August 14, 1936 – The first basketball competition was held at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. The U.S. defeated Canada, 19-8.
on this day
August 12, 1937 – Red Skelton appeared on network radio for the first time on the “Rudy Vallee Show” on NBC.
“If by chance some day you’re not feeling well and you should remember some silly thing I’ve said or done and it brings back a smile to your face or a chuckle to your heart, then my purpose as your clown has been fulfilled.”
On This Day
August 11, 1962 – Booker T. and the MG’s instrumental song, “Green Onions,” was released.
The classic 1962 instrumental hit Green Onions by Booker T & the MG’s. Actors and actresses dancing to this very cool song here…
On This Day
August 8, 1960 – 25,000 copies of “Tell Laura I Love Her” were destroyed by Decca Records. It was said that the song was “too tasteless and vulgar for English sensibility.”
On This Day
August 6, 1809 – Alfred Lord Tennyson is born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England.
“Come, my friends.
‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,—
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
On This Day
August 4, 1735 – Freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that “the truth is not libelous.”
Elysian Waters 