August 31

HBD Richard Gere (1949); RIP boxing legend Rocky Marciano (1969); Princess Diana dies in car crash in Paris (1997); 953 die in bridge stampede in Iraq (2005); RIP baseball great Tom Seaver (2020). 

August 30

Baseball great Ted Williams born (1918); HBD Warren Buffett (1930); Thurgood Marshall becomes first Black Supreme Court justice (1967); HBD Cameron Diaz (1972); Guion Bluford becomes first Black person in space (1983).

August 27

Krakatoa volcano eruption, among the largest in recorded history, kills around 40,000 (1883); President Lyndon B. Johnson born (1908); "Guinness Book of World Records" first published (1955); RIP W.E.B. Du Bois (1963); RIP American vaudevillian Gracie Allen (1964).

August 26

Matthew Webb becomes first person to swim across English Channel (1875); Singer Aaliyah dies in plane crash (2001); Voyager 1 becomes first human-made object to enter interstellar space (2012); RIP astronaut Neil Armstrong (2012); RIP Sen. John McCain (2018).

August 24

Mount Vesuvius erupts, killing about 15,000 (79); Thomas Edison files patent for the Kinetoscope, an early motion-picture viewer (1891); Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly solo nonstop across the US (1932); HBD Dave Chappelle (1973); Windows 95 released (1995).

August 23

Actor River Phoenix born (1970); Salad Bowl strike begins; largest farmworker strike in US history (1970); Kobe Bryant born (1978); HBD 12-time Olympic swimming medalist Natalie Coughlin (1982); World Wide Web opens to the public (1991).

August 20

First around-the-world telegram sent (1911); "Valley of the Dolls" author Jacqueline Susann is born (1918); Leon Trotsky fatally wounded in Mexico (1940); NASA launches Viking 1 probe toward Mars (1975); RIP comedian Jerry Lewis (2017).

Aaron Hillel Swartz

 (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. He was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS,[3] the Markdown publishing format,[4] the organization Creative Commons,[5] and the website framework web.py,[6] and joined the social news site Reddit six months after its founding.[7] He was given the title of co-founder of Reddit by Y Combinator owner Paul Graham after the formation of Not a Bug, Inc. (a merger of Swartz's project Infogami and Redbrick Solutions,[8] a company run by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman). Swartz's work also focused on civic awareness and activism.[9][10] He helped launch the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009 to learn more about effective online activism. In 2010, he became a research fellow at Harvard University's Safra Research Lab on Institutional Corruption, directed by Lawrence Lessig.[11][12] He founded the online group Demand Progress, known for its campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Aaron Swartz



Swartz at a Creative Commons event (December 13, 2008)

Born

Aaron Hillel Swartz[1]

November 8, 1986

Highland Park, Illinois,[2] U.S.

DiedJanuary 11, 2013 (aged 26)

Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.

Cause of deathSuicideEducationStanford UniversityOccupationSoftware developer, writer, internet activistOrganizationCreative Commons (development), Reddit (co-founder), Watchdog.net, Open Library, DeadDrop, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Demand Progress (co-founder), ThoughtWorks, Tor2webTitleFellow, Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Center for EthicsAwardsArsDigita Prize (2000)

American Library Association's James Madison Award (posthumously)

EFF Pioneer Award 2013 (posthumously)

Internet Hall of Fame 2013 (posthumously)Websiteaaronsw.com

August 19

Fashion designer Coco Chanel born (1883); Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500, hosts first race (1909); HBD former President Bill Clinton (1946); RIP comedian Groucho Marx (1977); Final US combat brigade leaves Iraq (2010).

August 18

Actress Shelley Winters born (1920); Baseball great Roberto Clemente born (1934); HBD Hollywood legend Robert Redford (1936); RIP Nobel Peace Prize winner and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (2018).

August 17

Actress Mae West born (1893); HBD Robert De Niro (1943); "Animal Farm" published (1945); President Bill Clinton admits to improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky (1998); Michael Phelps becomes first person to win eight gold medals in single Olympics (2008).

August 16

Gold is discovered in Canada’s Yukon Territory, sparks Klondike gold rush (1896); RIP Babe Ruth (1948); Sports Illustrated is first published (1954); HBD Madonna (1958); RIP Elvis Presley (1977); RIP Aretha Franklin (2018).

Jerry Reed Hubbard

(March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American country music singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter, as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included "Guitar Man", "U.S. Male", "A Thing Called Love", "Alabama Wild Man", "Amos Moses", "When You're Hot, You're Hot" (which garnered a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male), "Ko-Ko Joe", "Lord, Mr. Ford", "East Bound and Down" (the theme song for the 1977 film Smokey and the Bandit, in which Reed co-starred), "The Bird", and "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)".

Reed was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.

Reed was announced as an inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame on April 5, 2017, and was officially inducted by Bobby Bare on October 24.

In 1959, Reed hit the Billboard "Bubbling Under the Top 100", also known as the Roar and Cashbox Country chart with the single "Soldier's Joy". After serving two years in the United States Army, Reed moved to Nashville in 1961 to continue his songwriting career, which had continued to gather steam while he was in the Army, thanks to Brenda Lee's 1960 cover of his song "That's All You Got to Do". He also became a popular session and tour guitarist. In 1962, he scored some success with two singles "Goodnight Irene" (as by Jerry Reed & the Hully Girlies, featuring a female vocal group) and "Hully Gully Guitar", which found their way to Chet Atkins at RCA Victor, who produced Reed's 1965 "If I Don't Live Up to It".

