TODAY IN HISTORY, 12 AUGUST, 2014 American films actress, Lauren Bacall dies at 89

Lauren Bacall

Hollywood actress, Lauren Bacall, who rose to stardom in her debut film, 1944’s “To Have and Have Not,” in which she appeared opposite Humphrey Bogart, with whom she would have a legendary romance, died on this day in 2004, at her New York City home at age 89. Bacall whose acting career spanned nearly 70 years, produced more than two scores movies, including “The Big Sleep,” (1946) “How to Marry a Millionaire” (1953) and “The Mirror Has Two Faces” (1996).

Born with name Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in the Bronx, New York, she began using the last name Bacal, part of her mother’s maiden name, after her parents divorced when she was young. (While breaking into acting, she added a second “l” to her last name, and Howard Hawks, who directed Bacall’s big-screen debut, dubbed her Lauren).

After graduating from American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan in 1940, she went on to work as an usher in Broadway theaters and also started modeling. Her cover photo for Harper’s Bazaar magazine eventually came to the attention of Hawks, who cast her in his wartime drama “To Have and Have Not.” During the making of the film—in which Bacall famously utters the line: “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow”—she and the then-married Bogart, who was more than twice her age and already the star of such films as “The Maltese Falcon” and “Casablanca,” began an affair.

Lauren Bacall, a Hollywood actress, was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2009.

Married in 1945, Bogart and Bacall became one of Hollywood’s iconic couples and made three more films together, “The Big Sleep,” “Dark Passage” (1947) and “Key Largo” (1948). Bacall also appeared in such movies as “Young Man with a Horn” (1950) with Kirk Douglas, “How to Marry a Millionaire” with Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable and “Designing Woman” (1957) with Gregory Peck. Her marriage to Bogart, which produced two children, ended when the actor died of cancer in 1957 at age 57. After a brief romance with Frank Sinatra, Bacall wed actor Jason Robards in 1961. The pair, who had a son together, divorced in 1969.

Among Bacall’s other screen credits are “Harper” (1966) with Paul Newman, “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974), “Misery” (1990) and “The Mirror Has Two Faces” with Barbra Streisand. For her role in the latter film, Bacall earned her lone Academy Award nomination, in the best supporting actress category. (In 2009, she received an honorary Oscar.) Bacall also appeared in a number of theatrical productions and won best actress Tony awards for 1970’s “Applause” and 1981’s “Woman of the Year.”

According to History.com Editors, despite her achievements, Bacall realized the public likely would always associate her with Bogart. As she said in a 1999 Newsday interview: “I’ll never get away from him. I accept that. He was the emotional love of my life, but I think I’ve accomplished quite a bit on my own.”

TODAY IN HISTORY: 12 AUGUST, 2013, Nigeria becomes first African country to sign Arms Trade Treaty

Dr. Olugbenga Ashiru (second left) at the signing ceremony in New York on 12 August, 2013.

On this day in August, 2013, Nigeria becomes the 82nd UN Member State to sign the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), and the 3rd to ratify the landmark agreement. The then Foreign Minister Dr. Olugbenga Ashiru signed and deposited Nigeria’s instrument of ratification at the UN in New York. The minister, Dr. Ashiru made Nigeria’s commitment to the values of the Arms Trade Treaty clear in a statement after the signature and ratification.

The minister emphasized that Nigeria remain resolute and unyielding in her efforts to uphold the principle of ATT and, in particular, to ensure that small arms and light weapons is appropriately transferred and access denied to terrorist groups, pirates, bandits and the like.

Oxfam’s Head of Arms Control and Control Arms coalition Co-Chair, Anna Macdonald disclosed that after depositing the instrument of ratification, Dr. Ashiru immediately met with Control Arms members, to further strengthen relationship between Nigeria and civil society on arms control issues. 

She said with over 80 countries’ signatures and several ratifications since the treaty opened for signature on 3 June, 2013, there is momentum to urgently ensure the ATT becomes international law and starts saving lives. Fifty ratifications are needed for the treaty to enter into force, and we call on all states to get to work on their national legislation as soon as possible.

Secretary General of IPPNW in Nigeria, Dr. Omolade remarked that Control Arms member, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) signaled that this was a proud day.

“By signing and ratifying the ATT, Nigeria has solidified her role as a continental peace keeper, intent on addressing the problem of arms from its root. Dr Olugbenga Ashiru’s camaraderie towards the NGO community is commendable, and exemplifies the kind of partnership that must be forged to conquer arms. We the members of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Nigeria have pitched into efforts towards an ATT in coalition with Control Arms; and congratulate all other NGOs that have worked tirelessly to give the ATT the visibility it deserves.”

