Archives
August 20
Events
1741 - Alaska was discovered by Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering. That’s how the Bering Sea got its name.1866 - The National Labor Union advocated an eight-hour workday. Industry, however, did not heed the request. Workers commonly worked 10 or 12 hour days -- or more.
1885 - "The Mikado", by Gilbert and Sullivan, opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City.
1920 - Allen Woodring won the 200-meter run at the Olympic Games held at Antwerp, Belgium. And he wasn’t even wearing his own shoes. The winning feet were in a borrowed pair.
1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah", was launched at Lakehurst, NJ.
1939 - Tarzan got married. No, not to Jane. Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan in films, married Beryl Scott.
1939 - Orrin Tucker’s orchestra recorded "Oh, Johnny, Oh, Johnny, Oh!", on Columbia Records.
1939 - The National Bowling Association was founded in Detroit, MI. It was the first bowling association in the U.S. for African-Americans.
1945 - Tommy Brown became the youngest player to hit a home run in a major-league ball game. Brown, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, was 17 years, 8 months and 14 days old.
1949 - Cleveland’s Indians and Chicago’s White Sox played at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland before the largest crowd to see a nighttime major-league baseball game: 78,382.
1955 - Col. Horace A. Hanes, a U.S. Air Force pilot, flew to an altitude of 40,000 feet. Hanes reached a speed of 822.135 miles per hour in a Super Sabrejet.
1960 - The Philadelphia Phillies snapped their modern major-league record of 23 consecutive losses by beating the Milwaukee Braves (score: 7-3).
1969 - Andy Williams received a gold record for the album "Happy Heart" on Columbia Records.
1977 - The song "Best of My Love", by the Emotions, topped the pop charts. It had a number-one run of four weeks.
1980 - Bob Watson of the New York Yankees hit a baseball that bounced off the loudspeakers in Seattle’s Kingdome. He led the Yankees to a 5-4 victory over the Mariners. It was the second game in a row in which Watson hit a speaker-shot. He hit a double the first night and a triple this night, as the ball caromed off the loudspeakers.
1985 - The machine that revolutionized the world’s offices, the original Xerox 914 copier, took its place among the honored machines of other eras at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. The document copier had been formally introduced to the world in March of 1960. In just twenty-five years, the machine, invented by Chester Carlson, a patent lawyer, had become obsolete enough to make it into the museum. We’re sure some offices, somewhere, are still using the 914, thermal paper, liquid toner and all.
1986 - U.S. Census Bureau officials reported that the U.S. population stood at 240,468,000 and the median age reached an all-time high of 31-1/2 years.
1998 - The Supreme Court of Canada released its opinion on the Quebec Secession Reference. The Court “found there to be no basis, either under Canadian domestic law or under international law, on which the governmental institutions of Quebec could claim any legal right to secede from Canada unilaterally.”
2000 - Tiger Woods won the 82nd PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. Woods birdied the last two holes in regulation and won the championship in a playoff over Bob May, becoming the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open) in one year. He was the first player to win back-to-back PGA championships since Denny Shute in 1936 and 1937.
