On this day: August 1
Oxygen is discovered, Adolf Hitler presides over the opening of the Olympics, a new superhero is introduced, tragedy strikes the University of Texas and a new all-music TV network debuts, all on this day.
BC 30: Roman politician and general Mark Antony commits suicide by stabbing himself with his sword in the mistaken belief that his lover Cleopatra had already done so. He would end up dying in her arms.
BC 30: Roman politician and general Mark Antony commits suicide by stabbing himself with his sword in the mistaken belief that his lover Cleopatra had already done so. He would end up dying in her arms.
1498: Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.
1774: British Presbyterian minister and chemist Joseph Priestley identifies a gas which he called "dephlogisticated air," later known as oxygen.
1779: American lawyer and lyricist Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," is born in what was Frederick County, Md.
1800: The Act of Union 1800 is passed, merging the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1819: Writer Herman Melville ("Moby-Dick") is born in New York City.
1831: A new London Bridge opens, replacing the original 600-year-old bridge. The new bridge would last until 1968, when it was purchased by Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch for nearly $2.5 million and reconstructed at Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
1834: Slavery is abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force.
1876: Colorado is admitted as the 38th U.S. state.
1903: Frontierswoman and professional scout Calamity Jane, best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, dies in Terry, S.D., at age 51.
1907: The first Scout camp begins on Brownsea Island in southern England. The camp, led by Robert Baden-Powell (pictured), is widely considered the origin of the worldwide Scouting movement.
1907: The U.S. Army establishes the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, that later will become the U.S. Air Force. The division consisted at its inception of one officer (Capt. Charles deForest Chandler, seen here on the left in 1912) and two enlisted men and focused on the use of hot-air balloons.
1914: Germany declares war on Russia at the opening of World War I.
1936: Adolf Hitler presides over the Olympic games as they open in Berlin.
1942: Jerry Garcia, who would go on to help form the band the Grateful Dead, is born in San Francisco.
1944: Anne Frank makes her last entry in her diary. Three days later she and her family are arrested.
1946: President Harry S. Truman signs the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, establishing the Atomic Energy Commission to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. The commission would be dissolved in 1975.
1954: Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, premieres in New York City.
1957: The United States and Canada agree to form the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). The joint organization would provide aerospace warning, air sovereignty and defense for the two countries and be headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo.
1960: Public Enemy rapper Chuck D is born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour in Queens, N.Y.
1962: Spider-Man makes his debut in Marvel Comics Amazing Fantasy issue #15.
1963: Rapper Coolio ("Gangsta's Paradise") is born in Monessen, Pa.
1966: Charles Whitman kills 14 people at The University of Texas at Austin before being killed by the police. He kills three of his victims within the university's administrative building before shooting 10 others, including a pregnant woman, from the 28th floor observation deck of the building (on the right). Earlier that morning he stabbed to death his wife and mother at their homes, raising his death toll to 16. Another 32 people were injured in the attack before shot and killed by Austin police officers.
1971: George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh takes place in New York City.
1971: "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" debuts. The show was canceled May 1974, due to the couple's divorce, though the duo would reunite in 1976 for the identically-formatted "The Sonny & Cher Show," which ran until 1977.
1973: The movie "American Graffiti," starring Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams and Mackenzie Phillips, and directed by George Lucas, premieres.
1974: The United Nations Security Council authorizes the UNFICYP to create the "Green Line" buffer zone, dividing Cyprus into two zones, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus occupies the southern two-thirds of the island and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus occupies the northern third. The demilitarized zone is seen here from the Turkish side near the Paphos Gate in the city of Nicosia.
1981: MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. The first hour also features videos by Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, The Who, Cliff Richard, The Pretenders, Todd Rundgren, Styx, Split Enz and .38 Special.
1988: Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh begins broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program, "The Rush Limbaugh Show."
1993: The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 comes to a peak. The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States, with $15 billion in damages. It also destroyed 100,000 homes, inundated 15 million acres of farmland and officially killed 32 people.
1993: Reggie Jackson is admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
1994: Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announce that they had been married 11 weeks earlier in the Dominican Republic.
1996: MTV launches another channel known as MTV2. The original purpose of the channel was to give music fans a place to see constant, commercial-free music videos, once the original MTV had started to change its direction from music and concentrate on reality television and soap operas.
2001: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office.
2007: The I-35W Mississippi River bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapses during the evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The NTSB cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, and asserted that additional weight on the bridge at the time of the collapse contributed to the catastrophic failure.
