August 20

On the 20th in 1882, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture made its debut in Moscow. This piece, while certainly not Mozart, undeniably has great force and vitality. Equally undeniable is the fact that it changed forever the way that the world looks at breakfast cereal.

August 19

On the 19th in 1960 The Soviet Union, continuing their efforts to develop a manned space station, launched Sputnik 2, which had on board two dogs, named Belka and Strelka, into orbit. Also on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. In a stunning example of species discrimination, the mice, rats and plants were not given names. The Soviet Union had been sending dogs into space since July 1951 and most of them survived. Belka and Stelka were probably the least embarrassing names. With the exception of the one dog named Lisa, the others dogs were probably extremely embarrassed by the names they were given. How would you feel if you were named Dezik, Tsygan, Ryjik, Bolik or Zib? I wouldn’t leave my apartment if I was saddled with a name like one of those or Smelaya, Malyshka or Otvazhnaya. There were at least 15 other dogs with names equally silly. It is almost as if the Soviets went out of their way to choose names that seem designed to make people laugh at these hapless pups. It is just this sort of insensitivity that would eventually lead to the fall of the Soviet Union and the Russians’ loss of primacy in the space race.

August 18

On the 18th in 1587, Virginia Dare, whose grandfather was John Witte, Governor of the Colony of Roanoke, became the first English child born in the Americas.
Sir Walter Raleigh founded the colony of Roanoke in 1584 under a charter granted to him by Queen Elizabeth. Under the terms of the charter, this wasn’t quite an outright gift, as one generally supposes a charter to be, it was little more than an option on the development rights of the land in the New World. Sort of like getting an option on the film rights to a book, you either make the movie or the rights revert to the author. Raleigh had ten years in which to make the place a going concern. This proved to be a bit more difficult than, I am sure, he thought it would be. His first attempt ended in failure but, not really wanting to give up his development rights, he gave it another shot. In 1587, Raleigh named John Witte Governor and sent him on his merry way to attempt to undue the damage done by the previous attempt at settlement, during which the colonists’ response to Native American inability to provide enough food for the ill-equipped and poorly staffed colony was to kill the Native Americans. After that, the indigenous population was understandably reluctant to offer their assistance. Shortly after his granddaughter’s birth, Witte, taking stock of the colony’s resources, which were, once again, running low, probably recognized the wisdom in making himself scarce. Witte graciously and selflessly offered to return to England to pick up more supplies. Once in England, one thing led to another, that whole Spanish Armada and destruction of the British Empire thing springs to mind, and Witte wasn’t able to even begin the return trip to Roanoke until 1590. He was well intentioned though and he did make it back for his granddaughter’s third birthday on the 18th in 1590. Did the little brat rush down to the shore, joyfully waving at her approaching grandpa? No, she didn’t, the little ingrate. When Witte finally dropped anchor, he discovered that his granddaughter and everyone else were nowhere to be found. The whole place was deserted. Oh ye of little faith. Roanoke came to be known as the lost colony. Lost colony? Was it like losing your keys? Did he check under the sofa cushions and look in the junk drawer in the kitchen? It isn’t a lost colony. The guy had been gone three years! Lost? I think not. Abandoned? Much more likely. After more than 400 hundred years it doesn’t really matter however and Roanoke: The Lost Colony has much more promise as a t-shirt than does Roanoke: Where the Hell is it?

August 17

On the 17th in 1877, Henry McCarty shot F.P. Cahill, a blacksmith living in Arizona. McCarty would achieve fame, or at least notoriety, as Billy the Kid. Cahill would achieve fame as Billy the Kid’s first victim when he died on the 18th. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is not the sort of thing that Warhol had in mind when he pointed out that ‘in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.’

August 16

If I were to mention Yuri Gagarin, people would in all likelihood, know that I was referring to the first person, from the USSR, to reach outer space in a capsule. Were I then to throw out the name John Glenn everyone would realize that I meant the first person, an American, to go into orbit around the planet. If I, at that point, tossed the name Joseph Kittinger on to the table, my suspicions are that it would elicit a resounding ‘Who?’ from those gathered around it. On the 16^th, in 1960, Kittinger got in to a balloon and rose to an altitude of 102,800 feet. Once there, at the very edge of space, Kittinger stood up and jumped out of the balloon, on purpose. It was, of course, why the U. S. Air Force had put him in the balloon in the first place. By his seemingly reckless act Kittinger became the first person to 1) reach outer space and 2) break the sound barrier; he reached a speed of over 714 miles per hour during his free fall back to earth, and, yes, he survived. Today Kittinger is Vice President of Operations for [I kid you not] Rosie O’Grady’s Flying Circus, in Orlando, Florida.

August 15

On the 15th in 1977, Ohio Wesleyan University’s and The Perkins Observatory’s involvement, since 1963, in the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) project finally bore some fruit. The University was the operator of a radio telescope playfully nicknamed The Big Ear. When I found out about this thing, I was immediately reminded of the tale Little Red Riding Hood: My what big ears you have? The better to hear you with my dear. On the 15th, statistics professor Jerry R. Ehman was reviewing results printed out by the Big Ear and noticed a very distinct signal bearing all the hallmarks of a radio signal of non-solar system and non-terrestrial origin. Upon his discovery of this he made a notation on the print out which was “WOW” and from that moment on this signal has come to be known as The Wow Signal. Personally, I think ‘WOW’ is a bit too much of an understatement for my likes. If I were to suddenly come face to face with convincing evidence of a radio signal sent from deep space what would immediately spring to mind is a quaint two word phrase that begins with Holy. Not one to dabble in phrases that could be considered impolite I will have to give that one a bit more thought. I will let you know if I come up with an acceptable alternative, though I think that will prove to be elusive.

August 14

At this point in our time on this particular planet, I think most of us have gotten used to delays and, hopefully, manage to take them in our stride with some measure of dignity. After all there is little that can be done when the cable company tells us that a technician will be at our home at some time between 9 am and 8 pm during the second week in March and we have no choice but to patiently wait. In New York, where people only seem happy when there is something to complain about, people have started grumbling about delays in the progress of construction of that memorial to the event which occurred on September 11, 2001. Eventually a sense of resignation will come over the loudest of these people and they will finally shut up about it for a while. They are New Yorkers however and those sort of people are only content when they have something to complain about. New Yorkers are rather fun to watch when they get ticked off and it can make for an amusing day to watch them become frustrated and start mouthing off. If they’re making such a fuss about a delay in construction of a memorial for something that only occurred five years ago can’t you just imagine what they would be like if they were suddenly transported to thirteenth century Germany? Construction of the Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and the building wasn’t finished until August 14th 1880!