TODAY IN HISTORY 11 AUGUST, 1952, Hussein succeeds his father, King Talal to Jordanian throne

On 11 August, 1952, Prince Hussein was proclaimed the king of Jordan after his father, King Talal, was declared unfit to rule by the Jordanian Parliament on grounds of mental illness. Hussein was formally crowned 14 November, 1953, on his 18th birthday. Hussein was the third constitutional king of Jordan and a member of the Hashemite dynasty, said to be in direct line of descent from the Prophet Muhammad.

During his nearly five decades of rule, he maintained good relations with the West and steadily developed Jordan’s economy. He fought against Israel in 1967’s Six-Day War and later against Palestinian guerrillas who tried to seize control of the Jordanian state. He opposed the Persian Gulf War of 1991 but supported the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He died in 1999 at age of 64 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Prince Abdallah. He was the 20th century’s longest-serving executive head of state.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 11 AUGUST, 2014, Military wives and children protest in Maiduguri over Boko Haram deployment

Military wives and children in the restive Nigerian city of Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, on Monday 11 August, 2014 took to the streets burning tyres to prevent their husbands’ deployment to fight Boko Haram.

About 300 women and 500 children for two days gathered at the gates of a military base in Borno state capital, claiming that their spouses were ill-equipped to take on the armed group.

One of the protesters, Thabita John said, “no weapons for husbands, no trip to Gwoza or any volatile place. We are tired of burying our loved ones,” 

She added that the soldiers were “ill-equipped to fight the dreaded Boko Haram”.

Another soldier’s wife, Rahina Ali, added: “Our husbands are always given inferior weapons while the Boko Haram have superior weapons.”

The military wives had staged a similar protest on Saturday, 9 August, 2014 to press home their demand for sophisticated weapons to their husbands before sending them to face dreaded Boko Haram sect.

Boko Haram has been waging a brutal insurgency since 2009 which has left thousands of people dead, despite a state of emergency imposed in three northeast states in May 2013 by Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Although a military offensive few weeks before 2015 presidential election regained lost ground from the Islamic sect, but Jonathan’s failure to get to grips with the scourge was seen as critical in his defeat, 

Speaking in Abuja a day after his victory over the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, in a largely peaceful election that was applauded by Barack Obama, David Cameron, Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders, the former military dictator, Muhammadu Buhari promised to crush Boko Haram sect.

But years later, the activities of Boko Haram and other terrorists groups had been escalated. For the first time in 2020, residents of Maiduguri publicly directed their anger at President Buhari, when he was booed over rising insecurity and killings by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno state.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 19 AUGUST, 2003, U.K. temperatures hit 100 F for first time during European heat wave

For the first time in history, the United Kingdom on August 10, 2003, recorded temperature of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Throughout the month, an intense heat wave scorched the European continent, claiming more than 35,000 lives.

August 2003 was the hottest August ever recorded in the northern hemisphere and broke all previous records for heat-related deaths. France was the worst hit, with almost 15,000 victims, followed by Germany, where approximately 7,000 people died. Thousands also died in Spain and Italy. A majority of the victims were elderly, very young, or chronically ill.

When a person experiences extreme heat, their bodies can struggle to cool themselves—which can prove especially dangerous in the very old, very young or already ill. If a person’s internal body temperature reaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit, the organs can began to fail and the person can eventually die. The Washington, D.C.-based Earth Policy Institute estimates that more people die every year from heat than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined.

In addition to directly causing deaths, the extreme heat also caused massive fires. In Portugal, 10 percent of the country’s forests were destroyed and 18 people were killed in the fires. The heat also caused glacial melt, flash floods and avalanches in Switzerland.

Being a dry month, the month of July 2022, went down in UK climate history as the first time the UK exceeded temperatures of 40°C on 19 July, during an intense heatwave where the UK saw its new record high temperature of 40.3°C at Coningsby, Lincolnshire. This shattered all previously held record in United Kingdom.

Scientists project that, because of global warming, the earth’s average temperature will continue to rise, reaching 42.44 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, a gain of 2.5 degrees. The only way to stop the rise in global temperatures and extreme weather catastrophes is to reduce levels of the carbon-dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 10 AUGUST, 2007, Gunmen kidnap American manager of Hydrodive oil firm in Port-Harcourt

On Friday 10 August, 2007, gunmen seized an American manager from oil services firm, on his way to work in the oil rich city of Port-Harcourt. The garden city of Port-Harcourt was particularly prone to kidnappings and street gunbattles at the time.

