Moments in Time: Filet mignon in space
The History Channel
On Aug. 3, 1923, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the United States, hours after the death of President Warren G. Harding, who had died suddenly of a heart attack or stroke while on vacation in California. Coolidge's oath was administered by his father, a notary public, under the light of a kerosene lamp while he was visiting family in Vermont.
On Aug. 4, 1790, the first U.S. Congress authorized the construction of 10 vessels to patrol American ports from Massachusetts to Georgia. The United States Coast Guard, originally known as the Revenue Marine and then the Revenue Cutter Service, was the idea of Alexander Hamilton and designed to intercept marine smugglers and collect tariffs on imported goods.
On Aug. 5, 1948, American diver Sammy Lee earned a gold medal at the London Olympics two days after his friend and fellow diver Vicki Draves won hers. They were the first Asian Americans to win Olympic gold medals for the United States. Draves was also the first woman to take home gold medals in both springboard and platform diving.
On Aug. 6, 1890, William Kemmler, convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe, became the first person to be executed by electric chair, at New York's Auburn Prison. Inventor George Westinghouse notably opined that "they would have done better with an axe."
On Aug. 7, 1987, Lynne Cox, clad in just a swimsuit, entered the near-freezing waters of Little Diomede in Alaska. Two hours and 16 minutes later she had crossed the international dateline and completed the first recorded swim from the United States to the Soviet Union, ending at Big Diomede in the Bering Strait.
On Aug. 8, 1844, Brigham Young was chosen to be the next leader of the Mormon Church, following the mob assassination of the church's founder, Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum six weeks earlier.
On Aug. 9, 1973, NASA asked Skylab astronauts to share a housefly-sized piece of their filet mignon with two spiders, Anita and Arabella, on the astronauts' mission so the arachnids could maintain their experimental work on spinning webs in zero-G.
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