Daily Chat 31/08/09

The Iroquois tribes founded the Confederation of Haudenosaunee in 1142. A group of men led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from Pittsburgh on the Voyage of Discovery in 1803. The body of Mary Ann Nichols, the first known victim of Jack the Ripper, was found in 1888. The Soviet passenger liner Admiral Nakhimov collided with the cargo vessel Pyotr Vasev, killing 423 people, in 1986. Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Al Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul were killed in Paris in 1997 and Edvard Munch's The Scream was found by Oslo police in 2006, more than two years after it was stolen.

Celebrating birthdays today: Martin Bell, Van Morrison, Itzhak Perlman, Glenn Tilbrook, Pàdraig Harrington and José Reina. It is the Day of Our Language in Moldova.

Daily Chat 30/08/09

The city of Melbourne, Australia, was founded in 1835. The city of Houston, Texas, was founded in 1836. The Siege of Leningrad began in 1941 and Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first black Supreme Court Justice in 1967.

Celebrating birthdays today: Laurent deBrunhoff and Horace Panter. It is Rose of Lima Day in Peru.

Daily Chat 29/08/09

The naval forces of Edward III defeated the Castilian fleet in the Battle of Winchelsea in 1350. The Ottoman Turks captured Buda in 1541. Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831. The Beatles performed their last concert in front of a paying audience at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1966 and in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the US Gulf Coast, killing 1,836 people and causing $80 billion in damages.

People born on this day: John Locke (1632-1704), Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), Charlie Parker (1920-1955), Richard Attenborough (1923), Elliott Gould (1938), Lenny Henry (1958) and Michael Jackson (1958-2009). It is the Commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.

Daily Chat 28/08/09

The Third Siege of Acre began on this day in 1189. A fourteen year-old black boy from Chicago named Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman in 1955. His mother insisted on an open casket funeral to show the world the brutality of the attack. The incident helped galvanise the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

Another day of decidedly D-list living celebs. If Goethe were still alive, he'd be turning 260 today. Leo Tolstoy would be celebrating his 181st. It is the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo.