September 2

You might want to consider the following the next time you use the top-brown setting on your toaster oven. Thomas Farriner was a baker who plied his trade in a building on Pudding Lane in London, England. On the 2nd in 1666, London was in the midst of a storm whose defining features were high winds but very little rain. At 2:00 a.m., a fire[i] broke out in Farriner’s bakery. Fed by the high winds the fire raged uncontrollably for three days until almost the entire city had been consumed by the flames. Surprisingly not many people died but the greater part of London was burned to the ground. Initially, Farriner was suspected of having set the fire but he was cleared of the charges when Robert Hubert confessed to the arson[ii]. It would take London decades to recover. The fire did however give restoration England the opportunity to rebuild the city in what would become the most extensive urban renewal project of all time, securing Christopher Wren[iii]’s place in the history of architectural innovation.
[i] The fire that virtually destroyed London was hot enough to melt the iron locks and gates to the city and the steel laying about on the piers. Steel has a melting point of 3000 degrees Fahrenheit.
[ii] Robert Hubert, described by contemporary reports as being a ‘simple minded French clockmaker’, confessed to authorities that he was an agent of the Pope and that he had set the fire that burned London to the ground. Despite ample evidence that Hubert was indeed out of his mind, and that he had not even been in the country when the fire started, a court convicted him and he was hanged on September 28, 1666
[iii] In addition to Wren’s most famous building, St. Paul’s Cathedral, he also built 50 smaller churches following the fire.

September 1

Henry VII, King of England had a way with women. Not a particularly nice way with them, but a way with women nonetheless. In his pursuit of Lady Anne Boleyn, on the 1st in 1532 he created her a Marchioness of Pembroke, a title specifically crafted by Henry for her. Anne was the first woman in England to be honored with a peerage in her own right, as opposed to inheriting it from a husband. At this point in his career however, Henry thought that it was the least he could do for his intended bride. How thoughtful of him, don’t you agree? I guess Anne’s charm must have eventually worn off because Henry would have his beloved beheaded on the 19th of May in 1536.

August 31

Anyone with even the tiniest bit of ambition wants to be known as the first in some endeavor of note. Mary Ann Nichols, a young woman, estranged from her husband and family and suffering from the ravages of alcoholism, who had been reduced to supporting herself as a prostitute as she gamely tried to make her way on the stormy sea of life, was no different. On the 31st in 1888, she became the first victim of England’s most famous serial killer Jack the Ripper. (The comments about Mary’s state in life were taken from the transcript of the inquest which was held investigating her death

This next bit has nothing whatever to do with Mary but it is just too good to leave out: On the 31st in 1920, at 7:00 a.m., Mrs. Marie Ruoff Byrum became the first woman to legally cast a vote under the authority of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

August 30

The 30th is a day all too aware of its civic responsibilities. In 1835, the city of Melbourne Australia was founded. Exactly one year to the day later, in 1836, the city of Houston, Texas was founded. I fail to understand why with such a head start, Melbourne only has six sister cities while Houston has fifteen. What exactly is the problem here? Is Houston that much friendlier than Melbourne? Having as it does 27 sister-cities, Honolulu, Hawaii, blows them both away. Honolulu formally became a city on the 30th in 1850.
Mwlbourne's are Osaka, Japan; Tianjin, China; Thessaloniki, Greece; Boston, United States; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Milan, Italy
Houston's sisters are Aberdeen, Scotland; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Baku, Azerbaijan; Chiba, Japan; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Huelva, Spain; Istanbul, Turkey; Leipzig, Germany; Luanda, Angola; Nice, France; Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Shenzhen, People's Republic of China; Stavanger, Norway; Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China; Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Tyumen, Russia
Honolulu, the king of the barnyard's sisters are Baguio, Philippines; Baku, Azerbaijan; Bruyeres, France; Caracas, Venzuela; Cebu City, Philippines; Funchal, Portugal; Hainan Island, the People's Republic of China; Hiroshima, Japan; Hue City, Vietnam; Incheon, South Korea; Kaohsiung Municipality, Taiwan; Laoag City, Philippines; Manila, Philippines; Mombasa, Kenya; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Mumbai, India; Naha City, Okinawa, Japan; San Juan, Philippines; - San Juan, Puerto Rico; Santiago, Philippines; Seoul, South Korea; Sintra, Portugal; Tokyo, Japan; Uwajima, Japanl Vigan City, Philippines; Zhongshan City, the People’s Republic of China and Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco.

August 29

Has everyone been told at one time or another that, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again? There is a certain amount of wisdom in that phrase. The Quebec Bridge crosses the Saint Lawrence Seaway at two points in Canada. It is the longest cantilever bridge in the world. It had a rather difficult birth however. In the midst of construction on the 29th in 1907, something went terribly wrong and the bridge collapsed. Undeterred, the engineers went back to the drawing board and tried it again. On September 11, 1916, the second attempt failed when the bridge again collapsed into the seaway and killed 11 workers. The bridge was not put up and did not stay up until December 3, 1919.

August 28

French actor Charles Boyer was born on the 28th in 1899. He would become one of the more romantic leading men in what is an oppressively long string of films. He met British actress Pat Paterson at a dinner party in 1934 and it was, at Boyer’s admission, love at first sight. After knowing each other for two weeks, he and Miss Patterson married and they remained married until her death in 1978. Boyer committed suicide two days before his 79th birthday. Toward the end of his life, Boyer was quoted as saying, “That love at first sight should happen to me was Life's most delicious revenge on a self-opinionated fool."

August 27

On the 27th in 1939, German test pilot Erich Warsitz climbed into the cockpit of a Heinkel He 178, aircraft designer Ernst Heinkel’s revolutionary new aircraft. This was the first flight of an airplane powered by a jet engine. For good or for ill, the world had entered into the jet age.