Browsing: August 2

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 2nd.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 2, 216 BC, the Carthaginian army of Hannibal defeated the larger Roman Army at Cannae, a major battle during the Second Punic War. On August 2, 1343, Olivier Clisson, a French nobleman from Brittany, was convicted of treason in Paris and beheaded. On August 2, 1798, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the French fleet supporting then General Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion…

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A Brief History On August 2, 1870, the Tower Subway opened for passenger traffic in London, England, the first ever underground tube type railway commonly called a “subway” in the US and “the tube” in the UK. Digging Deeper Not to be confused with a fast food store, a subway is a rail train for carrying passengers in underground tunnels.   Using coal or wood powered steam engines, or even gasoline or diesel engines to power the train would be problematic underground.  The Tower Subway was propelled by a cable system with no onboard propulsive power. Most subways today are electric…

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A Brief History On August 2, 2022, US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is on a trip to Asian countries, one of which may be Taiwan, an island that officially considers itself to be the true and legitimate government of China. Digging Deeper Mainland China, the world’s most populous country, considers Taiwan to be part of China and a place with no right to independence let alone claiming sovereignty over all of China. The US back in 1979 made the choice to recognize the Communist regime of China as the sole legal government of that country, while ending diplomatic…

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A Brief History On August 2, 1990, led by dictator Saddam Hussein, the military forces of Iraq invaded and annexed their smaller neighbor, the oil rich constitutional monarchy of Kuwait.  Iraq was coming off a disastrous war (1980-1988) with Iran and Hussein was looking for an easy win. Digging Deeper This naked aggression by Iraq was poorly calculated, as the rest of the world, including much of the Arab world, disapproved of the action, and many nations joined forces to create a huge and powerful military force to counter that invasion, evicting the Iraqis from Kuwait in 1991 in a…

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A Brief History On August 2, 1943, the US Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands.  Kennedy would go on to become President of the United States, partially based on his status as a war hero for his exploits concerning his command of PT-109 for which he achieved national hero status.  Was that status deserved?  (See our many articles about Naval “Oops” moments) Digging Deeper John F. Kennedy was born into a relatively wealthy Irish Catholic family in Massachusetts, his forbears having dabbled in…

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