A sad one.
11 August 2014 — Robin Williams’ suicide. He was 63. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but an autopsy showed he had LBD, Lewy body dementia. Lewy bodies are protein deposits that develop in the brain’s regions governing thinking, memory, and motor control.
The guy was comic genius. And I loved him in Good Will Hunting.
Ten years ago today (August 11, 2012), what a fuckin’ decade it’s been. If these people asked you the three top stories of the next decade they would think you’re insane.
August 12, 1981: IBM introduced its first personal computer in New York.
13 August 1918 — USMC WMs: Women enlisted in the US Marine Corps for the first time.
Opha May Johnson became the very first “WM”, the first Woman Marine, in 1918. She was 39, and was the highest-ranking woman in the Marine Corps during her time in service. She made Sergeant before getting out and then worked for the Marine Corps as a civil servant until retiring in 1943.
Opha May Johnson died on 11 August 1955 in Washington, D.C. Services were held on 13 August 1955, 37 years to the day from when she became a Marine. Her grave at Rock Creek Cemetery (in DC) was unmarked, but on 29 August 2018 she received a grave marker with help from funds raised by the Women Marines Association to celebrate 100 years of women in the Marine Corps.
Semper Fi, Sergeant Opha May Johnson
13 August 1951 — painter and singer Dan Fogelberg was born in Peoria IL.
He helped define the light rock era of the 1970s and 1980s and is perhaps best known for his songs “Longer” (1979), “Leader of the Band” (1979), and “Same Old Lang Syne” (1980).
The youngest of three sons born to Lawrence Peter Fogelberg, a band director at Bradley University in Peoria, and of Swedish and Scottish descent, as a child Daniel Grayling Fogelberg taught himself to play a Hawaiian slide guitar that his grandfather had given him. He also learned to play the piano.
His first big gig was in Jackson MS when he was 23, in 1974 at City Auditorium in Jackson MS:
https://youtu.be/JTAEvRx-omk (57 minutes; 22 February 1974)
That venue sits 2,500 and his show was sold out. Fogelberg was surprised because up until then he played at venues seating less than 100.
His first hit was Part of the Plan in 1974. His first top ten album was Phoenix in 1979. His critical and commercial peak came in 1981 with the album The Innocent Age.
On 16 December 2007, Dan Fogelberg died at age 56 at his home on Deer Isle, Maine. His ashes were scattered off coastal Maine, into the Atlantic Ocean. Had he lived, today he would be 71.
Map, Deer Isle: Google Maps
Fogelberg was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame at Red Rocks Amphitheater, 17 miles SW of Denver.
Map: Google Maps
Today in Peoria, there are:
1 — a Dan Fogelberg Memorial:
https://goo.gl/maps/69WKcbdNGx5q72Sc7
2 — the Dan Fogelberg Parkway; it runs beside his alma mater, Woodruff High School:
https://goo.gl/maps/7HpkuCVgaPr8KTVx7
3 — Dan Fogelberg Convenience Store, where on Christmas Eve 1975, Fogelberg bumped into Jill Anderson Greulich:
https://goo.gl/maps/WRiWrUkQC68CxHjx8
In 1975 it was called the Convenient Food Mart.
An alphabetical listing of his songs can be found at:
Some of my personal favorites include:
Leader of the Band (album, The Innocent Age) — https://youtu.be/qQmkoMZyvOQ
{Theresa is moved by this one. It brings tears to her eyes as she thinks of her dad.}
Longer (album, Phoenix) — https://youtu.be/ImlDHQkPf8Q
{A former girlfriend. UCSB. December 1980.}
Same Old Lang Syne (album, The Innocent Age) — https://youtu.be/cfAxWtcfDUk
This was Christmas Eve 1975. The beer was Oly, Olympia, and the girl was Jill Anderson. Her marriage was strained. By the time the song was released in 1980 she had already divorced. Jim and Jill Greulich now live happily in St. Louis.
She kept quiet all those years about her part as the inspiration of the song because she didn’t want it to “overshadow Dan. It wasn’t about me. It was about Dan. It was Dan’s song.”