The then Commissioner of police in Rivers state, Felix Ogbaudu confirmed to newsmen that the man was on his way to work when some gunmen in a car overtook his vehicle and blocked it before snatching him.

Abductions for ransom was a trending phenomenon in the oil producing Niger-Delta region. It was recorded that between January and August 2007, no fewer than 100 foreigners have been taken hostage in the oil rich region.

Early 2006, violence escalated in the impoverished region when armed rebels seeking control over oil revenues and an end to neglect by corrupt politicians started blowing up pipelines and oilfields.

Their raids shut down at least a fifth of oil output from Nigeria, an OPEC member and the world’s eighth-biggest exporter of crude. The disruption has contributed to record high oil prices on world markets in 2007.

But the violence in the Niger-Delta degenerated over time into an uncontrollable wave of abductions for ransom, armed robberies, turf wars between gangs and fighting connected to a dangerous trade in stolen crude.

Over 200 foreigners were kidnapped  between 2006 and 2007, most of which were released unharmed in exchange for money, fueling the trend. This resulted in thousands of expatriate workers and their relatives fled the region.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 10 AUGUST, 1776, London discovers American independence plan

On this day in 1776, London got the news that the Americans had drafted the Declaration of Independence. To King George III, the then King of Great Britain, it was a colonial rebellion, and to the Americans in the other hands, it was a struggle for their rights as British citizens.

Until the Declaration of Independence formally transformed the 13 British colonies into states, both Americans and the British saw the conflict centered in Massachusetts as a local uprising within the British empire. However, when Parliament continued to oppose any reform and remained unwilling to negotiate with the American rebels and instead hired Hessians, German mercenaries, to help the British army crush the rebellion, the Continental Congress began to pass measures abolishing British authority in the colonies.

Earlier in January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, an influential political pamphlet that convincingly argued for American independence from the British monarchy. It sold more than 500,000 copies in just a few months. By the spring of 1776, support for independence had swept through the colonies, the Continental Congress called for states to form their own governments and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a document declaring independence from the British king.

The Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In justifying American independence, Jefferson drew generously from the political philosophy of John Locke, an advocate of natural rights, and from the work of other British theorists. The declaration features the immortal lines “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It then goes on to present a long list of grievances that provided the American rationale for rebellion.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 09 AUGUST, 1974, Gerald Ford becomes 38th president of America

President Gerald Ford

Following the resignation of Richard M. Nixon as the 37th president of United State of America, at noon on this day in 1974, his vice, Gerald Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of America. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House lawn, president Nixon smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in a victory or peace salute. The helicopter door was then closed, and the Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Richard Nixon was the first U.S. president to resign from office.

Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

Ford, the first president who came to the office through appointment rather than election, had replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president only eight months before. In a political scandal independent of the Nixon administration’s wrongdoings in the Watergate affair, Agnew had been forced to resign in disgrace after he was charged with income tax evasion and political corruption. In September 1974, Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.

TODAY IN HISTORY 09 AUGUST, 2014, A police officer murders Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri

Michael Brown

Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager was shot on this day by a police officer, Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, on 9 August, 2014. Protests and riots ensue in Ferguson and soon spread across the country.

There are different accounts of the incident, including the testimonies of Wilson and of Brown's friend, Dorian Johnson, who was with Brown at the time. Many details differ, but most accounts agree that Wilson saw Brown and Johnson walking in the street, demanded they get on the sidewalk, then stopped his police SUV in front of them in order to confront them. He and Brown had an altercation through the open window of the car, during which Wilson fired twice. Brown and Johnson tried to leave, Wilson exited his car to pursue them, and at some point Brown turned back around to face Wilson, who then fired 12 shots, six of which hit Brown.

Wilson claimed he fired in self-defense as Brown, an 18-year old black man, charged him, which Johnson denied. A witness claimed that Wilson warned Brown he would open fire, and that Brown responded with "Don't shoot!" before he was killed, although that was not corroborated by ballistic and DNA evidence and other witness statements.

The community immediately reacted with rage at the news of Brown's death. The shooting ignited long-simmering tensions between the majority-Black population of Ferguson and the local police, who were mostly white. Though public opinion was sharply divided, the protests and riots and the response by Ferguson's heavily militarized police demonstrated the extent to which the relationship between racial minorities in America and the police had frayed. 

