August 1 Unforgettable Moments in History

1498 Christopher Columbus lands in South America for the first time, near the mouth of the Orinoco river, in modern-day Venezuela

1701 Huron chief Kondiaronk urges First Nations people to sign a peace settlement with France, dies the next day - results in The Great Peace of Montreal

1714 Monarch Georg Ludwig becomes King George I of England

1774 English chemist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen by isolating it in its gaseous state

1781 British army under General Cornwallis occupies Yorktown, Virginia

1789 US Customs begins enforcing Tariff Act

1793 France becomes 1st country to use the metric system

1794 Whiskey Rebellion begins in western Pennsylvania

1834 Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into effect, abolishes slavery throughout the British Empire

1838 Apprenticeship system abolished in most of the British Empire. Former slaves no longer indentured to former owners.

1861 Brazil recognizes Confederacy

1867 Blacks vote for 1st time in a US state election in the South (Tennessee)

1876 Colorado becomes 38th state of the Union

1907 U.S. Army Signal Corps establish a small Aeronautical Division

1911 Harriet Quimby passes her pilot's test and becomes the 1st US woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator's certificate

1914 Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in WWI

1941 The first Jeep is produced

1944 Anne Frank's last diary entry; 3 days later she is arrested

1946 US President Harry Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)

1957 US and Canada create North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)

1972 1st article exposing Watergate scandal by Bernstein and Woodward in "The Washington Post”

1981 "Endless Love" single released by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie (Billboard Song of the Year 1981, Billboard Greatest Song Duet of All-Time)

1988 Rush Limbaugh begins his national radio show.

2000 First patient to receive the Jarvik 2000, the first total artificial heart that can maintain blood flow in addition to generating a pulse