Here is a 2018 interview with her:
The St. Louis Woman Who Inspired an Iconic Christmas Song
Jill Anderson Greulich and Dan Fogelberg share their thoughts on this song — https://youtu.be/AoTNuDTRaP0
Only the Heart May Know (with Emmylou Harris; album, The Innocent Age) — https://youtu.be/0LufsRbefZI
{A very special high school friend}
The Reach (album, The Innocent Age) — https://youtu.be/HEL_qqXGjHU
Along the Road (album, Phoenix) — https://youtu.be/e3os1EUnC4I
Hard to Say (album, The Innocent Age) —
Part of the Plan (album, Souvenirs) — https://youtu.be/w5x9_vsrKZo
Nexus (album, The Innocent Age) — https://youtu.be/LjYSrbLTifk
The Innocent Age (album, The Innocent Age) — https://youtu.be/1OBihThNiJE
Part of the Plan (album, Souvenirs) —
Christ the King (album, The First Christmas Morning) — https://youtu.be/gl4Y4FWWkn0
The First Christmas Morning (album, The First Christmas Morning) — https://youtu.be/8YoiZhh_VBk
Here is an August 1997 interview in San Diego:
August 14, 1994: Space telescope Hubble photographs Uranus with rings.
16 August 2020 — the August Complex fire in Northern California started by lightning strikes. It took firefighters almost three months to extinguish the fire which by then had burned over 1 million acres — an area larger than Rhode Island. Due to the remote location of the fire there were no civilian fatalities, while 935 structures were reported destroyed. However, one firefighter was killed, and at least two others were seriously injured.
Its starting point was about 200 miles north of San Francisco, at 39°45’56.3"N 122°40’21.6"W.
Map — Google Maps
Our skies in the SF Bay Area were a creepy smoky orange for several days. Ash fell on everything.
To date, the August Complex fire is both the single-largest wildfire and the largest fire complex in recorded California history.
16 August 2020: California’s Death Valley recorded a temperature of 130° Fahrenheit (54.44° Celsius) amid a blistering heat wave, the third highest temperature ever measured.
17 August 1590 — Roanoke Colony is searched for but is never found. It is one of the oldest unsolved mysteries of these United States — the “Lost Colony”. Over 110 colonists vanished without a trace.
Roanoke Colony was located in present-day North Carolina. On 17 August 1590 Governor John White returned to Roanoke after a much-delayed resupply trip to England. He’d been gone three years. Upon landing on Roanoke Island he returned to… nobody. Nothing. They were all gone. No signs of a struggle or battle were ever found. John White found only two clues: the cryptic word, “CROATOAN”, carved into a fence, and three letters, “CRO”, carved into a tree.
Of the more than 110 colonists that vanished without a trace, one was 3 year old Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the ‘New World’. Little Virginia was born in Roanoke Colony on 18 August 1587. Governor John White was her grandfather.
The people of Roanoke were never found.
Not much is known of John White after the Roanoke mystery. The World War II Liberty ship SS John White was named in his honor.
Sources: Britannica, History, Wikipedia
◆On This Day - What Happened on August 17 | Britannica
◆What Happened to the 'Lost Colony' of Roanoke? | HISTORY
◆Roanoke Colony - Wikipedia
◆John White (colonist and artist) - Wikipedia
◆Roanoke Island - Wikipedia
21 August 2017 — a total solar eclipse traversed the USA’s lower 48 states. Beginning in Salem, Oregon and going east across CONUS, the ‘path of totality’ crossed or touched 13 states before exiting to the Atlantic Ocean from Charleston, South Carolina.
We were in Midvale, Idaho with friend Greg, and new friend Chris. Chris lives in Midvale and she opened her house to us. We’d all just meet, and we watched it from her backyard.
Just before it got dark the birds went crazy, squawking and flying in circles over Chris’s house. Dogs barked and cattle moo’ed. The animals were uncertain about what was happening. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees F and then it got dark — like a dark dusk, not pitch black. You could still see a little. You didn’t need a flashlight. I snapped these photos.
If you haven’t been in a total eclipse I highly recommend it. It’s a great experience!
Mark your calendars for 08 April 2024, when another total solar eclipse will cross from southwest Texas up to Maine. Along the way it’ll go over Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Montréal (barely), and Prince Edward Island.
After that, eclipses over CONUS won’t be until August 2045, March 2052, and in May 2078 when I’ll be 117!
