August 25
1916
The National Park Service was established as part of the Department of the Interior when the National Park Service Organic Act was signed by Woodrow Wilson. The National Park Service established by the Act "shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations".
1950
President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order putting US railroads under the control of the Army to prevent a strike proposed by two enormous labor unions. Truman’s intervention was critical, as he had just ordered American troops into a war against North Korean communist forces in June. Since much of America’s economic and defense infrastructure was dependent upon the smooth functioning of the railroads, the 1950 strike proposed would have been catastrophic to the war effort. In a public statement that day, Truman insisted that “governmental seizure [of the railroads] is imperative” for the protection of American citizens as well as “essential to the national defense and security of the Nation.” He used the same justification for seizing control of steel plants when the United Steel Workers union struck later in the year.
2009
Edward “Ted” Kennedy, the youngest brother of President John F. Kennedy and a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, died of brain cancer at age 77. One of the longest-serving senators in American history, he was a leader of the Democratic Party and a spokesman for liberal causes who was also known for his ability to work with those on both sides of the political aisle. After JFK was elected the 35th US President, Ted won the special election to serve out the remainder of his brother’s Senate term, ending in January 1965. Massachusetts voters re-elected Kennedy to the seat eight more times. Kennedy was buried at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery, near the graves of his brothers John and Robert.
August 26
1794
In response to the Whiskey Rebellion, a violent uprising of farmers and distillers in western Pennsylvania in protest of a whiskey tax enacted by the federal government to cover debts of the Revolutionary War, President George Washington writes to Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, Virginia’s governor and a former general, that he had no choice but to act to subdue the “insurgents,” fearing they would otherwise “shake the government to its foundation.” This was the first great test of Washington’s authority as president of the United States. The president mounted his horse on September 30 to lead a force of 13,000–larger than any American army amassed in one place during the Revolution–to quell the uprising. The rioters dispersed in the presence of the federal troops and bloodshed was averted.
1939
The first televised Major League baseball game was broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that was to become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber called the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. In 1939, the World’s Fair—which was being held in New York—became the catalyst for the historic broadcast. The television was one of the fair’s prize exhibits, and organizers believed that the Dodgers-Reds doubleheader on August 26 was the perfect event to showcase America’s grasp on the new technology. Today, televised sports is a multi-billion dollar industry, with technology that gives viewers an astounding amount of visual and audio detail. Cameras are now so precise that they can capture the way a ball changes shape when struck by a bat, and athletes are wired to pick up field-level and sideline conversation.
1968
Democratic National Convention was besieged by thousands of anti-Vietnam War demonstrators. During the violent four-day convention, police and National Guardsmen clashed with protesters outside the International Amphitheater, and hundreds of people, including innocent bystanders, were beaten by the Chicago police. Even CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace was punched in the face by a guard. In the convention’s aftermath, a federal commission investigating the convention described one of the confrontations as a “police riot” and blamed Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for inciting his police to violence. Nevertheless, eight political radicals—the so-called "Chicago Eight"—were arrested on charges of conspiring to incite the violence, and in 1969 their trial began in Chicago, sparking new waves of protests in the city.
August 27
1921
J E Clair of Acme Packing Co of Green Bay granted an American Football Professional Association (AFPA, forerunner to NFL) franchise, becoming the Acme Packers. Due to roster cheating and financial woes, the team franchise was revoked a year later. The team was reformed in 1923 as the Green Bay Packers and run by a group known as the Green Bay Football Corporation. The Packers are now the only publicly owned company with a Board of Directors in American professional sports.
1953
American romantic comedy "Roman Holiday," was released. Audrey Hepburn starred as a bored and sheltered princess who escaped her guardians to fall in love with an American newsman in Rome, played by Gregory Peck. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress while the film also won for best screenplay and best costume design. In 1999, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
1967
Naomi Sims became the first African-American model on the cover of a US magazine when she graced the cover of Fashions of the Times, a supplement to The New York Times Magazine. Her early attempts to get modeling work through established agencies were frustrated by racial prejudice, with some agencies telling her that her skin was too dark. Her first career breakthrough came after she decided to sidestep the agencies and go directly to fashion photographers and Gösta Peterson, a photographer for The New York Times, who agreed to photograph her for the cover of the paper's August 1967 fashion supplement. Sims is considered the first African American supermodel.
August 28
1774
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City. Seton taught in order to support her family and believed in free education for all children, male and female. In pursuit of this goal, she founded the nation’s first Catholic school in Baltimore, which had been the capital of the Catholic colony of Maryland. The school, St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, would eventually become part of Mount Saint Mary’s University. In 1809, Seton took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, along with the moniker “Mother Seton.” She then founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, also in Maryland. Her efforts to establish Catholic institutions in the new United States, protected by the Bill of Rights’ guarantee of freedom of religion, saw her beatified in 1963, and canonized in 1975. Seton Hall University in New Jersey was named in her honor.
1963
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washing, D.C., the African American civil rights movement reached its high-water mark when Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to about 250,000 people attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The demonstrators—Black and white, poor and rich—came together in the nation’s capital to demand voting rights and equal opportunity for African Americans and to appeal for an end to racial segregation and discrimination. The peaceful rally was the largest assembly for a redress of grievances that the capital had ever seen, and King was the last speaker.
