Today is August 12 2015

National Julienne Fries Day: More
Thin fries, sometimes called shoestring fries.

• National Vinyl Record Day: More
  Remembers the media and their cover art.
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• National Middle Child Day: More
  Created by Elizabeth Walker in the 1980s. It concerns the idea that birth order plays a pivotal role in a child's personality.
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• Animal and Pets
  • World Elephant Day: More
    Concerns Elephant preservation and protection.
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• Other
  • International Youth Day: More
    A U.N. day, established in 1999.

• In 30 BC, Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
  From Wikipedia: 'The ancient sources, particularly the Roman ones, are in general agreement that Cleopatra killed herself by inducing an Egyptian cobra to bite her. The oldest source is Strabo, who was alive at the time of the event, and might even have been in Alexandria. He says that there are two stories: that she applied a toxic ointment, or that she was bitten by an asp on her breast, but he said in his writings that he was not sure if Cleopatra poisoned herself or was murdered. Several Roman poets, writing within ten years of the event, all mention bites by two asps, as does Florus, a historian, some 150 years later. Velleius, sixty years after the event, also refers to an asp. Other authors have questioned these historical accounts, stating that it is possible that Augustus had her killed. In 2010, the German historian Christoph Schaefer challenged all other theories, declaring that the queen had actually been poisoned and died from drinking a mixture of poisons. After studying historical texts and consulting with toxicologists, the historian concluded that the asp could not have caused a quick and pain-free death, since the asp (Egyptian cobra) venom paralyses parts of the body, starting with the eyes, before causing death. As Cleopatra would have wanted a relatively painless death, it is quite unlikely that the asp was the cause of her death. Also, the asp's bite is not always fatal. Schaefer and his toxicologist Dietrich Mebs decided Cleopatra used a mixture of hemlock, wolfsbane and opium'.
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• In 1851, Isaac Singer patents sewing machine (improved but not the first).
  From Wikipedia: 'Isaac Merritt Singer (October 27, 1811 – July 23, 1875) was an American inventor, actor, and entrepreneur. He made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine and was the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Many had patented sewing machines before Singer, but his success was based on the practicality of his machine, the ease with which it could be adapted to home use, and its availability on an installment payment basis. Singer fathered at least 24 children with various wives and mistresses.
  
  In 1839, Singer obtained his first patent, for a machine to drill rock, selling it for $2,000 (or $44.4 thousand in today;s dollars) to the I andM Canal Building Company. With this financial success, he opted to return to his career as an actor. He went on tour, forming a troupe known as the "Merritt Players", appearing onstage under the name "Isaac Merritt", with Mary Ann also appearing onstage, calling herself "Mrs. Merritt". The tour lasted about five years.
  
  He developed and patented a "machine for carving wood and metal" on April 10, 1849.
  
  At 38, with Mary Ann and eight children, he packed up his family and moved back to New York City, hoping to market his wood-block cutting machine there. He obtained an advance to build a working prototype, and constructed one in the shop of A. B. Taylor and Co. Here he met G. B. Zieber, who became Singer's financier and partner. However, not long after the machine was built, the steam boiler blew up at the shop, destroying the prototype. Zieber persuaded Singer to make a new start in Boston, a center of the printing trade. Singer went to Boston in 1850 to display his invention at the machine shop of Orson C. Phelps. Orders for Singer's wood cutting machine were not, however, forthcoming.
  
  Lerow and Blodgett sewing machines were being constructed and repaired in Phelps' shop. Phelps asked Singer to look at the sewing machines, which were difficult to use and produce. Singer concluded that the sewing machine would be more reliable if the shuttle moved in a straight line rather than a circle, with a straight rather than a curved needle. Singer was able to obtain US Patent number 8294 for his improvements on August 12, 1851.
  
  Singer's prototype sewing machine became the first to work in a practical way. It could sew 900 stitches per minute, far better than the 40 of an accomplished seamstress on simple work.
  - At FamousDaily: More
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• In 1869, Self-proclaimed Emperor, Emperor Norton of the USA issues edit abolishing the Democratic and Republican parties
  From Wikipedia: 'Joshua Abraham Norton (c.1818 – January 8, 1880), known as Emperor Norton, was a citizen of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 proclaimed himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States" and subsequently "Protector of Mexico".
  
  Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa. After the death of his mother in 1846 and his father in 1848, he emigrated to San Francisco with an inheritance from his father's estate, arriving in November 1849 aboard the Hamburg ship Franzeska with $40,000 (inflation adjusted to $1.1 million in 2015 US Dollars). Norton initially made a living as a businessman, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice.
  
  After losing a lawsuit in which he tried to void his rice contract, Norton's public prominence faded. He reemerged in September 1859, laying claim to the position of Emperor of the United States. Although he had no political power, and his influence extended only so far as he was humored by those around him, he was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honored in the establishments he frequented.
  
  Though some considered him insane or eccentric, citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence and his proclamations, such as his order that the United States Congress be dissolved by force and his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing connecting San Francisco to Oakland, and a corresponding tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay. Similar structures were built long after his death in the form of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Transbay Tube, and there have been campaigns to rename the bridge "The Emperor Norton Bridge".
  
  On January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant) streets and died before he could be given medical treatment. At his funeral two days later, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of writers Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Maurice De Bevere, Selma Lagerlöf, and Neil Gaiman'.
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• In 1865, Joseph Lister first demonstrates use of antiseptic. His first use was with carbonic acid (Phenol) for surgery.
  From Wikipedia: 'Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, OM PC PRS (5 April 1827 – 10 February 1912), known between 1883 and 1897 as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery. By applying Louis Pasteur's advances in microbiology, he promoted the idea of sterile portable ports while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid (now known as phenol) to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds, which led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients, distinguishing himself as the "father of modern surgery".
  
  In 1834, Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge discovered phenol, also known as carbolic acid, which he derived in an impure form from coal tar. At that time, there was uncertainty between the substance of creosote – a chemical had been used to treat the wood used for railway ties and ships since it protected the wood from rotting – and carbolic acid. Upon hearing that creosote had been used for treating sewage, Lister began to test the efficacy of carbolic acid when applied directly to wounds. Joseph Lister in his youth
  
  Therefore, Lister tested the results of spraying instruments, the surgical incisions, and dressings with a solution of carbolic acid. Lister found that the solution swabbed on wounds remarkably reduced the incidence of gangrene. In August 1865, Lister applied a piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid solution onto the wound of a seven-year-old boy at Glasgow Infirmary, who had sustained a compound fracture after a cart wheel had passed over his leg. After four days, he renewed the pad and discovered that no infection had developed, and after a total of six weeks he was amazed to discover that the boy's bones had fused back together, without the danger of suppuration. He subsequently published his results in The Lancet in a series of six articles, running from March through July 1867.
  
  In 1879, Listerine mouthwash was named after him for his work in antisepsis. Microorganisms named in his honour include the pathogenic bacterial genus Listeria named by J. H. H. Pirie, typified by the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, as well as the slime mould genus Listerella, first described by Eduard Adolf Wilhelm Jahn in 1906'.
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• In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.
  From Wikipedia: 'Direct tracings of the vibrations of sound-producing objects such as tuning forks had been made by English physician Thomas Young in 1807, but the first known device for recording airborne speech, music and other sounds is the phonautograph, patented in 1857 by French typesetter and inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. In this device, sound waves traveling through the air vibrated a parchment diaphragm which was linked to a bristle, and the bristle traced a line through a thin coating of soot on a sheet of paper wrapped around a rotating cylinder. The sound vibrations were recorded as undulations or other irregularities in the traced line. Scott's phonautograph was intended purely for the visual study and analysis of the tracings. Reproduction of the recorded sound was not possible with the original phonautograph.
  
  Charles Cros, a French poet and amateur scientist, is the first person known to have made the conceptual leap from recording sound as a traced line to the theoretical possibility of reproducing the sound from the tracing and then to devising a definite method for accomplishing the reproduction. On April 30, 1877, he deposited a sealed envelope containing a summary of his ideas with the French Academy of Sciences, a standard procedure used by scientists and inventors to establish priority of conception of unpublished ideas in the event of any later dispute.
  
