A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 8th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 8, 1918, the Allied offensive known as the “Hundred Days Offensive” began with the start of the Battle of Amiens. On August 8, 1946, the Convair B-36 Peacemaker nuclear bomber made its first flight. On August 8, 1998, Pamela Johnson of Irving, Texas, founded the Secret Society of Happy People, an organization committed to the expression of happiness and for…
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A Brief History On August 8, 2004, Chicago’s Little Lady, a tour boat carrying 120 passengers, was bombed by a tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band. About 2/3 of the passengers were soaked with human waste dumped from the bus as it crossed the Kinzie Street bridge over the Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois. Digging Deeper Only the driver was aboard the bus and he decided to dump the waste from the toilets into the Chicago River as he crossed the bridge, the bridge made of open metal grates, and the driver claims he had no idea the…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 7th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 7, 1679, a small ship named Le Griffon (The Griffon) that had been built under the direction of famous explorer of the New World René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was towed to a point on the Niagara River from which it became the first European sailing vessel worthy of the designation “ship” to ever sail the Great Lakes. On…
A Brief History On August 7, 1978, President Jimmy Carter recognized the toxic waste that had been disposed of negligently into a residential area canal as a federal emergency. Digging Deeper The Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York had been planned in 1890, but only reached a portion of its planned size. The eponymous canal in the neighborhood was used for industrial dumping of various chemical by-products by the Hooker Chemical Company as well as municipal waste products. By the 1950s, people took notice of the health problems experienced by people in the neighborhood, finally drawing the attention…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on August 6th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On August 6, 1917, future actor, composer, and singer Robert Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. On August 6, 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. On August 6, 1945, near end of World War II, a modified Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber dropped a uranium gun-type (“Little Boy”) bomb on Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945,…