Moments in Time – July 20, 2022

#Middlebury

• On Aug. 4, 1753, George Washington, a young Virginia planter, becomes a Master Mason, the highest basic rank in Freemasonry. The ceremony was held at the Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington was 21 years old and would soon command his first military operation. Freemasons trace the origins of masonry back to the erecting of King Solomon’s Temple in biblical times.
• On Aug. 6, 1911, Lucille Desiree Ball, one of America’s most famous redheads and beloved comic actresses, is born near Jamestown, New York. Ball starred with husband Ricky Ricardo on television’s “I Love Lucy” from 1951 to 1957.
• On Aug. 2, 1939, Wes Craven, the man responsible for terrorizing millions of moviegoers with his “Nightmare on Elm Street” series, is born. Craven began his directing career with 1972’s “The Last House on the Left,” a violent teen horror film.
• On Aug. 1, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rams an American PT (patrol torpedo) boat, No. 109, slicing it in two. The destruction is so massive, other American PT boats in the area assume the crew is dead. Two crewmen were, in fact, killed, but 11 survived, including Lt. John F. Kennedy, who would later become president.
• On Aug. 7, 1964, the United States Congress approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson nearly unlimited powers to oppose “communist aggression” in Southeast Asia. The Johnson administration began heavy bombing of North Vietnam in early 1965 and sent U.S. combat troops in March 1965.
• On Aug. 3, 1977, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” starring Roger Moore as James Bond, is released in theaters. The film features one of the most memorable Bond vehicles of all time – a sleek, powerful Lotus Esprit sports car that does double duty as a submarine.
• On Aug. 5, 2002, the rusty iron gun turret of the ironclad warship U.S.S. Monitor is raised from the floor of the Atlantic, where it had rested since it went down in a storm off North Carolina during the Civil War. She sank in December 1862, while being towed from Cape Hatteras.

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