexander born, lesbian feminist, writer and reporter; In 1960, she was not hired as a copy “girl” at the New York Times after working there as an intern because it would “cause a revolution in the newsroom.” She went to work for the Newark Evening News, working up from reporter to copy editor to bureau chief (1961-1964), then worked for Newsday in various capacities (1964-1967). Alexander became chair of a committee of the National Task Force on Image of Women in Mass Media at the newly-formed National Organization for Women (NOW), and was NOW’s first Executive Director 1969 to 1970, when she resigned in protest of some negative attitudes exhibited towards lesbians during NOW’s early inception. She and Jill Ward borrowed money from friends to renovate a run-down luncheonette in Greenwich Village NY, which they opened in 1972 as Mother Courage, the first feminist restaurant in the U.S. Both women and men were served, but wine was poured for women to taste rather than their male guests, and checks were placed within equal distance of diners. It became a popular place for women dining solo, assured of good service and no hassling by men. Alexander lectured on women’s rights, working with the New Feminist Talent Collective, formed by Jacqueline Ceballos to provide speakers about the women’s movement; she also pushed for integration of want ads, beginning with the New York Times

1933 – Elizabeth Butler-Sloss born, British judge, first woman to serve as Lord Justice of Appeal

1941 – Susan Dorothea White, Australian painter, sculptor and how-to author of Draw Like Da Vinci

Mum’s Centenarian Sunset by Susan Dorothea White

1948 – Alan Funt’s Candid Camera makes its television debut on ABC

1949 – President Truman signs National Security Act Amendment; Department of War becomes Department of Defense

1954 – Groundbreaking ceremony held at Massena NY for Saint Lawrence Seaway

1958 – Rosie Winterton born, British Labour politician, Member of Parliament for Doncaster Central since 1997; Parliamentary Undersecretary of State (2001-2003)  Minister of State for: Health (2003-2006), Transport (2007-2008), Work and Pensions (2008-2009) and Local Government (2009-2010); appointed to Privy Council in 2006

1961 – First use in Vietnam by U.S. Army of Agent Orange

1962 – Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man makes his debut in “Amazing Fantasy”

1962 – Suzanne Collins born, American television writer and sci-fi/fantasy YA novelist; known for her best-selling Hunger Games trilogy; began her TV career writing for  several Nickelodeon children’s television series, becoming head writer for Clifford’s Puppy Days; her first novel was Gregor the Overlander, which began The Underland Chronicles. The Hunger Games won the 2008 CYBIL Award for Fantasy and Science Fiction

1974 – Haifaa al-Mansour born, the first and best-known Saudi Arabian woman filmmaker; after making three short films, she directed the documentary Women Without Shadows, which received the Golden Dagger for Best Documentary at the Muscat Film Festival in Oman; she wrote and directed her first feature film, Wadjda, which was the first full-length feature made entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first directed by a woman. It made its world premiere at the 2012 Venice Film Festival. It was also the official Saudi Arabian entry for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film. Her focus on women’s issues has brought her criticism and hate mail, as well as praise. In 2015, she was selected as a jurist for the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section of the Cannes Film Festival. Mary Shelley, her romantic drama about Shelley’s early life, premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival

1974 – Rachel Simmons born, American research scholar at New York’s Hewitt School; author of the 2002 book, Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, and the 2009 book, The Curse of the Good Girl

1977 – David Berkowitz, “Son of Sam,” is arrested for killing six people

1985 – Madonna becomes first female performer to have 5 million sales certified for an album, Like a Virgin

1988 – President Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese American who were interned or relocated by the U.S. during WWII

1990 – NASA: Magellan space probe reaches Venus

1993 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second woman on the Supreme Court

1995 – Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols indicted for Oklahoma City bombing

2003 – For first time, a temperature over 100◦F is recorded in the UK, at Kent

2008 – U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps wins first of a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics by smashing his own world record in 400-meter individual medley

2013 – Katy Perry’s single “Roar” is released to U.S. radio stations

2013 – The first World Lion Day is launched to raise awareness of how close the world is to the extinction of lions in the wild – current estimates are only about 20,000 lions are still living outside captivity – a wild population loss of 95% just since the 1940s. At the current rate of decline, the African Lion will disappear by 2050

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