  Cros proposed the use of photoengraving, a process already in use to make metal printing plates from line drawings, to convert an insubstantial phonautograph tracing in soot into a groove or ridge on a metal disc or cylinder. This metal surface would then be given the same motion and speed as the original recording surface. A stylus linked to a diaphragm would be made to ride in the groove or on the ridge so that the stylus would be moved back and forth in accordance with the recorded vibrations. It would transmit these vibrations to the connected diaphragm, and the diaphragm would transmit them to the air, reproducing the original sound.
  
  Cros was a poet of meager means, not in a position to pay a machinist to build a working model, and largely content to bequeath his ideas to the public domain free of charge and let others reduce them to practice, but after the earliest reports of Edison's presumably independent invention crossed the Atlantic he had his sealed letter of April 30 opened and read at the December 3, 1877 meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, claiming due scientific credit for priority of conception.
  
  Thomas Alva Edison conceived the principle of recording and reproducing sound between May and July 1877 as a byproduct of his efforts to "play back" recorded telegraph messages and to automate speech sounds for transmission by telephone. He announced his invention of the first phonograph, a device for recording and replaying sound, on November 21, 1877 (early reports appear in Scientific American and several newspapers in the beginning of November, and an even earlier announcement of Edison working on a 'talking-machine' can be found in the Chicago Daily Tribune on May 9), and he demonstrated the device for the first time on November 29 (it was patented on February 19, 1878 as US Patent 200,521). "In December, 1877, a young man came into the office of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, and placed before the editors a small, simple machine about which very few preliminary remarks were offered. The visitor without any ceremony whatever turned the crank, and to the astonishment of all present the machine said: "Good morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?" The machine thus spoke for itself, and made known the fact that it was the phonograph..."
  
  Edison's early phonographs recorded onto a tinfoil sheet phonograph cylinder using an up-down ("hill-and-dale") motion of the stylus. The tinfoil sheet was wrapped around a grooved cylinder, and the sound was recorded as indentations into the foil. Edison's early patents show that he was aware that sound could be recorded as a spiral on a disc, but Edison concentrated his efforts on cylinders, since the groove on the outside of a rotating cylinder provides a constant velocity to the stylus in the groove, which Edison considered more "scientifically correct". Edison's patent specified that the audio recording be embossed, and it was not until 1886 that vertically modulated engraved recordings using wax coated cylinders was patented by Chichester Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter. They named their version the Graphophone.
  
  In 1887, Emile Berliner patented a variant of the phonograph which he named the Gramophone. Berliner's approach was essentially the same one proposed, but never implemented, by Charles Cros in 1877. The diaphragm was linked to the recording stylus in a way that caused it to vibrate laterally (side to side) as it traced a spiral onto a zinc disc very thinly coated with a compound of beeswax. The zinc disc was then immersed in a bath of chromic acid; this etched a groove into the disc where the stylus had removed the coating, after which the recording could be played. With some later improvements the flat discs of Berliner could be produced in large quantities at much lower cost than the cylinders of Edison's system.
  
  In May 1889, the first "phonograph parlor" opened in San Francisco. Customers would sit at a desk where they could speak through a tube, and order a selection for one nickel. Through a separate tube connected to a cylinder phonograph in the room below, the selection would then be played. By the mid-1890s, most American cities had at least one phonograph parlor. Another common type of phonograph parlor featured a machine that would start or would be windable when a coin would be inserted. This jukebox-like phonograph was invented by Louis T. Glass and William S. Arnold. Many early machines were of the Edison Class M or Class E type. The Class M had a battery that would break if it fell or was smashed with another object. This would cause dangerous battery acid to spill everywhere. The Class E sold for a lower price and ran on 120V DC'.
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• In 1898, An Armistice ends the Spanish-American War.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-estadounidense or Guerra hispano-americana) was a conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor leading to American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.
  
  After the mysterious sinking of the US Navy battleship Maine in Havana harbor, political pressures from the Democratic Party pushed the administration of Republican President William McKinley into a war he had wished to avoid. Spain promised time and again it would reform but never delivered. The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding it surrender control of Cuba. First Madrid, then Washington, formally declared war.
  
