Results 211 to 220 of 241
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08-06-2009, 11:48 AM #211
Houdini was crazy....91 minutes under water????
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08-06-2009, 12:11 PM #212
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08-06-2009, 01:15 PM #213
Yeah....that should have been amazing. Plus, with all the technology now and all the changes nobody even dare to try this.
Thanks for keeping us up to date
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08-06-2009, 03:56 PM #214
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08-07-2009, 10:28 AM #215
August 7, 1947 - Kon-Tiki Completes 4,300 Mile Voyage

On this day in 1947, Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti. Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents.
Other significant events...
August 7, 1782 - George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.
August 7, 1789 - The United States War Department is established.
August 7, 1964 - Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on United States forces.
August 7, 2007 - Barry Bonds became baseball's career home run leader when he hit No. 756* during a home game in San Francisco, passing Hank Aaron's mark.
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08-07-2009, 10:45 AM #216
Very interesting facts. Thanks
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08-07-2009, 11:00 AM #217

Thank you for the asterisk!
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08-07-2009, 11:02 AM #218
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08-08-2009, 10:15 AM #219
August 8, 1974 - President Richard Nixon Resigns The Office

In an evening televised address, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to become the first president in American history to resign. With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public and Congress to leave the White House. "By taking this action," he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office, "I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which is so desperately needed in America."
Other significant events...
August 8, 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to spend the remainder of his days in exile.
August 8, 1844 - Brigham Young was chosen to lead the Mormons following the killing of Joseph Smith.
August 8, 1876 - Thomas A. Edison received a patent for the mimeograph.
August 8, 1908 - Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It is the Wright Brothers' first public flight.
August 8, 1945 - The Soviet Union declared war against Japan during World War II.
August 8 , 1963 - Great Train Robbery: in England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.
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08-10-2009, 10:06 AM #220
August 10, 1846 - Smithsonian Institution Created

After a decade of debate about how best to spend a bequest left to America from an obscure English scientist, President James K. Polk signs the Smithsonian Institution Act into law. In 1829, James Smithson died in Italy, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to "the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Smithson's curious bequest to a country that he had never visited aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic.
Other significant events...
August 10, 610 - In Islam, the traditional date of the Laylat al-Qadr, when Muhammad began to receive the Qur'an.
August 10, 1519 - Ferdinand Magellan's five ships set sail from Seville to circumnavigate the globe.
August 10, 1776 - American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.
August 10, 1792 - French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.
August 10, 1921 - Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello.
August 10, 1949 - The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense.
August 10, 1977 - David Berkowitz, the suspect in the "Son of Sam" murders, was arrested.
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