On This Day in History - August 1st - Almanac

Today is Sunday, Aug. 1, the 213th day of 2021 with 152 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include Roman Emperor Claudius I, born in 10 B.C.; explorer William Clark in 1770; Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star-Spangled Banner," in 1779; astronomer Maria Mitchell in 1818; author Herman Melville in 1819; activist/labor organizer Mary Harris "Mother" Jones in 1837; businessman Charles Clinton Spaulding in 1874; photojournalist Gerda Taro in 1910; Henrietta Lacks, cancer patients whose cells became the subject of medial research, in 1920; actor Geoffrey Holder in 1930; musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott, born Elliot Adnopoz, in 1931 (age 90); comic actor Dom DeLuise in 1933; French fashion designer Yves St. Laurent in 1936; musician Jerry Garcia in 1942; basketball Hall of Fame member Roy Williams in 1950 (age 71); rapper Chuck D, born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, in 1960 (age 61); rapper Coolio, born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., in 1963 (age 58); British film director Sam Mendes in 1965 (age 56); actor Tempestt Bledsoe in 1973 (age 48); actor Jason Momoa in 1979 (age 42); actor Elijah Kelley in 1986 (age 35); actor Max Carver in 1988 (age 33); actor Jack O'Connell in 1990 (age 31); actor Oona Laurence in 2002 (age 19).

On this date in history:

In 1498, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus set foot on the American mainland for the first time, at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela.

In 1790, the first U.S. census showed a population of 3,929,214 people in 17 states.

In 1907, an Aeronautical Division was added to the Army Signals Corps. The first aircraft bought by this forerunner of the U.S. Air Force was built by the Wright brothers.

In 1961, the first Six Flags amusement park opened on 212 acres in Arlington, Texas. In its opening year, admission for adults cost $2.75 and for children cost $2.25.

In 1966, Charles Whitman killed 16 people, including his wife and mother, in Austin, Texas. Thirty-two people were wounded. Most of Whitman's victims were struck by shots fired from the University of Texas Tower. The gunman, a student and ex-Marine, was killed by a police officer.

In 1977, Francis Gary Powers, pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, was killed in the crash of his weather helicopter in Los Angeles.

In 1981, MTV premiered with the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star."

In 1994, Lisa Marie Presley confirmed rumors that she had married pop star Michael Jackson May 26 in the Dominican Republic. The couple divorced less than two years later.

In 2004, nearly 400 people died in a supermarket fire on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay.

In 2005, Saudi King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, who had ruled since 1982, died after a long illness at the age of 83. He was succeeded by his half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah.

In 2007, an eight-lane bridge across the Mississippi River at Minneapolis, collapsed during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring nearly 150. About 50 vehicles were thrown into or near the water when the steel-and-concrete Interstate 35W span buckled and fell.

In 2010, a worldwide ban on cluster bombs went into effect. Cluster bombs, usually dropped from planes, are filled with smaller anti-personnel bombs, which are scattered over wide areas.

In 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama said some CIA agents who interrogated suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States "crossed a line" and "tortured some folks."

In 2018, thieves stole two crowns and an orb dating back to the 17th century from Sweden's Strängnäs Cathedral in a heist that ended with the thieves escaping in a motorboat.

A thought for the day: "Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow." -- American astronomer Maria Mitchell