Calendar for August 6th, 2012

2001: Civic Holiday (Canada)

2001: Constitution Day (Cook Islands)

2001: British Columbia Day

2001: Saskatchewan Day

2001: New Brunswick Day

Died 1623: Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare's wife)

Born 1809: Alfred Lord Tennyson (poet)

Born 1861: Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (U.S. First Lady)

Born 1881: Alexander Fleming (scientist)

Born 1883: Scott Nearing (sociologist)

1890: At Auburn Prison, Auburn, NY, William Kemmler became the first man to be executed by electrocution

1890: Baseball pitcher Cy Young made his major league debut

Born 1911: Lucille Ball (actress)

Born 1917: Robert Mitchum (actor)

1926: Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. She did it in record time, 14 hours and 31 minutes

Born 1928: Andy Warhol (artist)

Died 1931: Bix Beiderbecke (jazz musician)

1945: The first atomic bomb, named "Little Boy," was dropped out of an American B-29 bomber over the center of the city Hiroshima, Japan

1962: Jamaica became independent

Died 1964: Sir Cedric Hardwicke (actor)

1969: A miscalculation in a practice flight for an air show the following day caused a U.S. Blue Angel pilot to break the sound barrier. This, in turn, broke many windows in downtown Kelowna, British Columbia, and caused some injuries.

Born 1970: M. Night Shyamalan (film director, writer, producer)

1997: Microsoft and Apple agreed to share technology

2003: Asteroids renamed to honor final Shuttle Columbia crew

Died 2004: Rick James (singer)

Died 2009: John Hughes (writer & director)