%20At%20the%20National%20Library%20of%20Whales%20-%20Portrait_of_-%20PD%20-%20R1.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=clip&max-w=1600)
President Abraham Lincoln replies to Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, abolitionist editorial entitled “The Prayer of Twenty Millions" with a carefully worded letter hinting to a future change in his policy regarding the issue of slavery. More
Browse Historical Events by Month:
What Happened in August?
The Lawrence Massacre takes place as a group of roughly 400 Confederate guerrillas commanded by William Quantrill enters the town and immediately begin to ransack homes, shoot civilians, loot stores, and set buildings on fire. Between 160 and 190 men and boys were. killed in the raid. William Quantrill was shot and killed by Union soldiers in Kentucky in May 1865 More
Image: Lauretta Louise Fox Fisk - Quantrill's Raid.jpg
Battle of Mobile Bay -- Admiral David G. Farragut, leads a fleet of fourteen wooden ships and four ironclads and delivers a much needed victory for the Union and immortalizes the phase "Damn the torpedoes! - Full speed ahead!”.
Farragut became the first U.S. Navy’s full admiral. At the time of his death in 1870, he had served a total of 59 years in uniform. More
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), created in 1863 comes into being as the draft convention submitted to the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick of Armies in the Field, conference is adopted by 12 nations at meeting. "The ICRC is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence." More
James I. Waddell, Commander of the CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over from the bark Barracouta. More
President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation announcing the end of the American Civil War. It came 16 months after General Lee's surrender and after all other Confederate forces; some large and some small units, had followed suit.
"And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."
The proclamation officially closed a costly, bloody, and deadly chapter in its nation's history that started at Fort Sumter several years and incurred the loss of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. More
Mount of the Holy Cross was first photographed by William Henry Jackson. Stories had circulated for years of a mountain with a large cross etched in its side. Jackson climbed the western slope of the Rocky Mountains with more than 100 pounds of photography equipment and captured his most famous photograph. He later painted the iconic image in watercolor. More
Danish author Hans Christian Andersen dies in Copenhagen, Denmark, on August 4, 1875, from liver cancer at age 70. His highly successful literary life included tales like The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling. He is buried in the Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen.
Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old English Merchant Marine Captain' swimmer and stuntman, becomes on August 25, 1875, the first recorded person to swim the English Channel without the use of artificial aids.
Webb departed from Dover's Admiral Pier 21 hours and 45 minutes earlier on August 24, and arrived near Calais, France, the following morning; swimming roughly roughly 39 miles (64 km). Webb's achievement established the English Channel as a premier open-water swimming challenge while making him a celebrity. Webb used his newfound fame to become a professional swimmer, performing endurance stunts. He died in 1883, attempting to swim the dangerous rapids of the Niagara Gorge in North America.
_-_Cetshwayo,_King_of_the_Zulus_(d._1884)_-_RCIN_407424_-_Royal_Collection%20-%20PD%20-%20R%20.jpg?auto=format,compress&fit=clip&max-w=1600)
Zulu King Cetshwayo, the last king of the independent Zulu nation was captured by the British during the Zulu war and taken into custody. Two years later he was allowed to travel to London and met Queen Victoria. He was permitted to return to South Africa to rule a portion of the former Zulu kingdom in 1883. More
The construction of the Cologne Cathedral ( Kölner Dom), the largest Gothic church in northern Europe is finally completed after having been started 642 years earlier in 1248. It is now the city's major landmark. More
Krakatoa eruption. One of the most catastrophic volcanic eruptions in recorded history takes place on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa (Krakatau). The first eruption sends a cloud of gas and debris into the air and it is followed by increasingly powerful explosions culminating in a gigantic blast around 10 am on August 27.
The blast sent ash and debris 50 miles into the air blanketing 300,000 square miles (800,000 square kilometers) and plunging the area into darkness for two and a half days. The explosions were heard 2,000 miles away. Tidal waves 120 ft. high killed 36,000 persons on nearby islands, while five cubic miles of earth were blasted into the air up to a height of 50 miles. More
A strong 7.0 Magnitude earthquake strikes Charleston, South Carolina, causing at least 60 deaths and $5–6 million ($200 million in 2025) in damage to over 2,000 buildings in the Southeastern United States. It was one of the most powerful and damaging earthquakes to hit the East Coast of the United States, an unusual event in an area not known for seismic activity that was felt as far as Boston, Chicago Milwaukee and New Orleans.
