On August 10, 1675, the foundation stone was laid for the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, near London. Charles II charged the Astronomer Royal with finding “the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation." Time observations at the site established Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as a global standard. Also called Universal Time, GMT is now calculated from extra-galactic radio sources. In 1851, the Prime Meridian, the basis of longitude, was established at Greenwich (51° 28′ 40.12″ N, 0° 0′ 5.31″ W). It passes through the observatory, marked by a steel strip in the courtyard (pictured). It is also marked by a powerful green laser shining north across the London night sky.
On August 9, 1483, the recently completed Sistine Chapel was consecrated with a Mass. It replaced a structure dating from 1368. Michelangelo painted the chapel ceiling with Biblical stories (and prophets) between 1508 and 1512, and the altar fresco (“The Last Judgment”) between 1535 and 1541. He protested to Pope Julius II, who forced him into the project, that he was a sculptor, not a painter. Pictured: The Creation of Adam.
On August 8, 1969, Scottish photographer Iain Macmillan took the cover photo for The Beatles' 11th and last recorded album, Abbey Road. He had initially met Yoko Ono in 1966. The Beatles recorded most of their music at the EMI Studios on Abbey Road, St John's Wood, London, and decided to name their last album after the road. A policeman was hired to control traffic; Iain used a stepladder and took six pictures of the Beatles at the zebra crossing. His fifth photo (out of six) was the only photo in which the four Beatles are in step with one another. After the album’s release in the fall of 1969, the license plate on the white Volkswagen (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen.
August 7 is the birthdate of British archaeologist Louis S.B. Leakey. He and his wife, Mary (and their son, Richard), uncovered tools and fossilized bones of ancient hominines in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, East Africa. Their work (pictured) was critical in establishing human evolutionary development in Africa. Olduvai Gorge, "The Cradle of Mankind," is one of the world’s most important prehistoric sites. It was occupied by Homo habilis (tool user) approximately 1.9 million years ago, an ape-like human 1.8 million years ago, and Homo erectus (upright man) 1.2 million years ago. Homo sapiens (modern humans) are dated to have occupied the site 17,000 years ago.
August 6 is the birthdate of actress Lucille Ball. She and Desi Arnaz formed Desilu Productions in 1950 to sell their vaudeville act as a TV series to CBS. The project premiered in 1951 as “I Love Lucy.” Desi/Lucy divorced in 1960, but in 1962 Lucy became president of Desilu, the first woman to run a major television studio. The company produced or filmed many other TV series, including Our Miss Brooks, The Untouchables, Make Room for Daddy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, My Three Sons, I Spy, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. Desilu was sold and merged into Paramount Pictures in 1967.
August 5 is the birthdate of film director and actor John Huston. Born in Nevada, Missouri, he wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are classics, including: The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Moby Dick (1956), The Misfits (1961), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). He acted in at least 28 films, memorably as the corrupt Noah Cross (pictured) in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” (1974).
August 4 is the birthdate of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, all-time master of the cornet and trumpet and (later) a unique vocalist. He had many hit recordings from the 1920s onward, including "Stardust," "What a Wonderful World," "When the Saints Go Marching In," "Dream a Little Dream of Me," "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Stompin' at the Savoy" and (in 1964) “Hello, Dolly!” He had a unique tone and an unmatched talent for melodic improvisation, and it was largely because of Armstrong that the trumpet emerged as a solo instrument in jazz and is used widely today.
August 3 is Tony Bennett’s birthday – he’s a mind-boggling 86. Tony recorded his first hit song in 1951. By 1979, his career had floundered, he nearly died of a cocaine overdose, and the IRS was trying to seize his home in L.A. But beginning in 1990, he staged a successful career comeback with the help of his son, Danny. His 1992 recording “Perfectly Frank,” a collection of 24 standards in tribute to Frank Sinatra, went gold and earned a Grammy Award. IMHO, it’s one of the greatest collections of songs from the Great American Songbook.
August 2 is the birthdate of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor and designer of the Statue of Liberty. While traveling in the Middle East in 1855-56, he discovered his passion for large-scale public monuments and colossal sculptures when he visited the Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. In 1865, he began supporting Edouard de Laboulaye’s proposal to present a monument representing freedom and democracy to the United States, and in 1870 began designing "Liberty Enlightening the World." Bartholdi oversaw the complete assembly of the statue (made from sheets of copper) in 1886.
August 1 is the birthday of the great Herman Melville, American novelist, short story writer and poet, known for his masterpiece, Moby-Dick (1851). He enjoyed early success with Typee (1846), a travel adventure, but his popularity quickly waned. He was a forgotten figure when he died in 1891. Moby Dick’s tale of the wandering Ishmael, the obsessed Captain Ahab and the enigmatic white whale explores many fundamental themes, including the nature of good and evil and the existence of God. When the book was published, Melville wrote to Nathaniel Hawthorne, “I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb.”