Brown's name, the phrase "Hands up, don't shoot" and the very mention of Ferguson quickly entered the lexicon of the growing Black Lives Matter movement. 

In November 2014, a grand jury declined to indict Officer Wilson, and later, the Justice Department concluded that Wilson acted out of self-defense, and was justified in killing Brown. However, the same Justice Department investigation found that the Ferguson Police Department routinely violated the civil rights of its African American residents.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 09 AUGUST, 1963, Nigeria creates Mid-West Region

On this day in 1963, the then Nigerian government formally announced creation of Mid-West which became the country’s fourth region. The new Mid-West State consists of 2 provinces, Benin and Delta, formerly belonging to the Western Region.

It was began in the early 1940’s when discussion about the creation of states in Nigeria along cultural and linguistic lines championed discussions and the attitude of the British government towards the movement. The minorities commission advised against creation of new states and the British government accepted the advice. There are 2 special sets of factors those internal to the new state and those related to the national political scene. The creation of the Mid-West was as much a product of special political circumstances existing in Lagos and Ibadan as it was of popular sentiment in Benin and Delta Provinces. Its creation was possible by an alliance of East and North, but once created the alliance partners have begun to compete for its allegiance and the elections for the new regions Assembly in February, 1963 stimulated intense activity on the part of all Nigerian major parties.  

TODAY IN HISTORY 06 AUGUST, 1965 U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signs Voting Rights Act

The 36th U.S President, Lyndon Baines Johnson on this day in 1965 signed the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote. With the bill signed into law, it became illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to Black people.

Johnson often referred to as LBJ, became American President in November 1963 following the gruesome murder of President John F. Kennedy. He was elected in 1964 as a substantive president under Democratic party umbrella in a landslide victory and used this mandate to push for legislation he believed would improve the American way of life, which included stronger voting-rights laws. A recent march in Alabama in support of voting rights, during which Black people were beaten by state troops, shamed Congress and the president into passing the law, meant to enforce the 15th Amendment of the Constitution ratified by Congress in 1870.

In a speech to Congress on March 15, 1965, Johnson had outlined the devious ways in which election officials denied African-American citizens the vote. Black people attempting to vote were often told by election officials that they gotten the date, time or polling place wrong, that the officials were late or absent, that they possessed insufficient literacy skills or had filled out an application incorrectly. Often African Americans, whose population suffered a high rate of illiteracy due to centuries of oppression and poverty, would be forced to take literacy tests, which they inevitably failed. Johnson also told Congress that voting officials, primarily in southern states, had been known to force black voters to “recite the entire constitution or explain the most complex provisions of state laws”—a task most white voters would have been hard-pressed to accomplish. In some cases, even Black people with college degrees were turned away from the polls.

Although the Voting Rights Act passed, state and local enforcement of the law was weak and it was often outright ignored, mainly in the South and in areas where the proportion of Black people in the population was high and their vote threatened the political status quo. Still, the Voting Rights Act gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. The Voting Right Act, encouraged large turnout of voters among Black people in Mississippi from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969. In 1970, President Richard Nixon extended the provisions of the Voting Rights Act and lowered the eligible voting age for all voters to 18.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 05 AUGUST, 2004, Nigerian police arrest 30 suspected ritualists in Anambra after 50 corpses and 20 skulls found in Okija shrine

On 5 August, 2004, Nigerian police arrested no fewer than 30 suspected cult leaders in Anambra state, after 50 decomposing bodies and 20 human skulls were found in raids on the fetish Okija shrine.

The head, genitals and other vital parts had been severed from some of the bodies, found in a teak forest in Okija village, a sign they may have been killed as part of a ritual.

The then Anambra Police Command Spokesman, Kolapo Shofoluwe confirmed to the media that police saw more than 50 bodies in various coffins and there were several skulls, some of which were really fresh.

Shofoluwe said preliminary investigations showed that the victims died after cult leaders engaged them in an animist ritual.

Residents of Ubahu-Ezike, a small town near one of the shrines, said they were afraid to go near the shrine because men faithful to the deities were waiting there to attack outsiders.

They said a small group of "high priests" had exploited the traditional religion and turned it into a big money-spinning operation.

An anonymous teacher in Ubahu-Ezike said those juju priests are very fraudulents. 

