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On this day

Did you know?

Matahi Brightwell

... that Matahi Brightwell (pictured) reintroduced the sport of waka ama to New Zealand?
... that during the First Bishops' War, the Duke of Hamilton's mother intended to shoot him with silver bullets if he landed in Scotland?
... that Warren Lawrence, the first Dominican swimmer at the Commonwealth Games, is the son of the first Dominican swimmer at the Olympics?
... that a high school evicted a Pennsylvania TV station?
... that the National Library of Korea is a no kid zone?
... that in its first appearance at the Olympics, Suriname was represented by a single athlete, who missed his event?
... that Myinsaing withstood a ten-week siege by the Mongols because its three brother leaders bribed the invaders to withdraw?
... that basketball player Marcedes Walker became an Olympian 16 years after her WNBA career ended?
... that "the old man was startled and a little shocked" when he was shown Walter Frere's revision of his book?

On this day

August 1: Lughnasadh in the Northern Hemisphere; Buwan ng Wika begins in the Philippines; PLA Day in China (1927)

Joseph Priestley

30 BC – War of Actium: Octavian defeated the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Alexandria, establishing Roman Egypt.
902 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Led by Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, Aghlabid forces captured the Byzantine stronghold of Taormina, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily.
1774 – British scientist Joseph Priestley (pictured) liberated oxygen gas, corroborating the discovery of the element by the German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
1892 – Jef Denyn hosted the world's first carillon concert at St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium.
1911 – Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator certificate.

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