today in history archives

This Day in History

On August 14
1880 The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, was completed after 632 years of rebuilding.
1896 Gold was discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory. Within the next year, more than 30,000 people rushed to the area to look for gold.
1919 About 1 million tons of ice and rock broke off of a glacier near Mont Blanc, France. Nine people were killed in the incident.
1935 The U.S. Congress passed the Social Security Act into law. The act created unemployment insurance and pension plans for the elderly.
1945 It was announced by U.S. President Truman that Japan had surrendered unconditionally. The surrender ended World War II.
1969 British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1981 Pope John Paul II left a Rome hospital. He had been there for three months following an assassination attempt.
1986 U.S. officials announced that a U.S. Drug Enforcement agent had been abducted, interrogated and tortured by Mexican police.
1987 Mark McGwire set the record for homeruns by a rookie when he connected for his 39th homerun of the season.
1997 Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.
1998 A U.S. federal appeals court in Richmond, VA, ruled that the Food and Drug Administration had no authority to regulate tobacco. The FDA had established rules to make it harder for minors to buy cigarettes.
2000 A Russian submarine Kursk sank to the bottom of the Barrent Sea. There were 118 sailors on the nuclear-powered vessel. All of the crew were pronounced dead on August 22.

This Day In Music!
1999 In an unprecedented show of popularity, popsters Backstreet Boys sell all 765,000 tickets for their North American tour in just one day, generating an estimated $30 million. Tickets for the 11-week, 39-city arena tour sell out as soon as they go on sale - the vast majority within an hour.
1999 Tracy Byrd and his band The Only Way to Fly are on hand to entertain at the Republican Party of Iowa Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa. At the invitation of Texas Governor George W. Bush, Byrd and band play country music for Bush supporters outside the Hilton Coliseum.
1999 The Red Hot Chili Peppers perform with local Russian artists during a free music festival in Moscow's Red Square. The "MTV Live With the Red Hot Chili Peppers" event marks the first time the band has performed in Russia.
1998 A Virginia judge issues three arrest warrants for Wu-Tang member Ol' Dirty Bastard, a.k.a. Big Baby Jesus - one for each of the scheduled court dates that the rapper skipped. The dates are in relation to an earlier shoplifting charge.
1998 Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev is among the 15,000 visitors at the 10th Popkomm music fair. Gorbachev promotes the album "Russian Memories" by Ermitage, a.k.a. Munich-based Hungarian composer Leslie Mandoki. Sales of the CD benefit Gorbachev's Green Cross charity, which supports humanitarian and ecological projects.
1998 PBS premiers a documentary on Robbie Robertson's Indian heritage. "Robbie Robertson: Making A Noise - A Native American Musical Journey" features tracks from the artist's current Capitol release, "Contact From The Underworld of Redboy," as well as footage of him in concert and in the studio. Robertson, who earlier in the year was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award at the first Native American Music Awards, is a tireless advocate of American Indian rights.
1995 Members of the Grateful Dead meet and decide to cancel their fall tour in the wake of Jerry Garcia's death.
1992 Tony Williams, former lead singer of the Platters, dies in Manhattan.
1992 Wayne Newton files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The singer, a former owner of the Alladin Hotel in Las Vegas, is one of the highest paid performers on the Vegas strip.
1991 Tony Orlando and wife Francine's first child, Jenny Rose, is born in Los Angeles.
1985 Michael Jackson outbids Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono, at $47.5 million, to obtain catalog rights to 250 songs written by John Lennon and McCartney.
1976 Nick Lowe's debut solo single, ``So It Goes,'' is released.
1967 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: ``All You Need Is Love,'' The Beatles. The group's manager, Brian Epstein, dies of an accidental drug overdose while the song is No. 1.
1941 David Crosby is born David Van Courtland in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Byrds, then teams up with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash to form Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1968. The group wins the best new artist Grammy in 1969. CSN's two top 10 songs are ``Just a Song Before I Go'' and ``Wasted on the Way.''
1940 Dash Crofts of Seals & Crofts is born in Cisco, Texas. The group has three top 10 hits, all of which reach No. 6: ``Summer Breeze'' in 1972, ``Diamond Girl'' in 1973 and ``Get Closer'' in 1976.

positive quote

Beauty, truth, friendship, love, creation – these are the great values of life. We can’t prove them, or explain them, yet they are the most stable things in our lives.

Jesse Herman Holmes

Daily motivator

Imagine It
Whatever you can imagine is possible for you. If it were not, how could you even imagine it?

What can you imagine? How big can you dream? Think of all the incredible products, ideas and artistic expressions that didn't exist ten years ago. The possible goes way beyond the probable. Your possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Look around you at all the incredible things that have been achieved in this world. Each and every one of them existed at one time only in someone's imagination.

What you become begins with what you imagine. It takes more than imagination, to be sure, but imagination is an essential first step. You have the capacity to imagine anything. You might as well make it the very best. What can you imagine? What can you envision? Let your imagination lead you to a extraordinary reality.

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