This Day in History – August 26, 2011

55 -BC- Roman forces, under Julius Cesar, invade Britain 1498 Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà. 1748 The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1858 First news dispatch by telegraph. 1883 Krakatoa erupts with increasingly large explosions kills 36,000 1903 Phillies walk 17 Dodgers in a game 1907 Houdini escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 sec 1920 19th amendment passes-women’s suffrage granted 1937 Pumping to build Treasure Island in SF Bay is finished 1939 The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York. 1942 Holocaust in Chortkiav, western Ukraine: At 2.30 am the German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of their houses, divides them into groups of 120, packs them in freight cars and deports 2000 to Belzec death camp. 500 of the sick and children are murdered on the spot. 1955 1st color telecast (NBC) of a tennis match (Davis Cup) 1957 USSR announces successful test of intercontinental ballistic missile 1964 LBJ nominated at Democratic convention in Atlantic City, NJ 1970 The then new feminist movement, led by Betty Friedan, leads a nation-wide Women’s Strike for Equality. 1971 The United States Congress declares August 26th as an annual Women’s Equality Day. 1971 NY Giant football team announces its leaving the Bronx for NJ in 1975 1971 Orioles’ Don Buford struck out 5 times in a game 1973 U of TX (Arlington) is 1st accredited school to offer belly dancing 1973 10-year-old Mary Boitano is 1st woman to win 6.8-mile Dipsea Race in Marin County, CA, beating a field of 1,500 runners 1978 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice becomes Pope John Paul I 1978 Soyuz 31 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 East German) to Salyut 6 1981 Space Shuttle vehicle moves to Launch Complex 39A for STS-2 mission 1982 NASA launches Telesat-F 1987 President Ronald Reagan proclaims September 11, 1987 as 9-1-1 Emergency Number Day. 2003 The Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.]]]]> ]]>