<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National Filet Mignon Day'. French for 'cute fillet' or 'dainty fillet'.
- From Wikipedia (Filet mignon):
'Filet mignon is a steak cut of beef taken from the smaller end of the
tenderloin, or psoas major of the beef carcass, usually a steer or heifer.
In French this cut can also be called filet de bœuf, which translates in
English to beef fillet. When found on a menu in France, filet mignon
generally refers to pork rather than beef.
The tenderloin (not to be confused with the short loin) runs along both
sides of the spine, and is usually harvested as two long snake-shaped cuts
of beef. The tenderloin is sometimes sold whole. When sliced along the
short dimension, creating roughly round cuts, and tube cuts, the cuts
(fillets) from the small forward end are considered to be filet mignon.
Those from the center are tournedos however, some butchers in the United
States label all types of tenderloin steaks filet mignon. In fact, the
shape of the true filet mignon may be a hindrance when cooking, so most
restaurants sell steaks from the wider end of the tenderloin - it is both
cheaper and much more presentable.
The tenderloin is the most tender cut of beef and is also arguably the most
desirable and therefore the most expensive. The average steer or heifer
provides no more than 500 grams of filet mignon. Because the muscle is not
weight-bearing, it contains less connective tissue, which makes it tender.
However, it is generally not as flavorful as some other cuts of beef
(example, primal rib cuts), and is often wrapped in bacon to enhance
flavor, and/or is served with a sauce'.
[The Hankster says] Can we spell that with an 's'' on the end. So good, so small.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'International Lefthanders Day'.
Since 1976 by Lefthanders International.
- From Wikipedia (International Lefthanders Day):
'August 13 is designated International lefthanders Day by lefthanders
International. It was first observed on the 13th of August, in the year
1976. As the name suggests, it is meant to promote awareness of the
inconveniences faced by left-handers in a predominantly right-handed world.
It celebrates their uniqueness and differences, who are from seven to ten
percent of the world's population. Thousands of left-handed people in
today's society have to adapt to use right handed tools and objects.
There’s also a more serious side to the day, which spreads awareness about
the special needs of left-handed kids. Also, left-handed people may be more
likely to develop schizophrenia because of their enhanced creativity and
imagination'.
* 'National Bowling Day'.
Second Saturday in August, by The Bowling Proprietors’ Association of
America, Inc .
[The Hankster says] Fun stuff.
* 'National Garage Sale Day'.
Second Saturday in August, since 2001.
[The Hankster says] Maybe you can find a used bowling ball, cheap.
<> Awareness / Observances:
<> Historical events on August 13
* 'In 1913 - Brearley produces 1st stainless steel .
- From Wikipedia: 'Harry Brearley (18 February 1871 – 14 July 1948) was an
English metallurgist, usually credited with the invention of rustless steel
(later to be called stainless steel in the anglophone world).
In the troubled years immediately before World War I, arms manufacturing
increased significantly in the UK, but practical problems were encountered
due to erosion (excessive wear) of the internal surfaces of gun barrels.
Brearley began to research new steels which could better resist the erosion
caused by high temperatures (rather than corrosion, as is often mentioned
in this regard). He began to examine the addition of chromium to steel,
which was known to raise the material’s melting point, as compared to the
standard carbon steels.
The research concentrated on quantifying the effects of varying the levels
of carbon (C, at concentrations around 0.2 weight %) and chromium (Cr, in
the range of 6 to 15 weight %).
In order to undertake metallography to study the microstructure of the
experimental alloys (the main factor responsible for a steel's mechanical
properties) it was necessary to polish and etch the metallic samples
produced. For a carbon steel, a dilute solution of nitric acid in alcohol
is sufficient to produce the required etching, but Brearley found that the
new chromium steels were very resistant to chemical attack. It was probably
Harry Brearley’s upbringing in Sheffield, a city famous for the manufacture
of cutlery since the 16th century, which led him to appreciate the
potential of these new steels for applications not only in high-temperature
service, as originally envisioned, but also in the mass-production of
food-related applications such as cutlery, saucepans and processing
equipment etc. Up to that time carbon-steel knives were prone to unhygienic
rusting if they were not frequently polished and only expensive sterling
silver or EPNS cutlery was generally available to avoid such problems. With
this in mind Brearley extended his examinations to include tests with food
acids such as vinegar and lemon juice, with very promising results.
