August 1st

Today in America's Present Past

1770 | Explorer William Clark was born.

1779 | Lawyer, poet, and composer Francis Scott Key was born.

1789 | Customs begins enforcing the first Tariff Act.

1794 | The Whiskey Rebellion begins in western Pennsylvania.

1818 | Astronomer Maria Mitchell was born.

1819 | Novelist Herman Melville was born.

1838 | Indian Wars: Bad Axe Massacre.

1840 | Compost Aldine Silliman Kieffer was born.

1852 | Civil Rights: San Francisco Methodists establish the first black church, Zion Methodist.

1866 | Cherokee leaderJohn Ross Guwisgui died.

1876 | Statehood: Colorado granted statehood.

1887 | First African American congressman Joseph Rainey died.

1889 | Physician John Friend Mahoney was born.

1895 | Educator Benjamin Mays was born.

1903 | Author Paul Horgan was born.

1903 | Frontierswoman Calamity Jane died.

1911 | Harriet Quimby passes her pilot's test and becomes the first US woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator's license.

1911 | Painter Edward Austin Abbey died.

1917 | Frank Little was lynched in Butte, Montana.

1921 | Tennis Pro Jack Kramer was born.

1926 | Historian Burton Stein was born.

1929 | Derby queen Ann Calvello was born.

1932 | Activist Meir Kahane was born.

1933 | Actor Dom DeLuise was born.

1939 | Author Robert James Waller was born.

1941 | The first Jeep was produced.

1942 | Musician Jerry Garcia was born.

1943 | Civil Rights: The Harlem race riots started in New York City.

1945 | Physicist Douglas Osheroff was born.

1946 | Civil Rights: The Battle of Athens revolt started in McMinn County, Tennessee.

1946 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman establishes the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

1948 | The US Air Force Office of Special Investigations was founded.

1957 | The US and Canada created the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

1960 | Rapper Chuck D was born.

1961 | Activist Ed Gillespie was born.

Coolio

1963 | Rapper Coolio was born.

1966 | University of Texas massacre.

1966 | Author James St. James was born in Saginaw, Michigan.

1967 | Civil Rights: A Long, hot summer of riots continues in Providence, Rhode Island.

1971 | TV: The “Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” debuted.

1972 | The Washington Post prints the first in a series by Woodward and Bernstein on what became the Watergate Scandal.

1972 | Pro wrestler D-Von Dudley was born.

1975 | Civil Rights: Livernois-Fenkell riot in Detroit, Michigan.

1977 | Pilot Francis Gary Powers died.

1979 | Actor Jason Momoa was born.

1981 | Diana Ross and Lionel Richie release “Endless Love.”

1981 | Musician Ashley Parker Angel was born.

1985 | Cold War: Soviet KGB officer Vitaly Yurchenko defects to the US in Rome, naming Americans Ronald Pelton and Edward Lee Howard as KGB agents (later defects back).

Rush Limbaugh

1988 | Radio: Rush Limbaugh begins his nationally syndicated radio show.

1988 | Cleric John Dearden died.

1996 | George R.R. Martin publishes the epic fantasy novel "A Game of Thrones.”

1998 | Actor Khamani Griffin was born.

2009 | Entrepreneur and model Naomi Sims died.

2020 | Actor Wilford Brimley died.