HAPPY INTERNATIONAL DOG DAY!!!

Part 1: Historic Events on International Dog Day

Part 2: Historic Events on International Cat Day

HISTORIC EVENTS ON AUGUST 26 – INTERNATIONAL DOG DAY

1682 – English astronomer Edmond Halley first observes the comet named after him

1691 – Charles Perrault’s poem “The Marquise of Salusses or the Patience of Griselidis” read aloud at the French Academy, later attached to his “Tales of Mother Goose” (1697)

1778 – First recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia by Balthasar Hacquet

1791 John Fitch granted US patent for his working steamboat

1843 American inventor Charles Thurber patents a typewriter

1846 Felix Mendelssohn’s oratorio “Elijah” premieres at the Birmingham Festival in England

1873 First free kindergarten in the U.S. started by Susan Blow in Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri

1895 Electric generator at Niagara Falls produces first power

1907 Harry Houdini escapes from chains underwater in 57 seconds, at Aquatic Park in San Francisco, California

1918 Winchell Smith & Frank Bacon’s comedic play “Lightnin'” premieres in NY

1933 Jan van Houten bicycles world record time (44,588 km)

1935 CCC camp opens in Brecksville Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks

1939 1st major league baseball telecast on W2XBS- Cincinnati Reds defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn

1940 Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France’s first black colonial governor

1947 Dodgers’ Dan Bankhead, MLB’s 1st African-American pitcher, homers in his 1st MLB at bat in 16-3 loss to Pittsburgh, at Ebbetts Field, Brooklyn, NYC

1951 Dutch professor Jacob Jongbloed demonstrates an artificial heart in Paris

1951 Film “An American In Paris” with music by George Gershwin, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron premieres in London (Academy Awards Best Picture, 1952)

1959 British Motor Corporation introduces the Morris Mini-Minor, designed by Alec Issigonis, it was only 10 ft long but seated 4 passengers

1961 Official International Hockey Hall of Fame opens in Toronto

1968 “Hey Jude” single released by the Beatles in US (Billboard Song of the Year 1968, Billboard 10th biggest song of all time 2013)

1971 Bobby Orr signs a five-year contract with the Boston Bruins worth one million dollars, the first million dollar contract in NHL history

1973 University of Texas (Arlington) is first accredited school to offer belly dancing

1973 10-year-old Mary Boitano is 1st woman to win 6.8-mile Dipsea Race in Marin County, CA, beating a field of 1,500 runners

1974 Soyuz 15 carries 2 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 3

1978 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice becomes Pope John Paul I

1978 Soyuz 31 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 East German) to Salyut 6

1981 Space Shuttle vehicle moves to Launch Complex 39A for STS-2 mission

1981 Voyager 2 takes photos of Saturn’s moon Titan

1982 NASA launches Telesat-F satellite

1985 Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray knocks in 9 RBIs in a game vs California Angels

1989 Trumbull, Conn, is 1st US team since 1983 to win Little League WS

1990 Bo Jackson hits 4th of 4 consecutive HRs

1992 “Anna Karenina” opens at Circle in Square Theater, NYC; runs for 46 performances

1996 “7th Heaven”, starring Jessica Biel, debuts on The WB

1999 Michael Johnson breaks the 400 metres world record with a time of 43.18 seconds.

2004 An American 1-2-3 in the 200m medals at the Athens Olympics; Shawn Crawford gold in 19.79 ahead of Bernard Williams & Justin Gatlin

2004 Germany wins its first ever Olympic women’s field hockey gold medal with a 2-1 win against the Netherlands in Athens

2005 US Postal Service christens a Los Angeles facility as “The Ray Charles Station”

2006 David Gilmour performs with his band and the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra before a crowd of 50,000 at Gdańsk Shipyard, Poland

2014 Burger King agrees to purchase Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons for $11.4 billion

2019 Meeting of the G7 agrees on $20 million aid package to fight fires in the Amazon in Biarritz

2019 Leo DiCaprio’s environmental organization Earth Alliance donates $5m to fighting fires in the Amazon

2020 Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (29) is the youngest to win the International Booker prize for their debut novel “The Discomfort of Evening”

HISTORIC EVENTS ON AUGUST 8 – INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY

1990 – Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.

1991 – The Warsaw radio mast, then the tallest construction ever built, collapses.

1993 – The 7.8 Mw Guam earthquake shakes the island with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing around $250 million in damage and injuring up to 71 people.

1998 – Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan is raided by Taliban leading to the deaths of ten Iranian diplomats and a journalist.

2001 – Albanian rebels ambush a convoy of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia near Tetovo, killing 10 soldiers.

2004 – A tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumps approximately 800 pounds of human waste onto a boat full of passengers.

2007 – An EF2 tornado touches down in Kings County and Richmond County, New York, the most powerful tornado in New York to date and the first in Brooklyn since 1889.

2008 – A EuroCity express train en route from Kraków, Poland to Prague, Czech Republic strikes a part of a motorway bridge that had fallen onto the railroad track near Studénka railway station in the Czech Republic and derails, killing eight people and injuring 64 others.

2010 – China Floods: A mudslide in Zhugqu County, Gansu, China, kills more than 1,400 people.

2013 – A suicide bombing at a funeral in the Pakistani city of Quetta kills at least 31 people.

2015 – Eight people are killed in a shooting in Harris County, Texas.

2016 – Terrorists attack a government hospital in Quetta, Pakistan with a suicide blast and shooting, killing between 70 and 94 people, and injuring around 130 others.