Benjamin “Ben” Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – 6 August 1637) was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours. He is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614) and for his lyric poetry; he is generally regarded as the second most important English playwright during the reign of James I after William Shakespeare.

Jonson was a classically educated, well-read and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual) whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642).

— Source: wiki/Ben_Jonson

Nathan Hale was an American soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed. His last words before being hanged were purported to be “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Hale has long been considered an American hero and, in 1985, he was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut.

Born: Jun 06, 1755 · Coventry, CT
Died: Sep 22, 1776 · New York, NY
Siblings: Enoch Hale (Brother)
Education: Yale University · Yale College
Parents: Richard Hale · Elizabeth Strong

— Source: wiki/Nathan_Hale

The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba’athist Iraq lasting from September 1980 to August 1988. The Iran–Iraq War began when Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980. It followed a long history of border disputes, and was motivated by fears that the Iranian Revolution in 1979 would inspire insurgency among Iraq’s long-suppressed Shi’i majority, as well as Iraq’s desire to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Although Iraq hoped to take advantage of Iran’s revolutionary chaos and attacked without formal warning, it made only limited progress into Iran and was quickly repelled; Iran regained virtually all lost territory by June 1982. For the next six years, Iran was on the offensive. A number of proxy forces participated in the war, most notably the Iranian People’s Mujahedin of Iran siding with Ba’athist Iraq and Iraqi Kurdish militias of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan siding with Iran—all suffering a major blow by the end of the conflict.

Start date: Sep 22, 1980
End date: Aug 20, 1988

— Source: wiki/Iran–Iraq_War

The Dead Sea Scrolls, in the narrow sense of Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a collection of some 981 different texts discovered between 1946 and 1956 in eleven caves in the immediate vicinity of the Hellenistic-period Jewish settlement at Khirbet Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert, the modern West Bank. The caves are located about two kilometres inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name. The consensus is that the Qumran Caves Scrolls date from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE. Bronze coins found at the same sites form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus and continuing until the First Jewish–Roman War, supporting the radiocarbon and paleographic dating of the scrolls. Manuscripts from additional Judean desert sites go back as far as the eighth century BCE to as late as the 11th century CE.

— Source: wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls

Turtle was the world’s first submersible with a documented record of use in combat. She was built in Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1775 by American David Bushnell as a means of attaching explosive charges to ships in a harbor. Bushnell designed her for use against British Royal Navy vessels occupying North American harbors during the American Revolutionary War. Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull recommended the invention to George Washington; although the commander-in-chief had doubts, he provided funds and support for the development and testing of the machine.

— Source: wiki/Turtle_(submersible)

Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and television pioneer. He made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television. He is perhaps best known for his 1927 invention of the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device, the “image dissector”, as well as the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. He was also the first person to demonstrate such a system to the public. Farnsworth developed a television system complete with receiver and camera, which he produced commercially in the form of the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation, from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Lived: Aug 19, 1906 – Mar 11, 1971 (age 64)
Inventions: Television
Education: Brigham Young University · Rigby High School

— Source: wiki/Philo_Farnsworth

The Blitz, from the German word ‘Blitzkrieg’ meaning ‘lightning war’, was the name borrowed by the British press and applied to the heavy and frequent bombing raids carried out over Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. This concentrated, direct bombing of industrial targets and civilian centres began with heavy raids on London on 7 September 1940, during what became known as the Battle of Britain. Adolf Hitler’s and Hermann Goering’s plans to destroy the Royal Air Force to allow an invasion of Britain were failing, and in response to an RAF raid on Berlin, which itself was prompted by an accidental German bombing of London, they changed their tactics to the sustained bombing of civilian targets.

Start date: Sep 07, 1940
End date: May 21, 1941

— Source: wiki/The_Blitz

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football with a Mission to “Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values & Celebrate Excellence. The Hall’s five core values that are learned from the game are commitment, integrity, courage, respect and excellence. The vision of the Pro Football Hall of Fame is “It’s not just the past, it’s the future; It’s not just about Canton, it’s the world; It’s not just a great museum for football but a message of excellence.” The hall opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter enshrinees. As of 2016, there are a total of 303 members of the Hall of Fame.

Address: 2121 George Halas Dr Nw, Canton, OH 44708
Established: 1963

— Source: wiki/Pro_Football_Hall_of_Fame

The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4, 1776. It was a victory for the British Army and the beginning of a successful campaign that gave them control of the strategically important city of New York. In terms of troop deployment and fighting, it was the largest battle of the entire war.
Date: Aug 27, 1776

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies began in the afternoon of August 26, 1883, and culminated with several destructive eruptions of the remaining caldera. On August 27, two-thirds of Krakatoa collapsed in a chain of titanic explosions, destroying most of the island and its surrounding archipelago. Additional alleged seismic activity continued to be reported until February 1884, though reports of those after October 1883 were later dismissed by Rogier Verbeek’s investigation. It was one of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history, with at least 36,000 deaths being attributed to the eruption itself and the tsunamis it created. Significant additional effects were also felt around the world.

Guinness World Records, known from its inception in 1955 until 1998 as The Guinness Book of Records and in previous U.S. editions as The Guinness Book of World Records, is a reference book published annually, listing world records and national records, both of human achievements and the extremes of the natural world. The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted book of all time. As of the 2016 edition, it is now in its 62nd year of publication. The international franchise has extended beyond print to include television series and museums. The popularity of the franchise has resulted in Guinness World Records becoming the primary international authority on the cataloguing and verification of a huge number of world records; the organization employs official record adjudicators authorised to verify the authenticity of the setting and breaking of records.

Renée Richards is an American ophthalmologist and former tennis player who had some success on the professional circuit in the 1970s. In 1975 Richards underwent male-to-female sex reassignment surgery. She was then denied entry into the 1976 US Open by the United States Tennis Association, which began that year requiring genetic screening for female players. She disputed this policy, and the New York Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 1977 in a decision in favor of transsexual rights. As one of the first professional athletes to identify as such, she became a spokesperson for the transgender community.
Born: Aug 19, 1934 (age 82) New York, NY
Height: 6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
Turned pro: 1977