The Death (or murder) of Warren G. Harding

August 2, 1923 –President Warren G. Harding died suddenly at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on this date. His wife Florence forbids an autopsy, and the President’s body is embalmed shortly after death. It is speculated by many that the cause of death, initially reported as “a stroke of apoplexy,” was in fact poisonContinue reading “The Death (or murder) of Warren G. Harding”

Once again, your teachers lied to you –

August 2, 1776 –The signing of the Declaration of Independence didn’t occur on July 4. After the Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2, the final language of the document was approved on July 4, and it was printed and distributed on July 4–5. The actual signing was on this date. Matthew ThorntonContinue reading “Once again, your teachers lied to you –”

In the Heat of the Night premiered

August 2, 1967 –The crime drama In the Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, opened in New York on this date. Sidney Poitier insisted that the movie be filmed in the North because of an incident in which he and Harry Belafonte were almost killed by Ku Klux Klansmen during aContinue reading “In the Heat of the Night premiered”

Oxygen discovered (sort of)

In Wiltshire, England, on August 1, 1774 Joseph Priestley focused sunlight through a lens in order to heat a sample of mercuric oxide (red calx). The resulting gas supported the burning of a candle with a vigorous flame, was essentially insoluble in water, and accommodated a mouse under glass for some time. And that’s howContinue reading “Oxygen discovered (sort of)”

The Concerts For Bangladesh

August 1, 1971 – George Harrison presented his two Concerts For Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden in New York City, on this date. The concert was mainly intended to provide financial aid to refugees from the Bangladesh area, who were fleeing by the thousands. In total, the concert and other efforts stemming from it raisedContinue reading “The Concerts For Bangladesh”

The days just lay there and sizzle

The festival of Lammas marks the beginning of the harvest, when people go to church to give thanks for the first grain to be cut. This is the long way of saying that it’s August again. How did a single month become so important? Like almost everything else that’s difficult to understand, the history ofContinue reading “The days just lay there and sizzle”