Also in August 1952
2nd At the Olympic Games in Helsinki, the 17-year-old US boxer Floyd Patterson wins gold medal in the middleweight division, defeating the Romanian Vasile Tita by a first-round knock-out in the final. In his subsequent professional career, Patterson will go on to become world heavyweight champion on two occasions.
11th The American opera tenor Riccardo Martin dies in New York, aged 77. After making his debut at the Metropolitan
Opera alongside Fyodor Chaliapin in Boito’s Mefistofele in 1907, Martin became a regular there over the following decade. His appearances at The Met included major roles in the premieres of Walter Damrosch’s Cyrano and Horatio Parker’s Mona.
12th On the ‘Night of the Murdered Poets’ 13 prominent Soviet Jews are executed at Moscow’s Lubyanka Prison, all falsely accused of espionage and treason. Among the 13 are six leading poets and novelists, including children’s writer Leib Kvitko.
One defendant in the trial, the pioneering biochemist Lina Stern, is spared on account of her value to the state.
16th After weeks of rain, a huge overnight storm causes floodwater to cascade down from Exmoor into the Devon village of Lynmouth. Carrying uprooted trees and boulders in its path, the flood destroys or seriously damages more than 100 houses and 28 bridges, and kills 34 people. More than 400 residents are made homeless and 38 cars are washed out to sea.
31st The leading American soprano Leontyne Price marries bass-baritone William Warfield. Since June, the pair have been touring across the US together in the title roles of a new production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and their wedding, at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, is attended by several members of the opera’s cast.