This day in history...

Good to see you again, @Winston1

 

On August 7, 1990, President George H.W. Bush gives the go-ahead for Operation Desert Shield. Five days earlier, Iraq invaded Kuwait, possibly a preemptive move for an invasion of Saudi Arabia. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein miscalculated, believing the UN - in particular, the US - would sit idle and watch. Instead, the UN, with President Bush and the US taking the lead role, organized an alliance of 35 nations to defend the Kuwaitis and Saudis. By late November, Desert Shield was organized well enough for the UN to give Hussein an ultimatum - withdraw from Kuwait by midnight, January 16 or be removed by force. Hours after the deadline passed (and was ignored), American aircraft were bombing the Iraqi capital city of Bagdad.


On August 7, 1962, President John F. Kennedy bestows the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service to Frances Kelsey, a Canadian-American pharmacologist. Hired to review new drug applications by the FDA in 1960, Kelsey successfully blocked the licensing of thalidomide, a painkiller and tranquilizer intended for pregnant women experiencing morning sickness. Already in use in Canada and about 20 European nations, Kelsey felt the drug was being rushed to market in the US and ordered further testing. Her concern was well-founded; by 1961 the drug was being banned in those countries as the cause of pre-natal death in an estimated 10,000 cases. In countless others, infants were born with severe defects of the limbs, hearts, eyes and urinary tracts. (note; "children of thalidomide" is one of those difficult to understand lines in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire.")


On August 7, 1987, 30-year old Lynne Cox completes the first recorded swim of the Bering Strait from the US to the Soviet Union. It was the crowning achievement in the career of perhaps the world's most prolific open water swimmer. Her resume: part of a group to complete the first crossing of the (California) Catalina Channel, 2-time women's speed record holder for crossing the English Channel, first woman to swim New Zealand's Cook Strait, first person to swim the Straits of Magellan, and first to swim around the Cape of Good Hope. For the Bering swim, Cox wore a basic swimsuit (in sub-45 degree waters) to swim from Little Diomede Island off Alaska to Big Diomede (then part of the USSR), completing the 2.3 mile distance in 2 hours, 16 minutes. Four months later, President Reagan and Premier Gorbachev recognized Cox's achievement with a toast at the ceremony to sign the INF missile control Treaty. A member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Cox is now 65 years old, a noted author and motivational speaker. According to her website, she has swum more than 54,000 miles in her career.

 

On August 8, 1946, Consolidated Vultee Aircraft (later Convair) unveils the B-36 Peacemaker. The largest piston driven aircraft ever produced (seen parked next to a B-29 below), the B-36 was also the first true intercontinental bomber, capable of lifting off from the US mainland and striking targets in the USSR without refueling. It's also the first aircraft designed to deliver nuclear weapons, and indeed, it would be America's only means of launching a nuclear strike until reliable ICBM's were developed in the early 60's. It could carry 4 times the payload of the B-29, and even exceeded the payload of the jet-powered B-52's that replaced it in 1955.

 

On August 9, 2014, Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, MO, shoots and kills an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. The shooting sparked demonstrations and riots throughout the country in one of the first "causes" of the Black Lives Matter movement. Reports conflict about the circumstances of the shooting, and a Justice Department investigation - which found that the Ferguson PD routinely violated the civil rights of the town's African-American citizens - ruled the shooting "justified".


On August 9, 378, a Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by mounted Visigoth rebels in modern-day Turkey. The Battle of Adrianople is one of the most decisive victories in military history, the outnumbered Visigoths killing roughly two-thirds of the attacking Romans, who numbered 25-30,000. Valens was among the dead. Visigoth losses are unknown, but historians agree fighting from horseback gave them a tactical advantage that armies will attempt to exploit for the next 1500 years.


