Been awhile since I've done one of these, but I came across a few things I thought might be interesting to share, and after doing a little quick research to augment them, I give you:
Today, in:
*1785 Oliver Hazard Perry US Naval hero at the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812 ("We have met the enemy") was born. He died from Yellow Fever at the age of 34. The link is to a very nice little bio.
*1866 Pres Andrew Johnson formally declares Civil War over. Let me refer you to an excellent report on the surrender at Appomattox from the Southern perspective.
*1873 Eliel Saarinen Finland, architect, was born. He designed a number of interesting buildings (including the Helsinki Railway Station, his most important, View image of the Station here and View image of the Station at night here) and was involved with what I think is one the most important architectural competitions of all times, The Chicago Tribune Tower competition, in which he took second place (I can't seem to find much about this on the net, to my surprise). He also designed beautiful furniture.
*1890 H.P. Lovecraft US, Gothic novelist was born and you can read a biography of him here, where, at the bottom, you can find a list of other online biographies.
*1942 Isaac Hayes composer (Shaft) was born. He has his own official web site (a little hokey, but fun).
*1940 Leon Trotsky icepicked by Frank Jackson in Mexico City. I found an article about the murder but I know that there is a lot more out there if you are interested.
*1944 Graig Nettles one of my favorite Yankees' 3rd baseman was born
*1968 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia and "crush . . . the Prague spring".
Posted by Random Penseur at August 20, 2004 09:07 AMThanks, RP, for another fun installment in this great series!
Posted by: GrammarQueen at August 20, 2004 11:06 AMGlad you all enjoyed it. I thought this expanded format was a bit more fun.
Posted by: RP at August 20, 2004 05:27 PM