August 16 is the 229th day of the year. There are 137 days remaining until the end of the year.
1829 Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker arrive in Boston to be exhibited
1858 Britain's Queen Victoria telegraphs President James Buchanan about handling the suspected homosexuality of her son, Arthur, since she figured Buchanan would know. . .if the rumors were true
1870 Fred Goldsmith demonstrates curve ball isn't an optical illusion
1920 Ray Chapman, of Indians is beaned by Yankees' Carl Mays fastball pitch; he dies next day, only major league fatality
1930 The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.
1962 Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as Beatle drummer to reduce the band's pretty-boy quotient and solid drumming
1984 L.A. federal jury acquits auto maker John DeLorean on cocaine charges. You just know that the jury screened Back to the Future the night before the verdict. . .
1985 Madonna weds Sean Penn on her 27th birthday. And, how’s that work out, kids?
1988 Mayor Koch says he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers after they become increasingly aggressive. He doesn’t.
March 24 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 272 days remaining until the end of time.
1765 Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers. Undoubtedly, some of the colonists looked forward to having guests in their homes.
1832 Mormon Joseph Smith is beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio, but not enough
1837 Canada gives black men the right to vote and just look who gets to be Governor-General?!?!?
1877 University boat race between Oxford and Cambridge ends in a dead heat, but it doesn’t stop the trash talk
1955 Tennessee Williams "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opens for 694 performances. What’s troubling poor Brick?
1958 Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army.
1987 ACT UP's first demonstration on Wall Street, in New York City. Over 250 protested the FDA's sweetheart deal with Burroughs Wellcome to charge $10,000 a year for the only approved anti-AIDS drug, AZT. Silence = Death.
1992 A Chicago judge settles the Milli-Vanilli class-action suit by approving cash rebates of up to $3 to anyone proving they bought the group's music before November 27, 1990 — the date the lip synching scandal broke.
1996 Eastenders star Michael French is outed by the Sunday Mirror.
2001 During an exhibition game against the Giants, National League Cy Young winner Diamondback hurler Randy Johnson's fastball hits and instantly kills a dove flying in front of home plate. The bird appears to explode.
1874 Harry Houdini [Erik Weisz], Hungarian-born US magician/escape artist/actor/debunker
Houdini with the next birthday boy. . .
1887 Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, US actor/director/writer/Acquitted of any wrongdoing /career was still ruined/he used the pseudonym "William Goodrich" thereafter
1909 Clyde Barrow, bank robber/Teamed notoriously with Bonnie Parker/not nearly as pretty as Warren Beatty
