• Springfield, Massachusetts toolmaker Solymon Merrick is credited with received the first patent for a wrench, an event which occurred on August 17, 1835. Patent #38 was issued for a “wrought-iron S-shaped tool with a straight angle.” Merrick later sold his design to Bemis & Call, a Springfield-based tool manufacturer.
• In July, 1956, newcomer Elvis Presley entered the recording studio for a session that would result in “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog.” “Don’t Be Cruel” was the first song that his publishers Hill & Range had brought to him to record. It took 28 takes to complete the recording, and another 31 takes for “Hound Dog.” The two songs were the two sides of the same 45 RPM record and were released the following month. On August 18, 1956 the record was #1 on the charts, where it remained for a record 11 weeks. By 1961, it had sold over 6 million copies. “Rolling Stone” has ranked “Don’t Be Cruel” at #197 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
• Three California men were on a fishing trip in 1873, and made a side trip to become the first to ascend Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States, on August 18 of that year. The peak had been known by the name Mount Whitney since 1864, when it was named after Josiah Whitney, the State Geologist of California. The Paiute Indians referred to the 14,505-ft. (4,421-m) mountain as To-man-i-goo-yah, which means “the very old man.” In honor of their fishing expedition, Charles Begole, A.H. Johnson, and John Lucas called the mountain Fisherman’s Peak.
• August 19, 1909 marked the first automobile race at the brand-new Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The event was a three-day affair, with about 20,000 spectators showing up the first day, paying a maximum of $1.00 for a ticket. The track was a 2.5-mile-long (4 km) packed gravel road that was prone to potholes and dips. The poor road conditions caused one driver’s car to flip end over end and crash into a fence, killing both the driver and his mechanic. On the third day of races, a racer’s tire blew, spinning the car into the stands, killing two spectators and a mechanic. Safety officials shut down the track until improvements could be made. Less than a month later, a paving project began with 3.2 million 10-lb. (4.5 kg) bricks supplied by five Indiana manufacturers. Every brick was hand-laid over 2 inches of sand, then gaps were filled with mortar. A 33-inch-tall (840 mm) concrete wall was built in front of the grandstand to protect the fans. The new track led to the Speedway’s nickname, The Brickyard. Three feet (0.91 m) of the original bricks remain at the Start/Finish line as a remembrance of the 1909 track.
• George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” was published on August 17, 1946. But it had nothing to do with the barnyard! The story was symbolic of Communist Russia under Josef Stalin, the Soviet Union leader at the time of Orwell’s writing. Orwell tells of a group of animals that rebel against the human farmer, with hopes of a barnyard where all animals are equal, where all share the fruits of their labors, symbolizing Communism. When two pigs form an oppressive dictatorship, the other animals become hungry and overworked, and the farm ends up worse than it was before. Orwell’s premise was that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The novella sold more than half a million copies its first year.
