1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.
I remember hearing about Elvis Presley dying. Weird how we remember other things on days like that too. I drove to Manchester airport that morning. A fact that’s true but very uninteresting to anyone of you.
1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.
1943 – World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
1572 – The Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) marries the Catholic Margaret of Valois, ostensibly to reconcile the feuding Protestants and Catholics of France.
1940 – World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain, takes place. At that point, it is the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides.
1933 – Roman Polanski, French-Polish director, producer, screenwriter, and actor (Dance of the Vampires ; Rosemary's Baby; Chinatown; The Pianist; Oliver Twist )
On the day Elvis Presley died I was working in my sisters post office writing out newspapers for customers. Used to put their name at the top of the paper and leave them to one side so people just popped in rifled through, waved and trotted off.
As far as I know, Roman Polanski lives in France. Whenever he attends a public event, there is a pack of angry women ready to tear him to pieces. He'll soon share their anger with Woody Allen (same charges) at Venice "Mostra ". Anyway, I think both of them are great directors !
1692 – Salem witch trials: In Salem, Province of Massachusetts Bay, five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.
1848 – California Gold Rush: The New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).
1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The August Coup begins when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.