August 15, 2023
QUOTE
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.
--Will Rogers
BIRTHDAYS
1717 – Blind Jack, English engineer
1769 – Napoleon Bonaparte, French general and emperor
1824 – John Chisum, Businessman
1912 – Julia Child, Chef and author
IN MEMORY
1935 – Wiley Post, Pilot
1935 – Will Rogers, Actor, comedian, and screenwriter
2008 – Jerry Wexler, Journalist and producer
2013 – Rosalía Mera, Spanish businesswoman, co-founded Inditex and Zara
2020 – Robert Trump,Real-estate developer, business executive
IN ON THIS DAY
1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.
1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska.
1939 – The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California.
1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, an event later regarded as the birth of stadium rock.
1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.
1998 – Apple introduces the iMac computer.