“They have been using the shrines to extort money from innocent people. They ride the best cars in the community and build fine, fine houses. Nobody dares challenge them, not even the traditional ruler."

As part of the ritual, police said, the victims pledged their property, including bank accounts, to a deity upon their death.

Their relations were made to believe they would also die if they refused to give up the property.

"We are looking beyond the deity," Mr. Shofoluwe said, adding that at least 20 shrines were raided.

"The priests may have killed the people for ritual, or to obtain their property by false pretence or they may have been running a human-parts market."

Ritual killing has been a recurring problem in some parts of Nigeria, where many people believe they can become wealthy by using human organs to make potent charms.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 05 AUGUST, 1998, A 70-year old Mother arrested for killing her eight children

A 70-year old Marie Noe, was arrested at her Philadelphia home on this day in 1998 and charged with smothering of her eight children who died between 1949 and 1968.

It was gathered that each of the eight infants was ostensibly healthy at birth, but later died when home alone with Noe. At the time, the deaths were attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Noe and her husband Arthur Alien Noe, had two other children who died from natural causes–one was stillborn and the other died at the hospital shortly after birth. Suspicion swirled around Marie Noe as the death toll mounted as none of the children lived beyond 14 months. But police had no enough evidence to charge her with any crime. In the 1990s, a magazine article put the case back in the spotlight. In August 1998, Noe confessed to killing four of her children but claimed she couldn’t remember what happened to the other four. Arthur, Marie husband, was not charged in the murders of his children. In June 1999, Noe was given 20 years probation and ordered to spend five years under house arrest.

In a similar case, Mary Beth Tinning’s nine healthy children died suddenly and mysteriously between 1972 and 1985. None made it to the age of five. The children all died while home alone with Tinning, of Schenectady, New York, who claimed she found them unconscious. In 1987, Tinning was convicted of smothering her 3-month-old infant daughter Tami Lynne to death two years earlier. She was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Susan Smith of South Carolina, in her own case in 1994, drove a car with her two young sons into a lake. Smith, who initially blamed the boys’ disappearance on a carjacker, was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In another case, Andrea Yates drowned her five young children in a bathtub in June 2001. After being convicted of first-degree murder, Yates’ conviction was overturned and she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was committed to a state mental health facility in Texas.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 05 AUGUST, 1914, German launches attack on Belgium in a first battle of World War I

On 5 August, 1914, the German army launches its assault on the city of Liege in Belgium, violating the latter country’s neutrality and beginning the first battle of World War I.

Preceding the attack, on 4 August, the German 1st, 2nd and 3rd Armies—some 34 divisions of men—were in the process of aligning themselves on the right wing of the German lines, poised to move into Belgium. In total, seven German armies, with a total of 1.5 million soldiers, were being assembled along the Belgian and French frontiers, ready to put the long-held Schlieffen Plan—a sweeping advance through Belgium into France envisioned by former German Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen—into practice. The 2nd Army, commanded by Field Marshal Karl von Bulow, was charged with taking the city of Liege, located at the gateway into Belgium from Germany. Built on a steep 500-foot slope rising up from the Meuse River, some 200 yards wide, and defended by 12 heavily armed forts—six on either side of the river, stretching along a 30-mile circumference—Liege was considered by many to be the most heavily fortified spot in Europe.

Bulow’s 2nd Army, numbering some 320,000 men, began its attack on Liege and its 35,000 garrison troops on August 5. Six brigades, commanded by General Otto von Emmich, were detached from the 2nd Army to form a special “Army of the Meuse” that would open the way for the rest of its comrades through Liege. Confident of an easy victory with little significant Belgian resistance, the Germans assumed Emmich’s men could topple Liege while the rest of the German troops were still assembling. In fact, the Belgians put up a valiant defense from the first moment—a struggle led by their sovereign, King Albert, who had earlier urged his subjects to fight this threat to their neutrality and independence at all costs. By the end of the day on August 5, all of Liege’s 12 fortresses remained in Belgian hands.

Liege eventually fell to the Germans on August 15, but only after they had brought up the most powerful land weapons in their arsenal, the enormous siege cannons. One type of cannon, built by the Austrian munitions firm Skoda, had a barrel measuring 12-inches (305mm); the other, manufactured by Krupps in Essen, Germany, was even more massive at 16.5 inches (420mm). Until that point, the largest guns had measured 13.5 inches and were used by the British navy; the largest on land had only measured 11 inches. The heavy shelling of Liege began on August 12; on August 15, after taking 11 of Liege’s 12 forts and exploding the walls of the 12th , Fort Loncin, with a shell, Emmich and his comrade Erich Ludendorff entered Loncin to find Liege’s commander, General Gerard Mathieu Leman, alive but unconscious. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he later wrote to King Albert from Germany, “I would gladly have given my life, but Death would not have me.” For their parts, Emmich and Ludendorff were awarded Germany’s highest military medal, the Pour la Merite cross, for their capture of Liege.

