# Today in History **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530 "2016-07-10T04:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 95
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1885 "2021-08-01T14:37:18Z")
**August 1, 1893** : Henry Perky patents shredded wheat. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1886 "2021-08-01T20:21:09Z")
**August 1, 1800:** The Acts of Union are passed, merging the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (since 1921, a century ago, “Great Britain and Northern Ireland”). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1887 "2021-08-03T19:38:22Z")
**August 3, 1492** : Columbus sets sail from Palos, Spain for the “Indies.” Same day: All Jews are expelled from Spain. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1888 "2021-08-05T07:54:38Z")
**August 5, 1914** : The American Traffic Signal Company installs a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. It has two colors, red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of James Hoge, to provide a warning for color changes. The design allows police and fire stations to control the signals in case of emergency. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1889 "2021-08-09T12:31:55Z")
**August 9, 1930** : Betty Boop makes her cartoon debut in _Dizzy Dishes._ ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1890 "2021-08-09T17:42:30Z")
August 9th, 1995 26 years ago as I type this, the city of San Francisco went from being the epicenter of the 1960s counterculture to the epicenter of 2000s technocratic capitalism when Jerry Garcia died the same day the Netscape IPO occured, effectively creating the commercial internet as well as changing America’s economic and social trajectory. [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51367629451_2b5b91627c_b.jpg "SmartSelect\_20210808-081235\_Google") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/68782016@N08/51367629451/) [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51366867432_ba33f55662_b.jpg "SmartSelect\_20210808-081323\_Google") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/68782016@N08/51366867432/) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1891 "2021-08-09T18:06:49Z")
**August 9, 1974:** Brought down by the Watergate Scandal and advised by Congressional leaders of his own party that he was likely to be convicted in the Senate if impeached by the House, Richard M. Nixon, Republican of California, resigned as President of the United States. He was succeeded by Gerald R. Ford, Republican of Michigan, whom he had named as Vice President pursuant to the 25th Amendment less than a year earlier. Nixon is still, to date, the only President ever to resign. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1892 "2021-08-10T12:58:42Z")
**August 10, 1932** : A 5.1 kilograms (11 lb.) chondrite-type meteorite breaks into at least seven pieces and lands near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2021, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1893 "2021-08-11T04:40:15Z")
**August 11, 1942** : Actress Hedy [sic] Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2021, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1894 "2021-08-13T05:22:41Z")
**August 13, 1876** : The premiere of Wagner’s _Der Ring des Nibelungen_ at the recently completed Bayreuth Festspielhaus. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1895 "2021-08-14T12:08:39Z")
**August 14, 1975** : _The Rocky Horror Picture Show,_ the longest-running release in film history, opens in London. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1896 "2021-08-14T14:01:28Z")
August 14, 1935: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. August 14, 1945: President S Truman announced that Imperial Japan had surrendered unconditionally, ending World War II. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1897 "2021-08-15T12:27:05Z")
**August 15, 1969** : Woodstock opens. (I was there.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1898 "2021-08-17T16:43:16Z")
**August 17, 1915** : Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched in Marietta, Georgia after a 13-year-old girl is murdered. Today, the consensus of researchers on the subject holds that Frank was wrongly convicted. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1899 "2021-08-20T11:36:02Z")
**August 20, 2008** : Spanair Flight 5022, from Madrid, Spain to Gran Canaria, skids off the runway and crashes at Barajas Airport. Of the 172 people on board, 146 die immediately, and eight more later die of injuries sustained in the crash. I was in the Barajas Airport when this occurred. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1900 "2021-08-21T20:45:24Z")
**August 21, 2017** : A total solar eclipse traverses the continental United States. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1901 "2021-08-23T14:26:19Z")
**August 23, 1305:** Sir William Wallace was executed for high treason at Smithfield, London. He was played by Mel Gibson in the Oscar-winning but highly fictionalized film about his life, rebellion and death, _Braveheart_. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1902 "2021-08-24T01:32:53Z")
**August 23, 1991** : The World Wide Web is opened to the public. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1903 "2021-08-25T00:08:30Z")
**August 24, 1967** : Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party (“Yippies”) temporarily disrupts trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/1904 "2021-08-25T09:45:32Z")
**August 25, 1835** : _The New York Sun_ began “The Great Moon Hoax,” a series of six articles about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, one of the best-known astronomers of his time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=94) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=96)