Brearley initially called the new alloy rustless steel the more euphonic
stainless steel was suggested by Ernest Stuart of R.F. Mosley's, a local
cutlery manufacturer at Portland Works, and eventually prevailed although
Mosley's used the Rusnorstain trademark for many years. It is reported that
the first true stainless steel, a 0.24wt% C, 12.8wt% Cr ferrous alloy, was
produced by Brearley in an electric furnace on 13 August 1913. He was
subsequently awarded the Iron and Steel Institute's Bessemer Gold Medal in
1920. The American Society for Metals gives the date for Brearley's
creation of casting number 1008 (12.8% chromium, 0.44% manganese, 0.2%
silicon, 0.24% carbon and 85.32% iron) as 20 August 1913.
Virtually all research projects into the further development of stainless
steels were interrupted by the 1914–18 War, but efforts were renewed in the
1920s. Brearley had left the Brown Firth Laboratories in 1915, following
disagreements regarding patent rights, but the research continued under the
direction of his successor, Dr. W. H. Hatfield. It is Hatfield who is
credited with the development, in 1924, of a stainless steel which even
today is probably the widest-used alloy of this type, the so-called 18/8,
which in addition to chromium, includes nickel (Ni) in its composition
(18wt% Cr, 8wt% Ni)'.
* 'In 1779, American Revolutionary War: The Royal Navy defeats the
Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval
forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. .
- From Wikipedia: The Expedition's goal was to reclaim control of what is
now mid-coast Maine from the British who had seized it a month earlier and
renamed it New Ireland.
- From Wikipedia: 'The Penobscot Expedition was a 44-ship American naval
task force mounted during the Revolutionary War by the Provincial Congress
of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The flotilla of 19 warships and 25
smaller support vessels sailed from Boston on July 19, 1779 for the upper
Penobscot Bay in the District of Maine carrying a ground expeditionary
force of more than 1,000 colonial Marines and militiamen. Also included was
a 100-man artillery detachment under the command of Lt. Colonel Paul
Revere. The Expedition's goal was to reclaim control of what is now
mid-coast Maine from the British who had seized it a month earlier and
renamed it New Ireland. It was the largest American naval expedition of the
war. The fighting took place both on land and at sea in and around the
mouth of the Penobscot and Majabigwaduce Rivers at what is today Castine,
Maine over a period of three weeks in July and August of 1779. One of its
greatest victories of the war for the British, the Expedition was also the
United States' worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor 162 years later in
1941'.
* 'In 1889, William Gray patents coin-operated telephone. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Payphones were preceded by pay stations, manned by
telephone company attendants who would collect rapid payment for calls
placed. The Connecticut Telephone Co. reportedly had a payphone in their
New Haven office beginning 1 June 1880 the fee was handed to an attendant.
In 1889, a public telephone with a coin-pay mechanism was installed at the
Hartford Bank in Hartford, Connecticut by the Southern New England
Telephone Co. It was a post-pay machine coins were inserted at the end of a
conversation. The coin mechanism was invented by William Gray he was issued
a series of patents for his devices, beginning with US#454470 issued 23 Jun
1891 for a 'Signal Device for Telephone Pay-Stations' which rang a bell for
each coin inserted. He subsequently founded the Telephone Pay Station Co.
in 1891. The pre-pay phone debuted in Chicago in 1898'.
* 'In 1914, Carl Wickman begins Greyhound, the 1st US bus line, in
Minnesota. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Greyhound Lines, Inc., usually shortened to Greyhound,
is an intercity bus common carrier serving over 2,700 destinations across
North America. The company's first route began in Hibbing, Minnesota, in
1914, and the company adopted the name The Greyhound Corporation in 1929.
Since October 2007, Greyhound has been a subsidiary of Scottish
transportation company FirstGroup, but continues to be based in Dallas,
Texas, where it has been headquartered since 1987. Greyhound and sister
companies in FirstGroup America are the largest motorcoach operators in the
United States and Canada'.
* 'In 1924, The Prisoner's Song, by Vernon Dalhart became the first country
music record to sell one million copies. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Prisoner's Song, is a song copyrighted by Vernon
Dalhart in 1924 in the name of Dalhart's cousin Guy Massey, who had sung it
while staying at Dalhart's home and had in turn heard it from his brother
Robert Massey, who may have heard it while serving time in prison.
The Prisoner's Song was one of the best-selling songs of the 1920s,
particularly in the recording by Vernon Dalhart. The Vernon Dalhart version
was recorded on Victor Records in October 1924 and marketed in the
hillbilly music genre. It was likely one of the best-selling records of the
early 20th century. Although contemporary data show that Victor pressed
slightly over 1.3 million copies during the record's peak years of
popularity, anecdotal accounts sourced from a 1940s promotional flyer
report sales as high as 7 million. The song's publisher at the time,
Shapiro, Bernstein and Co., reportedly sold over one million copies of the
song's sheet music.
It was later performed by, among others, Hank Snow, Bill Monroe and Brenda
Lee. The first verse was sung by Liberace at the end of an episode of the
1960s television show Batman in which Liberace played the double role of
twin criminal brothers, both of whom ended the episode behind bars.
The song was included in Lyle Kessler's play Orphans and the film
adaptation of the same name which the character of Harold drunkenly
mumbles. The verse sung was altered to if I had the wings of an anger, over
these prison walls I would fly, Straight to the arms of my mutter, and then
I'd be willing to die'.
* 'In 1934, Al Capp's comic strip, L'il Abner, made its debut in
newspapers. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Li'l Abner is a satirical American comic strip that
appeared in many newspapers in the United States, Canada and Europe,
featuring a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain
village of Dogpatch, USA. Written and drawn by Al Capp (1909–1979), the
strip ran for 43 years, from August 13, 1934 through November 13, 1977. It
was distributed by United Feature Syndicate. Comic strips typically dealt
with northern urban experiences before Capp introduced Li'l Abner, the
first strip based in the South. Although Capp was from Connecticut, he
spent 43 years writing about a fictional southern town. The comic strip had
60 million readers in over 900 American newspapers and 100 foreign papers
in 28 countries. Author M. Thomas Inge says Capp had a profound influence
on the way the world viewed the American South'.
* 'In 1942, Henry Ford unveiled his 'Soybean Car'. It was a plastic-bodied
car that weighed about 1000 lbs. less than a steel car. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The soybean car, more recently referred to as the hemp
body car, was a car built with agricultural plastic. Although the formula
used to create the plasticized panels has been lost, it is conjectured that
the first iteration of the body was made partially from soybeans and hemp.
The body was lighter and therefore more fuel efficient than a normal metal
body. It was made by Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, through the work of
scientist/botanist George Washington Carver and was introduced to public
view on August 13, 1941. It was made, in part, as a hedge against the
rationing of steel during World War II. It was designed to run on hemp
fuel'.
* 'In 1942, Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the
'Development of Substitute Materials' project, better known as the
Manhattan Project (a research and development project that produced the
first nuclear weapons). .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Manhattan Project was a research and development
project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. It was
led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General
Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers physicist J. Robert
Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the
actual bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the
Manhattan District Manhattan gradually superseded the official codename,
Development of Substitute Materials, for the entire project. Along the way,
the project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys. The
Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than
130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (about $26 billion in 2016
dollars). Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and producing the
fissile materials, with less than 10% for development and production of the
weapons. Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across
the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Two types of atomic bomb were developed during the war a relatively simple
gun-type fission weapon was made using uranium while a more complex
plutonium implosion-type weapon was designed concurrently. For the Gun-Type
weapon development uranium-235 (an isotope that makes up only 0.7 percent
of natural uranium) was required. Chemically identical to the most common
isotope, uranium-238, and with almost the same mass, it proved difficult to
separate the two. Three methods were employed for uranium enrichment:
electromagnetic, gaseous and thermal. Most of this work was performed at
Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to
produce plutonium. Reactors were constructed at Oak Ridge and Hanford,
Washington, in which uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium.
