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Culture

What Happened on August 3?

By Jenn Walker
Updated May 17, 2024
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  • The first underwater vessel crossed under the North Pole. (1958) The USS Nautilus nuclear submarine was the first to travel below the Arctic ice cap.

  • The first openly gay Bishop was appointed by the Anglican church. (2003) The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson was consecrated by 44 Episcopal bishops. The appointment caused controversy among religious leaders around the world, of all denominations.

  • The US National Basketball Association was founded. (1949) The Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946, becoming the National Basketball Association on this day after merging with the National Basketball League.

  • Christopher Columbus left Spain, beginning the journey that would bring him to the Americas. (1492) On this first voyage, Columbus visited what is now the Bahamas, Cuba and Haiti. He kidnapped several natives to take with him back to Spain.

  • The first intercollegiate competition took place in the US. (1852) The first competition — rowing — pitted Yale against Harvard on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Harvard's Oneida boat beat Yale's Shawmut on the 2-mile (3-kilometer) course. It became an annual race known as the Harvard–Yale Regatta.

  • The Statue of Liberty was re-opened for the first time since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the US. (2004) The statue was closed due to failures to meet fire regulations and inadequate procedures for evacuation. The interior area of the statue and its crown weren't re-opened until July 4, 2009.

  • US Gen. George S. Patton slapped a soldier recovering from battle fatigue, calling him a coward. (1943) General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would later become the 34th President of the United States, relieved Patton of his command and reassigned him.

  • The Donner party hit their first obstacle in their traverse across the US to California. (1846) The party hit their first delay at the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. The party later would become snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains while attempting to travel a "short cut" to California. The group was trapped for the winter and had to resort to cannibalism to survive. Only 45 of the original 89 travelers made it to California the next year.

  • A sodomy arrest resulted in a US Supreme Court trial that challenged the state of Georgia's sex laws. (1982) In the Bowers v. Hardwick decision, the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the laws, which treated some forms of consensual sex as criminal activities. The ruling was overturned in 2003 with the Lawrence v. Texas decision, which struck down sodomy laws across the country.

  • 35,000 people were killed when Mount Asama erupted in Japan. (1783) The volcano, which is still active today, erupted for three months, increasing the devastation of the "Great Tenmei Famine," which began in 1782.
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Discussion Comments

By clintflint — On Aug 22, 2013

@Umbra21 - It was a big deal at the time, and very controversial. It makes an interesting read if you want to know more about it.

Basically, Patton didn't believe that battle fatigue was a real condition and he was really rough and abusive to the men who had it. The fact that he did that spread among the other soldiers (who, of course, would have mostly realized that it was a real condition) and eventually reached Eisenhower who had to do something about it or risk damage to morale. It also reached the press and became a big deal with everyone taking sides.

By umbra21 — On Aug 21, 2013

Of all the entries here, I'm most surprised by the one about Patton. I wonder if there was more to that story, or if he was really relieved just because he slapped a soldier.

I mean, I think he sounds like a jerk for doing it, but I wouldn't have thought anyone would find it to be out of the ordinary back then. I know that battle fatigue (also called shell shock, or as we know it today, post traumatic stress disorder) is a serious problem, but I always thought they did treat it as basically just cowardice back then and would try to get the men to ignore their symptoms and head back into battle.

So, I wonder if this was just an excuse to reassign Patton or if Eisenhower was really shocked by that action.

By Mor — On Aug 20, 2013
Wow, I didn't know that the Yale and Harvard rowing race has been going on that long. One of the universities that I attended a while ago (in New Zealand) would occasionally have people over from Yale to race in the river that was nearby and they made a big deal about the Yale and Harvard race.

But I didn't know it had been going that long. To be honest, I didn't know the schools themselves were that old.

It's kind of cool to be part of history like that, but I can't help but think that they take it a little bit too seriously sometimes.

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