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John Ford

John Ford

John Ford (February 1, 1895 – August 31, 1973) was one of the most accomplished American film directors of the 1930s to 1960s, known particularly as a director of the Westerns, although his tributes to the veterans of World War II and Americana are also equally effective. In recent years, it has been claimed that his westerns, particularly The Searchers, portray Native Americans in an unflattering light, though it has also been said that The Searchers is actually a critique of the pathology of American racism.

From Feeney to Ford

He was born John Martin Feeney in Cape Elizabeth, Maine to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara (Abbey) Curren, both of whom were born in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland in 1856. John A. Feeney's grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of a local (impoverished) gentry family, the Morris's of Spiddal, presently headed by Redmond Morris, 3rd Lord Killanin. John Augustine and Abbey arrived in Boston and Portland within a few days of each other in May and June 1872, were married in 1875, and became American citizens three years later. They had eleven children: Maime (Mary Agnes), born 1876; Delia (Edith), 1878-1881; Patrick; Francis; Bridget, 1883-84; Barbara, born and died 1888; Edward, born 1889; Josephine, born 1891; Hannah (Joanna), born and died 1892; John, 1895-1973; and Daniel, born/died 1896. Many of his films contain direct and indirect references to his ancestral heritage. Ford began acting in 1914, adopting the name "Ford" as a more acceptable stage name.

Director

In 1921, he turned to directing. During the 1920s, he served as president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a forerunner to today's Directors Guild of America. His many awards are listed below. With the making of the 1939 classic Stagecoach Ford would take a "B" star, John Wayne, and mentor Wayne to become an "American icon". He would use Wayne to make a statement of the American frontier spirit, and Wayne would become one of the biggest box office stars of the 20th century in the process. Ford's friendship with John Wayne led them to work together on films that featured some of Wayne's most iconic roles. Over the next 35 years Wayne would appear in over twenty of Ford's films, including Stagecoach (1939), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers (1956), The Wings of Eagles (1957), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). John Wayne would call Ford "Coach" and "Pappy". Probably the setting that Ford most loved to work with would be Utah's Monument Valley. He made numerous films there (including some that are out of character/setting). Ford would define images of the American West with some of the most beautiful and powerful cinematography ever shot, including those in Stagecoach, The Searchers, Fort Apache, and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.

Navy career and subsequent work

During World War II Commander John Ford, USNR, served in the United States Navy and made documentaries for the Defense Department. He would win two more Academy Awards during this time, one for The Battle of Midway (1942), and a second for acclaimed documentary December 7th (1943). For more information on his military contributions check the Naval Historical Center link below. In 1955, Ford was tapped to direct the classic Navy comedy Mister Roberts, starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, William Powell, and James Cagney. But, Ford was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy during filming when he suffered a ruptured gallbladder. Ford cast Ward Bond as himself, under the character of John Dodge, in the 1957 movie The Wings of Eagles again starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

John Ford Stock Company

Some other actors which John Ford repeatedly used throughout his directorial career include: Ward Bond, Ken Curtis, Jane Darwell, Francis Ford (brother), Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen, Harry Carey, Jr., among many others. They would be called the "John Ford Stock Company".

Awards

He won four Academy Awards as best director for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952) - none of them Westerns (also starring in the last two was Maureen O'Hara, 'his favorite actress'). He was also nominated as Best Director for Stagecoach. As producer he received nominations for Best Picture for The Quiet Man and The Long Voyage Home. He was the first recipient of the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1973. There is a statue of him in Portland, Maine. He is depicted sitting on a directors chair and there are quotes and information about him and his movies displayed. Ford passed away from stomach cancer, at age 78, in Palm Desert, California. He was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Note

Probably better known at the time by its Irish name An Spidéal.