Reed is particularly noted and respected by his musical contemporaries and the new generation alike for his unique and intricate picking technique, as seen in his composition "The Claw". As of December 2017, this highly challenging technique is both admired and attempted on numerous video instructional sites throughout YouTube by professionals and amateurs alike.^[10]

"Guitar Man"Edit

In July 1967, Reed had his best showing on the country charts (#53) with his self-penned "Guitar Man", which Elvis Presley soon covered. Reed's next single was "Tupelo Mississippi Flash", a comic tribute to Presley. Recorded on September 1, the song became his first Top 20 hit, going to No. 15 on the chart. Coincidentally, Presley came to Nashville to record nine days later on September 10, 1967, and one of the songs he became especially excited about was "Guitar Man".

Reed recalled how he was tracked down to play on the Presley session: "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer at RCA Victor) He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut "Guitar Man" all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.' I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys [you're using in the studio] are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.'"^[11]

Jarvis hired Reed to play on the session. "I hit that intro, and [Elvis's] face lit up and here we went. Then after he got through that, he cut [my] U.S. Male at the same session. I was toppin' cotton, son." Reed also played the guitar for Elvis Presley's "Big Boss Man" (1967), recorded in the same session.^[12]

On January 15 and 16, 1968, Reed worked on a second Presley session, during which he played guitar on a cover of Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business", "Stay Away", and "Goin' Home" (two songs revolving around Presley's film Stay Away, Joe), as well as another Reed composition, "U.S. Male" (Reed's quoted recollection of "U.S. Male" being recorded at the same session as "Guitar Man" being incorrect).^[13]

Presley also recorded two other Reed compositions: "A Thing Called Love" in May 1971 for his He Touched Me album, and "Talk About The Good Times" in December 1973, for a total of four.

Johnny Cash would also release "A Thing Called Love" as a single in 1971, which would reach No. 2 on the Billboard Country Singles Chart for North America. It was also successful in Europe. It would become the title track for a studio album that he released the following spring.

1970sEdit

After releasing the 1970 crossover hit "Amos Moses", a hybrid of rock, country, funk, and Cajun styles, which reached No. 8 on the U.S. pop charts, Reed teamed with Atkins for the duet LP Me & Jerry, which earned the pair the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. During the 1970 television season, he was a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and in 1971, he issued his biggest hit, the chart-topper "When You're Hot, You're Hot", which is a story song, with the majority of the lyrics being spoken rather than sung. The song concerns the singer's near success shooting dice, a police raid, and a judge who is supposedly a fishing buddy of the singer, but who nevertheless sends him down the river for gambling. Aside from being a major crossover hit, "When You're Hot, You're Hot" earned Reed the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male.

"When You're Hot, You're Hot" was the title track of Reed's first solo album, reaching No. 9 Pop and No. 6 on Billboard's Easy Listening charts. The singles from the album, "Amos Moses" and "When You're Hot, You're Hot" sold over 1 million copies, and were awarded gold discs by the RIAA^[14] The album also features songs such as Reed's version of "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and John D. Loudermilk's free-wheeling song "Big Daddy (Alabami Bound)".

August 13

Sharpshooter Annie Oakley born (1860); Fidel Castro born (1926); Construction of the Berlin Wall begins (1961); RIP baseball great Mickey Mantle (1995); RIP celebrity chef Julia Child (2004).

August 12

Egyptian queen Cleopatra dies by suicide (30 BCE, estimated); RIP James Bond creator Ian Fleming (1964); IBM personal computer is released (1981); Largest ever Tyrannosaurus rex discovered (1990); RIP Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall (2014)

August 11

Author and historian Alex Haley born (1921); HBD Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak (1950); HBD actress Viola Davis (1965); Final US ground combat troops leave South Vietnam during Vietnam War (1972); RIP Robin Williams (2014).

August 10

The Louvre opens in Paris (1793); HBD Smithsonian Institution (1846); Former President Herbert Hoover born (1874); HBD Kylie Jenner (1997); Jeffrey Epstein found dead in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges (2019).

August 9

US drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 40,000+ (1945); Whitney Houston born (1963); Actress Sharon Tate, four others are murdered by Manson Family (1969); Gerald Ford becomes US president as Richard Nixon resigns (1974); RIP musician Jerry Garcia (1995).

August 6

Actress Lucille Ball born (1911); Pop artist Andy Warhol born (1928); "Little Boy" atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, killing more than 70,000 (1945); Voting Rights Act signed (1965); Curiosity rover lands on Mars (2012).

August 4

Jazz legend Louis Armstrong born (1901); Anne Frank and family are captured after two years hiding from Nazis (1944); HBD former President Barack Obama (1961); HBD Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex (1981); Rwanda peace treaty signed (1993).

August 3

HBD singer Tony Bennett (1926); HBD Martha Stewart (1941); Rival basketball leagues merge to form NBA (1949); HBD Tom Brady (1977); 23 killed and 23 injured in mass shooting in El Paso, Texas (2019).

August 2

Declaration of Independence is signed (1776); American actress Myrna Loy born (1905); RIP Alexander Graham Bell (1922); Author and activist James Baldwin born (1924); Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to Gulf War (1990).

July 15

Spanish explorer and conquistador Ponce de León dies (1521); Rosetta Stone is found in Egypt (1799); HBD journalist and businesswoman Arianna Huffington (1950); Fashion designer Gianni Versace is murdered (1997); Twitter is launched (2006).

July 16

District of Columbia established as capital of US (1790); RIP former US first lady Mary Todd Lincoln (1882); First successful atom bomb test (1945); Apollo 11 launches with first astronauts who will walk on the moon (1969); John F. Kennedy Jr. dies in plane crash (1999).