Pierre Janssen, who was an astronomer, discovered helium on August 18, 1868. Wait, you ask, what is an astronomer doing discovering a chemical element? Ah, that’s the right question. Not only did Janssen discover helium, he was the first person in history to discover a new element, but not on Earth. In fact, at the… Continue reading

Those are the original Seven Commandments of Animalism, as espoused by Squealer and Napoleon, the two leaders of the revolution at Manor Farm. The world found out the whole story on August 17, 1945, when George Orwell’s Animal Farm was first published. As you might remember, it was a story about a revolution that didn’t… Continue reading

August 16, 1896 was a big day in the Klondike. Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack, and Dawson Charlie discovered gold on Rabbit Creek, a small(ish) stream feeding into the Klondike River. “Skookum Jim Mason” and “Dawson Charlie” were aliases — but not for any nefarious reasons. Skookum Jim’s real name was Keish, and Dawson Charlie… Continue reading

August 15 is a popular day for countries to declare or attain independence. Today is Independence Day in Korea, commemorating independence from Japan in 1945. It’s the same day in South and North Korea, but in South Korea it’s called Independence Day, while in North Korea it’s Fatherland Liberation Day. It’s Independence Day in India,… Continue reading

You never know — it might have been a dark and stormy night on August 14, 1975. A young couple, whose names were not Janet or Brad, might have been driving on King’s Road in London when one of their tires went flat. No mobile phones in those days, so they went in search of… Continue reading

August 13 is the most sinister of days — it’s International Lefthanders Day.  Somewhere around ten percent of the people in the world are left-handed, and for some reason, men are somewhat more likely than women to be left-handed. The word “sinister” came from Latin, where it originally meant left-handed — but even then it… Continue reading

It’s August 12, the Glorious Twelfth in England, where it’s the opening day of grouse hunting season. Except when the 12th falls on a Sunday. Then they open the season on Monday because it’s illegal to shoot birds on Sundays there. It’s not clear to me whether Sundays are okay for shooting things other than… Continue reading

If you do the (tedious, but straightforward) math converting a base 20 numbering system to base 10, then count backwards, then interpolate different calendar systems (which have changed regularly over the centuries), you eventually arrive at August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. Exactly 5,135 years ago today. Technically that’s the “proleptic” Gregorian calendar,… Continue reading

August 10 provides a good object lesson in how fast the world works now compared to the 1700s. It was July 4, 1776 that the British colonies in North America issued the Declaration of Independence. But the anniversary of the news finally reaching England is today, August 10. The phrase “breaking news” didn’t even exist… Continue reading

On August 9, 1899, Pamela Lyndon Goff was born in Queensland, Australia. She grew up to be an actress, and used the stage name “Pamela Lyndon Travers” because her family objected to her acting career.  She was pretty good, though, and joined a traveling Shakespearean acting company in Australia. From there she moved to England,… Continue reading