Partial filmography


- The Informer (1935)
- Stagecoach (1939)
- Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- How Green Was My Valley (1941)
- My Darling Clementine (1946)
- The Fugitive (1947)
- Rio Grande (1950)
- The Quiet Man (1952)
- Mister Roberts (replaced by Mervyn LeRoy during filming) (1955)
- The Searchers (1956)
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
- Donovan's Reef (1963)

See also


- Other notable figures in Western films

External links


-
- [http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800011224&cf=gen&intl=us Yahoo! Movies entry]
- [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/ford.html Senses of Cinema entry]
- [http://www.moviemaker.com/issues/44/ford.html Movie Maker entry]
- [http://www.reelclassics.com/Directors/Ford/ford.htm Reel Classics entry]
- [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq81-8b.htm Naval Historical Center entry]
- [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=104 Bibliography]

Biographies


- "John Ford" by Andrew Sinclair, 1979.
- "The Unquiet Man: The Life of John Ford" by Dan Ford, 1982.
- "Print the Legend" by Scott Eyman, 1999.
- "Searching for John Ford: A Life" by Joseph McBride, 2001. Ford, John Ford, John Ford, John Ford, John Ford, John Ford, John Ford, John Ford, John Ford, John ja:ジョン・フォード

February 1

February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 333 days remaining, (334 in leap years).

Events


- 1662 - The Chinese pirate Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
- 1713 - The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
- 1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the steamboat.
- 1790 - In New York City the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
- 1793 - France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
- 1796 - The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
- 1814 - Mayon Volcano, in the Philippines, erupts, killing around 1,200 people; most devastating eruption of Mayon Volcano.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
- 1862 - Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.
- 1880 - The first edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
- 1884 - Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
- 1893 - Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio (West Orange, New Jersey).
- 1896 - The opera La bohème premieres (Turin).
- 1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
- 1913 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
- 1918 - Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
- 1919 - The first Miss America is crowned in New York City.
- 1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.
- 1924 - United Kingdom recognizes USSR.
- 1929 - Frenchman Charles Rigoulet is the first weightlifter to lift over 400 pounds (181 kg) in the "clean and jerk" method.
- 1943 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
- 1946 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
- 1958 - Merger of Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which lasted until 1961.
- 1960 - Four black students stage a sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
- 1968 - Vietnam War: Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams and helped sway public opinion against the war. Official unification of the three former military services of Canada, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force became the united Canadian Armed Forces. Merger of the historic New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad to form ill-fated Penn Central Transportation.
- 1974 - In São Paulo, Brazil, a fire in a 25-story office building kills 189 and injures 293.
- 1974 - Kuala Lumpur declared a Federal Territory.
- 1978 - Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
- 1979 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
- 1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
- 1982 - Senegal and Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
- 1992 - The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case.
- 1994 - In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.
- 1995 - Manic Street Preachers lyricist Richey James Edwards goes missing from the Embassy Hotel in London, UK.
- 1996 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress
- 1999 - North Dakota Public Radio is launched.
- 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts onboard.
- 2004 - At least 244 people trampled to death in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
- 2004 - Janet Jackson exposes her breast on American television

