On This Day September 1

King Louis XIV of France, the world's longest reigning monarch, died of gangrene at Versailles on September 1, 1715, four days before his 77th birthday. During his long reign of 72 years Louis had carried out a series of wars, his goal being the dictatorship of Europe. On his deathbed he felt he was suffering from God's punishment for his earlier military policies. However despite his fathering of at least 12 illegitimate children and his autocratic ways Louis retained his faith in God throughout his life. 

The Persian embassy to Louis XIV sent by Sultan Husayn in 1715.

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On This Day August 31

The first lawn mower was invented by farmer's son and textile mill laborer Edwin Budding on August 31, 1830 in Thrupp, just outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire, England. Inspired by rotary machines used to trim velvet, he joined forces with the businessman John Ferrabee to build a self-powered cylinder. Budding's first mower was 19 inches wide, had a box that collected the clippings as they were thrown forward by the blades and allowed the user to adjust the height of the cut.

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On This Day August 30

Vladimir Lenin experienced several assassination attempts, including one on August 30, 1918 when he was shot and wounded by Dora Kaplan, a young girl from the intellectual class. The shooting took place as he was leaving a Moscow factory. The first shot penetrated Lenin's chest causing haemorrhaging in his chest; the second entered his back causing internal haemorrhaging in the stomach. His injuries caused his health to decline  and he died aged 53 in January 1924.

Vladimir Pchelin's depiction of the assassination attempt

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On This Day August 29

Michael Faraday discovered the fundamentals of electromagnetic induction on August 29, 1831, when after ten years of experiments, he found that moving an iron ring through five cells of copper wire caused an electric current to flow through the wire. Faraday produced the homopolar generator, the first electric producing generator four months later. His discoveries formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology. 

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On This Day August 28

At the climax of a Washington interracial march, Dr Martin Luther King gave his famous "I had a dream" speech to 250,000 followers on August 28, 1963. The notes for King's "dream speech" did not contain the passage that started with "I have a dream." However, when the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was standing behind him cried out: "Tell ’em about the dream, Martin!," King put his notes aside, and started "preaching" improvisationally, punctuating his points with "I have a dream."

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On This Day August 27

The Beatles and Elvis only crossed paths once on August 27, 1965 at Presley 's home in Bel Air, California. The NME reported that Elvis, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison jammed together, but without The Beatles' drummer. "Too bad we left the drums in Memphis," Elvis told Ringo.

When the Beatles met Elvis they were amazed by the device he had that could change channels on the TV from across the room. The King owned an early version of the remote control.

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On This Day August 26

The Battle of Crécy (see below) took place on August 26, 1346 near Crécy in northern France during the Hundred Years War when the English routed the French. The French were over-reliant on crossbows that could fire only one or two bolts a minute; the English longbows were five times as fast. Because of the way the English used longbows to defeat the unwieldy crossbows of the French knights some historians call this battle the beginning of the end of chivalry.

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On This Day August 25

In 1835, a typhoid epidemic hit the town of New Salem. One of the victims was Abraham Lincoln's first sweetheart, tall, auburn haired Ann Rutledge, who died at the age of 22 on August 25, 1835.  Her death plunged plunged Lincoln into a severe depression and for many years afterwards, he was on the edge of despair.

Ann Rutledge by George S Stuart

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On This Day August 24

At 1.00 pm on August 24, 79 Mount Vesuvius erupted, ejecting a cloud of stones, ashes and volcanic gases to a height of 21 miles (33 km), spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 7.8×105 cubic yards (6×105 cu meters) per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings. The Roman towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae were buried in rock and ash. Over 2,000 people were killed.

The Last Day of Pompeii. Painting by Karl Brullov, 1830–1833

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On This Day August 23

Silent film star Rudolph Valentino did not live long enough to see movies with sound replace silent movies. He died suddenly of peritonitis on August 23, 1926, at the age of 31. The subsequent extensive media coverage turned his funeral into a national event when an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Manhattan to pay their respects.

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On This Day August 22

The first reliably-working steamboat was a paddle steamer built by John Fitch. A successful trial run of his steamboat. Perseverance, was made on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787. The following year, Fitch began operating a regular commercial service along the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, carrying as many as 30 passengers. The Perseverance was not a commercial success, as this travel route was adequately covered by relatively good wagon roads.

Plan of Mr. Fitch's Steam Boat", Columbian Magazine (December 1786),

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On This Day August 21

In 1744, the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth selected the German Princess Sophie as the wife for her chosen successor, her uncouth, unstable and drunken nephew, Grand Duke Peter. Sophie changed her name to "Catherine" when she accepted the Russian Orthodox faith and they married on August 21, 1745. Peter humiliated and neglected his wife and wasted hours playing with his toy soldiers on the floor and under the bed clothes. He was assassinated in July 1762, six months after becoming Peter III. Catherine (most commonly known as Catherine the Great) became empress regnant of All Russia upon the overthrow of her husband, reigning until 1796. 

Catherine the Great and Peter III

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On This Day August 20

Charles Darwin originally conceived his scientific theory of evolution by means of natural selection after being puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the during his five-year voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle. He first published his theory on August 20, 1858 in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory. The next year Darwin expanded on his ideas in his book On the Origin of Species. 

Darwin's "B" notebook on Transmutation of Species

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On This Day August 19

The first five-mile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was held on August 19, 1909. 12,000 spectators watched a car win with the average speed of 57.4 mph. The track, made of crushed rock held together by tar, broke apart killing two drivers and a spectator in the course of a race that lasted just two laps. The speedway was rebuilt that same year with 3.2 million paving bricks to create a safer environment, reopening in December 1909.  

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On This Day August 18

French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen discovered helium on August 18, 1868, while analyzing the chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India. Because helium was found in the Sun before it was found on Earth, its name comes from the Greek word for Sun, helios. Helium is the only element that was discovered in space before found on Earth.

Helium discharge tune. By Alchemist-hp

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On This Day August 17

George Orwell wrote Animal Farm at a time when the UK was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union and the British people and intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem. An allegory of Marxist analysis of capitalism, Orwell had great difficulties in publishing the novel, as many were afraid that it would offend Britain's Russian war allies. Animal Farm was eventually published in England on August 17, 1945 and within two weeks it had sold out.

First edition cover

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On This Day August 16

Luxembourgish-American writer, editor, and magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback was born on August 16, 1884. He provided a forum for the modern genre of science fiction in 1926 by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing Stories. Although Greenback was the first in modern times to use the term "science fiction", he preferred to call it “scientifiction.” The annual awards at the World Science Fiction Convention are called the “Hugos” after Hugo Gernsback,

February 1928 cover of Amazing Stories

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On This Day August 15

Panama achieved full independence from Colombia in November 1903 with US support. At the same time the USA bought the rights to build the Panama Canal. The U.S. formally took control of the canal property the following year. The Panama Canal opened to traffic  a decade later on August 15, 1914. The United States spent almost $375,000,000 (roughly equivalent to $8,600,000,000 today) on building the Panama project. This was by far the largest American engineering project to date.

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