Calendar of Ideas

On 29 July 1958, President Eisenhower signed a bill creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Read more at http://history.nasa.gov/.

Image credit:  NASA

July 29, 1938. Television news anchor, born at Toronto, ON,Canada, who had immense success as a journalist despite never graduating from high school or college. Jennings was highly respected for his calm delivery and known for his travels around the world, reporting the news wherever it happened. He received 16 Emmy Awards as well as two George Foster Peabody Awards and served as chief anchor of ABC-TVs World News Tonight from 1983 until April 2005, when he announced during his broadcast that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on Aug 7, 2005, at New York,NY.

July 29, 1945. After delivering the atomic bomb to Tinian Island, the American cruiser Indianapolis was headed for Okinawa to train for the invasion of Japan when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Of 1,196 crew members, more than 350 were immediately killed in the explosion or went down with the ship. There were no rescue ships nearby, and those fortunate enough to survive endured the next 84 hours in ocean waters. By thetime they were spotted by air on Aug 2, only 318 sailors remained alive,the others having either drowned or been eaten by sharks. This is the US Navys worst loss at sea.

July 30, 1863. Industrialist Henry Ford, whose assembly-line method of automobile production revolutionized the industry, was born at Wayne County, MI, on the family farm. His Model T made up half of the worlds output of cars during its years of production. Ford built racing cars until in 1903 he and his partners formed the Ford Motor Company. In 1908 the company presented the Model T, which was produced until 1927, and in 1913 Ford introduced the assembly line and mass production. This innovation reduced the time it took to build each car from 12 hours to only 1 . This enabled Ford to sell cars for $ 500, making automobile ownership a possibility for an unprecedented percentage of the population. He is also remembered for introducing a $ 5-a-day wage for automotive workers and for his statement History is bunk. Died Apr 7, 1947, at age 83 at Dearborn, MI, where his manufacturing complex was located.

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons

July 30, 1975. Former Teamsters Union leader, 62-year-old James Riddle Hoffa was last seen on this date outside a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, near Detroit, MI. His 13-year federal prison sentence had been commuted by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971. On Dec 8, 1982, seven years and 131 days after his disappearance, an Oakland County judge declared Hoffa officially dead as of July 30, 1982.

July 30, 1935. Although books bound in soft covers were first introduced in 1841 at Leipzig, Germany, by Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz,the modern paperback revolution dates to the publication of the first Penguin paperback by Sir Allen Lane at London, England, in 1935. Penguin Number 1 was Ariel, a life of Shelley by Andre Maurois.

On 31 July 1792, the cornerstone of the Philadelphia Mint was laid in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

On 31 July 1790, the first US patent office opened its doors. The first patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a new method of making potash. More information at http://www.uspto.gov/.

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Colorado was admitted as the 38th state of the union on 1 August 1876.

On the first day of each month, the genealogy community is urged to back up their genealogy data and all computer data.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com, CC0.

Aug 1, 1791. Virginia planter Robert Carter III confounded hisfamily and friends by filing a deed of emancipation for his 500 slaves. One of the wealthiest men in the state, Carter owned 60,000 acres over 18 plantations. The deed included the following words: I have for some time past been convinced that to retain them in Slavery is contrary to the true principles of Religion and Justice and therefore it is my duty to manumit them. The document established a schedule by which 15 slaves would be freed each Jan 1, over a 21-year period, plus slave children would be freed at age 18 for females and 21 for males. It is believed this was the largest actof emancipation in US history and predated the Emancipation Proclamation by 70 years.

Aug 1, 1790. The first census revealed that there were 3,939,326 citizens in the 16 states and the Ohio Territory. The US has taken a census every 10 years since 1790.

Aug 1, 1779. American attorney, social worker, poet and author of the US national anthem. While on a legal mission, Key was detained on a ship off Baltimore, MD, during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry on the night of Sept 13 14, 1814. Thrilled to see the American flag still flying over the fort at daybreak, Key wrote the poem The Star-SpangledBanner. Printed in the Baltimore American Sept 21, 1814, it was soon popularly sung to the music of an old English tune, Anacreon in Heaven. Itdid not become the official US national anthem until 117 years later when, on Mar 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed into law an act for that purpose. Key was born at Frederick County, MD, and died at Baltimore, Jan 11, 1843.

The all music video channel MTV debuted on 1 August 1981.

Aug 1, 1990. The creation of what would become the World Wide Web was suggested this month in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliauat CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics at Switzerland. By October they had designed a prototype Web browser. They also introduced HTML (hypertext markup language) and the URL (universal resource locator). Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser, was designed by Marc Andreessen andreleased in 1993. By early 1993 there were 50 Web servers worldwide.

Aug 2, 1924. Black American author noted for descriptions of black life in the US. Born at New York, NY. His best-known work, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953. Died at St. Paul-de-Vence, France, Nov 30, 1987.

Aug 2, 1776. Contrary to widespread misconceptions, the 56 signers did not sign as a group and did not do so July 4, 1776. John Hancockand Charles Thomson signed only draft copies that day, the official day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress. The signing of the official declaration occurred Aug 2, 1776, when 50 men probably took part. Later that year, five more apparently signed separately, and one added his name in a subsequent year.

Did you know that watermelon is 92% water? Show off your love of watermelon on National Watermelon Day.

Aug 4, 1892. In a grisly scene, Andrew Jackson Borden, a wealthy area merchant, was found hacked to death in the parlor of his Fall River, MA, home. The body of his second wife, Abby Durfee Borden, lay upstairs. Lizzie Andrew Borden, home at the time, had discovered her fathers lifeless form. She was arrested and tried for the murders, but the lack of solid evidence against her led to Bordens eventual acquittal. Debate over her guilt, innocence and motive has raged ever since.

Aug 4, 1964. After disappearing on June 21, three civil rights workers were found murdered and buried in an earthen dam outside Philadelphia, MS. The three young men were workers on the Mississippi Summer Project organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to increase black voter registration. Prior to their disappearance, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were detained by Neshoba County police on charges of speeding. When their car was found, burned, on June 23, President Lyndon Johnson ordered an FBI search for the men.

Celebrates anniversary of founding of the Revenue Cutter Service in 1790, which merged with the Life Saving Service in 1915 to become theUS Coast Guard.