What Happened in August 1898

Historical Events

Historic Invention

Aug 9 Rudolf Diesel of Germany obtains patent #608,845 for his internal combustion engine, later known as the diesel engine

  • Aug 12 Hawaii is formally annexed to US

Capture of Manila

Aug 13 US forces under Admiral George Dewey captures Manila during Spanish–American War

  • Aug 16 Edwin Prescott patents roller coaster
  • Aug 22 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Newport, RI: Malcolm Whitman wins first of 3 straight US singles titles; beats Dwight F. Davis 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-1
  • Aug 25 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen are slaughtered by the Turks in Heraklion, Greece.
  • Aug 28 Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola".
  • Aug 29 The Goodyear tire company founded

Famous Birthdays

  • Aug 1 Morris Stoloff, American violinist, Academy Award-winning composer, music director (Columbia Pictures, 1938-62), and orchestra leader (Moonglow/Theme from Picnic), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1980)
  • Aug 3 Karl Kehrle, Benedictine monk and beekeeper, born in Mittelbiberach, Germany (d. 1996)
  • Aug 4 Ernesto Maserati, Italian auto racer and engineer (director, chief engineer Maserati of Modena), born in Bologna, Kingdom of Italy (d. 1975)
  • Aug 8 Alexis Minotis [Alexandros Minotakis], Greek actor (The Merchant of Venice, King Lear), born in Chania, Crete, Greece (d. 1990)
  • Aug 8 Paul Belmondo, French sculptor (Bathing Woman, Orleans), born in Algiers, French Algeria (d. 1982)

Jack Haley (1898-1979)

Aug 10 American vaudevillle and screen actor, singer, and dancer (The Wizard of Oz -"Tin Man"; Higher and Higher), born in Boston, Massachusetts

  • Aug 11 Arthur Leslie Noel Douglas Houghton, British politician and trade unionist (d. 1996)
  • Aug 12 Oscar Homolka, Hungarian actor (Sabotage, The Seven Year Itch, Ball of Fire, I Remember Mama), born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (d. 1978)

Jean Borotra (1898-1994)

Aug 13 French tennis player (Wimbledon 1924, 26), born in Biarritz, France

  • Aug 13 Regis Toomey, American actor (Burke's Law, Petticoat Junction), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1991)
  • Aug 15 Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (The Beetle), born in Zhmerynka, Ukraine (d. 1966)
  • Aug 15 Lillian Carter, US President Jimmy Carter's (1977-1981) mom, born in Richland, Georgia (d. 1983)
  • Aug 17 Ger Schmook, Flemish librarian (ADB, Antwerp City Library), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1985)
  • Aug 20 Gerard Kraus, Dutch psychiatrist and director Santpoort (Insanity in the Netherlands) (d. 1956)
  • Aug 20 Leopold Infeld, Polish nuclear physicist (Whom the God's Love), born in Kraków, Poland (d. 1968)
  • Aug 20 Vilhelm Moberg, Swedish author (The Emigrants) and historian, born in Moshultamåla, Sweden (d. 1973)
  • Aug 22 Francine Larrimore, French actress (John Meade's Woman), born in Verdun, France (d. 1975)
  • Aug 24 Albert Claude, Belgian biologist and physician (Nobel 1974), born in Longlier, Belgium (d. 1983)
  • Aug 24 Malcolm Cowley, American author (Flowering of New England), born in Belsano, Pennsylvania (d. 1989)
  • Aug 25 Arthur Wood, English cricket wicketkeeper (4 Tests, 11 dismissals), born in Bradford, England (d. 1973)
  • Aug 25 Helmut Hasse, German mathematician, born in Kassel, Germany (d. 1979)
  • Aug 26 Clem Beauchamp, American film actor, stuntman, and production manager (Tarzan; Dick Tracy; The Adventures of Superman), born in Bloomfield, Iowa (d. 1992)
  • Aug 26 Peggy Guggenheim, American art patron & collector, born in New York City (d. 1979)
  • Aug 28 Ludwig Turek, German writer, born in Stendal, Germany (d. 1975)
  • Aug 29 Preston Sturges [Edmund Biden], American director and screenwriter (Sullivan's Travels), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1959)
  • Aug 30 Kiki Cuyler, American Baseball HOF right fielder (World Series 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates; 4 × NL stolen base leader; MLB All Star 1934 Chicago Cubs), born in Harrisville, Michigan (d. 1950)

Shirley Booth (1898-1992)

Aug 30 American Tony Award-winning stage and screen actress (Come Back, Little Sheba, Hazel), born in New York City


Famous Deaths

  • Aug 8 Eugène Boudin, French painter (beach scenes), dies at 74
  • Aug 9 Gardner Quincy Colton, American lecturer who was the first to use nitrous oxide as an anesthetic in dentistry, dies at 84
  • Aug 17 Carl Johann Adam Zeller, Austrian composer, dies at 56
  • Aug 21 Niccolò van Westerhout, Italian composer, dies at 40
  • Aug 23 Joseph Robinson, Irish singer, organist and composer, dies at 82
  • Aug 27 John Hopkinson, British physicist and electrical engineer (Hopkinson's Law), dies with three of his children in a mountaineering accident in the Pennine Alps, Switzerland at 49