On This Day August 1

As an organised sport, rowing can be traced to August 1, 1715, when the first rowing of the Doggett's Coat and Badge race took place on the River Thames. The Doggett's Coat and Badge course runs four miles and five furlongs (7443 m) from London Bridge to Chelsea, and is established as an annual event continuing into the 21st century.

The finish of Doggett's Coat and Badge by Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827)

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On This Day July 31

The association of rum with the Royal Navy began in 1655, when the British fleet captured the island of Jamaica. With the easy availability of domestically produced rum, the British substituted the daily ration of liquor from French brandy to a half-a-pint of rum. The rum ration was issued daily to Royal Navy sailors at noon and 5pm or 6pm with a call of "Up spirits!"  July 31, 1970: Black Tot Day marked the last day of the UK Royal Navy's officially sanctioned rum ration.

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On This Day July 30

In 1660 Louis XIV of France married Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain as part of the Peace of Pyrenees which brought the Franco Spanish War to the end. Famed for her virtue and piety, Maria Theresa is frequently viewed as an object of pity in historical accounts of her husband's reign, since she had no choice but to tolerate his many illicit love affairs. When she died painfully on July 30, 1683, at Versailles, Louis XIV said: "This is the first trouble which she has given me."

June 1660; Maria Theresa is handed over to the French and Louis XIV.

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On This Day June 30

On June 30, 1859 French tightrope walker Charles Blondin successfully crossed Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, 160 ft (49 m) above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge.
He repeated the feat a number of times thereafter, always with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelette and standing on a chair with only one chair leg on the rope.

Charles Blondin crossing the Niagara River in 1859

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On This Day November 18

After Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler developed in 1885 a high-speed internal combustion engine, he fitted the engine to a bicycle to create the first internal combustion motorcycle. Daimler's 17-year-old son, Paul, was the first to ride the motorcycle taking it 5–12 kilometers (3.1–7.5 mi), from Cannstatt to Untertürkheim in Stuttgart, Germany on November 18, 1885. The seat caught fire during that journey, due to the engine's hot tube ignition being located directly underneath.

Replica of the Daimler-Maybach Reitwagen. Wikipedia Commons

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On This Day November 16

The Sound of Music musical opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on November 16, 1959. Both of the major New York critics hated it, finding it way too saccharine, but producers already had $2 million in advance ticket sales, so their lack of enthusiasm didn't really matter. The play won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

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On This Day November 12

Jules Léotard (1838–1870) abandoned his law studies to become a trapeze artist. Léotard won almost immediate success during a performance in Cirque Napoleon in Paris on November 12, 1859 when for the first time he swung from one trapeze to the other. The acrobatic act was called “La Course aux Trapèze” and it lasted for 12 minutes.

Jules Léotard

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