Births


- 1261 - Walter de Stapledon, English bishop (d. 1326)
- 1462 - Johannes Trithemius, German cryptographer (d. 1516)
- 1552 - Edward Coke, English colonial entrepreneur and jurist (d. 1634)
- 1635 - Marquard Gude, German archaeologist (d. 1689)
- 1690 - Francesco Maria Veracini, Italian composer (d. 1768)
- 1761 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, South African mycologist (d. 1836)
- 1844 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist (d. 1844)
- 1859 - Victor Herbert, Irish composer (d. 1924)
- 1874 - Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian writer (d. 1929)
- 1882 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
- 1884 - Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russian writer (d. 1937)
- 1887 - Charles Nordhoff, English-born author (d. 1947)
- 1894 - John Ford, American director and producer (d. 1973)
- 1894 - James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer (d. 1955)
- 1901 - Clark Gable, American actor (d. 1960)
- 1902 - Langston Hughes American writer (d. 1967)
- 1904 - S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author (d. 1979)
- 1905 - Emilio G. Segrè, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- 1906 - Hildegarde, American actress and singer (d. 2005)
- 1907 - Günter Eich, German lyricist (d. 1972)
- 1908 - George Pál, Hungarian-born director and producer (d. 1980)
- 1909 - George Beverly Shea, Canadian singer
- 1915 - Stanley Matthews, English football player
- 1918 - Dame Muriel Spark, Scottish author
- 1922 - Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (d. 2004)
- 1931 - Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia
- 1936 - Azie Taylor Morton, U.S. Treasurer (d. 2003)
- 1937 - Don Everly, American musician (Everly Brothers)
- 1937 - Garrett Morris, American comedian
- 1938 - Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor
- 1940 - Bibi Besch, Austrian-American actress (d. 1996)
- 1941 - Karl Dall, German television moderator.
- 1942 - Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer
- 1947 - Jessica Savitch, American journalist (d. 1983)
- 1948 - Rick James, American musician and composer (d. 2004)
- 1948 - Elisabeth Sladen, British actress
- 1954 - Bill Mumy, American actor and musician
- 1956 - Exene Cervenka, American musician (X)
- 1961 - Volker Fried, German field hockey player
- 1962 - José Luis Cuciuffo, Argentinian footballer =)
- 1962 - Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese guitarist
- 1965 - Sherilyn Fenn, American actress
- 1965 - Brandon Lee, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1965 - Princess Stéphanie of Monaco
- 1966 - Michelle Akers, American soccer player
- 1968 - Lisa Marie Presley, American singer and actress
- 1968 - Pauly Shore, American comedian
- 1969 - Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine footballer
- 1969 - Joshua Redman, American musician
- 1971 - Yoshi DeHerrera, American television personality
- 1971 - Jill Kelly, American actress
- 1971 - Zlatko Zahovič, Slovenian footballer
- 1975 - Big Boi, American musician (Outkast)
- 1977 - Kevin Kilbane, Irish footballer
- 1984 - Darren Fletcher, Scottish footballer

Deaths


- 1248 - Henry II, Duke of Brabant (b. 1207)
- 1328 - King Charles IV of France (b. 1294)
- 1542 - Girolamo Aleandro, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1480)
- 1563 - Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia (died of fever)
- 1590 - Lawrence Humphrey, English clergyman and educator
- 1691 - Pope Alexander VIII (b. 1610)
- 1718 - Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician (b. 1660)
- 1733 - King Augustus II of Poland (b. 1670)
- 1734 - John Floyer, English physician and writer (b. 1649)
- 1743 - Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, Italian composer (b. 1657)
- 1761 - Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French historian (b. 1682)
- 1768 - Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (b. 1685)
- 1793 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (b. 1717)
- 1851 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
- 1893 - George Henry Sanderson, Mayor of San Francisco (b. 1824)
- 1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
- 1928 - Hughie Jennings, baseball player (b. 1869)
- 1944 - Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
- 1957 - Friedrich Paulus, German general (b. 1890)
- 1958 - Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
- 1966 - Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)
- 1966 - Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)
- 1976 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- 1976 - George Whipple, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1878)
- 1981 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American aircraft manufacturer (b. 1892)
- 1981 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
- 1986 - Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1902)
- 1988 - Heather O'Rourke, American actress (b. 1975)
- 1989 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (b. 1819)
- 1997 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1916)
- 1999 - Paul Mellon, American philanthropist (b. 1907)
- 2002 - Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer, and writer (b. 1925)
- 2003 - The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, astronauts:
  - Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959)
  - David Brown (b. 1956)
  - Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961)
  - Laurel Clark (b. 1961)
  - Rick D. Husband (b. 1957)
  - Willie McCool (b. 1961)
  - Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)
- 2003 - Mongo Santamaria, Cuban percussionist and band leader (b. 1922)
- 2005 - John Vernon, Canadian actor (b. 1932)

Holidays and observances


- St. Brigid of Kildare -one of the three patron saints of Ireland, the others being St. Patrick and St. Columcille.
- Imbolc - the first day of Spring in Ireland (Irish Calendar), one of the eight solar holidays in the Wheel of the Year.
- 2003 - Chinese New Year - Year of the Ram.

Fiction


- In Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the fictional character Willy Wonka gives an unprecedented tour of his chocolate factory on February 1 (year unspecified).

