Aug 7- 1606: William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” is performed for the first time at Hampton Court Palace with King James I in attendance. There is no record of how many stars King James gave to the play… 1955: Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, now better known as Sony, sells the first transistor radios in Japan. 1990: Operation Desert Shield begins with the deployment of US troops to Saudi Arabia. It transitioned into Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, when the US-led coalition began its aerial bombing campaign against Iraq. 2005: The seven-member crew of the Russian Priz AS-28 minisub are rescued by a British Scorpio-45 submarine after becoming tangled in cables deep in the Pacific Ocean during a training exercise and spending more than three days in the dark trapped underwater.

Aug 8- 1945: The Soviet Union (USSR) establishes a communist government in North Korea. On the same day, President Harry Truman signs the UN Charter after Congress had approved US participation in the new organization. 1966: South African Broadcasting bans the playing of all Beatles’ songs after John Lennon is quoted as saying “We’re (The Beatles) more popular than Jesus now.” 1968: Delegates attending the Republican Party’s National Convention in Miami, FL nominate Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew as the party’s candidates for president and vice-president, respectively. Ironically, both men would end up being forced to resign from their elective offices. 1988: A ceasefire takes effect between Iran and Iraq, marking an end to the eight-year war between the two countries.

Aug 9- 1483: The Sistine Chapel, with Michelangelo’s famous frescos painted on its ceiling, opens to the public. 1790: The Columbia Rediviva, captained by John Kendrick, returns to Boston Harbor, having become the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe. 1898: German inventor Rudolf Diesel patents his design for an internal combustion engine. 1945: The US drops a second atomic bomb (nicknamed “Fat Boy”) over Japan, destroying much of the city of Nagasaki. 1974: President Richard M. Nixon resigns effective 12:00 EDT, and Vice-President Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th president of the United States.

Aug 10- 30 BCE: Empress Cleopatra VII, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, died under still mysterious circumstances. The popular belief is that she was bitten by an asp (Egyptian cobra) while some scholars and writers claim she self-administered poison, perhaps at the insistance of Roman Emperor Octavian. Her Roman husband Mark Antony stabbed himself with his sword and, while most historians believe the two were buried together, their tomb has never been found. 1675: English King Charles II lays the cornerstone for the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. 1793: The Louvre Palace, long-used by French royalty as a warehouse for priceless art and treasure, is refurbished and opened to the public as Musee Central des Artes. 1846: The US Congress establishes the Smithsonian Institution, which will become the largest museum and research complex in the world.

Aug 11- 1934: The “most dangerous” Federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, joining a handful of leftover military prisoners in the maximum-security prison. Infamous gangsters Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly would soon call Alcatraz “home” as well! 1951: The first MLB game televised in living color is broadcast by WCBS-TV in New York City. The Boston Braves defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers 8-1. 1988: A clandestine meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif results in the founding of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. 2003: NATO takes command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, the first major operation outside Europe in the group’s 54-year history.

Aug 12- 1851: Isaac Singer receives Patent No. 8,294 for his commercial sewing machine and would become a multimillionaire as a result (the lucky “sew-and-sew.”)! 1908: The first Model T is completed at the Ford Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit, MI. 1939: The world premiere of the film “The Wizard of Oz” takes place at the Strand Theater in Oconomowoc, WI. 1980: Nicaragua’s National Literacy Crusade ends after five months; the country’s illiteracy rate remarkably drops from 50% to just 12%! 1990: The first fossilized bones of what would become the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found are uncovered in Faith, SD by paleontologist Susan Hendrickson. Her famous discovery, nicknamed “Sue,” can be seen at the Field Museum in Chicago, IL.

Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen “SUE” on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. FieldMuseum.org

Aug 13- 1521: Spanish conquistadors, led by Hernán Cortés, capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in modern-day Mexico, marking the end of the Aztec Empire. 1942: The Manhattan Project, a top-secret research and development program undertaken to produce the first nuclear weapons, begins under the direction of General Leslie Groves. 1961: East German authorities begin building the Berlin Wall to physically separate the eastern and western sections of the German city. 2008: American swimmer Michael Phelps sets three world records en route to winning three Gold Medals at the Beijing Olympic Games.

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