The main German advance through Belgium, towards France, began three days later, on August 18. Fearful of civilian resistance, especially from snipers, or franc-tireurs, shooting at them from hidden positions in trees and bushes, German troops from the first day in Belgium took a hard line against the native population. As early as August 5, the Germans had begun not only the shooting of ordinary civilians but the deliberate execution of Belgian priests, whom German propaganda at home insisted were encouraging franc-tireur activity. “Our advance in Belgium is certainly brutal,” wrote German Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke to his Austrian counterpart, Conrad von Hotzendorff, on August 5. “But we are fighting for our lives and all who get in the way must take the consequences.” In total, German troops killed 5,521 civilians in Belgium and 896 in France, earning Germany the full measure of Belgian hatred and damning it in the eyes of many foreign observers. The steadfast Belgian resistance, meanwhile, at Liege and elsewhere during the German advance, would earn the small country and its valiant king the world’s respect, and provide a shining example, and a worthy cause, to the other Allied nations then entering what would become Europe’s most devastating conflict.

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TODAY IN HISTORY 05 AUGUST, 1861, Abraham Lincoln signs Revenue Act that imposed 3% tax on annual income above $800

On this day in 1861, the 16th American President, Abraham Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agreed to impose a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800.

President Lincoln, had early in March, 1861 begun stock taking for the American government’s ability to wage war against the South. In a letter sent to cabinet members, Edward Bates, Gideon Welles and Salmon Chase, Lincoln requested their opinions as to whether or not the president had the constitutional authority to “collect such duties”. According to documents housed and interpreted by the Library of Congress, Lincoln was particularly concerned about maintaining federal authority over collecting revenue from ports along the southeastern seaboard, which he worried, might fall under the control of the Confederacy.

The Revenue Act’s language which broadly written to define income as gain “derived from any kind of property, or from any professional trade, employment, or vocation, carried on in the United States or elsewhere or from any source whatever.” According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the comparable minimum taxable income in 2003, after adjustments for inflation, would have been approximately $16,000.

The Lincoln's tax law was repealed by the Congress in 1871 and passed the 16th Amendment in 1909, which set in place the federal income-tax system used today in America. The 16th Amendment was ratified in 1913 by the Congress.

TODAY IN HISTORY 04 AUGUST, 1753 George Washington attains the rank of Master Mason at 21

On this day in 1753, a 21-year old George Washington, became a Master Mason, the highest basic rank  in the secret fraternity of Freemasonry. Washington, a young Virginia planter, would soon command his first military operation as a major in the Virginia colonial militia. The ceremony was held at the Masonic Lodge located at No. 4 Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Freemasonry evolved from the practices and rituals of the stonemasons’ guilds in the Middle Ages. With the decline of European cathedral building, “lodges” decided to admit non-stonemasons to maintain membership, and the secret fraternal order grew in popularity in Europe. In 1717, the first Grand Lodge, an association of lodges, was founded in England, and Freemasonry was soon disseminated throughout the British Empire. The first American Mason lodge was established in Philadelphia in 1730, and future revolutionary leader Benjamin Franklin was a founding member.

There is no central Masonic authority, and Freemasons are governed locally by the order’s many customs and rites. Members trace the origins of Masonry back to the erecting of King Solomon’s Temple in biblical times and are expected to believe in the “Supreme Being,” follow specific religious rites, and maintain a vow of secrecy concerning the order’s ceremonies. The Masons of the 18th century adhered to liberal democratic principles that included religious toleration, loyalty to local government, and the importance of charity. From its inception, Freemasonry encountered considerable opposition from organized religion, especially from the Roman Catholic Church.

For a young George Washington, joining the Masons was a rite of passage and an expression of his civic responsibility. After becoming a Master Mason, Washington had the option of passing through a series of additional rites that would take him to higher “degrees.” In 1788, shortly before becoming the first president of the United States, Washington was elected the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22.

