Tuesday August 31st

 

 

Today in History

 

1883

The first issue of the Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser rolled off the press on August 31, 1883. Owners, publishers, editors, typesetters and advertising salesmen Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden set up their tiny hand-press in a tent on the banks of the Elbow River to issue their first four-page edition.

 

1981

Clifford Robert Olson charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of nine children, after RCMP make a deal to lead them to the bodies and other evidence, in exchange for a $100,000 trust fund for his wife and infant son.

 

1991

United Nations awards 226 Canadian peacekeepers with UN service medals; for work in Yugoslavia. The TV feed shows a Canadian soldier taken hostage by the Bosnian Serbs .

 

1997

Lady Diana, and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, killed in car crash inside a Paris tunnel. The driver was drunk and they were going very, very fast.

 

2006

Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police.

A few days ago we talked about the powerful volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, the red background in this painting is said to be inspired by that event.

 

2009

Walt Disney Co. announced it was acquiring comic book giant Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.

 

National news headlines: An emerald so large it's being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

It is the largest cut emerald ever to be found in North America

After the gem was cut and re-cut, the finished product was about one-fifth the weight of the original find, making it slightly larger than a U.S. quarter and about as heavy as a AA battery.

 

 

 

 

Birthdays

 

Richard Gere –61- several hit films including Days of Heaven, An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, and Chicago

 

Jeff Hardy –33- highflying Wrester