This Day in History – August 4, 2011

70 The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. 1181 Supernova seen in Cassiopia 1693 Dom Perignon invents champagne 1735 Jury acquits John Zenger (NY Weekly Journal) charged with seditious libel by royal governor of NY (victory for Freedom of press) 1753 George Washington becomes a master mason 1777 Retired British cavalry officer Philip Astley establishes 1st circus 1789 In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges. 1790 US Coast Guard founded as Revenue Cutter Service 1821 Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper. 1830 Plans for the city of Chicago laid out 1892 Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden arrested in Fall River, Mass 1914 World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare their neutrality. 1916 US agrees to buy Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million 1916 World War I: Liberia declares war on Germany. 1924 Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established. 1927 Peace Bridge between US & Canada opened 1944 Anne Frank, 15, (Diary of Anne Frank) is arrested by Nazis 1945 Golfer Byron Nelson records most tournament wins (18) in a season 1945 Red Sox Tom McBride is 3rd to get 6 RBIs in an inning (4th) 1948 5 day southern filibuster succeeds in maintaining poll tax 1956 1st motorcycle rode over 200 mph (Wilhelm Herz-210 mph/338 kph) 1958 The Billboard Hot 100 is founded. 1960 Rocket propelled USAF research aircraft sets record at 2,150 MPH 1964 Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James Chaney found buried inside an earthen dam in Mississippi 1969 Willie Stargell is 1st to hit a HR outside of Dodger Stadium 1969 Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail. 1970 Jim Morrison arrested for drunkenness 1971 US launches 1st satellite into lunar orbit from manned spacecraft 1974 Crawford-Butler Act allows Puerto Ricans to elect own governor 1977 President Carter establishes Department of Energy 1981 Columbia mated with SRBs & external tank for STS-2 mission 1981 Oliver North is assigned to White House duty 1984 Carl Lewis wins gold medal in 100-meter dash at LA Summer Olympics 1987 FCC vote 4-0 to rescind fairness doctrine for broadcasters 1988 Congress votes $20,000 to each Japanese-American interned in WW II 1988 Hertz car rental will pay out $23 million in consumer fraud case 1990 European community proposes a boycott of Iraq 1993 A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King’s civil rights. 1996 26th Olympic Summer games close in Atlanta, Georgia 2007 NASA’s Phoenix spaceship is launched. 2007 Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovers a suitcase containing the undeclared sum of US$800,000 as it goes through an x-ray machine in Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina known as “Maletinazo”. 2010 California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state’s voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.]]]]> ]]>