This is absolutely on the test.

Today is a Holy Day of Obligation (but since it falls on a Saturday, you don't have to go to church today. You can go on Sunday but you should; you're making the angels cry if you don't. According to Dummies.com - Attending Mass is never a waste of time, even if it ends up not being a holy day of obligation.)

Today is the Feast of Assumption of Mary. If you had problems understanding this or the Immaculate Conception, remember the old lady in church, saying her rosaries that I've made mention of, please go bother her, I'm not even going to try explaining this one to you.


August 15, 1979 -
The very long delayed epic, Apocalypse Now, premiered in NYC on this date.



The scene at the beginning with Captain Willard alone in his hotel room was completely unscripted. Martin Sheen told the shooting crew to just let the cameras roll. Sheen was actually drunk in the scene and punched the mirror which was real glass, cutting his thumb. Sheen also began sobbing and tried to attack Francis Ford Coppola. The crew was so disturbed by his actions that they wanted to stop shooting, but Coppola wanted to keep the cameras going.


Today in History:
August 15, 1057 -
Macbeth was killed at the Battle of Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire on this date, by Malcolm Canmore, the eldest son of King Duncan I, who was deposed by Macbeth years earlier

He had been king of Scotland for 17 years. For those of you who do not know, you're not suppose to say the name of the Scottish king 'aloud'.


August 15, 1534 -
St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish ecclesiastic, founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) in Paris with the aim of defending Catholicism against heresy and undertaking missionary work, on this date. Ignatius converted to Christianity while convalescing after a battle and wrote his Spiritual Exercises meant as a guide for conversion.

In Paris, Ignatius and a small group of men took vows of poverty, chastity and papal obedience. Ignatius formally organized the order in 1539 that was approved by the pope in 1540. The society‘s rapid growth and emphasis on scholarship aided in the resurgence of Catholicism during the Counter-Reformation.

You may now impress your friends with that bit of knowledge.


August 15, 1877 -
Thomas Edison wrote to the president of the Telegraph Company in Pittsburgh, PA on this date (stay with me.)



The letter stated that the word, "hello" would be a more appropriate greeting than "ahoy" when answering the telephone.

So now you know


August 15, 1911 -
Procter and Gamble unveiled Crisco shortening on this date.



The new motto should be, "When you open the can, it's always a party!"


August 15, 1914 -
The SS Ancon cargo ship was the first to pass through the newly-built Panama Canal on this date.



Today, more than 14,000 ships pass through each year.


August 15,1914 -
101 years ago today, Julian Carlton, a servant of architect Frank Lloyd Wright burned down Wright's Wisconsin home, Taliesin and murdered seven people,including Wright's lover, Mamah Borthwick Cheney,and her two children. Wright was in Chicago at the time, working on a project.



Carlton was almost immediately captured and jailed, but died six weeks later (a result of having swallowed acid), without uttering a meaningful word about the motive behind his rampage.


August 15, 1935 -
Will Rogers, the most famous man in America, died near Barrow, Alaska when his sea plane plunges into a lagoon. At the time, he and one-eyed aviator Wiley Post were surveying possible flight paths between Seattle and the Soviet Union.



Remember kids, let this be a lesson to you - don't take a flight with a drunken, one eyed pilot.


August 15, 1945 -
Harry Truman hadn't sobered up yet. He could not quite believe that he was President and got to drop not one but two atomic bombs.



Truman had announced the Japanese surrender the day before. But it was on this day in 1945 that the Allies officially declared V-J Day.


Aug 15, 1947 -
At the stroke of midnight on the 14th of August, Britain withdrew its control on the jewel in its crown and India and Pakistan became two separate, independent, democratic nations,after some 200 years of British rule.



The division of Pakistan from India prompted mass emigration: Muslims moving west to Pakistan and Hindus moving east toward India. The event also unleashed a period of religious turmoil in India and Pakistan that would result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, including Gandhi.


August 15, 1965 -
The Beatles played to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, on this date,  marking the birth of stadium rock.



People tend to forget that this was one of the first major stadium concerts by a rock group.


August 15, 1969 -
The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair began on this date, on Max Yasger's farm in upstate New York.



The greatest gathering of marketing and advertising professionals in American history, the festival featured the musical artists behind some of today's hottest commercial jingles.


In the 1960s, you could eat anything you wanted, and of course, people were smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, and there was no talk about fat and anything like that, and butter and cream were rife. Those were lovely days for gastronomy, I must say.



It's the 103th birthday of Julia Child - Chef, Spy, Philosopher and in my opinion, one of the greatest Americans.

Besides Julia, today is the birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769),



Rose Marie (1925),



Oscar Peterson (1925),



Linda Ellerbee (1944), (possibly the second greatest living American)



Jimmy Webb (1946),




Oh, and my friend Liz
(but she knows how old she is.)



And so it goes.