The plutonium was then chemically separated from the uranium. The gun-type
design proved impractical to use with plutonium so the implosion-type
weapon was developed in a concerted design and construction effort at the
project's principal research and design laboratory in Los Alamos, New
Mexico.
The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German
nuclear weapon project. Through Operation Alsos, Manhattan Project
personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they
gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up German scientists.
Despite the Manhattan Project's tight security, Soviet atomic spies still
penetrated the program.
The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb at the
Trinity test, conducted at New Mexico's Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery
Range on 16 July 1945. Little Boy, a gun-type weapon, and Fat Man, an
implosion-type weapon, were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, respectively. In the immediate postwar years, the Manhattan
Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation
Crossroads, developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network
of national laboratories, supported medical research into radiology and
laid the foundations for the nuclear navy. It maintained control over
American atomic weapons research and production until the formation of the
United States Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947'.
* 'In 1942, Walt Disney's fifth full-length animated film, Bambi, was
released to theaters. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Bambi is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by
David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt
Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author
Felix Salten. The film was released by RKO Radio Pictures on August 13,
1942, and is the fifth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.
The main characters are Bambi, a white-tailed deer, his parents (the Great
Prince of the forest and his unnamed mother), his friends Thumper (a
pink-nosed rabbit), and Flower (a skunk), and his childhood friend and
future mate, Faline. For the movie, Disney took the liberty of changing
Bambi's species into a white-tailed deer from his original species of roe
deer, since roe deer are not native to North America, and the white-tailed
deer is more widespread in the United States. The film received three
Academy Award nominations: Best Sound (Sam Slyfield), Best Song (for Love
Is a Song sung by Donald Novis) and Original Music Score.
In June 2008, the American Film Institute presented a list of its 10 Top
10—the best ten films in each of ten classic American film genres—after
polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Bambi placed third
in animation. In December 2011, the film was added to the National Film
Registry of the Library of Congress'.
* 'In 1952, In Los Angeles, CA, the original version of 'Hound Dog' was
recorded by Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July
25, 1984) was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter. She was
the first to record Leiber and Stoller's Hound Dog, in 1952, which became
her biggest hit, staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R and B
chart in 1953 and selling almost two million copies. However, her success
was overshadowed three years later, when Elvis Presley recorded his more
popular rendition of Hound Dog Similarly, Thornton's Ball 'n' Chain
(written in 1961 but not released until 1968) had a bigger impact when
performed and recorded by Janis Joplin in the late 1960s'.
* 'In 1965, The Beatles album 'Help!' was released in the United States. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Help! is the fifth studio album by English rock group
the Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film Help! Produced by George
Martin, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form. Seven of
these, including the singles Help! and Ticket to Ride, appeared in the film
and took up the first side of the vinyl album. The second side contained
seven other releases including the most-covered song ever written,
Yesterday
The American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven
songs with instrumental material from the film. Of the other seven songs
that were on the British release, two were released on the US version of
the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, two were back-to-back on the next US
single and then appeared on Yesterday and Today, and three had already been
on Beatles VI.
In 2012, Help! was voted 331st on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500
Greatest Albums of All Time In September 2013, after the British
Phonographic Industry changed their sales award rules, the album was
declared as having gone platinum'.
* 'In 1969, The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week
quarantine to enjoy a ticker tape parade in New York, New York. That
evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, California, they are awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Help! is the fifth studio album by English rock group
the Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film Help! Produced by George
Martin, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form. Seven of
these, including the singles Help! and Ticket to Ride, appeared in the film
and took up the first side of the vinyl album. The second side contained
seven other releases including the most-covered song ever written,
Yesterday
The American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven
songs with instrumental material from the film. Of the other seven songs
that were on the British release, two were released on the US version of
the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, two were back-to-back on the next US
single and then appeared on Yesterday and Today, and three had already been
on Beatles VI.