  The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the US, which allowed it temporary control of Cuba, and ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($568,880,000 today) to Spain by the US to cover infrastructure owned by Spain'.
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• In 1914, During WW I, the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary and the countries of the British Empire follow suit.
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• In 1927, 'Wings', the only silent film to win an Oscar for best picture, opens.
  From Wikipedia: 'Wings is a 1927 American silent war film set during the First World War produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and Richard Arlen, and Gary Cooper appears in a role which helped launch his career in Hollywood.
  
  The film, a romantic action-war picture, was rewritten by scriptwriters Hope Loring and Louis D. Lighton from a story by John Monk Saunders to accommodate Bow, Paramount's biggest star at the time. Wellman was hired as he was the only director in Hollywood at the time who had World War I combat pilot experience, although Richard Arlen and John Monk Saunders had also served in the war as military aviators. The film was shot on location on a budget of $2 million at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas between September 7, 1926 and April 7, 1927. Hundreds of extras and some 300 pilots were involved in the filming, including pilots and planes of the United States Army Air Corps which were brought in for the filming and to provide assistance and supervision. Wellman extensively rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days with some 3500 infantrymen on a battlefield made for the production on location. Although the cast and crew had much spare time during the filming because of weather delays, shooting conditions were intense, and Wellman frequently conflicted with the military officers brought in to supervise the picture.
  
  Acclaimed for its technical prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, mainly because of its realistic air-combat sequences. It went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture at the first annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award ceremony in 1929, the only fully silent film to do so. It also won the Academy Award for Best Engineering Effects (Roy Pomeroy). Wings was one of the first to show two men kissing (in a fraternal moment between Rogers and Arlen during the deathbed finale), and also one of the first widely released films to show nudity. In 1997, Wings was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and the film was re-released to Cinemark theaters to coincide with the 85th Anniversary for a limited run in May 2012. The Academy Film Archive preserved Wings in 2002'.
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• In 1936, A temperature of 120øF (49øC) (highest temp record in Texas), was experienced in Seymour, Texas and again in Monahans Texas in 1949.
  From Wikipedia: Seymour is a city in and the county seat of Baylor County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,740 as of the 2010 Census.
  
  'The town calls itself "the crossroads of North Texas" because it is located at the junction of five highways: U.S. highways 82, 277, 183 and 283, as well as State Highway 114.
  
  The Reptiliomorpha order Seymouriamorpha and genus Seymouria are named after this city. The last seymouriamorph became extinct by the end of the Permian period.
  
  On August 12, 1936, the temperature at Seymour reached 120 °F (49 °C), the highest temperature ever recorded in the state of Texas'.
  - At USAToday: More
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• In 1937, Red Skelton appeared on network radio for the first time on the Rudy Vallee Show on NBC.
  From Wikipedia: Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton (July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer. He was best known for his national radio and television acts between 1937 and 1971, and as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. Skelton, who has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio and television, also appeared in vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.
  
  'Performing the "Doughnut Dunkers" routine led to Skelton's first appearance on Rudy Vallée's The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour on August 12, 1937. Vallée's program had a talent show segment and those who were searching for stardom were eager to be heard on it. Vallée also booked veteran comic and fellow Indiana native Joe Cook to appear as a guest with Skelton. The two Hoosiers proceeded to trade jokes about their home towns, with Skelton contending to Cook, an Evansville native, that the city was a suburb of Vincennes. The show received enough fan mail after the performance to invite both comedians back two weeks after Skelton's initial appearance and again in November of that year.
  
  On October 1, 1938, Skelton replaced Red Foley as the host of Avalon Time on NBC; Edna also joined the show's cast, under her maiden name. She developed a system for working with the show's writers: selecting material from them, adding her own and filing the unused bits and lines for future use; the Skeltons worked on Avalon Time until late 1939. Skelton's work in films led to a new regular radio show offer; between films, he promoted himself and MGM by appearing without charge at Los Angeles area banquets. A radio advertising agent was a guest at one of his banquet performances and recommended Skelton to one of his clients.
  
  Skelton went on the air with his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, on October 7, 1941. The bandleader for the show was Ozzie Nelson; his wife, Harriet, who worked under her maiden name of Hilliard, was the show's vocalist and also worked with Skelton in skits. "I dood it!
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1939, 'The Wizard of Oz' premiered in Oconomowoc, WI. The movie premiered in Hollywood on August 15th.
  From Wikipedia: The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical comedy-drama fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. The co-stars are Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton, with Charley Grapewin, Pat Walshe and Clara Blandick, Terry the dog (billed as Toto), and the Singer Midgets as the Munchkins.
  
