#Middlebury
On Aug. 7, 1782, Gen. George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army, creates the “Badge for Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple, heart-shaped piece of silk. The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces who have been killed or wounded in action against an enemy.- On Aug. 6, 1928, Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the latter part of the 20th century, is born in Pittsburgh. Warhol, a pioneer of the pop art movement, painted comic strips, canned soup and soft drinks because an early art teacher told him to paint things he liked.
- On Aug. 4, 1944, acting on a tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp.
- On Aug. 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplishes the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. The world’s first nuclear submarine traveled nearly 1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the pole.
- On Aug. 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles of an apparent suicide. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around her bedroom.
- On Aug. 9, 1974, Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th president of the United States after the resignation of Richard Nixon. In a television address, Ford declared, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
- On Aug. 8, 1988, the Chicago Cubs host the first night game in the history of Wrigley Field when they play the Philadelphia Phillies. The game was called due to rain in the bottom of the fourth inning.
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