Birthdays - August 20
1778 - Bernardo O’Higgins (leader of Chile: ‘Liberator of Chile’; died Oct 24, 1842)1833 - Benjamin Harrison (23rd U.S. President [1889-1893]; married to C. Scott, M. Dimmick [one son, two daughter]; nickname: Kid Gloves Harrison; grandson of 9th U.S. President, William Henry Harrison; died Mar 13, 1901)
1881 - Edgar Guest (writer: syndicated columnist; poet; died Aug 5, 1959)
1890 - H.P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft (author: horror stories, science fiction: The Color Out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, The Thing on the Doorstep, Call of Cthulhu; died Mar 15, 1937)
1908 - Al Lopez (Alfonso Ramón López) (Baseball Hall of Famer: Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians; manager: Cleveland, Chicago White Sox; died Oct 30, 2005)
1918 - Jacqueline Susann (author: The Valley of the Dolls, The Love Machine; died Sep 21, 1974)
1923 - ‘Gentleman’ Jim (James Travis) Reeves (singer: Mexican Joe, Bimbo, Yonder Comes a Sucker, Am I Losing You, I’m Getting Better, Losing Your Love, Adios Amigo, I’m Gonna Change Everything, Welcome to My World, Billy Bayou, He’ll Have to Go, I Guess I’m Crazy, Four Walls; killed in plane crash near Nashville [July 31, 1964]; elected posthumously to the Country Hall of Fame in 1967)
1926 - Frank Rosolino (musician: trombone: with Stan Kenton, Harold Land, Bob Cooper, Clarke-Boland Big Band; died Nov 26, 1978)
1927 - Joya Sherrill (singer: Long, Strong and Consecutive, I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart)
1931 - Frank Capp (musician: drums: big jazz band: Capp-Pierce Juggernaut)
1935 - Justin Tubb (singer: Looking Back to See, Sure Fire Kisses; songwriter: Lonesome 7-7203, Love is No Excuse, Keeping Up with the Joneses; Ernest Tubb’s son; died Jan 24, 1998)
1936 - Sam Melville (actor: The Rookies, Roughnecks, Twice Dead; died Mar 9, 1989)
1942 - Isaac Hayes (Grammy and Academy Award-winning singer, song-writer: Theme from Shaft [1970]; score: Shaft; w/David Porter: Soul Man, Hold on I’m Coming; actor: Tough Guys, Truck Turner; died Aug 10, 2008)
1942 - Anthony Earl Numkena (actor: Wagon Train: A Man Called Horse, Brave Eagle, Alaska Seas, Westward Ho the Wagons, Escape to Burma, Strange Lady in Town, Destination Gobi, Pony Soldier; registered radiologic technologist and diagnostic medical sonographer)
1944 - Shri Rajiv Gandhi (India’s Prime Minister [1989-1991]; assassinated May 21, 1991)
1944 - Craig Nettles (baseball: Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, NY Yankees [World Series: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981/all-star: 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980], SD Padres [World Series: 1984/all-star: 1985], Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos)
1946 - Connie Chung (Yu-Hwa) (journalist: CBS Evening News, Saturday Night with Connie Chung, Eye to Eye, CNN: Connie Chung Tonight; married to Maury Povich)
1947 - Jim Pankow (trombonist, song writer; group: Chicago: Make Me Smile, Colour My World)
1948 - Robert Plant (singer: group: Honeydrippers: Big Log, Sea of Love, Rockin’ at Midnight; Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven, Whole Lotta Love, Immigrant Song, D’yer Mak’er, Fool in the Rain; solo: Little Sister)
1948 - Tom Banks (football: Auburn Univ., SL Cardinals)
1949 - Philip Parris Lynott (musician: bass, singer: [w/Gary Moore]: Parisienne Walkways, Out in the Fields; group: Thin Lizzy: Whiskey in the Jar, The Rocker, Little Girl in Bloom, Still in Love with You, Killer on the Loose; solo: Sarah, Yellow Pearl, Nineteen; died Jan 4, 1986)
1952 - Doug Fieger (musician: guitar, singer: group: The Knack: My Sharona, Good Girls Don’t, Baby Talks Dirty)
1952 - Rudy Gatlin (singer: group: The Gatlin Brothers: Night Time Magic, I’ve Done Enough Dyin’ Today, All the Gold in California)
1953 - Peter Horton (actor: Thirtysomething, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers)
1954 - Al Roker (TV weatherman: Today; TV game-show host: Celebrity Family Feud)
1956 - Joan Allen (actress: Nixon, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Peggy Sue Got Married, Manhunter, All My Sons)
1962 - Geoffrey Blake (actor: The Last Starfighter, Young Guns, Critters 3, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Mighty Joe Young, Cast Away)
Chart Toppers - August 20
1947
Peg o’ My Heart - The Harmonicats
I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder - Eddy Howard
Across the Alley from the Alamo - The Mills Brothers
Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) - Tex Williams
1955
Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley & His Comets
Hard to Get - Gisele MacKenzie
The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
I Don’t Care - Webb Pierce
1963
Fingertips - Pt 2 - Little Stevie Wonder
Blowin’ in the Wind - Peter, Paul & Mary
Judy’s Turn to Cry - Lesley Gore
Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
1971
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - The Bee Gees
Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight
Take Me Home, Country Roads - John Denver
I’m Just Me - Charley Pride
1979
Good Times - Chic
My Sharona - The Knack
The Main Event/Fight - Barbra Streisand
Coca Cola Cowboy - Mel Tillis
1987
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - U2
Who’s That Girl - Madonna
Luka - Suzanne Vega
A Long Line of Love - Michael Martin Murphey
