August 22nd

August 22 is the 235th day of the year.  There are 131 days remaining until the end of the year.

565 St. Columba reports seeing monster in Loch Ness. Of course, Columba is an Irishman. . .

1639 Madras (now Chennai), India, is founded by the British East India Company on a sliver of land bought from local Nayak rulers who were notoriously fancy dressers and cut-ups. Nyuk. Nyuk. Nyuk.

1715 Handel’s Watermusic premiers on the Thames.

1818 Grand Duchy of Bathe forms

1864 Geneva Convention is signed in blood by 12 nations and hence, the International Red Cross forms

1877 Nez Perce Indians flee into Yellowstone National Park which isn’t a national park yet.

1901 Cadillac Motor Company is founded and subsequently. . .

1902 Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile.

1906 1st Victor Victrola is manufactured

1944 Hitler orders Paris to be destroyed.  It isn't.

1945 Vietnam conflict begins as Ho Chi Minh leads a successful coup, stirs up a bunch of shit about Domino’s Pizza winning hearts and minds. The ho.

1952 The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed and longtime lovers must part, alas.

1968 Cynthia Lennon sues John Lennon for divorce on adultry. Ooh, juicy gossip. . .

. . .I wonder who is named as co-respondent?

1988 Australia unveils 1st platinum coin (Koala)

1995 S-s-s-smokin' hot FBI agent Lon Horiuchi shoots at Randy Weaver's cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Starts some major shit.

1918 Mary McGrory, maybe gay US journalist and columnist/Nixon's enemy list

1924 James Kirkwood, Jr., gay US author/playwright/A chorus Line, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead 

1932 Gabriele Tinti, Italian actor 

1958 Colm Feore, US-born Canadian actor 

1967 Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, English actor/OZ/LOST 

1967 Ant [Anthony Steven Kalloniatis], gay US comedian

1971 Richard Armitage, maybe gay English actor 

1971 Rick Yune, maybe gay US actor/model 

1973 Okkert Brits, South African pole vaulter 

1974 Agustin Pichot, Argentine rugger/Dieux du Stade model 

1975 Rodrigo Santoro, maybe gay Brazilian actor/LOST 

1983 Theo Bos, Dutch cyclist  

1485 Richard III and the House of Plantagenet can't find a horse at Bosworth Field

1989 Huey P. Newton, US activist (Black Panthers), becomes an inactivist.

August 15th

August 15 is the 228th day of the year.  There are 138 days remaining until the end of the year.

1620 Mayflower sets sail from Southampton with 102 Pilgrims making their hadj to Mecca.  Unfortunately, an ill-wind blows them off course.

1843 Tivoli Park in Copenhagen (where I received my first blow job!) opens

1911 Procter and Gamble cleverly markets its Crisco shortening as a baking aid

1914 Panama Canal opens to traffic and the SS Ancon is first to test the waters

1939 "Wizard of Oz" premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood.  Although it's one of my all time faves, it still can't top The Whizzer of Oz.

1947 India gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes an independent nation within the Commonwealth

1961 Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall. From one small-minded step against mankind, that’s one giant leap for a man. . .

1965 Beatles play to 55,000 screaming fans at Shea Stadium who didn’t hear a word that was sung

1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair opens in New York State at Max Yasgur's Dairy Farm ... More bands, more people, fewer clothes

1974 Longest team (6) trampoline bouncing marathon (1,248 hours (52 days))

1998 Bill Clinton confesses to Hillary about Monica Lewinsky’s blow job.

1885 Edna Ferber, gay US novelist 

1917 Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez , probably gay El Salvadoran Roman Catholic priest, Servant of God, and martyr  

1945 Nigel Terry, maybe gay English actor 

1957 Zeljko Ivanek, maybe gay Slovenian-born US actor 

1958 Rondell Sheridan, maybe gay US comedian/actor 

1964 Michael Berresse, gay US actor 

1969 Kevin Cheng, maybe gay US/Chinese actor/singer/artist 

1972 Ben Affleck, US actor/writer 

1976 Koert-Jan De Bruijn, Dutch actor/tv presenter 

1976 Sipke Jan Bousema, gay Dutch actor/tv presenter 

1977 Ben Unwin, Australian actor 

1984 Serginho Hondjakoff, appropriately named US/Brazilian actor 

1989 Joe Jonas, chaste US not gay musician/Jonas Brothers 

1935 A Two-fer:  Will Rogers, humorist, killed in plane crash in Alaska piloted by the one-eyed Wiley Post who, obviously, didn’t see this one coming.

2008 Jerry Wexler, music producer and coiner of the term "Rhythm & Blues", loses rhythm but turns blue.