1970
"I'll Be There" was released by The Jackson 5. It was their fourth straight number one hit and is the Billboard Song of the Year. "I'll Be There" is also notable as being the most successful single released by Motown during its "Detroit era" (1959–72). Mariah Carey brought the song back into prominence two decades after its initial release when she recorded it for MTV Unplugged in 1992. It would once again become a #1 hit and Carey's sixth #1 overall. "I'll Be There" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame of 2011.
August 29
1898
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co was founded in Akron, Ohio by Frank Sieberling and named for Charles Goodyear, the man who developed vulcanized rubber. They initially focus on the manufacturing of bicycle and buggy tires, as well as rubber horseshoes. As of 1901, Goodyear was a supplier of racing tires for Henry Ford, who’s ground-breaking 1908 Model T was equipped with Goodyear tires. The company became the world’s biggest tire manufacturer in 1926 and remains a successful company to this day, with worldwide tire sales that surpass the 20 billion dollar mark.
1965
Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr complete d120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5, marking the first time the US set an international duration record for a manned space mission. The primary goals of Project Gemini included proving the techniques required for the Apollo Program to fulfill President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the 1960s. Paramount among the techniques demonstrated during Project Gemini was rendezvous and docking necessary to implement the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous method NASA chose for the Moon landing mission.
2005
Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane backed by 145-mile-an-hour-winds. The storm killed more than 1,700 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others. Causing billions of dollars of damage, Katrina ranks as one of the costliest storms in American history. The surges overwhelmed the levees that protected New Orleans, with 80 percent of the city flooding up to the rooftops of many homes and small buildings. In a 2006 federal report, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers admitted that the flood-control complex surrounding New Orleans had been incomplete, insufficient and improperly maintained. "The hurricane protection system in New Orleans and southeast Louisiana was a system in name only," said the report.
August 30
1963
Hotline communication link between the Pentagon and the Kremlin in Moscow was installed. Often known as the "red telephone," no phones were ever used, relying instead on Teletype equipment, fax machines and, most recently, secure email. The “hotline” was designed to facilitate communication between the president and the Soviet premier in the wake of the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the U.S. and U.S.S.R had come dangerously close to all-out nuclear war. The White House issued a statement that the new hotline would “help reduce the risk of war occurring by accident or miscalculation.” It was agreed that the line would be used only in emergencies, not for more routine governmental exchanges.
1967
Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice in a 69-11 Senate vote. Over the next 24 years, Justice Marshall came out in favor of abortion rights and against the death penalty, as he continued his tireless commitment to ensuring equitable treatment of individuals—particularly minorities—by state and federal governments. He retired for health reasons in 1991, leaving a legacy of upholding the rights of the individual as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
1976
Tom Brokaw became news co-anchor of NBC's "Today Show alongside Jane Pauley. He would stay on "The Today Show" until 1981 before moving to NBC Nightly News as anchor and managing editor. He helmed NBC's flagship news program for 22 years. Along with his competitors Peter Jennings at ABC News and Dan Rather at CBS News, Brokaw was one of the "Big Three" U.S. news anchors during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Tom Brokaw is the only anchor to have lead all three NBC News flagship programs: TODAY, "NBC Nightly News" and "Meet the Press." He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, which was awarded to him by President Barack Obama. He retired from the NBC Network in 2021.
August 31
1886
A 7.6 magnitude earthquake, the largest in southeastern US, hits Charleston, South Carolina, leaving more than 100 people dead and hundreds of buildings destroyed. The initial shock lasted for nearly a full minute. The rumbling was felt as far away as Boston, Chicago and Cuba with building damage as far away as Ohio and Alabama. This quake remained a mystery for many years since there were no known underground faults for 60 miles in any direction. However, better science and detection methods have recently uncovered a concealed fault along the coastal plains of Virginia and the Carolinas. Still, a quake of this magnitude remains highly unlikely in this location.
1897
Thomas Edison received a patent for the world's first motion picture camera, the Kinetograph. Edison had developed the camera and its viewer in the early 1890s. Edison’s Kinetoscope and Kinetograph used celluloid film, invented by George Eastman in 1889. In February 1893, Edison built a small movie studio that could be rotated to capture the best available sunlight. He showed the first demonstration of his films—featuring three of his workers pretending to be blacksmiths—in May 1893. The invention inspired French inventors Louis and August Lumiere to develop a movie camera and projector, the Cinematographe, that allowed a large audience to view a film.
1955
William G. Cobb of the General Motors Corp. (GM) demonstrates his 15-inch-long “Sunmobile,” the world’s first solar-powered automobile, at the General Motors Powerama auto show held in Chicago, Illinois. Cobb’s Sunmobile introduced, however briefly, the field of photovoltaics–the process by which the sun’s rays are converted into electricity when exposed to certain surfaces–into the gasoline-drenched automotive industry. Today, more than a half-century after Cobb debuted the Sunmobile, a mass-produced solar car has yet to hit the market. Solar-car competitions are held worldwide, however, in which design teams pit their sun-powered creations against each other in road races such as the 2008 North American Solar Challenge, a 2,400-mile drive from Dallas, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.