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/1 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050201.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- January 31 - February 2 - January 1 - March 1 -- listing of all days February 01 ko:2월 1일 ms:1 Februari ja:2月1日 simple:February 1 th:1 กุมภาพันธ์

1895

1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January


- January 5 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

February


- February 11 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (measured as -17°F) was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled in 1982.
- February 14 - First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest (St. James' Theatre in London).

March


- March 1 - William L. Wilson is appointed United States Postmaster General
- March 3 - In Munich, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates

April


- April 6 - Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
- April 14 - a major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- April 17 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki (also known as Treaty of Maguan) was signed between China and Japan. This marks the end of the first Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

May


- May 25 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and sentenced to serve two years in a London prison.

June


- June 11 - Britain annexes Togoland
- June 28 - Union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador begins (ends in 1898).

July


- July 15 - Archie MacLaren scores County Championship record innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.

August


- August 19 - American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
- August 29 - The sport of rugby league is formed at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.

September


- September 3 - The first professional football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club. (Latrobe won the contest 12-0.).
- September 18 - Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise Speech.

November


- November 5 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
- November 8 - Wilhelm Röntgen discovers a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
- November 27 - At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies (he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on December 10, 1896).

December


- December 28 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere display their first moving picture film in Paris

Unknown date


- Dundela FC were formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator
- Most recent major earthquake in the New Madrid Fault Zone
- Grace Chisholm Young, the first woman awarded a doctorate at a German university
- W.E.B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University
- Duck Reach Power Station opens

Births

January-March


- January 1 - J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 1972)
- January 15 - Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- January 21 - Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish-French couturier (d. 1972)
- January 24 - Eugen Roth, German writer (d. 1976)
- January 30 - Wilhelm Gustloff, German-born Swiss Nazi party leader( d. 1936)
- February 2 - George Halas, American football player, coach, and co-founder of the National Football League (d. 1983)
- February 6 - Babe Ruth, baseball player (d. 1948)
- February 14 - Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- February 15 - Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)
- February 21 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
- March 3 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- March 3 - Matthew Ridgway, Commander of NATO, United States Army Chief of Staff (d. 1993)
- March 12 - William C. Lee, U.S. general (d. 1948)
- March 17 - Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (d. 1955)
- March 20 - Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1944)
- March 29 - Ernst Jünger, German author (d. 1998)

April-June


- April 1 - Alberta Hunter, American singer (d. 1984)
- April 3 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
- April 9 - Mance Lipscomb, American singer (d. 1976)
- April 15 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker and billiards player (d. 1980)
- April 20 - Emile Christian, American musician (d. 1973)
- April 28 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)
- April 29 - Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)
- May 6 - Rodolfo Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
- May 8 - Fulton J. Sheen, American Catholic archbishop and television personality (d. 1979)
- May 12 - William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)
- May 15 - William D. Byron, U.S. Congressman (d. 1941)
- May 30 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1975)
- May 30 - Maurice Tate, English cricketer (d. 1956)
- June 10 - Hattie McDaniel, American actress (d. 1952)

July-September


- July 8 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- July 10 - Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)
- July 12 - Kirstin Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (d. 1982)
- July 12 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect (d. 1983)
- July 24 - Robert Graves, English writer (d. 1985)
- July 25 - Yvonne Printemps, French singer and actress (d. 1977)
- August 16 - Liane Haid, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
- September 7 - Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (d. 1985)
- September 11 - Vinoba Bhave, Indian religious leader (d. 1982)
- September 24 - André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)
- September 29 - J.B. Rhine, American parapsychologist (d. 1980)

October-December


- October 2 - Bud Abbott, American actor (d. 1974)
- October 4 - Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (d. 1966)
- October 8 - King Zog of Albania (d. 1961)
- October 19 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)
- October 21 - Edna Purviance, actress (d. 1958)
- October 22 - Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (d. 1980)
- October 25 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
- October 30 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (d. 1964)
- October 30 - Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1973)
- October 31 - Basil Liddell Hart, military historian (d. 1970)
- November 5 - Walter Gieseking, German pianist (d. 1956)
- November 15 - Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (d. 1976)
- November 16 - Paul Hindemith, German composer (d. 1963)
- November 25 - Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (d. 1991)
- November 29 - Busby Berkeley, American film director and choreographer (d. 1976)
- December 2 - Harriet Cohen, English pianist (d. 1967)
- December 14 - Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)
- December 14 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
- Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, King of Malaysia (d. 1960)