William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed in an Electric chair. The execution took place in New York. It was the first time ever a state used the electric chair to carry out an execution. States have carried out 158 executions by electric chair since 1973. Tennessee was the most recent state to use the electric chair, taking place in 2020. More
Gold was discovered on August 16, 1896, in Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon Territory, resulting in the Great Klondike Gold Rush. Rabbit Creek was later renamed Bonanza Creek.
The initial discovery is widely credited to Skookum Jim (Keish), a Tagish First Nation member, along with his nephew Dawson Charlie (Káa Goox) and George Carmack. Tens of thousands of prospectors rushed to the region, creating the boomtown of Dawson City. More
An Armistice to stop the hostilities in the Spanish - American War is signed. Spain agrees to the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines to the United States, pending a final peace treaty. The war officially ended four months later, when the U.S. and Spanish governments signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. The United States Senate ratified the treaty on February 6, 1899. More Spanish - American War Historical Timeline
The Lincoln penny was first issued by the United States Mint on August 2, 1909, marking the centennial of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. It was the first regularly circulating U.S. coin to feature the portrait of an actual historical person, replacing the long-running Indian Head cent.
Introduction of the Lincoln Penny
Overview
The Lincoln penny was first issued by the United States Mint on August 2, 1909, marking the centennial of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. It was the first regularly circulating U.S. coin to feature the portrait of an actual historical person, replacing the long-running Indian Head cent.
Designed by sculptor Victor David Brenner, the coin represented a significant departure from earlier U.S. coinage, which had traditionally depicted allegorical figures such as Liberty rather than real individuals.
Historical Background
By the early twentieth century, President Theodore Roosevelt sought to improve the artistic quality of American coinage. As part of this initiative, he encouraged the redesign of several U.S. coins. The approaching 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth provided the opportunity to honor one of the nation's most respected presidents with a new one-cent coin.
Victor David Brenner based Lincoln's portrait on a photograph taken by Matthew Brady's studio, producing a right-facing profile that remains one of the most recognizable images in American numismatics.
The Initial Release
The first Lincoln cents entered circulation on August 2, 1909. The reverse featured two wheat ears framing the denomination and country name, leading collectors to later nickname the coin the "Wheat Penny."
The original coins also carried Brenner's initials (V.D.B.) prominently on the reverse. Public criticism over the size and placement of the initials led the U.S. Mint to remove them shortly after release, creating one of the most famous collectible varieties: the 1909-S VDB.
Significance
The introduction of the Lincoln penny was historically important because it:
- Introduced the first portrait of a real historical figure on a circulating U.S. coin.
- Honored Abraham Lincoln on the centennial of his birth.
- Reflected Theodore Roosevelt's campaign to elevate the artistic quality of American coinage.
- Created one of the most collected and recognizable coin series in the world.
- Established a design lineage that continues on the U.S. one-cent coin today, though with updated reverses.
Timeline
The Lincoln cent has undergone several reverse design changes:
February 12, 1909: Centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth
August 2, 1909: Lincoln penny officially introduced into circulation
August: 1909: V.D.B. initials removed from most subsequent production
1959 : Reverse changed to the Lincoln Memorial
2009: Bicentennial commemorative reverse designs issued
2010: Union Shield reverse adopted.
The Union Shield: Lincoln's obverse portrait, has remained in continuous use since 1909, making it one of the longest-running coin designs in U.S. history. with only minor refinements,
Legacy
The introduction of the Lincoln penny marked a turning point in American coinage by replacing allegorical imagery with the portrait of a historical leader. More than a century later, the Lincoln cent remains a familiar symbol of U.S. currency and one of the most widely collected coins in the world. Its debut on August 2, 1909, stands as a landmark event in both American history and numismatics.
A telegram reading “This message sent around the world” is sent by the New York Times to test how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world. it traveled over 28,000 miles and was relayed by 16 different operators. It arrived back at The Times only 16.5 minutes later. The building where the message originated is now called One Times Square. More
The Louvre announces the theft of the Mona Lisa. The theft had actually occurred the day before but it was believed to have been moved for cleaning or photography and it took over 24 hours for the official announcement. The painting had been stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia a temporary Italian worker at the Louvre who reportedly, "wanted to return the Mona Lisa to Italy where it belonged" It was recovered two years later on December 1913 in Italy and returned to the Louvre.
The Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1507, had been purchased on 1519 by King François I of France from Leonardo Da Vinci's assistant after the artist death. It became part of the French royal collection, residing in palaces like Fontainebleau and Versailles before the French Revolution. After the Revolution, the royal collections, including the Mona Lisa, became the property of the French Republic and were moved to the Louvre, where it has been since 1804. More