August 27, 1927: Five Canadian women file a petition to the Supreme Court of Canada, asking, “Does the word ‘Persons’ in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?”
August 27, 1949
A violent mob of white people prevented an outdoor concert headed by Paul Robson from taking place in Peekskill, New York. (The concert was held eight days later.)
August 28, 1898: Caleb Bradham’s beverage “Brad’s Drink” is renamed “Pepsi-Cola”.
August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage.
August 28th, 2014 (sorry), The biggest scandal of the Obama administration rocks a nation already teetering on the abyss:
August 30, 1967: Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
August 31, 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.
August 31, 1740: John Frederick Oberlin, Alsatian pastor and peacemaker, considered the Gandhi of his day, was born. Oberlin College (my alma mater) was later named after him, although he never visited the United States.
September 2, 1752: Last Julian calendar day in Britain and British colonies (no Sept 3-Sept 13th).
September 3, 1910: Birth of Kitty Carlisle, American actress, singer, socialite, and game show panelist (d. 2007).
September 5, 1972: The Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called “Black September” attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and the remaining are murdered the following day.
September 6, 1995: Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that had stood for 56 years.
September 7, 1921 (100 years ago today): In Atlantic City, NJ, the first Miss America Pageant, a two-day event, is held. Sixteen-year-old Margaret Gorman is crowned the “Golden Mermaid.”
September 8, 1966: The TV series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, “The Man Trap”.
September 9, 1947: First case of a computer bug being found: A moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University.
September 9, 1971: John Lennon’s Imagine was released.
Pretty sure that was the same date I declared ‘Imagine’ to be overwrought, treacly shit.
September 10, 1960: At the Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila becomes the first sub-Saharan African to win a gold medal, winning the marathon in bare feet.
September 10, 1897: At least 19 striking immigrant mine workers are shot and killed in Pennsylvania by a sheriff’s posse. The striking miners carry no weopons and many are shot in the back attempting to flee the gunfire. Dozens more suffer injuries. Sheriff James Martin and the deputies would later be acquitted of wrongdoing.
September 10th, 1992: Nirvana releases the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
For those of you keeping score at home, that is 30 years ago.