August 26

On the 18th in 1918, the State of Kentucky became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which extended the right to vote to women. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on the 26th in 1918 and it became law.

Bainbridge Colby was also writer Mark Twain’s personal attorney.

August 25

Truman Capote died on the 25th in 1984, less than a month before his 60th birthday. Many consider him the best writer of the 20th century. Even putting Capote’s groundbreaking book In Cold Blood to the side and removing it from consideration, I have to agree with that sentiment. I was sold on Capote when I first read his comment concerning Jack Kerouac’s book On the Road. In Capote’s estimation, “It’s not writing at all, it’s typing.”

August 24

Captain Matthew Webb was nothing if not tenacious. In 1875, on his first attempt to swim across the English Channel from England to France, he was forced by strong winds and horrible sea conditions to turn back. On the 24th in 1875, he tried again. After smearing himself with grease, he dipped into the water at Dover, England. Followed by three boats, he left at ebb tide and despite the efforts of some rather unfriendly jellyfish, which kept stinging him; he swam towards Calais, France. When he neared the coast, near Cap Griz-Nez, strong offshore currents prevented him from reaching the shore and he languished near the beach for five hours. Finally, 21 hours and 45 minutes after leaving England he stepped on to French soil. This was the first un-aided swim across the English Channel. (See also August 6)

August 23

Sir William Wallace was brutally executed on the 23rd in 1305. He was a Scottish patriot who led the resistance to the English occupation of Scotland. He was the inspiration for Mel Gibson’s movie version of Randall Wallace’s novel Braveheart that in turn was inspired by the epic poem The Acts and Deeds of Sir William Wallace, Knight of Elderslie, which was written in the late 15th century by Blind Harry the Minstrel. In 2002, Wallace was ranked 48th in the 100 Greatest Britons poll and in 2003 the readers of the Glasgow Herald voted him the 10th Most Scottish Person. Following his arrest on August 5, Wallace was transported to London where he was tried in Westminster Hall. From here on things got rather nasty. Following his conviction (which was a foregone conclusion) on the 23rd, Wallace was taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to Smithfield Market. He was then hanged, drawn and quartered — strangled by hanging but released while still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, and then cut into four parts. His head was then placed on a pike on top of London Bridge.

August 22

On the 22nd in 1963, Joseph Albert Walker strapped himself into the cockpit of an X-15 aircraft and flew it to an altitude of 108 km thus becoming the first person to fly into outer space twice. He had previously flown the X-15 to an altitude of 106 km on July 19 of that year. This second flight to the rarefied atmosphere of outer space would be the last time anyone would fly a plane into outer space until 2004 when Mike Melvill flew Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 112 km.

August 21

The Siege of Stalingrad by Germans under the command of Adolph Hitler began on the 21st in 1941. Hitler apparently wasn’t a big fan of history. Had he been he might have understood, as Napoleon learned when he attempted to conquer Russia, that winter was Russia’s most effective defense against invasion. The Nazi’s siege of Stalingrad would last until February 2, 1943 with the Germans losing what was possibly the bloodiest and most costly battle in human history. Germany’s defeat marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany’s attempt to conquer the world.

August 20

On the 20th in 1866, President Andrew Johnson formally declared that the Civil War was finally over. Johnson was illiterate at the time of his marriage to his wife, Eliza McCardle, and it was she who taught him how to read and write. Johnson is the only president to hold every non-judicial post in the United States’ political system. He was a city councilman, mayor, state representative, state senator, governor, representative, senator, vice-president, and president. Johnson has been quoted saying that "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word."