Many other leaders of the American Revolution, including Paul Revere, John Hancock, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Boston Tea Party saboteurs, were also Freemasons, and Masonic rites were witnessed at such events as Washington’s presidential inauguration and the laying of the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.–a city supposedly designed with Masonic symbols in mind. Masonic symbols, approved by Washington in the design of the Great Seal of the United States, can be seen on the one-dollar bill. The All-Seeing Eye above an unfinished pyramid is unmistakably Masonic, and the scroll beneath, which proclaims the advent of a “New Secular Order” in Latin, is one of Freemasonry’s long-standing goals. The Great Seal appeared on the dollar bill during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, also a Mason.

Freemasonry has continued to be important in U.S. politics, and at least 15 presidents, five Supreme Court chief justices, and numerous members of Congress have been Masons. Presidents known to be Masons include Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford. Today there are an estimated two million Masons in the United States.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 04 AUGUST, 2012 Oscar Pistorius emerges first amputee to compete in an Olympics

South African Oscar Pistorius on 4 August 2012 in London, becomes the first amputee to compete at the Olympics by running in an opening heat of the men’s 400-meter. He completed second out of five runners and advanced to the semi-finals, where he finished eighth out of eight runners. 

Born on 22 November, 1986 without the fibula in either of his legs, Pistorius legs were amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old. Doctors had advised his parents it would be easier to carry out the amputation procedure before he learned to walk. Growing up, he used prosthetic legs and participated in numerous sports. After injuring his knee playing rugby in high school, he started running track as a form of rehabilitation.

Pistorius competed at the Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece in 2004 where he swept home a gold medal in the 200-meter, with a record-setting time of 21.97 seconds. He also won bronze in the 100-meter. Pistorius soon began competing in meets against able-bodied athletes. However, in January 2008, he was banned from able-bodied competitions by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAFF), track and field’s governing organization, because it believed Pistorius’ blades, known as “Flex-Foot Cheetahs,” gave him an unfair advantage. The IAFF, which had conducted scientific tests with Pistorius, claimed his blades enabled him to use less energy than able-bodied athletes while covering the same distance, and therefore run faster. Pistorius challenged the IAFF’s ruling in the Court of Arbitration, and in May 2008, the Court struck out the  IAFF’s decision and the ban was lifted.

Later that same year, at the Paralympics in Beijing, China, Pistorius won gold in the 100-, 200- and 400- meter events, and set a world record of 47.49 seconds in the 400-meter. Over the next few years, he continued to compete against able-bodied athletes. In 2011 he was part of the South African squad that won a silver medal in the 4×400-meter relay at the World Championships in Athletics in South Korea, and in June 2012 he clinched silver in the individual 400-meter at the African Athletics Championships in Benin. The following month, Pistorius was selected to compete for his homeland in the individual 400-meter and 4×400 relay at the Olympics Games in London.

Pistorius began his history-making appearance at the Olympics on August 4, 2012, by taking second place in his five-man preliminary heat in the 400-meter, with a time of 45.44 seconds. At the semifinals the next day, Pistorius finished in last place, with a time of 46.54 seconds, and failed to advance to the finals. On August 9, he was supposed to run the third leg of the 4×400 relay, but his teammate collided with a runner from Kenya before he was able to hand off the baton to Pistorius, and the South Africans did not finish the race. After filing a protest, South Africa was allowed to compete in the finals the next day; the team, anchored by Pistorius, finished in eighth place. At the London Paralympics in September, Pistorius won gold medals with record-setting times in the 400-meter and the 4×100 relay, along with a silver medal in the 200-meter.

Then, on February 14, 2013, Pistorius was arrested for the murder of his girlfriend, 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, whom he admitted to fatally shooting at his Pretoria, South Africa, home earlier that day. Pistorius claimed he mistook Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, for an intruder. He was charged with premeditated murder, to which he pleaded not guilty when his case went to trial in March 2014, amidst intense media coverage. That September, Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter, but cleared of the more serious charge of murder. In October 2014, the 27-year-old former Olympian was sentenced to five years in prison; the sentence was later extended.

TODAY IN HISTORY: 04 AUGUST, 1936 American Jesse Owens sweeps gold at Summer Olympics in Germany

On 4 August, 1936, American Jesse Owens wins gold in the long jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It was the second of four gold medals Owens won in Berlin, as he firmly dispelled German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s notion of the superiority of an Aryan “master race,” for all the world to see.

