Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, later known as Sir Alfred Hitchcock, was born on August 13, 1899, in Leytonstone, Essex, England. Over the next eight decades, the son of a London greengrocer became the “Master of Suspense,” directing films such as Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, and The Birds.
Jackson Pollock died on August 11, 1956, in Springs, New York, at age 44, after a career that had made his unconventional painting methods famous far beyond the art world. In less than two decades, he moved from Depression-era government art projects to the center of the emerging Abstract Expressionist movement.
On August 10, 1861, Union and Southern forces fought the Battle of Wilson’s Creek near Springfield, Missouri, the first major Civil War battle west of the Mississippi River. The six-hour struggle ended in a Southern victory, but it did not settle the larger contest for control of the divided border state.
On August 9, 1944, the US Forest Service created Smokey Bear to encourage people to prevent forest fires. The Wildfire Prevention Campaign is the longest-running public service announcement campaign in US history, and Smokey has become an icon recognized around the globe.
On August 7, 1789, Congress approved a law placing the nation’s lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and public piers under federal care. With that decision, the new government began building a coordinated system to guide ships past hazards and safely into American ports.
On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, giving the federal government powerful new tools to confront racial discrimination at the polls. The law followed decades of blocked registrations, intimidation, and a voting-rights campaign that drew national attention to Selma, Alabama.
On August 4, 1790, President George Washington passed a new Tariff Act that created the United States Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the US Coast Guard. The Revenue Cutter Service was America’s only armed maritime service until the Navy was formed in 1798.
On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed from southern Spain in search of a westward route to the valuable trading centers of Asia. The voyage did not lead to China as he expected, but carried three small ships across an ocean far wider than his calculations suggested.
Though he had been in poor health for some time, President Warren G. Harding’s death on August 2, 1923, shocked a nation that had watched him greet cheering crowds only days earlier. The lack of an autopsy, combined with scandals emerging from his administration, soon encouraged rumors that lasted for decades.