On August 9, 1954, Walden, or A Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau is published. A Transcendentalist philosopher and writer, Thoreau was a 27-year old Harvard graduate with a hankering to "live deliberately" when he moved into a 10'x15' cabin on Walden Pond near Concord, Mass. owned by his friend, poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. He lived there for 26 months, living on the crops he grew near the cabin, and putting his thoughts on nature, politics and philosophy (emphasis on self-reliance) on paper. The initial print run for Walden of 2,000 copies took about 5 years to sell out. Thoreau died in 1862; of Walden, revered American poet Robert Frost said, "in one book...he surpasses everything we have had in America." (right photo shows statue of Thoreau near a replica of Emerson's Walden Pond cabin)

 

On August 10, 1977, NYPD arrests 24-year old postal worker David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" serial killer. Over the previous 13 months, 6 killings and 7 injuries were attributed to the same killer, who left a note on one of the victims in which he referred to himself as the "Son of Sam." An eyewitness account following a July 31 shooting would give police their first description of the killer, the trail eventually leading to Berkowitz front door in Yonkers. Berkowitz originally attributed his actions to having received instructions from a demon speaking to him through a neighbor's dog named Sam. He'd later withdraw an insanity defense and plead guilty to six murders, for which he received 6 life sentences. He's housed in an upstate New York prison, having been repeatedly denied parole.


On August 10, 1793, the French revolutionary government opens the Louvre in Paris as an art museum. In 1546 King Francis I, a renowned art collector, began the conversion of the Louvre from a fortress (originally built in the 12th century) to a royal palace. His successors would expand both the Louvre and the art collection until Louis XIV moved his royal court to Versailles in 1682. Louis designated the former palace as a residence for artists with royal patronage. Calls for the palace (and the royal art collection still within its walls) to be opened to the public began in the mid-18th century, with the new government finally making it happen during the revolution. From 537 works of art displayed on opening day, the collection has since been expanded to more than 600,000 pieces, about 5 percent of which are on public display at any given time. The Louvre is the world's most visited museum, with 9.6 million visitors in the 12 months before Covid-19 lockdowns.


On August 10, 1937, the U.S. Patent Office awards Patent #2,089.171 to G.D. Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacher of the Electro String Instrument Company of Los Angeles for the Rickenbacher Frying Pan - the first electric guitar. The company was addressing the basic problem of acoustic guitars, they simply weren't loud enough when used in concert with other instruments. The Frying Pan (below) came out in 1932, but it took five years to issue the patent because so much of the science behind the electric guitar was borrowed from the theories of the telephone. By the time Beauchamp finally received the patent, several other companies had improved on its most important development, the electromagnetic "pickup" that amplified the sound of the string's vibrations after it was converted to electric current. (Alex Lifeson of Rush, circa 1979)

 

On August 11, 1943, German forces begin to withdraw from the island of Sicily. The Nazis had helped to garrison Sicily since the beginning of the war, but their days were numbered when the American 7th Army under Gen. George Patton and the British 8th Army under General Bernard Montgomery launched Operation Husky on July 10. The Allies landed on the southern part of the island; the objective, to take the port city of Messina in the northeast and cut off the German escape. The Nazis slowed Montgomery's advance along the east coast to a crawl, but when Patton darted northwest to take Palermo and then dash along the north coast to Messina, the handwriting was on the wall. Over the next six days, the Nazis would evacuate 100,000 German and Italian soldiers and their equipment across the two-mile wide Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland. The Allies held Sicily, but the additional troops would make Italy itself a much tougher nut to crack a year later.


On August 11, 1973, American Graffiti premiers in US theaters. Taglined "Where Were You in '62?", the film tracks the last night of summer vacation in Modesto, CA for a group of high school graduates and friends, before two of their number are to leave for college. Co-written and directed by a pre-Star Wars unknown named George Lucas, the film likewise boasts a mostly-anonymous cast. It stars child-TV star Ron Howard and up-and-coming Richard Dreyfuss, but the rest of the principle cast is still a few years from making their marks: Harrison Ford (Star Wars), Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley), MacKenzie Phillips (One Day At A Time), Suzanne Somers (Three's Company) and Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13). There's also a cameo from legendary DJ Wolfman Jack. American Graffiti would be one of the most profitable films of all-time, grossing more than $200 million after being produced for about $700,000. In 1995 it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.


On August 11, 1991, rookie golfer John Daly wins the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Indianapolis. Two years out of college and with only a handful of PGA event appearances under his belt, Daly was the final alternate for a spot in the Championship field, and did not get the call to play until a few days before the tournament. Daly quickly captivated the golf world with his decidedly anti-country club look, his way too far backswing (he would call it "grip it and rip it") and his hyper length off the tee. Daly would win the Championship by three strokes. He still plays part-time on the Tour today, but an inconsistent overall game and personal problems would lead to just 19 Tour wins over 22 years, and only one more major win (The Open, 1995).