In 2012, Help! was voted 331st on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500
Greatest Albums of All Time In September 2013, after the British
Phonographic Industry changed their sales award rules, the album was
declared as having gone platinum'.
* 'In 1996, Microsoft releases its Internet Explorer 3 web browser,
effectively beginning the 'Browser War' with Netscape. .
- From Wikipedia: 'A browser war is competition for dominance in the usage
share of web browsers. The first browser war was Microsoft's Internet
Explorer against Netscape's Navigator during the late 1990s. Browser wars
continued with the decline of Internet Explorer's market share since 2003
and the increasing popularity of browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Google
Chrome, Safari, and Opera.
In more recent years, the introduction of HTML5, CSS 3 and extensive
client-side scripting to the World Wide Web, as well as more widespread use
of smartphones and other mobile devices for browsing the web, have added
new browsers, ensuring that browser battles continue.
By mid-1995 the World Wide Web had received a great deal of attention in
popular culture and the mass media. Netscape Navigator was the most widely
used web browser and Microsoft had licensed Mosaic to create Internet
Explorer 1.0, which it had released as part of the Microsoft Windows 95
Plus! Pack in August.
In October 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was released. The release party in
San Francisco featured a ten-foot-tall letter e logo. Netscape employees
showing up to work the following morning found the giant logo on their
front lawn, with a sign attached that read From the IE team ... We Love You
The Netscape employees promptly knocked it over and set a giant figure of
their Mozilla dinosaur mascot atop it, holding a sign reading Netscape 72,
Microsoft 18 representing the market distribution.
Internet Explorer 4 changed the tides of the browser wars. It was
integrated into Microsoft Windows, which gave it a large installation base.
During these releases, it was common for web designers to display 'best
viewed in Netscape' or 'best viewed in Internet Explorer' logos. These
images often identified a specific browser version and were commonly linked
to a source from which the stated browser could be downloaded. These logos
generally recognized the divergence between the standards supported by the
browsers and signified which browser was used for testing the pages. In
response, supporters of the principle that web sites should be compliant
with World Wide Web Consortium standards and hence viewable with any
browser started the Viewable With Any Browser campaign, which employed its
own logo similar to the partisan ones'.
* 'In 2010, Michael Phelps wins 11th career gold medal most gold medals
ever by an athlete. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an
American competition swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time,
with a total of 26 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for
Olympic gold medals (22, more than twice that of the second-highest record
holders), Olympic gold medals in individual events (13), and Olympic medals
in individual events (15). In winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing
Games, Phelps broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's record of 7
first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. Five of those victories
were in individual events, tying the single Games record. In the 2012
Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four golds and two silver medals,
making him the most successful athlete of the Games for the third Olympics
in a row.
Phelps is the long course world record holder in the 100-meter butterfly,
200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley as well as the former
long course world record holder in the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter
individual medley. He has won a total of 80 medals in major international
long-course competition, totalling 65 gold, 13 silver, and 3 bronze
spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships.
Phelps's international titles and record-breaking performances have earned
him the World Swimmer of the Year Award seven times and American Swimmer of
the Year Award nine times as well as the FINA Swimmer of the Year Award in
2012. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports
Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award.
After the 2008 Summer Olympics, Phelps started the Michael Phelps
Foundation, which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting
healthier lifestyles. Phelps retired following the 2012 Olympics, but in
April 2014 he made a comeback. He qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his fifth Olympics. Phelps was chosen to be the
flag bearer of the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics Parade of
Nations'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in August
Food
National Catfish Month
National Goat Cheese Month
Rye Month
Health
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
Neurosurgery Outreach Month
Psoriasis Awareness Month
Animal / Pets
Other
American Adventures Month
American Artists Appreciation Month
American Indian Heritage Month
American History Essay Contest
Black Business Month
Boomers Making A Difference Month
Bystander Awareness Month
Child Support Awareness Month
Get 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
Shop Online For Groceries Month
What Will Be Your Legacy Month
XXXI Summer Olympics: 5-21
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 1966 More
Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More