On August 19, 1964, more than six months after taking the East
Coast by storm, the Fab Four travel to California to take the
stage at the Cow Palace in San Francisco for opening night of
their first-ever concert tour of North America.
On August 19, 1911, the first race was held at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, now the home of the world’s most famous
motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.
Built on farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana,
the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing
facility for Indiana’s growing automobile industry.
The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars
from different manufacturers against each other. After seeing
what these cars could do, spectators would presumably head
down to the showroom of their choice to get a closer look.
Ray Harroun won the race in his Harmon Wasp with an
average speed of 74.6 mph.
On August 19, 1791, the accomplished American mathematician
and astronomer Benjamin Banneker wrote a letter to then-
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson corresponded prolifically with luminaries from around
the world, but Banneker is unique among them: the son of a free
Black American woman and a formerly enslaved African man from Guinea, Banneker criticizes Jefferson’s hypocritical stance on
slavery in respectful but unambiguous terms, using Jefferson’s
own words to make his case for the abolition of slavery.
Banneker himself was born free in what is now Ellicott City,
Maryland, and was encouraged in his studies of astronomy
and mathematics by the Ellicotts, a Quaker family who owned
a mill and much of the land in the area.
As the 1992-93 NBA season approached, Larry Bird decided
he could not continue. On Aug. 18, 1992 he announced his
retirement as a player.
After 897 games Bird retired with 21,791 points, 8,974 rebounds
and 5,695 assists. During his career he shot .496 from the floor
and .886 from the free-throw line, retiring as the fifth all-time free-
throw shooter behind Mark Price, Rick Barry, Calvin Murphy and
Scott Skiles.
Bird was named a special assistant in the Celtics’ front office,
with limited duties that included some scouting and player
evaluation. In reality, he spent most of the next five years in
Florida, playing golf and taking it easy.
He did some commercials and appeared in a few films, including
Michael Jordan’s Space Jam.
1996
Larry Joe Bird is 68 years old.
The day of Elvis Presley’s funeral, August 17, 1977, FTD delivered
more than 3,100 floral arrangements, wiping out Memphis-area
florists and setting a record for the most flowers sold in the US
in a single day.