Deaths


- January 9 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watchmaker (b. 1812)
- January 10 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)
- February 2 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)
- February 20 - Frederick Douglass, American ex-slave and author (b. 1818)
- March 2 - Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)
- March 10 - Charles Frederick Worth, English-born couturier (b. 1826)
- May 19 - José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)
- May 21 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
- June 29 - Sir Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (b. 1825)
- August 5 - Friedrich Engels, German socialist philosopher (b. 1820)
- August 22 - Luzon B. Morris, American politician (b. 1827)
- September 28 - Louis Pasteur, French microbiologist and chemist (b. 1822)
- October 8 - Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min), last Korean empress (b. 1851)
- October 25 - Charles Hallé, German-born pianist and conductor (b. 1819)
- November 27 - Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author and playwright (b. 1824)

Date unknown


- Green Clay Smith, American politician (b. 1826). Category:1895 ko:1895년 ms:1895 simple:1895 th:พ.ศ. 2438

August 31

August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining, as the final day of August.

Events


- 1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora dies suddenly without children to succeed the throne, ending the Macedonian dynasty
- 1864 - American Civil War: Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1876 - Ottoman sultan Murat V is deposed and succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid II.
- 1886 - Earthquake kills 100 in Charleston, South Carolina
- 1888 - Mary Ann Nicholls is murdered. She is perhaps the first of Jack the Ripper's victims
- 1895 - John Brallier is paid US$10 plus expenses to play football for the Latrobe, Pennsylvania YMCA, making him the first professional football player.
- 1897 - Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector.
- 1907 - England, Russia and France form the Triple Entente alliance.
- 1914 - Ecuador becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1915 - Brazil becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1920 - Polish-Bolshevik War: A decisive Polish victory in the Battle of Komarów.
- 1920 - First news radio program broadcast in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1931 - Production of Ford Motor Company's Ford Modelends, with 4.3 million produced.
- [[1939]] - [[Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II.
- 1943 - The USS Harmon, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named for a black person, is commissioned.
- 1945 - The Liberal Party of Australia is founded by Robert Menzies.
- 1957 - The Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1962 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
- 1965 - The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft makes it's first flight.
- 1978 - William and Emily Harris, founders of the Symbionese Liberation Army, plead guilty to the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.
- 1980 - The Solidarity trade union is formed in Poland.
- 1985 - Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" serial killer, is arrested in Los Angeles, California.
- 1986 - An Aeroméxico Douglas DC-9 collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 67 in the air and 15 on the ground.
- 1986 - The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov sinks in the Black Sea after colliding with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev, killing 398.
- 1989 - Buckingham Palace officials confirm that Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips are to be separated.
- 1991 - Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1992 - Pascal Lissouba is inaugurated as the President of the Republic of the Congo after a multiparty presidential election, ending a long history of one-party oppressive rule under the Congolese Workers Party.
- 1994 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares a ceasefire.
- 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris.
- 1998 - North Korea reportedly launchs Kwangmyongsong, its first satellite.
- 1999 - The first of a series of Russian Apartment Bombings in Moscow, killing one person and wounding 40 others.
- 2004 - Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ is released on DVD and VHS in stores across the United States, selling approximately 4.1 million copies by the end of the day.
- 2005 - A stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills 1,199 people.

