August 7th Fun Facts, Trivia and HistoryTable of Contents |
August 7th History Highlights |
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August 7th is… |
Lighthouse Day Professional Speakers Day Raspberries & Cream Day |
August 7th Birthday Quotes |
“You can make sounds and music out of pretty much anything with a little imagination and putting your mind to it!” ” I’m a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought.” ” I am a woman who enjoys herself very much; sometimes I lose, sometimes I win.” ” Age is of no importance unless you are a cheese.” ” You get old and you realize there are no answers, just stories.” “Whatever road you’ve been given, enjoy that road.” |
August 7th Birthdays |
1876 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer, and spy (died in 1917) 1884 – Billie Burke, American actress, and singer (died in 1970) 1890 – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, American author, and activist (died in 1964) 1926 – Stan Freberg, American puppeteer and voice actor (died in 2015) 1942 – Garrison Keillor, American humorist, and radio host 1942 – B.J. Thomas, American singer 1955 – Wayne Knight, American actor 1960 – David Duchovny, American actor 1966 – Jimmy Wales, American businessman, co-founder of Wikipedia 1971 – Rachel York, American actress 1977 – Samantha Ronson, English DJ 1982 – Abbie Cornish, Australian actress |
August 7th History |
1782 – George Washington ordered the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It was later renamed the Purple Heart. 1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three other women became the first women to complete a transcontinental automobile trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California. Alice drove the whole trip. 1930 – Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, two accused African-American criminals were taken from jail by a mob and lynched. Lawrence Beitler took a picture of the mob and bodies, inspiring Abel Meeropol to write a poem, “Bitter Fruit.” It was later rephrased as “Strange Fruit” and recorded by Billie Holiday. 1944 – IBM announced the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, known best as the Harvard Mark I. It used 765,000 components and hundreds of miles of wire and weighed about 5 tons. 1954 – #1 Hit August 7, 1954 – September 24, 1954: The Crew-Cuts – Sh-Boom 1955 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (became Sony in 1958) sold its first transistor radios in Japan. 1959 – The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny went into circulation. It replaced the “wheat” design and was minted until 2008. 1959 – Explorer 6 launches from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The satellite fell back to Earth on July 1, 1961 1965 – #1 Hit August 7, 1965 – August 13, 1965: Herman’s Hermits – I’m Henry VIII, I Am 1971 – #1 Hit August 7, 1971 – September 3, 1971: Bee Gees – How Can You Mend a Broken Heart 1974 – Philippe Petit walked an illegal tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. 1975 (Typhoon) Nina, China 1976 – #1 Hit August 7, 1976 – September 3, 1976: Elton John and Kiki Dee – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 1976 – Viking 2 entered orbit around Mars. The lander went onto the Mars surface on September 3, 1976, and took pictures and analyzed soil samples until July 1980. 1978 – The US Government made funds available to offer federal assistance for the Love Canal Disaster 1992 – Growing Pains actress Tracy Gold was hospitalized for anorexia and is written out of most of the final episodes for the series 2004 – #1 Hit August 7, 2004 – August 20, 2004: Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim – Slow Motion |
Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts |
“When someone is attacking you, they are coming to you for advice.” – Bryant McGill If I had a twin that was five minutes younger than me, I would constantly remind him about the things I did when I was his age. Think of one of your friends. Chances are, that person is on their phone right now. People in 2100 are going to look back at us like we look back at the people who we look at in the early 1900s. The first episode for Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner was called ‘Fast and Furry-ous’. “a password that includes the current year becomes stronger as each year passes” – #modernproverb James Madison was on the $5,000 bill. Cheeto dust has an official name – “cheetle”. The US Navy diving manual has detailed instructions for escaping a giant clam. The seven spikes on Lady Liberty’s crown represent the seven continents. Gatorade was named after the University of Florida’s college football team – the Gators. |
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