Calendar for August 4th, 2012

2001: Civic Holiday (Canada)

2001: Constitution Day (Cook Islands)

2001: British Columbia Day

2001: Saskatchewan Day

2001: New Brunswick Day

Died 1060: King Henry I of France

1735: In a triumph for freedom of the press, newspaperman John Peter Zenger was acquitted of the charge of seditious libel

1753: George Washington became a Master Mason

1821: The Saturday Evening Post was published for the first time as a weekly newspaper

Died 1875: Hans Christian Andersen (writer)

1882: Aurora visible in much of the United States

1884: Thomas Stevens was the first to bicycle across the United States, leaving San Francisco on April 22 and arriving on this day in Boston to complete his transcontinental trip.

1892: The family of Lizzie Borden was found murdered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts

Born 1901: Louis Armstrong (musician)

Born 1910: William Howard Schuman (composer)

1914: Canada entered WWI

Died 1938: Pearl White (actress)

1944: The Gestapo found Anne Frank

Born 1955: Billy Bob Thornton (actor)

Born 1961: Barack Obama (44th U.S. president)

Born 1962: Roger Clemens (baseball player)

1964: Three civil rights workers (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner) were found murdered outside Philadelphia, Mississippi

Born 1971: Jeff Gordon (race car driver)

1972: Major geomagnetic storm

1977: President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the United States Department of Energy

Born 1978: Kurt Busch (race car driver)

Died 1981: Melvyn Douglas (actor)

Born 1992: Dylan and Cole Sprouse (actors)