Births


- 12 - Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41)
- 161 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (d. 192)
- 1569 - Jahangir, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1627)
- 1663 - Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (d. 1705)
- 1721 - George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol, British statesman (d. 1775)
- 1811 - Theophile Gautier, French poet and novelist (d. 1872)
- 1821 - Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician (d. 1894)
- 1834 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (d. 1886)
- 1870 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator (d. 1952)
- 1878 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
- 1879 - Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel (d. 1964)
- 1880 - Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
- 1885 - DuBose Heyward, American playwright (d. 1940)
- 1897 - Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)
- 1903 - Arthur Godfrey, American television host (d. 1983)
- 1907 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines (d. 1957)
- 1907 - William Shawn, American editor (d. 1992)
- 1908 - William Saroyan, American novelist and playwright (d. 1981)
- 1913 - Sir Bernard Lovell, British radio astronomer
- 1914 - Richard Basehart, American actor (d. 1984)
- 1916 - Daniel Schorr, American journalist
- 1918 - Alan Jay Lerner, American composer (d. 1986)
- 1924 - Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (d. 2003)
- 1928 - James Coburn, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1931 - Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1935 - Frank Robinson, baseball player and manager
- 1935 - Eldridge Cleaver, American political activist (d. 1998)
- 1938 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
- 1945 - Van Morrison, Irish musician
- 1945 - Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist
- 1948 - Lowell Ganz, American screenwriter
- 1948 - Rudolf Schenker, German guitarist (Scorpions)
- 1949 - Richard Gere, American actor
- 1949 - H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1953 - György Károly, Hungarian author
- 1956 - Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
- 1958 - Edwin Moses, American athlete
- 1961 - Anri, Japanese Singer
- 1968 - Todd Carty, British actor
- 1970 - Deborah Gibson, American singer
- 1970 - Queen Rania, Queen of Jordan and wife of King Abdullah II
- 1972 - Chris Tucker, American actor
- 1977 - Jeff Hardy, American professional wrestler
- 1977 - Craig Nicholls, Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Vines)
- 1982 - Jose Reina, Spanish footballer

Deaths


- 651 - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Irish bishop and missionary
- 1056 - Theodora, Byzantine Empress (b. 981)
- 1234 - Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (b. 1212)
- 1372 - Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, English soldier (b. 1301)
- 1422 - King Henry V of England (b. 1387)
- 1645 - Francesco Bracciolini, Italian poet (b. 1566)
- 1654 - Ole Worm, Danish physician (b. 1588)
- 1688 - John Bunyan, English writer (b. 1628)
- 1741 - Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (b. 1681)
- 1772 - William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)
- 1782 - George Croghan, American colonist
- 1795 - François-André Danican Philidor, French chess player (b. 1726)
- 1799 - Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (b. 1720)
- 1814 - Arthur Phillip, British admiral, first Governor of New South Wales (b. 1738)
- 1867 - Charles Baudelaire, French poet (b. 1821)
- 1920 - Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (b. 1832)
- 1941 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (b. 1892)
- 1963 - Georges Braque, French painter (b. 1882)
- 1967 - Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer (b. 1891)
- 1969 - Rocky Marciano, American boxer (b. 1923)
- 1973 - John Ford, American film director (b. 1894)
- 1979 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (b. 1904)
- 1985 - Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
- 1986 - Henry Moore, English sculptor (b. 1898)
- 1986 - Urho Kekkonen, President of Finland (b. 1900)
- 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales (automobile accident) (b. 1961)
- 1997 - Dodi Fayed, Egyptian-born film producer (automobile accident) (b. 1955)
- 2002 - Lionel Hampton, American vibraphone player (b. 1908)
- 2002 - George Porter, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Carl Wayne, English singer (b. 1943)
- 2005 - Józef Rotblat, Polish physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1908)
- 2005 - Michael Sheard, British actor (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances


- Calendar of Saints - Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, San Abbondio, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
- Moldova: Day of Our Language (Limba Noastra)
- Malaysia - Hari Merdeka, a National Day (independence within the Commonwealth, 1957)
- Kyrgyzstan - Independence Day (from USSR, 1991)
- Trinidad and Tobago - Independence Day (from Great Britain, 1962)
- United Kingdom - the cut-off day which defines the school year for pupils.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/31 BBC: On This Day] ----- August 30 - September 1 - July 31 - September 30 -- listing of all days ko:8월 31일 ms:31 Ogos ja:8月31日 simple:August 31 th:31 สิงหาคม

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as