  Notable for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and unusual characters, over the years, it has become an icon of American popular culture. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind. It did win in two other categories, including Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. However, the film was a box office disappointment on its initial release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, despite receiving largely positive reviews. It was MGM's most expensive production at that time, and did not completely recoup the studio's investment and turn a profit until theatrical re-releases starting in 1949.
  
  'The film's first sneak preview was held in San Bernardino, California. The film was previewed in three test markets: on August 11, 1939, at Kenosha, Wisconsin and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on August 12.
  
  The Hollywood premiere was on August 15, 1939, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The New York City premiere, held at Loew's Capitol Theatre on August 17, 1939, was followed by a live performance with Judy Garland and her frequent film co-star Mickey Rooney. They continued to perform there after each screening for a week, extended in Rooney's case for a second week and in Garland's to three (with Oz co-stars Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr replacing Rooney for the third and final week). The movie opened nationally on August 25, 1939'.
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• In 1960, Echo 1A Comm Satellite (world's first communications satellite) was launched. It was sent up in a rocket, ubt was a short duration Mylar balloon, coated in reflective paint. It did allow a US East to West coast transmission.
  From Wikipedia: 'Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, was a metalized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals. Communication signals were bounced off them from one point on Earth to another.
  
  NASA's Echo 1 satellite was built by Gilmore Schjeldahl's G.T. Schjeldahl Company in Northfield, Minnesota. The balloon satellite functioned as a reflector, not a transceiver, so after it was placed in a low Earth orbit a signal could be sent to it, reflected by its surface, and returned to Earth.
  
  During ground inflation tests, 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of air was needed to fill the balloon, but while in orbit, several pounds of gas were all that was required to fill the sphere. At launch the balloon weighed 156.995 pounds (71.212 kg) which included 33.34 pounds (15.12 kg) of sublimating powders of two types. The first weighing 10 pounds (4.5 kg) with a very high vapor pressure, the second with a much lower vapor pressure. According to NASA, "To keep the sphere inflated in spite of meteorite punctures and skin permeability, a make-up gas system using evaporating liquid or crystals of a subliming solid were incorporated inside the satellite."
  
  It also had 107.9 MHz beacon transmitters for telemetry purposes, powered by five nickel-cadmium batteries that were charged by 70 solar cells mounted on the balloon. During the latter portion of its life, the spacecraft was used to evaluate the technical feasibility of satellite triangulation. It had a total mass of 180 kilograms (397 lb).
  
  Echo 1A was originally loosely estimated to survive until soon after its fourth dip into the atmosphere in July 1963 but possibly until 1964 or beyond but it ended up living much longer than these estimates and reentered Earth's atmosphere, burning up on May 24, 1968'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
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• In 1961, Order signed to erect Berlin Wall.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
  
  Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from which they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin.
  
  In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of what was left. Contrary to popular belief the Wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
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• In 1981, The IBM Personal Computer is introduced.
  From Wikipedia: 'The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981. It was created by a team of engineers and designers under the direction of Don Estridge of the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, Florida.
  
  The generic term "personal computer" was in use before 1981, applied as early as 1972 to the Xerox PARC's Alto, but because of the success of the IBM Personal Computer, the term "PC" came to mean more specifically a desktop microcomputer compatible with IBM's PC products. Within a short time of the introduction, third-party suppliers of peripheral devices, expansion cards, and software proliferated; the influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market was substantial in standardizing a platform for personal computers. "IBM compatible" became an important criterion for sales growth; only the Apple Macintosh family kept significant market share without compatibility with the IBM personal computer'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
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Tomorrow's food holiday will be 'National Julienne Fries Day' Thin fries, sometimes called shoestring fries.
[The Hankster says] I cry, you cry, we all cry for a French fry. Well, if you can scream for ice cream, why not.

August 12 in 1877 celebrates the invention of Edison's phonograph (wax cylinders recordings with two needles, one for recording and the other for playback). So what do we do, but hold 'National Vinyl Record Day'. Remembers the media and their cover art.
[The Hankster says] Better than saluting the CD, I guess. Which reminds me that I still don't know how to play 45's and 33 1/3's on my PC. What! I'm certainly not silly enough to think I can insert a wax cylinder. I'm sure my PC only has one needle.