Jesse Owens first made his mark on the international stage at just 21 years old on May 25, 1935, while an undergrad at Ohio State University, by setting three world records and tying another at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “The Buckeye Bullet” started his afternoon by running the 100-yard dash in just 9.4 seconds to tie the world record. Just 10 minutes later, Owens jumped 26’8 1/4″, setting a world record he would hold until 1951. And, ten minutes after that, Owens set another world record in the 220-yard dash with a time of 20.3 seconds. Finally, less than an hour after his afternoon of competition started, Owens ran the 220-yard hurdles in 22.6 seconds for his third outright world record of the day. Owens’ impressive performance caused a sensation across the United States, and the track world looked forward to following his progress at the upcoming 1936 Olympics.

Owens would win his third gold medal and set his second Olympic record of the games in the 200 meters the next day. On August 9, he followed that up by helping his team set a new world record—39.8 seconds—in the 4 x 100 meter relay. Owens and Metcalfe replaced two American Jews, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, originally scheduled to run the relay that day. Later, the U.S. team was criticized for the move, which was thought to be an appeasement of Hitler and the Nazi party, who would likely have been even angrier to see Jews, already a frequent target of Nazi hate and harassment, bring home a medal.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 03 AUGUST, 1975 Boeing 707 crashes into a mountain in Morocco

The fourth worst air disaster occurred on this day in 1975, when a chartered Boeing 707 jetliner crashed in the Atlas Mountain near Agadir, a coastal city in Morocco, and killed all 188 people on board.

Owned by the Jordanian airline Alia and chartered to Royal Air Maroc, the 707 left LeBourget Airport in Paris at 2:20 a.m. on the morning of August 3, 1975. Apart from four Europeans, all of the passengers on board were Moroccan citizens who worked in France and were traveling home for their summer holidays. The flight disappeared from Agadir airport-control radar at 4:28 a.m.; an airport official had spoken via radio with the pilot moments earlier, with no hint of trouble. The plane was scheduled to land in Agadir just two minutes later, at 4:30 a.m., and was descending for approach in heavy fog when the right wing tip and one of the engines struck a peak at an altitude of 2,400 feet. The pilot lost control of the plane, which crashed into a ravine, exploded and burned near the small, remote village of Imzizen. All 181 passengers were killed, along with seven crew members.

The incident outside Agadir marked the fourth worst air disaster in history, after a Turkish DC10 that crashed March 3, 1974 north of Paris, killing all 345 passengers and crew; a U.S. military plane that went down outside Saigon on April 4, 1974, killing more than 200; and a chartered Dutch DC8 jetliner that crashed in Sri Lanka on December 4, 1971, killing 191.

The Boeing 707 first went into service in 1958, having been developed to meet the need of airlines (particularly Pan-American) for a trans-Atlantic jetliner with a large seating capacity. With its four engines, the 707 was capable of traveling some 6,000 miles (enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean) nonstop, and boasted a seating capacity of up to 190 people. Boeing became world’s biggest aircraft manufacturer, pushing aside rival Douglas Aircraft Company (later the McDonnell Douglas Corporation).

The Morocco crash of August 1975 was the second crash of a Boeing 707 to occur over the course of the 1970s; a Jordanian 707 had crashed at Nigeria’s Kano Airport in January 1973, killing 176 people. In 1978, Boeing ended production of the 707 and U.S. airlines sold most of their remaining 707s to Third World carriers, some of them priced as low as $1 million.

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TODAY IN HISTORY: 03 AUGUST, 1916 Sir Roger Casement executed for treason by British authorities

Born on 1 September, 1864 and was knighted in 1911 by King George V, an Irish-born diplomat Roger David Casement known as Sir Roger Casement was executed on this day in 1916 for his role in Ireland’s Easter Rising.

Casement, an Irish Protestant who served as a British diplomat during the early part of the 20th century, won international acclaim after exposing the illegal practice of slavery in the Congo and parts of South America. 

Despite his Ulster Protestant roots, he became an ardent supporter of the Irish independence movement and after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, traveled to the United States and then to Germany to secure aid for an Irish uprising against the British.

Germany, which was at war with Great Britain, promised limited aid, and Casement was transported back to Ireland in a German submarine. On April 21, 1916, just a few days before the outbreak of the Easter Rising in Dublin, he landed in Kerry and was picked up by British authorities almost immediately. By the end of the month, the Easter Rising had been suppressed and a majority of its leaders executed. Casement was tried separately because of his illustrious past but nevertheless was found guilty of treason on June 29. He was executed by hanging on 3 August in London less than one month to his 52 birthday.