August 31 is day 251 of the Gregorian Calendar year, Setting Orange, Bureaucracy 31, 3186 YOLD (Discordian) And let us not forget 13.0.7.14.17 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8 - The Congress shall have the power ... To establish Post Offices and post Roads; (Clauses 1 & 7) This has been interpreted quite broadly as to the powers and authority cnveyed to Congress and, indirectly, to the post office itself. However, it has also been ruled that it does not give the Post Office a monopoly on mail (and package) delivery.
On this day in history:
0878 – Louis the Stammerer was crowned as king of West Francia 1776 – According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee made the world's first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor (no British records of this attack exist). 1812 – The Battle of Borodino, the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, was fought near Moscow. 1857 – Mormon settlers slaughtered most members of peaceful, emigrant wagon train in the Mountain Meadows massacre. 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi entered Naples. 1901 – The Boxer Rebellion in Qing dynasty (modern-day China) officially ended with the signing of the Boxer Protocol. 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flew his 14-bis aircraft at Bagatelle, France for the first time successfully. 1916 – US federal employees won the right to Workers' compensation by Federal Employers Liability Act (39 Stat. 742; 5 U.S.C. 751) 1936 – The last thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial named Benjamin, died alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. 1965 – US Marines and South Vietnamese forces started Operation Piranha during which the Marines blew up a Vietnamese field hospital situated in a cave, claiming that some of the occupants had returned fire when they attacked and invaded it. 1977 – The Torrijos–Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal were signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century. This infamously led to the US invasion of Panama in 1989 under Bush I (CIA Bush) to remind them who was really in control. 1979 – The Chrysler Corporation asked the United States government for US$1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy. 2005 – Egypt held its first-ever multi-party presidential election. 2008 – The US government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 2017 – Equifax announced a cyber-crime identity theft event potentially impacting approximately 1451/2 million U.S. consumers.
Born this day in:
I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it. ~~ Edith Sitwell
1705 – Matthäus Günther, painter 1707 – Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, mathematician, cosmologist, and author 1726 – François-André Danican Philidor, chess player and composer 1740 – Johan Tobias Sergel, sculptor and illustrator 1777 – Heinrich Stölzel, horn player and composer ( 1791 – Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, poet and author 1795 – John William Polidori, physician and author 1860 – Grandma Moses, painter 1887 – Edith Sitwell, poet and critic 1900 – Taylor Caldwell, author 1903 – Margaret Landon, missionary and author 1903 – Dorothy Marie Donnelly, poet and author 1904 – C. B. Colby, author 1908 – Max Kaminsky, trumpet player and bandleader 1912 – David Packard, engineer and businessman, friend of Hewlett 1914 – Graeme Bell, pianist and composer 1914 – James Van Allen, physicist and philosopher 1915 – Kiyosi Itô, mathematician and academic 1917 – John Cornforth, chemist and academic, 1917 – Jacob Lawrence, painter and educator 1923 – Nancy Keesing, author and poet ( 1930 – Sonny Rollins, saxophonist and composer 1934 – Mary Bauermeister, painter and illustrator 1934 – Little Milton, singer and guitarist 1936 – Buddy Holly, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1939 – Latimore, singer, songwriter, and pianist 1947 – Gloria Gaynor, singer and songwriter 1951 – Chrissie Hynde, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1951 – Morris Albert, singer and songwriter 1951 – Mark Isham, trumpet player and composer 1953 – Benmont Tench, keyboardist and songwriter 1956 – Michael Feinstein, singer and pianist 1956 – Diane Warren, songwriter 1957 – Jermaine Stewart, singer, songwriter, and dancer 1960 – Brad Houser, bass player 1961 – LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and songwriter 1961 – Jean-Yves Thibaudet, French pianist 1962 – Jennifer Egan, novelist and short story writer 1971 – Gene Pritsker, composer 1979 – Owen Pallett, singer, songwriter, and keyboard player
Died this day in:
I'll sleep when I'm dead ~~ Warren Zevon
1685 – William Carpenter, colonist, co-founded Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 1833 – Hannah More, poet, playwright, and philanthropist 1881 – Sidney Lanier, poet and academic 1892 – John Greenleaf Whittier, poet and activist 1942 – Cecilia Beaux, painter and academic 1949 – José Clemente Orozco, painter and illustrator 1951 – John French Sloan, painter and etcher 1978 – Keith Moon, drummer 1978 – Charles Williams, composer and conductor 1979 – I. A. Richards, literary critic and rhetorician 1981 – Christy Brown, author, poet, and painter 1990 – A. J. P. Taylor, historian and journalist ( 1991 – Edwin McMillan, physicist and chemist, 2003 – Warren Zevon, singer, songwriter, and musician 2010 – Barbara Holland, author 2015 – Guillermo Rubalcaba, pianist, composer, and bandleader
Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: Grandma Moses Day Salami Day National Beer Lovers Day National Neither Snow Nor Rain Day
Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies ;-)