Tomorrow is 'National Middle Child Day'. Created by Elizabeth Walker in the 1980s. It concerns the idea that birth order plays a pivotal role in a child's personality.


Awareness / Observance Days on: August 12
o Animal and Pets
- 'World Elephant Day'. Concerns Elephant preservation and protection.

o Other
- 'International Youth Day'. A U.N. day, established in 1999.


Historical events in the past on: August 12

In 30 BC, Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.

In 1851, Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine (improved but not the first).

In 1869, Self-proclaimed Emperor, Emperor Norton of the USA issues edit abolishing the Democratic and Republican parties.

In 1865, Joseph Lister (inventor of Listerine) first demonstrates use of antiseptic. His first use was with carbonic acid (Phenol) for surgery.

In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.

In 1898, An Armistice ends the Spanish-American War.

In 1914, During WW I, the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary and the countries of the British Empire follow suit.

In 1927, 'Wings', the only silent film to win an Oscar for best picture, opens.

In 1936, A temperature of 120øF (49øC) (highest temp record in Texas), was experienced in Seymour, Texas and again in Monahans Texas in 1949.

In 1937, Red Skelton appeared on network radio for the first time on the Rudy Vallee Show on NBC.

In 1939, 'The Wizard of Oz' premiered in Oconomowoc, WI. The movie premiered in Hollywood on August 15th.

In 1960, Echo 1A Comm Satellite (world's first communications satellite) was launched. It was sent up in a rocket, but was a short duration Mylar balloon, coated in reflective paint. It did allow a US East to West coast transmission.

In 1961, Orders were signed to erect Berlin Wall.

In 1981, The IBM Personal Computer is introduced.

No. 1 song

• I'm Henry VIII, I Am - Herman's Hermits: More
  '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' has been displaced by 'I'm Henry VIII, I Am', which will hold the no. 1 spot until August 14 1965, when 'I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher', takes over.

Top movie

• Ship of Fools More
  Having displaced 'The Sound of Music', it will be there until the weekend box office of Aug. 15 1965 when, 'A Very Special Favor', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: August 12 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: August 12 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 12th August More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 12th August More
• On-This-day.com history 12th August More
• On-This-day.com music history 12th August More
• Wikipedia.com: History August 12 More

Monthly holiday / awareness days in August

Food
National Catfish Month
National Goat Cheese Month
National Panini Month
Shop Online For Groceries Month
Rye Month

Health and Well-being
Children's Eye Health and Safety Month
Children's Vision and Learning Month
National Breastfeeding Month
National Immunization Awareness Month
National Minority Donor Awareness Month
National Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month
National Win With Civility Month
Neurosurgery Outreach Month
Psoriasis Awareness Month

Animal and Pets
World Mutt-i-grees Rescue Month

Other
American Artists Appreciation Month
American Adventures Month
American Indian Heritage Month - also Nov.
Black Business Month
LBoomers Making A Difference Month
LBystander Awareness Month
LChild Support Awareness Month
LGet Ready for Kindergarten Month
Happiness Happens Month
Motor Sports Awareness Month
National Read A Romance Month
National Traffic Awareness Month
National Truancy Prevention Month
National Water Quality Month
Tomboy Tools Month
What Will Be Your Legacy Month

August is:

August origin (from Wikipedia): Originally named Sextili (Latin), because it was the sixth month in the original ten-month Roman calendar: under Romulus in 753 BC, when March was the first month of the year.
"About 700 BC it became the eighth month when January and February were added to the year before March by King Numa Pompilius, who also gave it 29 days. Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 45 BC giving it its modern length of 31 days. In 8 BC it was renamed in honor of Augustus According to a Senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, he chose this month because it was the time of several of his great triumphs, including the conquest of Egypt. "

August at Wikipedia: More

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

Best selling books of 1965 More

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
• NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
• Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
• NASA TV: (video feed) More
  NASA TV schedule: More
• Public Domain eBook Links

  Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

• Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
  Home page: More
  RSS: More

Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.

US Government Holidays

• 2015 Postal Holidays More
• 2015 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More