On this day in history, August 7, 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki raft make it to Polynesia
The raft beached itself on a reef on an uninhabited island in French Polynesia.

The Kon-Tiki raft, seen above, proved to be an excellent seaworthy vessel, said Heyerdahl in his log.

 

7 Aug 1942

In the first major Allied offensive in the Pacific Theater, United States Marines landed on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. This offensive had two goals, ensuring open sea lanes between the US and Australia and creating the first of the strategic “stepping stone” points by which the Allies would work their way across the Pacific to Japan.

 

August 8, 1963 was the date of 'The Great Train Robbery' wherein Ronnie Biggs and 14 other men stopped the Glasgow–London Royal Mail Train near Bridego Bridge, north of London, and stole 2.6 million pounds. Following a massive manhunt, Biggs was among the 12 robbers caught.

Biggs is one of the most interesting criminals to come out of the UK. He was sentenced to 30 years, escaped prison a year later, fled to Australia with his wife for about 5 years, but when the authorities were closing in, he escaped to Brazil in 1969. 5 years later a Scotland yard detective arrested him, but could not be extradited because he had fathered a Brazilian child.

In 1978, he recorded 'No One is Innocent' with The Sex Pistols, then a few years later, former British soldiers kidnapped him and took him to Barbados, which had no extradition treaty with Britain, so he was allowed to go back to Brazil.

In 2001, after declining health, he voluntarily returned to the UK to serve out his sentence, but because of his health issues, he was released in 2009. He passed away in December, 2013.

To many, he is regarded as a hero and celebrity.

 

1974: President Richard Nixon resigns. Left reeling from the Watergate scandal, and facing the looming prospect of impeachment, President Richard Nixon broadcasts his decision to resign. A first in US presidential history, the resignation will become official the next day.

 

Nuremberg Trials
1945 US, USSR, Britain and France sign Treaty of London which sets down procedures for the Nuremberg war trials of Nazi leaders.

Hermann Goering on trial at the Nuremberg Trials. He would later be sentenced to death, but committed suicide the night before his sentence was to be carried out.

 

On This Day In History
August 08, 1945
President Truman signs United Nations Charter

President Harry S. Truman signs the United Nations Charter and the United States becomes the first nation to complete the ratification process and join the new international organization. Although hopes were high at the time that the United Nations would serve as an arbiter of international disputes, the organization also served as the scene for some memorable Cold War clashes.

President Truman took a step that many Americans hoped would mean continued peace in the post-World War II world. The president signed the United Nations Charter, thus completing American ratification of the document. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes also signed. In so doing, the United States became the first nation to complete the ratification process. The charter would come into full force when China, Russia, Great Britain, France, and a majority of the other nations that had constructed the document also completed ratification.



The signing was accomplished with little pomp and ceremony. Indeed, President Truman did not even use one of the ceremonial pens to sign, instead opting for a cheap 10-cent desk pen. Nonetheless, the event was marked by hope and optimism. Having gone through the horrors of two world wars in three decades, most Americans–and people around the world–were hopeful that the new international organization would serve as a forum for settling international disagreements and a means for maintaining global peace.

Over the next decades, the United Nations did serve as the scene for some of the more notable events in the Cold War: the decision by the Security Council to send troops to Korea in 1950; Khrushchev pounding the table with his shoe during a U.N. debate; and continuous and divisive discussion over admission of communist China to membership in the UN. As for its role as a peacekeeping institution, the record of the U.N. was not one of great success during the Cold War. The Soviet veto in the Security Council stymied some efforts, while the U.S. desire to steer an independent course in terms of military involvement after the unpopular Korean War meant less and less recourse to the U.N. to solve world conflicts. In the years since the end of the Cold War, however, the United States and Russia have sometimes cooperated to send United Nations forces on peacekeeping missions, such as the effort in Bosnia.

 

: On this day in 1969, the Abbey Road cover was photographed.

 

8 Aug 1942
At Guadalcanal, the U.S. Marines captured an airfield, unfinished by the Japanese, which would be named Henderson Field. This was notable as the U.S. was short on aircraft carriers, making it strategic to the Pacific war as the Allies advanced, and it prevented usage by the Japanese. The Japanese would try hard to get it back, making that region some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.

8 Aug 1945
The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and quickly invaded.
In a radio address, President Truman threatened Japan with further nuclear strikes if they do not surrender.

 

On this day in history three years ago was the last night I spent not being in a wheelchair. At 1:38 tomorrow afternoon I will be in a motorcycle accident and be in a chair for rest of my life.

 

1173: In Pisa, Italy, construction began on a bell tower that became internationally famous as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

 

On This Day In History
August 09, 1974
Gerald Ford becomes president after Richard Nixon resigns

In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous evening, Richard M. Nixon officially ends his term as the 37th president of the United States at noon on August 9, 1974. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Richard Nixon was the first U.S. president to resign from office.

Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

Ford, the first president who came to the office through appointment rather than election, had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president only eight months before. In a political scandal independent of the Nixon administration’s wrongdoings in the Watergate affair, Agnew had been forced to resign in disgrace after he was charged with income tax evasion and political corruption. In September 1974, Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.

 

1995-American musician Jerry Garcia, who personified the hippiecounterculture for three decades as the mellow leader of the rock band the Grateful Dead, died of a heart attack at age 53.

 

On this day in history, August 9, 1854, influential 'Walden' by Henry David Thoreau is published
American transcendentalist author’s work explores his views on nature, philosophy and politics.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American author and naturalist who began his career as a schoolmaster and later authored his most famous and enduring work, "Walden, or a Life in the Woods," in 1854. He wrote it in an isolated cabin on the shore of Walden Pond where he spent two years reading and communing with nature.

 

On August 9, 1986, Queen played what would be their last ever live performance (with Freddie Mercury) at Knebworth Park in Stevenage, England. It was the last show of their 'Magic European' tour, with over 120,000 fans in attendance. No one (including Mercury and the band) knew that it would be his final show. The supporting acts were Big Country and Status Quo.

Freddie Mercury lived for 5 more years, passing away on November 24, 1991.









The entire Knebworth show:


No live Queen tunes on this - it's shot documentary style of their arrival:


RIP Freddie...

 

9 Aug 1945

USAAF B-29 bomber 'Bockscar' dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, Japan after the primary target Kokura was changed due to weather and a fuel issue onboard the aircraft. Frederick C. Bock piloted the mission accompanied by B-29 aircraft 'Great Artiste' and 'Big Stink'. The 'Great Artiste 'carried scientific measuring equipment and 'Big Stink' carried photography equipment.

 

A number of important things happened on August 10, but in my wheelhouse it is the day that a classic of American cinema premiered.

On August 10, 1950, legendary director Billy Wilder's 'Sunset Boulevard' opened. Starring William Holden and silent film star Gloria Swanson (in a very appropriate casting), it is regarded in more than a few circles as one of Hollywood's greatest films, and a classic example of film noir. Personally, even though it certainly embraces the tenets of noir - dark and edgy cinematography, a sense of impending doom and a man who comes to tragedy due to a woman, I feel that it is so much more than a standard noir. Wilder's 'Double Indemnity' is, in my opinion, the greatest noir.

The 'spoiler' is right there from the first frame, and we retrace how this came to be with great voice-over narration by Holden. It's a rare film that is more steeped in foreboding atmosphere than this, Wilder, who could swing from noir to light comedy like 'Some Like it Hot,' was a true genius of cinema.







Looks like somebody's ready for her close-up...

 

On This Day In History
August 10, 1776
London learns of American independence

On August 10, 1776, news reaches London that the Americans had drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Until the Declaration of Independence formally transformed the 13 British colonies into states, both Americans and the British saw the conflict centered in Massachusetts as a local uprising within the British empire. To King George III, it was a colonial rebellion, and to the Americans, it was a struggle for their rights as British citizens. However, when Parliament continued to oppose any reform and remained unwilling to negotiate with the American rebels and instead hired Hessians, German mercenaries, to help the British army crush the rebellion, the Continental Congress began to pass measures abolishing British authority in the colonies.

In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, an influential political pamphlet that convincingly argued for American independence from the British monarchy. It sold more than 500,000 copies in just a few months. By the spring of 1776, support for independence had swept through the colonies, the Continental Congress called for states to form their own governments and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a document declaring independence from the British king.

The Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In justifying American independence, Jefferson drew generously from the political philosophy of John Locke, an advocate of natural rights, and from the work of other British theorists. The declaration features the immortal lines “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It then goes on to present a long list of grievances that provided the American rationale for rebellion.

 

10th August

1955 - South Vietnam Premier Ngo Dinh Diem announced that he would not enter into negotiations with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) on elections as long as the Communist government controlled Hanoi.

1964 - U.S. President Johnson signed Public Law 88-408 (the Tonkin Gulf Resolution). This resolution authorized the president "to take all necessary measures" to defend Southeast Asia. The U.S. Senate repealed it on June 24, 1970.

1972 - North Vietnamese forces blocked Routes 1, 4, and 13 into Saigon.

 

On this day in history

• 1934 Babe Ruth announces this is his final season as full time player

 

1793: Louvre opens. France's revolutionary government opens to the public what used to be a grand royal residence, displaying a previously private collection of 537 paintings and 184 objects. Paris' Louvre Museum will grow to hold almost 35,000 works and become the world's most visited art museum.