August 1 - Book Club

Book Club

This Day In History

1291

The Old Swiss Confederacy is formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.

1800

The Act of Union 1800 is passed in which merges the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1801

The American schooner USS Enterprise captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya.

1907

Start of the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island, the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement.

1957

The United States and Canada form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

1981

MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles.

1984

Commercial peat-cutters discover the preserved bog body of a man, called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, northwest England

Famous Birthdays

126

Pertinax, Roman emperor (d. 193)

1714

Richard Wilson, Welsh painter (d. 1782)

1770

William Clark, American explorer (d. 1838)

1779

Francis Scott Key, American lawyer, St. John's College graduate, and lyricist (d. 1843)

1815

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., American lawyer, politician, and author (d. 1882)

1818

Maria Mitchell, American astronomer (d. 1889)

1819

Herman Melville, American writer (d. 1891)

1907

Eric Shipton, British mountaineer (d. 1977)

1933

Dom DeLuise, American actor and comedian (d. 2009)

1942

Jerry Garcia, American musician (The Grateful Dead) (d. 1995)

1963

John Carroll Lynch, American actor

1979

Jason Momoa, American actor