24 August 79: Long-dormant Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash; an estimated 20,000 people died.
26 August 55 B.C.: Roman legions, under Julius Caesar, invaded Britain, with only limited success.
28 August 1963 — I Have a Dream
On the eighth anniversary of the 14-year old Chicago IL boy Emmett Till‘s abduction, torture, and lynching in Drew, Mississippi, and 100 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (effective 01 January 1863), the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” led 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
Security forces were mobilized and ready — over 12,000 men including DC police and the National Guard. President John F. Kennedy had a man positioned to cut power to the public address system in case of any incendiary rally speech.
It would not be needed. The March was from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, a distance of ¾ mile. Over a dozen people spoke, and the culmination of the gathering was “I Have a Dream.”
King’s speech is a masterpiece of rhetoric. He invoked pivotal documents in American history, including the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Constitution. His use of anaphora, repeating “I have a dream,” conjures powerful imagery.
It’s a beautiful speech. It’s about 15 minutes and I encourage you to listen to it.
Watch and listen —
The complete text is here —
3 September 2021:
Simu Liu debuts as the title character in the Marvel movie ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.’ The martial arts and superpowers combo introduces a primarily Asian cast of characters to the ever-expanding Marvel franchise. The film will go on to gross more than $432 million worldwide and prompt plans for a sequel.
6 September 1972:
The final act of the Munich Olympic hostage crisis plays out at Furstenfeldbruck Airport. German police set up an ambush in an attempt to overpower members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization, who had invaded the Olympic Village and taken nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage (two others died while trying to fight off the invaders), but it ends in catastrophe. Six of the nine terrorists are killed at the scene, but not before all nine remaining hostages are massacred as well.
To add insult to injury, the three surviving terrorists were released about two months later after a German Lufthansa flight was hijacked, with the hijackers threatening to destroy the plane and kill all onboard unless the Black September members were freed.
-“BB”-
06 September 1995 — Cal Ripken, 2,131 consecutive games Lou Gehrig’s record
On 06 Sep 1995, Cal Ripken played in his 2,131st consecutive game to break the “Iron Man” streak of Lou Gehrig, a record that has stood for 56 years and that many deemed to be unbreakable. That game, between the Baltimore Orioles and the California Angels, still ranks as one of the most-watched baseball games (baseball’s most-watched game was Game 7 of the 1986 World Series). Cal’s children, Rachel and Ryan, threw out the ceremonial first pitches. Both President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were at the game; Clinton was with the commentators on ESPN for the Orioles’ half of the fourth inning.
On 14 Jun 1996, Cal Ripken played in his 2,216th consecutive game to break the world record set by Sachio Kinugasa. Kinugasa, nicknamed Tetsujin or “Iron Man”, had broken Gehrig’s steak in 1987. Kinugasa was at the game when Ripken broke his streak.
On 20 Sep 1998, Cal Ripken had played in his 2,632nd consecutive game the previous day to set the new Iron Man record. On this date Ripken did not play. It was his first day off since 29 May 1982. Rookie Ryan Minor started at 3rd in Ripken’s place. Ryan Minor initially thought he was being punked as a rookie, until Ripken really did not play.
Cal Ripken’s current record stands at 2,632 games.
September 6, 1901 — President William McKinley was assassinated. McKinley was then the third American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881. McKinley died of gangrene from the wounds two weeks later.
By coincidence Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham, was either present or nearby for these three assassinations:
1901-09-06 — William McKinley
1881-07-02 — James Garfield
1865-04-15 — Abraham Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln was not at Ford’s Theatre when his father was assassinated but he was nearby at the White House, and then he rushed to be with his parents. The president was moved to the Petersen House after the shooting, where Robert attended his father’s deathbed.
At President James A. Garfield’s invitation, Robert Todd Lincoln was at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C., when the president was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881. He was an eyewitness to the event. Lincoln was serving as Garfield’s Secretary of War at the time.
At President William McKinley’s invitation, Robert Todd Lincoln was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, where the president was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901, though he was not an eyewitness to the event; he was just outside the building where the shooting occurred.
Robert Todd Lincoln himself recognized these coincidences. He is said to have refused a later presidential invitation with the comment, “No, I’m not going, and they’d better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present.”
9 September 2015: Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning monarch in British history, having served as sovereign for 23,226 days (about 63 years and 7 months), according to Buckingham Palace, surpassing Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother.
(Thanks, Bullitt! Good posts, appreciate it.)
Thanks! Wow it’s been awhile. We need more history…
