August 4th
Today in America's Present Past
1753 | POTUS: George Washington became a master Mason.
1821 | The first edition of the magazine "The Saturday Evening Post" was published.
1821 | Cleric James Springer White was born.
1821 | Founding Father William Floyd died.
1855 | John Bartlett publishes "Familiar Quotations.”
1862 | The US government collects its first income tax.
1892 | Sunday school teacher Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother are murdered with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1901 | Entertainer Louis Armstrong was born.
1913 | Poet Robert Hayden was born.
1914 | WWI: The U.S. declares neutrality on the outbreak of the war.
1915 | Entrepreneur Warren Avis was born in Bay City, Michigan.
1919 | Civil Rights: “Red Summer race riots” in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
1920 | Journalist Helen Thomas was born.
1933 | Entrepreneur Sheldon Adelson was born.
1948 | Congress: A Senate five-day Democrat filibuster succeeds in maintaining southern poll taxes.
1955 | Actor Billy Bob Thornton was born.
1957 | Historian Brooks D. Simpson was born.
1961 | POTUS: President Barack Obama was born.
1962 | Entertainer Marilyn Monroe died.
1964 | Civil Rights: The bodies of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James E. Chaney were discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam.
1965 | Writer Dennis Lehane was born.
1970 | Jim Morrison was arrested for public drunkenness in Los Angeles, California.
1971 | Auto racer Jeff Gordon was born.
1977 | POTUS: Democrat President Carter established the Department of Energy.
1984 | Music: Prince’s “Purple Rain” hits number one.